Partially Printed Pay Document (7 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Approximately 8.25" x 6". Dated April 25, 1783. Neat old folds else very near fine. Revolutionary War period payment order signed by Wolcott, paying Col. John Chandler Twelve Pounds and change, the full amount owed to the Estate of Lemuel Hubbard, deceased, for his Revolutionary War service. Endorsed on the verso by John Chandler. Connecticut official Oliver Wolcott was a Major General, and Secretary of the Treasury under Washington, succeeding Alexander Hamilton, and was later Governor of Connecticut. Colonel Chander commanded the 8th Connecticut beginning on January 1, 1777 but ended during the Valley Forge encampment when he resigned on March 5, 1778, and retired from the Continental Army because of kidney stones. Lemuel Hubbard of Hartford served as a Captain in the Revolutionary War, but we could find little detail about his service.

Unbound. Condition: Near Fine. Approximately 8.25" x 6.5". Dated May 19, 1783. Neat old folds else very near fine. Revolutionary War period payment order signed by Wolcott, paying Samuel Benedict Twenty-two Pounds and change, the full amount owed to John Benedict, deceased, for his Revolutionary War service. Endorsed on the verso by Joseph P[latt] Cooke. Connecticut official Oliver Wolcott was a Major General, and Secretary of the Treasury under Washington, succeeding Alexander Hamilton, and was later Governor of Connecticut. Colonel Joseph Cooke was the Commander of the 16th Connecticut militia, and was Lt. John Benedict's commanding officer.

Unbound. Condition: Near Fine. Approximately 8.25" x 6.5". Dated April 25, 1783. Neat old folds else very near fine. Revolutionary War period payment order signed by Wolcott, paying Col. John Chandler Thirteen Pounds and change, the full amount owed to the Estate of Tobias Bennett, deceased, for his Revolutionary War service. Endorsed on the verso by John Chandler. Connecticut official Oliver Wolcott was a Major General, and Secretary of the Treasury under Washington, succeeding Alexander Hamilton, and was later Governor of Connecticut. Colonel Chander commanded the 8th Connecticut beginning on January 1, 1777 but ended during the Valley Forge encampment when he resigned on March 5, 1778, and retired from the Continental Army because of kidney stones. We could find little about Tobias Bennett.

Unbound. Condition: Near Fine. Approximately 6.75" x 6". Dated March 22, 1782. Neat old folds and small nicks and tears, else very near fine. Revolutionary War period payment order signed by Wolcott and Wales, paying Shipman two Pounds, ten shillings, and endorsed by Shipman. Connecticut official Oliver Wolcott was a Major General, and Secretary of the Treasury under Washington, succeeding Alexander Hamilton, and was later Governor of Connecticut. Shipman later attained the rank of Colonel in the First Battlation of the Connecticut State Militia.

Unbound. Condition: Near Fine. Approximately 6.25" x 5". Dated March 22, 1782. Neat old folds else very near fine. Revolutionary War period payment order signed by Wolcott and Wadsworth paying Sill Three Pounds, and endorsed by Sill. Connecticut official Oliver Wolcott was a Major General, and Secretary of the Treasury under Washington, succeeding Alexander Hamilton, and was later Governor of Connecticut. Finn Wadsworth, was a major in the military during the Revolution and served in several battles, but resigned from service to to declining health. Sill was a shipmaster living in the town of Saybrook, and was engaged for several years in West India and foreign voyages, as well as voyages on our own coast. During the revolutionary war in 1775, David Bushnell, a graduate from Yale college, became an inmate in Captain Sill's family, ".where he contrived and perfected that wonderful piece of mechanism called the torpedo, for the destruction of British ships infesting our coasts" (see vol. 2, Silliman's *Journal of Science,* p94).

A partially-printed form accomplished in manuscript, announcing the upcoming sale by Brazoria County Sheriff's office of an enslaved child belonging to legendary smuggler and swindler Monroe Edwards, in order to satisfy a judgment made against him in favor of Texas Declaration signer Edwin Waller. Monroe Edwards (1808-1847) was a notorious early Texas criminal, moving to the Galveston area as a teenager when it was still under Mexican control. Before long he fell in with the illegal African slave trade and began smuggling enslaved Africans to Brazil through his plantation in Brazoria County, named "Chenango." In 1836, he partnered with a man named Christopher Dart to purchase contracts from indentured servants in Cuba and import them to Chenango for labor, promising to split the plantation's proceeds. Monroe refused to honor the agreement, and forged multiple documents from Dart to use as evidence in court when a suit was brought not a wise move on his part, considering that by the time of trial the men were in the Republic of Texas, which punished forgery with death. When his forgeries were outed in the trial, Edwards fled to England, posing as an abolitionist to earn support from various societies. His forged letters of introduction got him into trouble once again, and he was obliged to return to the United States. Not content to lay low, Edwards instead took this opportunity to launch his most audacious scheme yet: forging the signature of a New Orleans cotton broker, the unrepentant crook availed himself of upwards of $50,000 by way of loans from brokers in the north. After accidentally exposing himself to the authorities with a miscalculated "anonymous" tip meant to redirect scrutiny, Edwards was tried in a widely publicized and well-attended trial in New York. He was convicted and sentenced to ten years in Sing Sing Prison, where several escape attempts (including another series of forged letters) were insufficient to avert his death behind bars in 1847. The present document dates from the time he was in prison, during which time he was apparently subject to additional suits. The brief text reads: "[Edwin Waller] vs. [Monroe Edwards]. BY virtue of [a] Writ of Execution, to me directed, by the Clerk of the District Court of the County of [Brazoria] I shall offer for sale at the Court House door, in the town of Brazoria, on the First Tuesday in [March] 184[6], [One Negro Boy named Jeff about eight years old]. Levied on as the property of [Monroe Edwards] to satisfy [a] judgement in favor of [Edwin Waller] vs. [Monroe Edwards].John W. Brooks, Sheriff." Waller was a Pennsylvania native who settled in Mexican Brazoria in 1831. He was wounded fighting in the Texas Revolution, and was the Brazoria delegate to the Convention of 1836, where he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. He is also known for becoming the first mayor of Austin, where he remained an important public figure long enough to sign the secession ordnance on behalf of Austin County in 1861. It is not surprising given his prominence and his ties to Brazoria that he ran afoul of Edwards' schemes, and was apparently recompensed by this sale of a young boy (likely smuggled into Chenango by Edwards in the first place). An interesting and early Texas document, recording the sale of a young enslaved boy and linking two of the newly-annexed state's most famous and infamous figures. Old folds, tanned, a few small edge chips. Very good overall.

[Connecticut] John Lawrence, treasurer. State of Connecticut: Partially Printed Pay Document. Partially printed pay document in the amount of six pounds, ten shillings. Signed by Oliver Wolcott Jun and dated September 26, 1782. Measures approx. 5.5 x 6.5 inches. . Folded, toned, docketed to verso. Very good. JJA-758.