Letter to Stephen Little

Letter to Stephen Little  
July 15, 1776
Newbury, Massachusetts 
Paper and ink 
Little Family Papers,  
Bequest of Agnes and Amelia W. Little 

On the morning of April 19, 1775, Captain Moses Little (1724-1798) mustered a company of Minutemen and marched from Newbury, Massachusetts, to intercept British Regulars sent to seize a stockpile of military supplies in Concord, Massachusetts. Militia companies kept track of personnel on a list called a muster roll. This letter to Stephen Little (1719-1793), a Newbury town official and brother to Moses Little, is a receipt showing that Stephen Little paid twenty-two of the men on the muster roll the monies owed for their service, with officers receiving more than enlisted men. Even as revolution unfolded across New England, these bureaucratic tasks remained part of everyday life.