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Revolutionary War-dated manuscript document headed “Pay Roll of Part of Captain Jacobus S. Bruyn’s Company in Col. Clinton’s Regiment of Forces of the Forces of the United Colonies, raised in the Colony of New York,” one page, 12.75 x 16.25, February 24, 1776. The payroll lists a total of 44 “Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers & Soldiers” in Bruyn’s company, which features their entrance and discharge dates, their days in service, wages per month, advance money from the captain, money due, “Total Amount of Wages,” and “Total Amount of Wages reduced to N. York Currency,” with the latter amounting to a total of £570.1.1 1/2 ⅓. The majority of soldiers entered service in July 1775 and were discharged on December 25, 1775, with one soldier, Samuel Brown, remaining in the company until January 29, 1776, for a total of 183 days of service, the most of any man listed. In fine condition, with a few small repairs to the brittle folds. New York pay orders from the Revolutionary War are virtually non-existent in private hands.
Lieutenant Colonel Jacobus Severyn Bruyn (1751-1825) was a New York army officer during the Revolutionary War. Bruyn is believed to have enlisted in the Continental Army soon after its beginning, and by August 1775, he was serving as a captain in Colonel James Clinton's 3rd New York Regiment. He was likely promoted to lieutenant colonel in or before 1777, although the rolls of New York anglicize his name to ‘James Bruyn’ when listing him as lieutenant colonel. Bruyn was captured at the British attack on Forts Montgomery and Clinton in October 1777 and remained imprisoned by the British for most of the rest of the war. He was first held on the prison ship Jersey, then on parole around Brooklyn and Staten Island. After his release, Bruyn married his long-term fiancée, Blandina Elmendorf, and the two returned to their hometown of Kingston, New York. They had two sons together, Edmund and Severyn.
