CHIEF JUSTICE OLIVER ELLSWORTH - MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENT SIGNED 01/27/1778 CO-SIGNED BY: JOHN CHENWARD, JAMES CHURCH - HFSID 168327

OLIVER ELLSWORTH, CO-SIGNED BY: JOHN CHENWARD and JAMES CHURCH
Oliver Ellsworth and Ezekiel Williams signed this document in 1778 to pay Milford, Connecticut £18.8.6 for blankets.
Manuscript document signed "John Chenward", "O Ellsworth" and "James Church" as "Comtee". 2 pages, 8¼x5¼, 1 sheet, front and verso with docket on page 2. Jan. 24, 1778. Ellsworth, Church and Chenward signed this document to pay the Select Men of Milford, Connecticut £18.8.6 for blankets. Ellsworth, Chenward and Church served on Connecticut's Committee of the Pay Table during the American Revolutionary War and were three of the five men who supervised Connecticut's war expenditures. The Pay-Table's members were rotated. The signatures of three of the members of the Pay-Table were required for an order to pay. ELLSWORTH (1745-1807, born in Windsor, Connecticut) represented Connecticut in the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1784 and was a Judge of the Connecticut Superior Court from 1785 to 1789. A delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, he helped broker the "Connecticut Compromise", which broke the impasse between large and small states over representation in Congress. He was one of Connecticut's first two U.S. Senators, serving from 1789 to March 8, 1796, when he resigned, having been appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by President Washington. While in Congress, he drafted the Judiciary Act of 1789, which organized the federal judiciary system. He retired from the Court in 1799. CHENWARD (1733-1805, born in Hartford, Connecticut) was a member of Connecticut's Pay-Table. Foxed. Irregular edges. Folds and creases through Church's signature. Light show-through from docket (does not touch signatures). Otherwise in fine condition.