Jun 21, 2016 - Sale 2420

Sale 2420 - Lot 34

Price Realized: $ 312
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1775.) Order to pay Timothy Green for distributing the Acts of the Continental Congress throughout Connecticut. Document Signed, 6 x 9 inches, on one sheet, with signatures of Nathan Baxter, Richard Law, Thomas Mumford, and Caleb Knight; folds and moderate wear. (MRS) New London, CT, 17 April 1775

Additional Details

The Continental Congress first met in September 1774. The rebellious colonists, anxious to spread the word of this momentous gathering, ordered numerous printings of its proceedings. The one issued by Timothy Green by order of the Connecticut government on 3 November is regarded as "the best printed edition" (Evans 13732). Green incurred expenses of £2-5 in "transporting to the several counties the doings of the Continental Congress, printed by the order of the colony of Connecticut." This order to reimburse him was issued just two days before the Battle of Lexington marked the point of no return for the rebels.
The bill was then ordered to be paid by justices Law and Mumford in September 1775, forwarded to treasurer John Lawrence in Hartford, paid to Green's representative on 14 November 1775, and then audited the following May.
with--a similar order issued to pay Jonathan Jeffery for "copying his Honor the Governor's letter to General Gage, with his answer, and the account of the fight at Lexington," a contemporary manuscript copy signed by secretary George Wyllys and on verso by Jeffery. 7 1/2 x 12 inches on one folding sheet. Hartford, May 1775.