REVOLUTIONARY WAR - CONNECTICUT PAY VOUCHER

Partly printed document completed in manuscript. Pay voucher from the State of Connecticut to Peter Whitney. Signed by John Lawrence. Hartford, Connecticut, 1 February 1781. 2 pages, approx. 8 x 4 in., on State of Connecticut's Treasury Office letterhead. Docketing to verso. 

Document reads in full: "THE State of CONNECTICUT doth owe unto, and hereby acknowledge the Receipt of Eight pounds four shillgs two pence Lawful Money, from Mr Peter Whitney of Fairfield which they promise to pay unto the said Peter Whitney or his Order, in Spanish Milled Dollars, at the Rate of Six Shillings each, or other Gold or Silver Coins equivalent, at or before the End of one Year after the Expiration of the present War, or a Cessation of Hostilities between Great Britain and these United States, with the Interest at Six per Cent, per Annum, which Interest shall be annually paid in Gold and Silver, in pursuance of, and agreeable to the Directions of an Act of the General Assembly, held at Hartford, on the 29th Day of November 1780." 

A pay voucher from the State of Connecticut to Peter Whitney. The government intended on paying Whitney 8 pounds, 4 shillings and 2 pence, documenting the interest it accrued and paid on the voucher's verso. However, based on other extant vouchers, since this one does not have a hole punched in the lower left corner, it's likely the principal was never paid and Whitney did not redeem his money owed. 

During the Revolutionary War, governments were unable to adequately pay their soldiers, so vouchers like these became common ways of promising wages. Other examples exist in the Library of Congress's Manuscript Division and The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. 

Whitney initially enlisted in 1775 as part of the 2nd Connecticut Provincial Regiment, known as the "33d Regiment of Foot" and initially commanded by Col. Joseph Spencer. By 1776, the regiment was commanded by Col. Samuel Wyllys and became the 22nd Continental Regiment. The regiment notably participated in the New York and New Jersey Campaign, as well as the Philadelphia Campaign, seeing action especially in the Battles of Brandywine and Monmouth. 

[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]