Lot 19
Boudinot, Elias (1740-1821) Member of Continental Congress, president (1782-1783); U.S. House of Representatives (1789-1795); Director of U.S. Mint (1795-1805).
Partly-printed Document Signed as President of the Continental Congress, June 3, 1783, Philadelphia. One page oblong folio, vellum, matted to 17 x 19 inches. Boudinot appoints "Robert Wilson Gentlemen…Ensign in the first New York Regiment in the Army of the United States, to take rank as such from the twenty ninth day of June 1781…." Countersigned by Benjamin Lincoln ("B Lincoln") as Secretary of War. Boudinot signed at upper left under the "United States of America War Office" seal. Some wear and discoloration at edges of vellum. Overall Very Good. A historic document.
Robert Wilson was born in New York City (date unknown). His father died before the Revolution and his widowed mother moved with her six children to Albany, N.Y. Robert enlisted in the Revolution at about the age of 12 and served as fifer with the New York troops in the company of his mother's brother, Captain James Gregg. On June 9, 1781, he was commissioned ensign in the First New York Regiment, and served until the close of the Revolution. During Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown, when the British officers did not want to surrender their standards to a noncommissioned officer, Colonel Alexander Hamilton appointed Wilson Officer of the Day to conduct the ceremony of receiving the British flags. He received the colors of twenty-eight British regiments from twenty-eight British captains and handed them to twenty-eight American sergeants. (See in this same collection the sword presented by Alexander Hamilton to Robert Wilson December 25, 1781). Wilson later became the second postmaster in Manlius, New York.
Estimated Value $3,000 - 4,000.
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| Realized $5,175 |
