Original manuscript document authorizing payment during the Revolutionary War to Doctor David Atwater, Jr for medical supplies for soldiers of Col. Ebenezer Williams’ regiment and charging the State (Connecticut) for the amount (24 Pounds, 12 Shillings, 4 Pence) . (5 ¾ x 8’’)
Dated in Hartford, April 2, 1777 and signed by Oliver Ellsworth and Ezra Williams.
Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807) assumed a very active and relevant part in the forming of the United States. In fact, it was Ellsworth’s motion to change “National Government” in the Constitution to “Government of the United States”. When the new government was organized in 1789, “he was one of the senators from Connecticut and chairman of the committee for organizing the U.S. judiciary, the original bill, in his own handwriting, passing with but slight alterations, and its provisions being still in force” (Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography). He was appointed by President Washington as the third Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and confirmed March 4, 1796.
Ezra Williams was member of the Connecticut Pay Table Committee. Later in 1777 he became member of the Regimental Staff of the 5th Connecticut Regiment, wintering at Valley Forge in Dec 1777.
Dr. David Atwater Jr’s father, Dr. David Atwater, Sr. was killed in the British raid on Danbury less than a month after this document was signed.
Ex Collection: Frank Kravik – co-author Collector’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution.
Presented in an archival 11 x 14'' mat
