1781 Pay Order for Revolutionary War Navy Schooner Catey

1781. Unbound. Very Good. Manuscript Document. Oblong quarto (13 ½” x 9”). One manuscript page of accounts listed from April through July (1781) in two columns under the title: “Schooner Catey in Acct. Courant with John Hall”. Docketed on verso: “Acct. Current of Schooner Katey, July 16, 1781”. Old folds, small tear at lower right corner tip, very good or better. Included among the list of supplies and cargo is an entry “To: paid Jeremiah Wadsworth Esq. for [16?] Swivel Guns”; together with four other debit entries of amounts owed to Wadsworth. The Connecticut born Wadsworth (1743-1804), celebrated today as “a key player in the military victory in the Revolution,” served as a soldier and applied his experience as a successful Hartford merchant to securing essential supplies for Continental Army troops and, later in the war, for America’s French allies. In 1781 he was agent to French Soldiers at Newport, Rhode Island: there are two entries from April 10th for “freight to Middletown [Connecticut],” and “flour to N’port.” After the war he represented Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives (1789 to 1795). An uncommon primary source manuscript that documents Wadsworth’s efforts to supply the Continental and French armies during the Revolutionary War. (Inventory #: 565033)