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Revolutionary War-dated partly-printed DS, signed "J. Lawrence," one page, 8 x 4, June 1, 1782. State of Connecticut Treasury Office pay order for £9.7.9½ payable to Jobe Leason "who hath served in the Connecticut Line of the Continental Army," signed at the conclusion in ink by Treasurer John Lawrence. The reverse bears a signature reading "Jobe Leason," possibly in the hand of the recipient himself, though attribution remains uncertain. In fine condition, with a cancellation hole affecting some printed text.
Research identifies Job Leason (1756–1828) as a free Black Revolutionary War soldier from Windham, Connecticut, who served in Colonel John Chandler's Regiment of the Connecticut Line from April 1777 to April 1780, reenlisting in 1781 under Colonel Ebenezer Huntington. Leason saw action at Germantown, Fort Mifflin – the site of a brutal six-week British siege in the autumn of 1777 that the Continental Army's defenders held at tremendous cost – and Monmouth, and endured the winter encampment at Valley Forge alongside his brother Jesse Leason, another African American soldier of the Connecticut Line.
Leason's service reflects the significant contribution of African American soldiers to the Revolutionary War effort; approximately 5,000 Black men served in the Continental Army and state militias, and Connecticut's Continental Line included a notably high proportion of Black soldiers among its ranks. Issued by the Connecticut Treasury Office on June 1, 1782, the pay order represents a tangible surviving record of Leason's military service and compensation during the closing years of the Revolutionary War.
