Gold Selleck Silliman Signed For Connecticut Express Rider

Isaac Sherwood submitted this account for payment of £2..19..10 for providing express services for Brigadier General Gold Selleck Silliman, commander of the 4th Brigade of the Connecticut militia during the Revolutionary War.

Sherwood rode from Fairfield to Horseneck (Greenwich), Connecticut, on May 28, 1780. Captured by Tories in May 1779, Silliman had been taken with his son to the western end of Long Island. Because the Americans had no prisoner of equal rank to exchange for Silliman, they captured a prominent Loyalist and exchanged him for Silliman and his son in May 1780. Silliman then returned to his duties of patrolling the Connecticut coast, again using express riders to warn nearby towns and assemble the militia to meet British incursions.

As a justice of the peace, Silliman certified Sherwood's charge again after the first account was lost before reaching the Pay Table. Justices of the Peace Hezekiah Hubbell (1728-1784) and Jonathan Sturges (1740-1819) reviewed and approved the charges, adding an order for Treasurer John Lawrence to make the payment. Future U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott Jr. signed the order to indicate that he had audited it.

GOLD SELLECK SILLIMAN, Autograph Document Signed, Account of Isaac Sherwood with State of Connecticut, January 16, 1782, Fairfield County, Connecticut. Signed by Gold Selleck Silliman, Hezekiah Hubbell, Jonathan Sturges, and Oliver Wolcott Jr. 1 p., 8" x 9.25". Expected folds; general toning; very good.

Complete Transcript
State of Connecticut Detor to Isaac Sherwood
for going Express By order of Brigr General Silliman
May ye 28th AD 1780 } to one Days Journey from Fairfield to horseneck 21 horse travil 28 miles at 0/9d pr mile which is £1:0:10 Expences on said Journey 0:18:0 Sum total in State mony £2:S19:d10
County of Fairfield Sc: In Fairfield on the 16th Day of Jany 1782 Personally appeared Mr Isaac Sherwood & made Oath that the above Account is truly & justly charged & that he has never recd any Satisfaction therefore
Sworn Before G Selleck Silliman Juse Pac

[Endorsement 1:]
These certify that the above Service was performed for this State by Mr Sherwood at my Desire being at that Time Commanding Officer of the 4th Brigade. I once certified an Account for the same Service which I am informed was accidentally lost by Hezekiah Hubbell Esqr in its way to the pay Table which is the reason of my certifying this Account again. Fairfield Jany 16th 1782
G. Selleck Silliman

[Endorsement 2:]
To John Lawrence Esqr State Treasr Sir pay the above acct – we the subscribers having Examined and allowed the same in State mony
£2.19.10]Hezekiah Hubbell } Justice of Peace
Jonathan Sturges }
[?] in Fairfield Novr 26th 1782
[Signed across Endorsement 2:] Oliv. Wolcott Jr aud.

Isaac Sherwood (1761-1831) was born in Fairfield County, Connecticut. He served with the cavalry during the Revolutionary War and as part of the bodyguard for General Horatio Gates during the Battle of Stillwater (Saratoga) in September 1777. He married Drusilla Morehouse on June 15, 1780. Sherwood later represented Dutchess County in the New York legislature. He died in Dutchess County, New York.

Gold Selleck Silliman (1732-1790) was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, as the son of Ebenezer Silliman and Abigail Selleck Silliman (who was the daughter of Abigail Gold). He graduated from Yale College in 1752 and practiced law as a crown attorney before the Revolution. In 1754, he married Martha Davenport (1733-1774), and they had at least two children. In 1775, Silliman married the widow Mary Fish Noyes (1736-1818), who had three sons from her first marriage, and they had two sons of their own. Also in 1775, he was appointed colonel of the 4th regiment of Connecticut militia, and he became a brigadier general in 1776. His command patrolled the Connecticut coast and border with New York to keep Loyalists in check. At the beginning of British Major General William Tryon's attack on Danbury in April 1777, Silliman sent express riders to warn nearby towns and collect the militia. In May 1779, Tories captured Silliman and his son and returned to Long Island with the captives. Because the Americans had no prisoner of equal rank to exchange for Silliman, they captured loyalist Thomas Jones in November 1779, and Silliman and Jones were exchanged in May 1780.

John Lawrence (1719-1802) served as treasurer of the colony and then the state of Connecticut for twenty years from 1769 to 1789. During the Revolutionary War, he was also commissioner of loans for the United States.

Oliver Wolcott Jr. (1760-1833) was born in Connecticut and graduated from Yale College and Litchfield Law School. During the Revolutionary War, he served as his father's aide-de-camp and then as quartermaster from 1779 to 1781. He left the army to practice law and served on the Connecticut Committee of the Pay Table from 1782 to 1784. After serving as Connecticut Comptroller of Public Accounts, he became the first auditor of the federal Treasury Department in 1789. In 1791, he became the Comptroller of the Treasury Department. In 1795, he succeeded Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury and served until the end of 1800, when he resigned under accusations by political enemies. President John Adams appointed Wolcott as judge of the U.S. Circuit Court for the Second Circuit, one of Adams's "midnight judge" appointments at the end of his administration. Wolcott held the position until President Thomas Jefferson and the Republican-controlled Congress abolished it in mid-1802. After serving as a director of the Bank of the United States from 1810 to 1811, he established the Bank of America in 1811 and continued with it until 1814. He served ten consecutive one-year terms as Governor of Connecticut from 1817 to 1827 and served as a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1818.

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