Manuscript promissory note issued to [Jeremiah] Wadsworth and [John] Carter, of Wadsworth & Carter, a prominent merchant firm that furnished supplies to the French expeditionary forces supporting the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Newtown, Connecticut, 27 June 1781. Endorsed by Abiel Booth (1743-1803) and docketed to verso. 1 p, 4 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches, written in English with francophone-informed spelling.

For their services rendered to the "Frinch Airmy, " Messrs. "Wodswooth & Cairter" were entitled to pay equal to  "one Days worth of the time to attend the Army."

A significant artifact of Revolutionary War finance, this promissory note represents the lucrative partnership between Jeremiah Wadsworth (1743–1804) and the enigmatic John Barker Church (1743–1818). Wadsworth, a veteran merchant sea captain from Hartford, served as an operational cornerstone of the American war effort, rising from a regional commissary to become Commissary General of the Continental Army in 1778. Upon resigning his post the following year, Wadsworth entered a private venture to supply the French expeditionary forces in the colonies.

He was joined in this endeavor by John Barker Church, a British businessman who, having fled a trail of gambling debts and stock market failures in London, had reinvented himself in America under the pseudonym "John Carter." Despite his checkered past, Church successfully embedded himself within the Patriot elite: he was appointed by the Continental Congress to audit military expenditures and famously married Angelica Schuyler, sister-in-law to Alexander Hamilton. Their firm of Wadsworth & Carter proved immensely successful. The initial contract with the French served as a prelude to a near-monopoly on supplies for the American army, cementing their status as the preeminent financiers of the Revolution in its later stages.

Zedekiah Morgan (1744-1822), noted in the Booth's endorsement, served in the Quartermaster Department as a conductor of teams for transporting supplies to the army between 1779 and 1881.

[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]