[Connecticut: The Committee], 1780.
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Unbound. Partially printed document. Approximately 7½" x 7". Deckle edge a bit irregular, else very near fine. Dated 16 August 1780. The document orders the state of Connecticut to pay Brigadier General Samuel H. Parsons, 984 pounds and change. Signed by Finn Wadsworth and Samuel Lyman for "Committee"; and signed in type by "John Lawrence, Esq; Treasurer." Docketed on the reverse by Zedlmon Read(?). Samuel Holden Parsons was an agitator for independence from England, and wrote to Samuel Adams suggesting a congress of the colonies in 1772. He lead a militia regiment at Bunker Hill, was shortly thereafter made a Brigadier General in the Continental Army and fought the British at Battle Hill on Long Island and later at the Battle of White Plains. He commanded West Point in 1778-79, but left to rejoin his command. Upon the discovery, in September 1780 (a couple of weeks after this voucher was issued), of Benedict Arnold's treacherous scheme to surrender West Point to the British, Parsons served on the board of officers which tried Arnold's accomplice, Major John André, and sentenced him to death. In civilian life after the war Parsons was appointed Chief Justice of Ohio. A very attractive document.
Item #293119
