Manuscript promissory note signed by by Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807) and Thomas Seymour (1735-1829) as members of the Committee of the Pay Table. Hartford, Connecticut, 13 May 1776. 1p, 9 x 4.5 in. Docketed and endorsed by the office of Connecticut Treasurer John Lawrence (1719-1802) and James Clark (1730-1826) to acknowledge receipt of payment.

Authorizing Lawrence to issue payment to "Capt. James Clarke" for a "Gun &c lost in Bunker Hill Battle," the cost to be encumbered by the colony of Connecticut. 

The Committee of the Pay Table was established in 1775 to manage military expenditures for Connecticut during the American Revolution. Members of note included Ellsworth and Seymour, as well as Oliver Wolcott, Jr., Hezekiah Rogers, Jedidiah Huntington, William Moseley, Fenn Wadsworth, Eleazer Wales, and Samuel Wyllys. In order to finance the war without levying taxes, the Committee issued promissory notes to cover the state's immediate expenses such as soldiers' wages or reimbursements, backed by wealthy revolutionists and foreign loans or gifts. 

Unsung Founding Father and jurist Oliver Ellsworth was born in Windsor, Connecticut, and studied at both Yale College (from which he was expelled for pulling pranks) and the College of New Jersey (Princeton). After graduating in 1766, he studied law for four years and passed the bar in 1771, later becoming the state's attorney general for Hartford County in 1777. Concurrently, he joined the Committee of the Pay Table, and in this capacity he corresponded frequently with John Lawrence, who served as  treasurer of first the colony and eventually the state of Connecticut, as well as commissioner of loans for the United States during the Revolutionary War.

Ellsworth, also in 1777, was named a delegate to the Continental Congress from Connecticut, a position he held until the end of the war. He held several positions within the government of the fledgling nation, most significantly including delegate to the Constitutional Convention, where, as a Federalist, he helped shape the Constitution to ensure small state representation. Later, in 1796, President George Washington nominated Ellsworth as the third Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, a position he held from 1796 to 1800. 

Thomas Seymour III, perhaps a more assiduous student, completed his law degree at Yale in full in 1755. He succeeded his father as King's Attorney for the County and held this officer until the Revolution. Commissioned as a captain of militia in 1773, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1774, leading three cavalry units in support of George Washington in New York. He joined the Committee of the Pay Table and went on to represent Hartford in the Connecticut General Assembly at eighteen sessions between 1774 and 1793. Finally, upon the incorporation of Hartford, he served as the city's mayor from 1784 until his resignation in 1812.

The owner of the lost gun, James Clark (1730-1826), of Lebanon, Connecticut, was elected Captain of the 1st Company of the 12th Regiment of the Connecticut colonial militia in 1772. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Clark was commissioned as captain in the 3rd Connecticut, fighting in the Battles of Bunker Hill, Harlem Heights, and White Plains. 

[American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Colonial America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]