American Historical Ephemera and Photography

1p, approx. 8 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. Signed by Elijah Robinson and Thomas Abby. Docketed on verso "Bond / Capt. Elijah Robinson / £1000 - April 7th, 1778."

Elijah Robinson was born in Windham, Connecticut. in 1735, and served honorably during the Revolutionary War as an officer in the Connecticut Line of the Continental Army and Connecticut's state troops. He first served as a Minuteman, responding to the Lexington Alarm of April 1775 when he marched as a corporal in Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Moulton's company of militia from the town of Stafford, CT. He served with Moulton's company for 10 days, likely marching to Cambridge with it, then on May 1, 1775 was commissioned as a captain-lieutenant in the 2nd Connecticut Regiment, which would soon become part of the Continental Army. In June or July 1776, Robinson was commissioned as a captain in Colonel Samuel Mott's State Regiment, a regiment raised by the state of Connecticut to reinforce the Northern Department of the Continental Army. For part of his 1776 service Robinson may have been stationed at Fort Ticonderoga. After his service in Mott's regiment ended in December 1776, Robinson served for several campaigns in Connecticut's state troops. Beginning in June 1777 he served as a captain in Colonel John Ely's State Regiment, likely serving within Connecticut, and from April-September 1778 he served as a captain in Colonel Roger Enos's State Regiment, which was stationed somewhere on the Hudson River. Robinson is not known to have served again after 1778. Sometime after the Revolutionary War Robinson moved to the newly established town of Weathersfield, VT, where he served as a selectman and represented the town in Vermont's state legislature. He reached the rank of colonel in Vermont's militia and was offered a position as brigadier general but declined. He also served as a judge of the Windsor County Court from 1782-1787 and 1788-1801, then as chief judge in 1802. Robinson died in Weathersfield in 1809.