WILLIAM WILLIAMS (1731-1811). Connecticut merchant, statesman, and delegate to the Continental Congress, Signer the Declaration of Independence in 1776 as a representative of Connecticut.
This Partly-Printed Document Land Deed, 1 page, measuring 7.25 x 12 Inches, records the sale by Josiah Rockwell of Lebanon, in the County of Windham, Colony of Connecticut, to Jonathan Trumbull of the same town, of a one-acre tract of land with a dwelling house, barn, shop, and orchard, for the consideration of ninety-two pounds lawful money. This deed is dated March 11, 1761, and Signed by Josiah Rockwell with his wax and paper seal next to his name, and William Williams as a witness. This document also brings together at a formative early moment in their lives, three of Connecticut's most significant Revolutionary War-era figures.

1. The purchaser, Jonathan Trumbull (1710-1785), would go on to serve as Connecticut's governor from 1769 to 1784, the only early Colonial Governor to embrace the American Revolutionary cause and continue in office through the transition from colony to independent state; his Lebanon home and adjoining War Office hosted more than five hundred meetings of the Connecticut Council of Safety during the war, and George Washington affectionately addressed him as "Brother Jonathan."

2. The deed is witnessed by "Jon'a Trumble Jun'r," Trumbull's son Jonathan Trumbull Jr. (1740-1809), then about twenty years old, who would later serve as military secretary and Aide-de-Camp to George Washington from 1781 to 1783, later as the First Comptroller of the United States Treasury, as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and as Governor of Connecticut from 1798 to 1809.

3. On the verso this deed is docketed and Signed, "W. Williams Reg[iste]r," dated March 21, 1761, recording it into Lebanon's ninth book of land records; this is William Williams (1731-1811), later a Signer of the Declaration of Independence for Connecticut, who would go on to marry Jonathan Trumbull's daughter Mary.

Overall, this deed presents in choice condition, clean well printed with bold black typeset and deep rich brown manuscript portions and signatures, docketing, and an additional endorsement on laid period paper, with "Jon'a Trumble from Esq'r Josiah Rockwell, 21st March 1761," appear on the verso along with the recording clerk's notation.


Connecticut politician William Williams (1731-1811) was a Founding Father, a member of the Sons of Liberty, a member of the Connecticut Committee of Correspondence and Council of Safety, a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Connecticut politician Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (1740-1809) was a Revolutionary War Patriot and leader, who in March 1775 was elected to sit in the Connecticut General Assembly. While still in that position, the Continental Congress elected him "pay master of the forces for the New York department," with the rank of colonel. Following this was his November 3, 1778 election to be the first comptroller of the U.S. Treasury. On June 8, 1781 he was appointed to succeed Alexander Hamilton as George Washington's secretary. His military duties ended with Washington's resignation in 1784, and at this time he returned to Connecticut where in 1788 he once again sat in the General Assembly, this time as Speaker.