Note signed by Connecticut State Treasurer John Lawrence. Also signed by Oliver Ellsworth and Ezekiel Williams. Endorsement to verso signed by Jesse Brown. Hartford, [Connecticut], 12 March 1777. 1 page, approx. 7 7/16 x 4 3/4 in. Docketed to verso. 

A fine pay document for a famed Express Rider Jesse Brown (1752-1816), heralded as "Connecticut's Paul Revere." Here, two members of the Connecticut Committee of the Pay Table sign an order to pay Brown £20 "towards defraying his Expenses Riding Post." It is also signed by Connecticut State Treasurer John Lawrence (1719-1802) and by Jesse Brown himself in receipt of the payment to the verso. 

Born in Stonington, Connecticut, Brown notably served as a post rider for the State of Connecticut and later for the Continental Congress. After the war, he established a line of stages from Hartford to Boston and operated a tavern at Norwich, where John and Abigail Adams stayed on 1 August 1797. 

In June 1776, Jesse Brown was appointed as an express rider, regularly travelling to Albany, New York; Fort Ticonderoga; General George Washington's Camp; and the Continental Congress at Philadelphia from at least June 1776 until May 1777. 

An important pay document from a pivotal time in America's history. 

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