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American politician (1760-1833) who succeeded Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury under Washington and Adams, and went on to serve as governor of Connecticut. Revolutionary War-dated partly-printed DS, signed "Oliv: Wolcott, Jr.," one page, 8.5 x 6.5, June 19, 1783. Pay order form from the Connecticut Pay-Table Office, directing Treasurer John Lawrence to pay “Mr. Enock Lord Adm’r upon the Estate of Prince Free dec’d” a total of £7.9.10, “being the Balance found due to him for Service in the Continental Army in the year 1780.” Signed prominently at the conclusion by Oliver Wolcott, Jr. In fine condition, with light toning along the folds.
Prince Free was an African American soldier from Connecticut who served as a private in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He was among the many Black men, free and formerly enslaved, who served in New England’s integrated regiments, enlisting in 1777 at a moment when Connecticut was actively recruiting soldiers of African descent to meet its troop quotas. Muster rolls record him on the sick list by late 1777, a grim but common fate in an army ravaged by disease. He died in service on January 6, 1778, before the war’s end.
This 1783 pay order is the paper trail of a debt the new nation owed him. Issued by the Connecticut Pay-Table Office and signed by Oliver Wolcott, Jr., the document directs state treasurer John Lawrence to pay £7.9.10 to Enoch Lord, administrator of Prince Free’s estate. The order specifies the sum as the “Balance found due” for Prince Free’s “Service in the Continental Army in the year 1780,” a curious notation given Free’s death two years earlier, and likely reflective of the delayed, often confusing accounting practices surrounding Revolutionary War military pay. The document survives as a rare record of the military service and postwar compensation of an African American Revolutionary War soldier.
