Spring Auction 2018
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/26/2018
This is an interesting pay draft signed by Thomas Seymour and Oliver Ellsworth dated just the start of the Revolutionary war. This is his first pay for being a Surgeon in the Continental Army. Jeremiah West : Occupation: Physician; 1785-1804, Member of the Connecticut State Assembly for 14 sessions 09 Jan. 1788, Member of the Connecticut State Convention which ratified the U.S. Constitution 1792, Helped organize the Connecticut State Medical Society; 1794, Treasurer; 1803, Vice President; 1804-06, President; Justice of the Peace and then Justice of the Quorum of the Tolland County Court for 14 years. the writing is slightly faded but still easily legible.
Discussion:
Jeremiah West studied medicine at Yale College, graduating in 1774, so when hostilities broke out in April, 1775, he immediately volunteered for medical duty with the army. His regiment, Brigadier Joseph Spencer’s Connecticut Regiment, was at the siege of Boston which lasted until March 17, 1776 where he served as a Surgeon’s-Mate. In January 1777, he joined Webb’s Additional Regiment, so named for its own Col. Samuel Blachley Webb. That unit saw action at the Battle of Setauket (New York) on August 21, 1777. After this battle and the retreat to Connecticut, his regiment was ordered to patrol the Connecticut shoreline. He was promoted to Surgeon on June 5, 1778. That year his unit was ordered to Rhode Island where it engaged in the Battle of Rhode Island, also known as the Battle of Quaker Hill, which took place on August 29, 1778 and the Siege of Newport. His regiment which by then had become the Third Connecticut Regiment was with the main army on the Hudson River during 1780 and wintered 1780-81 at “Connecticut Village” above the Robinson House on the Hudson opposite West Point. He resigned from the Continental Line in 1782.
AUTOGRAPH DOCUMENT, SIGNED BY OLIVER ELLSWORTH AND THOMAS SEYMOUR, AUTHORIZING PAYMENT TO Dr Jeremiah West Surgeons mate DURING THE FIRST MONTHS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION]
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