Governor's Company vs. Eleazr Fitch Jr. State of Connecticut Windham Superior Court. [Windham County, Connecticut], 3 March 1778. 1p, approx. 7 1/2 x 9 1/4 in. Docketed to verso "Plea of abatement in Case of Col Fritch." A Connecticut legal document referencing a case against prominent businessman Col. Eleazer Fitch, Jr., who refused to support the Patriot cause, with reference to changes to the law brought upon by the Declaration of Independence.

Document reads, in part: "And now this sd Eleazr in Court defends pleads & says that sd process &c ought to abate" because "Sd Information contains Sundry charges So general that they are incapable of a distinct answer nor can sd Eleazr know what he has to defend against...the Charges not being avowed to be against any statue of this state & said to have happened, most of them, previous to the Declaration of Independence at which time there was no common law respecting sd matters. And this the sd Eleazr is ready to receive [?] judgement."

Colonel Eleazer Fitch, Jr. (1726-1796) was a graduate of Yale, a wealthy businessman, and a veteran of the French & Indian War who occupied a prominent role in pre-Revolution Windham County. Fitch counted among his friends Governor Jonathan Trumbull, and represented Windham in the Connecticut General Assembly in 1761, 1763 and 1764. However, with his refusal to join in opposition against the British government's Stamp Acts and Townshend Taxes, his popularity began to decline. Though Fitch remained in Connecticut during the Revolutionary War, by the end of the conflict business losses, legal costs, and the confiscation of his property had nearly eliminated his considerable fortune. Fitch resettled in Quebec after the war, and died there in 1796 at the age of 70.

The nature of the case brought against Fitch by the Governor's Company is unclear from the context of the document. The "Governor's Company" likely refers to the First Governor's Foot Guard, a company established in 1771 and based in Hartford. The unit was raised to serve and protect the Governor, and is the oldest military organization in continuous existence in the United States. 

[Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Patriot, Royalist, Tory]

Light creasing, toning.