PAY ORDER SIGNED BY TEXAS GOVERNOR FRANCIS LUBBOCK

Partly printed document completed in manuscript. Signed to verso by Francis Lubbock as governor. Austin, 23 December 1861. 2 pages, 7 3/8 x 3 15/16 in. Docketing and cancellation to recto. 

A fulfilled pay order from the Treasury of the State of Texas. The pay order was for $65.68 "out of any money appropriated by Act of February 8 1861 for Protection of the Frontier." This was the act that Texas citizens voted to secede from the Union prior to the Civil War's onset. What makes this document especially valuable is the signature of Francis Lubbock to the verso, which he would have penned just weeks after he was appointed governor of Texas. 

Francis Richard Lubbock was born on 16 October 1815 in Beaufort, South Carolina. After bouncing around between South Carolina and Georgia throughout his adolescence, he got his first foray into politics after his family moved to Charleston. Lubbock was involved with the Young Men's State's Rights Association, and he played an active role in the political scene during the Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833. These formative experiences helped shape Lubbock's views as a State's Rights Democrat. 

Lubbock eventually moved to Texas with his wife in 1836 partly motivated to look for his brother. This proved to be a fortuitous move — Lubbock settled in the newly founded city of Houston and was chosen as assistant clerk, later chief clerk, for the House of Representatives in 1837. By the end of the year, Lubbock was appointed comptroller by President Sam Houston and participated in planning defensive strategies against Mexican forces. At the end of Houston's term, Lubbock resigned as comptroller when his successor was appointed and attempted to focus on business ventures. 

Lubbock re-entered politics in 1840 as district clerk for Harris County, a position he held for over 16 years. Following this, Lubbock was elected lieutenant governor of Texas in 1857 as a Democrat but failed to be re-elected in 1859; however, he was elected governor of Texas in 1861, right after the secession. As governor, Lubbock was an enthusiastic supporter of the Confederacy, advocating for Confederate conscription. He was also known to praise the Great Hanging at Gainesville, where 42 suspected Unionists were murdered, convicted and hanged by a "citizens court." 

After his term as governor ended in 1863, Lubbock joined the Confederate Army. He was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel under Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder, then was aide-de-camp for Jefferson Davis in 1864. When the Confederacy collapsed, Lubbock fled from Virginia with Davis, where they were both caught and imprisoned at Fort Delaware. Once he returned to Texas, though, Lubbock continued to pursue business interests and had one more stint in politics as state treasurer from 1878-1891. When he died on 22 June 1905, he was the last Confederate governor to pass away. 

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