ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN SATISFACTION ON A WARRANT OR WRIT OF EXECUTION IN FAVOR OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT AGAINST THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWNS OF WINDHAM AND HAMPTON FOR TAXES IN ARREARS, IN A DOCUMENT SIGNED AND DATED 1787

Windom, CT, 1787. Single sheet, folded. 32 cm., 3 pp. of text, approx. 1000 words. Signed by Hez. Ripley, Justice of the Peace. Docketed on the fourth integral page. Age toning to paper, archival tape repair along folds. Manuscript writ from the State of Connecticut to Edmund Badger of Windham, for summoning Hezekiah Hammond of Hampton to appear before the County Court at Windham in August 1787. Hammond was to answer to Shubael Abbe, Sheriff of Windham County regarding taxes in arrears due to the state from the towns of Windham and Hampton amounting to over 845 pounds, owing from "the one shilling tax payable on the final day of July 1782, with officers (truncated) fees on former executions." The docketed portion of the document shows court costs were added to the fees.
Sheriff Abbe was determined to collect the taxes due and was preparing to "levy the same indiscriminately upon the inhabitants of sd Town of Windham and Hampton for the purpose of satisfying same." The town of Hampton had split from the original town of Windham and was incorporated in 1786. In this document, a group of Hampton citizens petitioned the sheriff to ascertain their just share of the debt. They agreed to pay their portion of the taxes in arrears prior to separation, calculating that amount to be 270 pounds. The list of inhabitants includes James Stedman, William Durkee, Josiah Hammond, Thomas Stedman, David Martin, Thomas Fuller, Ebenezer Griffin, Samuel Fuller, Daniel Fuller, John Brewster, Joseph Fuller, Ebenezer Mosely, Philip Pearl, John Clark, Abraham Ford, Daniel Denison, Jun., Benjamin Griffin, Joel Greenslit, Thomas Utley, Elijah Greenslit, William Durkee, Jun., Samuel Dorrance, Zebediah Holt, Isaac Bennet, William Howard, Abijah Fuller, Solomon Smith, Nathaniel Griffin, Paul Holt, Nathaniel Hodgkins, Joseph Burnham, William Fuller, Jonathan Simmons, and Nathaniel F. Martin all of Hampton. Hezekiah Hammond (1733-1813) was a farmer in Hampton. During the American Revolution he was a Corporal in Capt. James Stedman's Co. in the Lexington Alarm in April of 1775. [see: Frederick S. Hammond's "History and Genealogies of the Hammond Families in America (Oneida, NY: 1904)]. (Inventory #: 67055)