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Revolutionary War-dated manuscript DS, signed "O. Ellsworth,” one page, 8.25 x 4.5, April 17, 1776. Desirable Connecticut Pay-Table document issued to Treasurer John Lawrence, in full: “Pay Mrs. Jennet Collyer Ten pound Three Shillings & nine pence for Expence of Ticonderoga Prisoners…& charge the Colony.” The reverse bears a docketing notation signed by William Collyer, which reads: "Rec’d of Treasurer Lawrence Ten pounds three shillings and nine pence Lawful money being the Contents for my Mother Mrs. Jennet Collyer.” In fine condition.
Research suggests that the recipient, Mrs. Jennet Collyer, was associated with the prominent Collyer family tavern located opposite Hartford’s Old State House, operated by William Collyer and his family between approximately 1760 and 1788. During the Revolutionary War, taverns frequently served as centers for military lodging, official business, and the temporary housing or provisioning of prisoners, and private establishments like the Collyer tavern were reimbursed by Connecticut’s Committee of the Pay Table for prisoner-related expenses.
The manuscript’s reference to “Expence of Ticonderoga Prisoners” relates to costs incurred in the care, feeding, or lodging of prisoners captured following the seizure of Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775, one of the earliest offensive victories of the American Revolutionary War. Members of the captured British garrison were transported south into Connecticut, where authorities dispersed many of them among local households and establishments in Hartford and the surrounding countryside. Cooperative prisoners were sometimes permitted to labor for local farmers and artisans in exchange for lodging and provisions, while others were confined in local jails. Though the arrangement generated occasional public unease, Connecticut authorities continued the system throughout the early years of the war, issuing disbursements through the Committee of the Pay Table to cover the prisoners’ upkeep.
A notable document dating to an important early stage in Oliver Ellsworth’s public career, when his military rank and governmental responsibilities overlapped. Commissioned a captain in the 3rd Connecticut Regiment of militia in 1773 and promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1774, Ellsworth later saw field service during the summer of 1776, supporting Continental Army operations around New York during the British campaign there. By the spring of 1776, the period reflected in this document, he was already serving on Connecticut’s Committee of the Pay Table, the body responsible for overseeing the colony’s military expenditures and financial disbursements. In this administrative role, Ellsworth helped supervise payments connected to military provisioning, prisoner support, and other wartime expenses.
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