OLIVER WOLCOTT JR. - MANUSCRIPT PROMISSORY NOTE SIGNED 06/01/1781 CO-SIGNED BY: WILLIAM MOSELEY - HFSID 174113

OLIVER WOLCOTT, JR., CO-SIGNED BY: WILLIAM MOSELEY
1781 Connecticut Pay-Table promissory note for three pounds to Ralph Pomeroy, Connecticut's Military Paymaster, signed by Oliver Wolcott, Jr., and one other member of the Pay-Table during the Revolutionary War
Manuscript promissory note signed "William Moseley" as a member of the Pay-Table Committee. and "Oliver Wolcott aud".8x3¼, docketed on verso. June 1, 1781. Pay-Table Office promissory note payable to Ralph Pomeroy for three pounds "in bills of [illegible] State and charge the State." RALPH POMEROY was Military Paymaster of Connecticut during the Revolutionary War. He was later State Comptroller of Connecticut from 1790 to 1791. The military finances for the colony of Connecticut were handled by the Pay-Table, also known as the Committee of Four, during the American Revolution (1775-1783). Pay-Table members rotated during the lengthy confrontation with England, and included such notables as jurist Oliver Ellsworth, attorney Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (a future U.S. Secretary of the Treasury), Hezekiah Rogers (an aide de camp to General Jedidiah Huntington, who was also a member), William Moseley, Fenn Wadsworth, Eleazer Wales and General Samuel Wyllys, son of Governor George Wyllys. Financing the Revolution laid a heavy burden upon each colony, especially those that balked at levying taxes. In order to meet immediate needs, such as wages, the colonies relied upon wealthy revolutionists, foreign loans, and taxes and gifts from abroad. Connecticut issued promissory notes such as this. Issuing paper money was only a temporary solution, and worthless without specie or gold and silver backing. The U.S. would establish its standard monetary system in 1791. OLIVER WOLCOTT, JR. (1760-1833, born in Litchfield, Connecticut), son and namesake of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a former attorney and militiaman, was named to the Pay-Table in 1782, overseeing Connecticut's war expenditures. In May 1784, he was commissioned to adjust the claims of the state against the U.S. government, then named Comptroller of public accounts in 1788. He was auditor of the U.S. Treasury (1789-1791), then Comptroller of that Department (1791-1795). On February 2, 1795, he succeeded Alexander Hamilton as President Washington's Secretary of the Treasury, a position he held until November 8, 1800, when he resigned from the Adams administration. Wolcott later served as the first President of the Bank of North America (1812-1814) and Governor of Connecticut (1817-1827). WILLIAM MOSELEY (1755-1824)served in the Connecticut state senate (1822-1824). Lightly toned, soiled, stained and creased. Signatures cross. Light show-through from docket, which touches Wolcott's signature. Ink stains have light show-through from docket (does not touch signatures). Light discoloration near top edge. Random ink stains. Irregular edges. Rounded corners. Light dent at top edge. Folded once vertically and twice horizontally and unfolded. Light tear at right and left edges along fold. Otherwise in fine condition.