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Lot 62: Henry Clinton Signed Document 1781

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,500.00 - 3,500.00 USD
Lot   62: Henry Clinton Signed Document 1781
<b>Autographs</b><hr><b>Rare Revolutionary Pay Warrant
For Convalescents 'Left Behind'</b>

<b>HENRY CLINTON, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in North America.</b>
Document Signed, partially-printed and accomplished in manuscript, 1 page, 7.75' by 12.5', Headquarters, New York, April 18, 1781. Being a warrant to pay Captain John McPherson of the 82nd Regiment. In Choice Extremely Fine condition...A handsome document, as follows: 'By His Excellency Sir Henry Clinton, K.B., General and Commander in Chief of All his MajestyÕs Forces, within the Colonies laying on the Atlantic Ocean, from Nova-Scotia to West-Florida, inclusive...You are hereby directed and required out of such Monies as are, or shall some to your Hands for the Subsistence of his MajestyÕs Forces under my Command, to pay...Captain John McPherson of His MajestyÕs 82: Regiment or His Assigns, without Deduction, the Sum of Fifty Eight Pounds Sterling - Being Subsistence for the Convalescents left by the aforesaid Regiment at New York, from the 24th February to 24th April 1781...'

It is estimated that the ratio of wounded to killed in the Revolution was about three or four to one. Among those classified as 'wounded' in most battle reports were men who subsequently died of their wounds. This warrant to pay the 'convalescent', then, is highly unusual both in form and fact.