Rare and significant receipt for arms intended for use by the Continental Army, executed the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th as the news rippled through the colonies. The complete text reads: "Recd of Philip Mortimer & Geo Phillips Select Men of Middletown Nine Guns & Nine Bayonets & belts. Said Guns Bayonets & Belts was recd of Titos Hosmer Esq. which he purchased for the Use of this Colony which sd. Guns &c I have recd to furnish the Soldiers under my Comand In the Continental Servis for N. York &c & promis to be Accountable for the Same. [signed] Joseph Churchill." The weapons involved in this transaction are to be used by Capt. Churchill's soldiers as they march from Connecticut to New York to join Washington's army in the fighting in New York.