CHIEF JUSTICE OLIVER ELLSWORTH - MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENT SIGNED 04/01/1777 CO-SIGNED BY: EZEKIEL WILLIAMS, COLONEL NOADIAH HOOKER - HFSID 76213

OLIVER ELLSWORTH, CO-SIGNED BY: EZEKIEL WILLIAMS
Oliver Ellsworth and Ezekiel Williams signed this document in 1777 to pay £8.3.0 to Col. Noadiah Hooker, who commanded a regiment of Connecticut militia.
Manuscript document signed "Ez. Williams" and "O Ellsworth" as "Com" and, on verso,"Noadiah Hooker". 2 pages, 8¼x5½, 1 sheet, front and verso with docket on page 2. Hartford, Connecticut, May 22, 1777. Ellsworth andWilliams signed this document to pay Hooker £8.3.0. Unfortunately, the reason for this payment is illegible. Ellsworth and Williams served on Connecticut's Committee of the Pay Table during the American Revolutionary War and were two 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. WILLIAMS (1729-1818) was a successful Wethersfield, Connecticut merchant who served throughout the war as Commissary of Prisoners held in Connecticut. He was a member of the Committee of the Pay Table for Connecticut from 1775 and sheriff of Hartford County from 1767 to 1789. HOOKER (1737-1823) commanded a regiment of Connecticut's militia. Jagged at edges. Light tear at bottom edge touches Ellsworth's signature. Show-through touches Hooker's signature. Light show-through from docket (does not touch Ellsworth or Williams' signatures). Folds and creases (not at signature). Bottom right corner missing. Otherwise in fine condition.