Comptrollers Certificate relative to the Clothing of 10 New Companies of Invalids for the years 1779 and 1780. Revolutionary War Era manuscript document on laid, watermarked paper. 9 3/8 x 7 1/2 in. Penned in flowing script and signed by English caricaturist and book illustrator Henry William Bunbury as Comptroller. Comptrollers Office, June 24th, 1780 – I do hereby Certifie, that the Patterns of Clothing for 10 Companies of Invalids, lately form’d from the Out Pensioners of Chelsea Hospital for the year 1779 and 1780, were approved and Sealed in this Office, and that the Clothing for the same was viewed and found answerable to the Sealed Patterns, and that it appears by a Certificate, dated the 8th of May, 1780, under the hands of John Powell Esq, Agent to the Invalids, that the said clothing has been provided by Messrs. Harley and Lloyd and sent to the respective Garrisons where the said Companies are Quarter’d. Johnson, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was godfather to his second son. As a result he was often in financial difficulties. Manuscript material by Bunbury is quite scarce.
