1785 dated Pay Order signed by Oliver Ellsworth, Benjamin Huntington, John Lawrence, Hezekiah Rogers and Lynde Lord - Connecticut Autograph Document

Oliver Ellsworth (April 29, 1745 – November 26, 1807) was a prominent Founding Father of the United States, recognized for his roles as an attorney, jurist, politician, and diplomat. He played a significant part in the drafting of the United States Constitution, served as a United States senator from Connecticut, and held the position of the third chief justice of the United States. In the 1796 presidential election, he garnered 11 electoral votes.

Ellsworth's contributions were instrumental in securing Connecticut's ratification of the Constitution, and he was elected as one of the first two senators from the state, serving from 1789 to 1796. He was the principal author of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which established the framework for the federal judiciary and affirmed the Supreme Court's authority to invalidate state supreme court rulings that conflicted with the United States Constitution. As a key ally of Alexander Hamilton in the Senate, Ellsworth was affiliated with the Federalist Party and played a pivotal role in the passage of Hamilton's initiatives, including the Funding Act of 1790 and the Bank Bill of 1791. He also supported the United States Bill of Rights and the Jay Treaty.

Benjamin Huntington (1736-1800) Benjamin Huntington was an American lawyer, jurist and politician from Norwich, Connecticut. He served in the Revolutionary War with the rank of General. He later served Connecticut as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the First United States Congress. Benjamin was born on April 19, 1736 at Norwich, Connecticut, the only child of Daniel Huntington and his second wife Rachel Wolcott. He married Anne Huntington, of Windham, Connecticut, on May 5, 1765. She died on October 6, 1790 at Norwich. He graduated from Yale in 1761, and soon after, he entered upon the practice of law in his native town, and rose rapidly to the front rank of his profession. He seems to have been unusually devoted to his profession, being at once a severe student, and an active and successful advocate and business man. Though rather shunning than courting public life, he was not allowed to excuse himself from its claims; nor, when called to meet them, did he shrink either from public duties or dangers. In 1775 he was appointed, by the legislature of his native State, on the committee of safety, appointed to advise with the Governor of the State during the recess of the legislature. Only the ablest men and truest patriots of that trying day, would have been put upon that important committee. Again, in 1778, on the recommendation of George Washington, he was appointed by the legislature, one of the delegates to the convention to be held in New Haven, for the regulation of the army. From 1780 to 1784, and again in 1787 and 1788, he was a member of the Continental Congress; and when the new government went into operation, in 1789, he was chosen to represent Connecticut in the First Congress of the United States. From 1781 to 1790, and also from 1791 to 1793 he was also a member of the upper house of the Connecticut Legislature. On the incorporation of Norwich, Connecticut, in 1784, he was chosen, for an indefinite period, its first Mayor, in which office he served until his formal resignation, in 1796. He was also appointed in 1793, a judge of the superior court of Connecticut, holding this office until 1798. Thus, for more than twenty years, during the most eventful period of United States history, he was continually serving his constituents in offices always onerous, and often hazardous. How well he discharged these trusts, their own recurrence will unequivocally evince. A word on this point, however, is due both to his memory and to the truth of American revolutionary history.

Capt. John Lawrence (1719-1802), who served as treasurer of the Colony and subsequently the State of Connecticut from 1769 to 1789, is the signatory of this document. During the war, he held the position of commissioner of loans for the nascent nation. 

Hezekiah Rogers (1753 – September 4, 1811) was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from Norwalk in the sessions of May 1786, and October 1787. He was a delegate to the convention in Connecticut to ratify the United States Constitution in 1788. He later served as chief clerk in the War Office in Washington, D. C. Rogers was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from Norwalk in the sessions of May 1786, and October 1787.

On November 12, 1787, the inhabitants of the town of Norwalk had a town meeting with Colonel Colonel Thomas Fitch as moderator. Rogers and Samuel Silliman were chosen as delegates to meet in a convention at Hartford, the following January to ratify the United States Constitution. Connecticut ratified the Constitution on January 8, 1788 making it the fifth state to do so.

Lynde Lord Sr was born on 2 February 1733, in Lyme, New London, Connecticut, United States, his father, Judge Richard Lord, was 43 and his mother, Elizabeth Lynde, was 38. He married Lois Sheldon on 7 July 1757, in Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons. He died on 16 June 1801, in Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States, at the age of 68, and was buried in Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States.