Description:

Oliver Ellsworth
Hartford, Connecticut, March 28, 1776
Oliver Ellsworth Signs Pay Order for Horse Hire
MDS
OLIVER ELLSWORTH, Manuscript Document Signed, Pay order for Waitstill Munson, March 28, 1776, [Hartford?], Connecticut. Also signed by Thomas Seymour III. 2 pp., 8" x 4". Expected folds; general toning; very good.

Constitution Architect and Supreme Court Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth Signs Pay Order for Horse Hire Oliver Ellsworth and Thomas Seymour of the Connecticut Committee of the Pay-Table signed this order, instructing Connecticut Treasurer John Lawrence to pay Waitstill Munson 8/6 for supplying horses to the "United Colonies." The payee was probably Waitstill Munson (1697-1789), who lived in Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut. At the time of his death, Waitstill had 12 children, 50 grandchildren, 155 great-grandchildren, and 9 great-great-grandchildren, for a total of 226 descendants, of whom 188 were still living at that time. His son and namesake Waitstill Munson (1729-1786) lived in what became Southington, Connecticut.

The endorsement on the verso suggests that the father was the payee, who received payment in the form of credit with Collector Charles Dutton (1727-1788) of Wallingford. Oliver Stanley (1743-1813), a Yale graduate, probate judge in Wallingford, and justice of the peace in New Haven County, signed the receipt of payment of the credit to Collector Dutton on behalf of Munson.

Complete Transcript
Sir,
Pay Waitstill Munson Eight Shillings & Six pence for Hors hire supplied the United Colonies – as Acct & Charge the Colony. March 28th 1776. 8/6 T Seymour } } Comtee O Ellsworth } Jno Lawrence Esqr Treasurer [Endorsement:] Hartford 14 May 1776 Recd of Treasurer Lawrence the Contents by his giving Credt to Mr Charles Dutton Collr of Wallingford Rate June 1775 Oliver Stanley

Historical Background
The Pay-Table handled the military finances for the colony of Connecticut during the American Revolution. Also known as the Committee of Four, its members at different times included Oliver Ellsworth, Jedidiah Huntington, William Moseley, Hezekiah Rogers, Jesse Root, Thomas Seymour III, William Pitkin, Fenn Wadsworth, Eleazer Wales, Ezekiel Williams, John Chenward, Oliver Wolcott Jr., and Samuel Wyllys.

Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807) was born in Windsor, Connecticut, and entered Yale College in 1762. At the end of his second year, he transferred to the College of New Jersey (Princeton), from which he graduated in 1766. He studied the law for four years, gained admission to the bar in 1771, and married Abigail Wolcott in 1772. In 1777, he became state's attorney for Hartford County, served on the Pay-Table Committee, and helped manage Connecticut's war expenditures during the Revolutionary War. In 1777, he was also named a delegate to the Continental Congress from Connecticut, a position he held until the end of the war. He served on the Supreme Court of Errors in Connecticut from 1785 and later on the Connecticut Superior Court. In 1787, voters selected Ellsworth as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, where he helped draft the Constitution and created with Roger Sherman the Connecticut Compromise between large and small states. He left the convention before signing the final document but worked for its ratification. He served as one of the first two U.S. Senators from Connecticut from March 1789 to March 1796, when President George Washington nominated Ellsworth as the third Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, a position he held from 1796 to 1800. After traveling to France as a special envoy to end the Quasi-War, he resigned from the Court in December 1800 because of illness.

Thomas Seymour III (1735-1829) was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale College in 1755. He married Mary Ledyard, with whom he had seven children. He received appointment as King's Attorney in 1767 and served as State's Attorney after the Revolutionary War. Commissioned as a captain of militia in 1773, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1774 and led three regiments of light cavalry in support of the Continental Army in New York during the summer of 1776. The General Assembly appointed Seymour in April 1775 to be one of the Committee on the Pay Table. He represented Hartford in the Connecticut General Assembly at eighteen sessions between 1774 and 1793 and served as Speaker five times. He served in the Connecticut Senate from 1793 to 1803. He also served as mayor of Hartford from its incorporation in 1784 until his resignation in 1812.

John Lawrence (1719-1802) served as treasurer of the colony and then the state of Connecticut for twenty years from 1769 to 1789. During the Revolutionary War, he was also commissioner of loans for the United States.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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