1813 NYC Mayor Dewitt Clinton Payment Document – New City Hall Architect

1813 New York City Mayor Dewitt Clinton, future Governor and Presidential Hopeful pays the leading Architect of New York City, John McComb Jr., for Services to the just completed New City Hall which he designedPartially printed document completed in Manuscript, measuring 4.5 x 7 inches, one inch tear repaired on verso with archival tape, some bleed through of the ink from McComb's signature, slightly affecting Clinton's. otherwise in very good, clean condition. Signed by Dewitt Clinton (Mayor), John L. Morton (clerk "pro tem"), and Thomas R. Mercein (comptroller). Treasurer certificate paying John McComb, Jr. $ 1000.00 dollars for unstated services to the just completed N.[ew] C.[ity] Hall, which he had designed. Also signed by McComb on verso.An historic association of Dewitt Clinton, who later served as Governor of New York and unsuccessfully challenged James Madison for the Presidency, and architect John McComb, who not only designed New York's City Gall, but also Gracie Mansion, home of New York mayors; and the personal home of Alexander Hamilton.There is one other intriguing element to the document. Though I've been unable to confirm the identification, it appears that the Clerk "pro tem" who signed the document was 21 year-old John Ludlow Morton, later the distinguished "Hudson River School" portrait and landscape painter who became Secretary of the National Academy of Design when it was founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, of Telegraph fame. Morton later condensed his signature on documents to "J. Morton", which may account for the fact that there seems to be no record of his being identical to famous early American artist.