Philip Houk's Pay Stub

This pictures a payroll record (not sure where it comes from) showing that Philip Houk (my great x3 grandfather) was serving in Capt. John Sebring's company of the Somerset Militia, a part of Frelinghuysen's Battalion. He was a private, according to a couple other things I’ve come across.

I’m not sure how readable this picture will be, so I’ll add that it shows they were stationed at Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth, NJ) from Nov 19 to Dec 3, 1777.

During this time he had ten days of service. I sort of wonder what he was doing during the other five days, but I believe militia service was somewhat casual at the time, with a fair amount of coming and going. Philip was married at this point and had at least one child, so he might have had reason to visit home during this period. Another child was born in 1778, so it appears he made good use of any such home visits.

For the ten days, he was paid 6 shillings 8 pence, plus a ‘bounty’ (not sure what this is about) of another 6s 8p. He also received a mileage reimbursement of 3s 1.5p. As a note, the distance from Elizabeth to Somerville (today the county seat of Somerset County) is about 31 miles. I never had heard of militia men getting a mileage allowance, so I learned something new.

So his total pay for the period was 16s 5.5p. I haven’t been able to find anything that indicates what that might amount to today; and I probably won’t, since colonial currency values fluctuated greatly.