AUTOGRAPH PAY ORDER SIGNED BY REVOLUTION-ERA SPEAKER OF PENNSYLVANIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Autograph document signed by John Bayard. Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 10 October 1777. 1 page, 8 1/4 x 2 1/4 in. Docketing to recto.

A Revolutionary War-date pay order signed by John Bayard as speaker of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Addressed to State Treasurer David Rittenhouse, the pay order requested £84 to be paid to Caleb Davis. It appears that by 5 May 1778, Davis signed the bottom of this order to signify his receiving the funds. 

Bayard (1738-1807) began his merchant career in Philadelphia, where in 1765 he signed the non-importation agreement in protest of the Stamp Act, even though it hurt his own business. The next year, he became one of the leaders in Philadelphia's Sons of Liberty. By the time the Revolutionary War broke out, Bayard was elected to the convention of Pennsylvania, as well as appointed colonel of a regiment in Philadelphia. As a politician, Bayard served on the Committee of Safety, Board of War and as speaker. In the military, he fought at the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Princeton. 

Rittenhouse (1732-1796) was a true Renaissance man in colonial America. A self-taught student of math and science, he opened a scientific instrument shop at age 19, where he built two orreries, or mechanical models of the solar system. In 1768, he was admitted to the American Philosophical Society, where he received funds and volunteers to help him observe a transit of Venus that occurred the following year. He also helped survey the borders of the states and commonwealths, with his Delaware-Pennsylvania border being incorporated with no modifications because it was so precise. After he was the treasurer for Pennsylvania — a role he held for 12 years — he opened the U.S. Mint with the help of George Washington, striking the first coins himself on 30 July 1792 from a set of Washington's flatware. 

When this pay order was issued, Davis (1738-1797) was serving as the representative for the General Court of Suffolk County, Massachusetts. This role came after back-to-back terms in the Boston Committee of Correspondence, a committee promoting the Continental Congress and the Boston Committee of Inspection, Correspondence and Safety. Following the revolution, Davis worked primarily as a merchant, refining sugar in the coast, West India and European trade. Among his final political acts was his "yea" vote in the Convention of Massachusetts that ratified the United States Constitution on 6 February 1788. 

A history-packed pay order. 

[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]