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O. Ellsworth 1775 Signed Early Rev. War Pay Order For "Riflemen on their March...near Boston"
O. Ellsworth 1775 Signed Early Rev. War Pay Order For "Riflemen on their March...near Boston"
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Revolutionary War
Hartford, CT, October 10, 1775
O. Ellsworth 1775 Signed Early Rev. War Pay Order For "Riflemen on their March...near Boston"
ADS

Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807). Autograph document signed, "Oliv: Ellsworth," 1p, on watermarked laid paper measuring 7.5" x 6.5", Hartford, October 10, 1775. Endorsed and docketed at verso. Flattened folds and light age toning. Ink show through and isolated minor ink spotting. In fine condition and accompanied by an engraving of Ellsworth, signed in facsimile, and measuring 7.25" x 10.75".

Six months after the beginning of the Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord, 30-year-old future Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth issues a pay order to the Treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut, John Lawrence, Esq.

In full:

"Sir, Pay the Select Men of Milford Fifty Three pounds Eight Pence in Bills for Arms & Accoutraments bot: & supplied the Colony & for repairing Colony Arms & for Victualling & other Necessaries supplied the Riflemen on their March thru this Colony to the Camp near Boston as per Acct: & charge the same to Acct: of the Colony of Connecticutt.

Hartford Oct. 10th: 1775
£53-0-8
Jno. Lawrence Esq. Treasurer."

At verso:

"Hartford October 10th 1775
Rec'd of Treasurer Lawrence Fifty Three pounds and Eight pence L[awful] money being the Contents, for the Select Men Milford.
Per Benjamin Hine."

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 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 in 1777, he became the 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. 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.

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.

Captain Benjamin Hine (1719-1800) was born in Milford, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, to John Hine and Elizabeth Baldwin Hine. He married Sarah Thomas in 1779, in Connecticut, and they were the parents of at least one son and two daughters. Hine registered for military service in 1777.

On June 15, 1775, the Second Continental Congress appointed George Washington Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. The day prior, Congress authorized the raising of rifle companies in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. Soon after, Washington officially took charge of the troops outside of Boston in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where a new kind of Continental soldier started to arrive - the rifleman. Immediately, hundreds of young men from the western counties came forward to volunteer. They were touted as deadly marksmen, the key to quickly driving the British out of Boston. But those newcomers were also frontiersmen, many recent immigrants, far from home and rebellious. These hardy men from the frontier used their rifles to bring in food and provide defense against Indians. As soon as they were organized, rifle companies marched to the aid of Boston. At that time, rifles were seen in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, as well as the southern colonies, but in New England they were a novelty. General Washington soon realized that the riflemen were not his biggest weapon, but one of his biggest problems to solve.

Until the first rifle companies arrived there were no rifles or riflemen on either side at the Siege of Boston. The weapons used were smoothbores. The British were equipped with the Brown Bess, and the Patriots were equipped with the Brown Bess and assorted smoothbores of varying ages and quality. Military training did not include marksmanship. Washington, having been a Colonel in the Virginia militia and having served actively in the French and Indian War, was well-acquainted with the rifle and the men who used them. He looked forward to the arrival of the rifle companies.

On July 18th, the first rifle company reached Cambridge from Berks County, Pennsylvania. Others soon followed. The riflemen went out of their way to cover ground quickly as well as to put on demonstrations of their marksmanship ability on their march to Massachusetts. Daniel Morgan marched his men 600 miles in 21 days while Michael Cresap's company covered 550 miles in 22 days.

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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