REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION

Hardy Robinson

  

          Hardy Robinson of Pitt County, NC applied for a Revolutionary War pension on November 3, 1818. In his application, he gave an account of his service.

            Robinson enlisted in Bertie County and joined a company commanded by Capt. Redding Blount of the 10^th Regiment of NC on July 20, 1778. He served until July 5, 1779 when he was discharged at Halifax, NC.

            Hardy Robinson was not in battle during the war. Instead, he spent much of the time working on a Fort at West Point.

            At the time of his application Hardy Robinson was in reduced circumstances and the following is a schedule of his property.

     one Horse bridle & saddle $70
     One pair of scissors $0.10
     One Cow & calf $15
     two chunk Bottles $0.20
     One Sow and Eight Shotes Seven or eight months old $8
     A ½ doz. Knives & forks $0.40
     one wheel and cards $1
     Two Benches one Small pot $0.50
     Fifteen Dollars owing $15.00
     one dutch oven $1.25
     one Axe $1
     one skillet $.50
     Two weeding hoes $1
     Two Cutter plows $2
     Two Baskets $0.50
     one scouter plow $0.75
     Corn standing in the field say about 20 barrels out of which $40 Rent is to be paid $5
     one shovel plow $0.75
     ½ Barrel flour $1.50
     one gimblet

   

Gimblet - Hand Drill
Taken from Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/sg-en/listing/692978515/antique-hand-drill-primitive-tool-old

     15 or 20 lbs of salted Beef $0.50   

      half Dozen spoons $0.25

     half dozen earthen plates $0.25
     1 Pail 1 Piggin $0.50

Piggin - a small wooden pail with one stave extended upward as a handle
From Merriam-Webster Dictionary
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piggin

      I certify that the above Schedule contains a true account of the whole of my property of every description.

S/ Hardy Robinson, X his mark

[Taken from Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Statements at http://revwarapps.org/s41992.pdf]

Revolutionary War Pensions

            The subject of pensions for veterans of the Revolution was discussed from the earliest days of the conflict. Pensions were provided for soldiers disabled in the war, but not for the average veteran. The first pensions were offered to officers to keep them from deserting. Gen. George Washington worked for half-pay for life for officers who remained in service until the end of the war. However, by 1783, the treasury was not able to pay the pensions. Because a pension was often characterized as a “giveaway,” it was usually called back pay, and since the government had stopped paying its soldiers in 1777, it was true that they had not received the remuneration they had been promised.

            In 1818, Congress passed legislation providing pensions for indigent veterans and then, in 1832, all veterans could apply for “back pay.” This meant that a veteran had to survive forty-nine years after the war to receive a pension for his service. Beginning in 1836, widows of veterans could receive a pension.

            The records of veterans’ applications for pensions are available and provide insight into the lives of the men who won freedom for America.[1]

_________________

John Williams

Revolutionary War Veteran

Pension Application W18436

            John Williams, born in Princess Anne County, VA, lived much of his life in Currituck Co., NC. On 29^th of August, 1832, he applied for a pension for his service in the Revolutionary War.

            Williams first volunteered for service in the militia in September 1775 in VA. He was stationed at Kempsville, Princess Anne County, VA.  

            Soon after John Williams signed up, the militia set up an ambush for the British troops, hoping to keep them from advancing to Great Bridge. However, on Nov. 15^th, Lord Dunmore moved against the militia, and John Williams and his fellow volunteers were routed. After this defeat, according to Williams’ pension application, most residents of Princess Anne County took an oath of loyalty to the British.

            Williams left Virginia and moved his family to Currituck County, NC. There, he joined the army and fought in the battle of Great Bridge, serving under Capt. Alexander Whitehall. He remained with the NC militia and was often sent to find refuges. He was also employed as a blacksmith making handcuffs for refugees and repairing guns. He was eventually appointed captain of a company and continued in this capacity until peace was declared.

            John Williams was awarded a pension of $80 per year, to be paid in semiannual payments of $40. In 1833, he was awarded $160 from payments in arrears, plus his payment of $40, or a total of $200. John Williams died 7^th Nov 1835. In 1838, John’s widow, Abiah Williams, applied for a widow’s benefit. She received the pension from the time of John’s death. She received 186.67 in arrears and $40 for her semiannual paytment for a total of $226.67.[2]

---

[1] Review: America’s First Veterans and the Revolutionary War Pensions by Emily J. Teipe, reviewed by Joanna Short: EH.net: December 2002.

[2] Southern Campaigns American Revolution Pension Statements and Rosters: North Carolina Pension 6984; John Williams. http://revwarapps.org/w18436.pdf

TORIES AND PAINES TAVERN

 EDITOR [ROXBORO, PERSON COUNTY, NC] COURIER:

            When I was a boy many interesting stories were told of the time when the British Army marched through our county [Person County] during the Revolutionary War, under the command of Lord Cornwallis.

            One of them is to the effect that, in 1781, when he was moving east from Caswell or Alamance county through Person county on the way to Yorktown he passed what is now known as Roseville, four miles southwest of Roxboro. A man living there by the name of Rose, whose smoke house was near the road side, had a large lot of provisions cooked up and put under lock and key. When the army arrived he handed General Cornwallis the key, saying as he pointed to it: "Here, my Lord, is the key to the smoke house. It is full of provisions, open it and help yourselves." This man Rose was what was called a Tory, a member of a political party that was opposed to the war, and was in sympathy with the British.

            The soldiers took the provisions and went on to old Paines Tavern, two or three miles, and stacked their guns, "Flint and Steel" muskets, and spent the night in camp. A big white oak there was ever afterward known and pointed out as the "Cornwallis" tree. The writer has often seen this splendid old tree and it as not been so long since it died and was cut down. "Paines Tavern" was then a place of note, a popular camping ground for emigrants from a large section of the country, moving to the West to seek new homes. Paines, a man of some wealth, owned the place and kept a house of entertainment for the public called a "Tavern," a name perpetuated even today.

            This writer remembers, when a boy, seeing a few of the old Revolutionary soldiers of Person county, who had land warrants as an extra bounty given for service in helping to free our country from the British yoke. These land warrants conveyed to each of them 160 acres of Western land, a quarter section. Very few of them ever went out to occupy their land, but sold their claims to land speculators.

            Roxboro, N. C.

                        October 30, 1915

Cornwallis
Taken from Encyclopedia Britannica
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Cornwallis-1st-Marquess-and-2nd-Earl-Cornwallis

[In the early 1900s, A. R. Foushee [1839-1929] wrote a series of letters to the Roxboro Courier recording his memories of Roxboro and Person County in earlier days. These letters were later published in Reminiscences: A Sketch and Letters Descriptive of Life in Person County in Former Days by Alexander R. Foushee: Roxboro, NC 1921. This story was taken from that book and was previously published in The Connector, Newsletter of the Tar River Connections Genealogical Society in Vol. 7 Number 3, Summer 2003 on page 18.]

David Arnott (Arnold) 

Revolutionary War Pension Application

Halifax County

On February 19, 1829, in Halifax County, NC, David Arnott (or Arnold) applied for a Revolutionary War pension. In order to secure the pension Arnott related the following about his war experience:

            He enlisted in early 1778 to complete the term of a private, Bythal Haynes, who had deserted. This term was to last until April 1780. His commander was Lieutenant Fitzgerald or Gerard. The regiment was led by Colonel James Hogun.

Within the regiment, the company of light horse commanded by Captain Cosmo Medici or Medicie, was severely lacking in equipment such as bridle bits, stirrups, saddle backs and such. David Arnott, a blacksmith, was assigned to the Quarter Master General to make the necessary items. He continued in this job until the North Carolina Brigade returned from the north on its way to Charleston, SC, which was in February 1780.

            David recalled that he marched to Charleston with Lieutenant Col. Davidson’s company in the 1^st NC Regiment commanded by Col. Clark. He was at Charleston when it was blockaded by the British and continued to serve until April 1780 when he was discharged in Charleston, SC. It would seem that he barely missed the end of the “Siege of Charleston” which began on April 1 and ended with Gen. Lincoln’s surrender to the British on May 12, 1780.

After the War

    

            David Arnold had returned to Halifax in 1880 and continued to work there as a blacksmith until he applied for his pension in 1829 at the age of 75. He had been turned down for a pension in 1827 because of a question about his name and had not applied again because “by his own labor as a blacksmith he was enabled to provide for himself & family, and though earnestly urged by his friends, he never could consent to throw himself upon the bounty of his Country, so long as he was able to provide for his household by his own exertions: -- neither did he conceive his circumstances so utterly hopeless as to justify it.”

            A schedule attached to David Arnold’s application for a pension listed the property he had amassed over a lifetime:

“One tract of Land containing 256 acres

One Negro woman & child

One set of Blacksmith Tools

Three unimproved Lots in Gainsborough

One cow, calf & yearling

One cart, a few hoes, an axe and some household furniture of little value.

All the above property except the Blacksmith Tools have been conveyed by deed of trust now of record in this Court for the benefit of Thomas Burges Esq. to secure the payment of a debt which is justly due him amounting to $1245 with interest on $1025 until paid.”

            In the end, “the infirmities attendant on disease & old age render him incapable of much exertion – that his family residing with him consists of three daughters, to wit: Mary about 28 years old, Dorothy 21 & Martha 14. -- that they were tenderly raised & only accustomed to perform the ordinary duties relating to housekeeping … .”

His Name Was A Problem

        Mr. Arnott had difficulty being approved for his pension because he applied as David Arnott while he was listed on the muster rolls as David Arnold. James Grant wrote on David Arnott’s behalf that he had known him as David Arnold for 20 years and had never known that David himself spelt his name Arnot. Grant went on to say that “I found him when I first grew into manhood, a very worthy, respectable man, residing in the County of Halifax, & from the Circumstance of his being uniformly called Arnold, I think the mistake arose,”…  from the spelling of his name.

            William Hill wrote that he had examined the Warrant Book and found no David Arnot, but had found David Arnold, and that he believed, based on the fact that Arnold received a warrant for 274 acres of land, the quantity allowed for 3 years service, and other facts in the application, that David Arnot was the same as David Arnold.

            David Arnold received a pension of $8 per month for his service during the Revolution.

[Taken from the Pension application of David Arnot (Arnold or Arnott) S41417 which was transcribed by Will Graves and can be found on the internet at  Southern Campaigns American Revolution Pension Statements and Rosters]

ADVENTURES OF A PRIVATEER.

The following story was told by James Moore, father of a one-time Attorney General of NC, B. F. Moore and included in History of Halifax County.

"In 1775-6, enlistments were made in the neighborhoods where the musters were held, and I was very anxiously concerned because I was not of the age required for a soldier (i. e. 16). At this time I was only ten or eleven years old, and during a part of the period from thence till I reached the required age, I was at school; but as soon as I was sixteen, which was in 1781, the year in which Cornwallis was taken, I entered on board a privateer schooner called the Hannah, which sailed out of Edenton on an eight weeks' cruise.


"Our captain's name was Kit Gardiner, an Englishman by birth. William Gold, of Connecticut, was lieutenant, and Daniel Webb, of South Quay, Nansemond County, Virginia, was first prize master.

"We sailed in March from Edenton and crossed the Ocracoke bar and soon was in the Gulf Stream with heavy surges. We sprung our bowsprit and put into Beaufort harbor and put another in. From there we sailed and cruised off Charleston, [South Carolina], took four prizes and condemned three. The fourth was a Bermudian, a neutral, and he had two sets of consignments, one for a British port and the other for an American, by which means she was cleared at Wilmington, N. C.

"The first prize was a schooner from Cork, Ireland, to New York. She was taken first by a privateer out of Philadelphia and retaken by the Charleston frigate. This frigate was built in Newburyport, fifty miles eastward of Boston (I was shown the spot where it was said she was built) and was called the Boston. She happened to be in Charleston when the British took that city, and they changed her name and called her Charleston. After her capture she was their regular packet from Charleston to New York.

"In our cruise, we took a schooner called the Lord Cornwallis, laden with Governor Martin's effects. He was Governor of South Carolina and became traitor; and when laying in provisions against the siege, he caused the barrels to be filled with sand instead of pork.

"The second prize was from New Hampshire laden with salt and garden seeds, such as peas, beans, etc. I was put aboard of her. Our place of rendezvous was Beaufort,[Carteret County], N. C. Now as we took the vessel near Charleston, the port to which she was bound, it was reasonable to suppose that her provisions were nearly exhausted, which was the case.

"With these, we undertook to make Beaufort, but instead of that, the first port was Newburyport, … and, sixteen days after, we were tossed and carried by contrary winds, going all around the different capes till we were off the Banks of Newfoundland and in view of the Agamenticus Hills, whose appearance, when seen at sea, is like three burly-headed clouds. We sailed along thence and arrived at Newburyport, sold our cargo (salt) at one dollar a bushel, and I received what the prize master saw fit to allow me, which was four dollars only."

In 1775, as the 13 colonies went to war with Britain, George Washington turned the fishing schooner Hannah into a privateer. She was the first of eleven ships eventually charterred to aid in the war. During the American siege of Boston, "Washington's Navy" captured 55 prizes which provided much needed supplies for the revolutionary cause.

Sources: History of Halifax County, by William Cicero Allen, 1918. A Google book.

Revolutionary War Pension

John L. Ward was born in Bute County, North Carolina on July 12, 1763. He was drafted on March 8, 1780 at Thomas Christmas's in Warren County, NC where Warrenton is now located. The following stories are included in his application for a pension.

Ward saw a little cabin on the road and called and received from the hands of an old lady a glass of milk. While drinking the same, the horse began prancing. "I looked behind, saw a cloud of dust arising. I then, with all speed, gave notice and information to the rear guard that the enemy was at hand. I then pushed for the river where I found the army nearly all crossed over. I forced [my horse] into the river. The enemy arrived t the bank and ordered me to stop or I would be a dead man, but I forced the horse in a still more rapid manner. They fired a volley of balls at me which so much alarmed the horse and myself, too, that I lost my hold on my horse. [However} both arrived safely on the opposite bank safe and sound."

Ward belonged to Gen. Caswell's regiment. On one occasion, as the colonial forces tried to evade Gen. Tarleton, Gen. Caswell and Col. Bufort went in different directions. Tarleton soon caught Bufort and "cut the men to pieces. He then pursued Caswell's Regiment. … Gen. Rutherford, who had previously joined Caswell's Regiment … had a fine Stallion and fearing that Tarleton would get him delivered the horse to the declarant, considered to be a first rate rider, and told him to lose his life sooner than the horse, …"

Ward was discharged from the army in 1781. He remained at home until the spring of 1782 when "Captain Thomas Battle, Hertford [County, NC] came up in Warren County to enlist Marines to man a schooner called Hagora fitted out as a privateer by Colo George Wm and others …Charles Whitehead, James Ransom, Sugar Jones and my self enlisted. My friends and Capt. Battle persuading me that a sea voyage would restore to me my health. We arrived at Winton [Hertford County] the 18 Apr 1782 where we were received by Capt. Battle and the crew. As soon as the schooner was ready for a cruise we set sail. I was appointed clerk and confined mostly below deck and having no knowledge of navigation know very little about the cruise on water. My health recovered and several prizes [were] taken. We landed at Edenton [Chowan County, NC] the last of June from whence I came home …"

This story came from John L. Ward's pension application. It was published in The Connector, newsletter of Tar River Connections Genealogical Society in the Summer 2006 issue. John Ward appears on early censuses of Warren County.

Revolutionary War Fire Lit in Franklin County

The Origin of "Lynching"

Most fires start from small sparks. The Chicago fire, for instance, probably started with Mrs. Leary's cow kicked over a lantern. And so it is with other great disasters. The people of Franklin County, North Carolina will tell you that the first spark of the Revolutionary War was ignited in their county.

This is the story told by Bill Sharpe in A New Geography of North Carolina, Vol. 4, page 1857, published in 1965:

"Franklin [County's] colonial history is closely linked with that of Warren [County], as both of them were then united under the name of Bute [County]. Their attitude towards the British government was particularly hostile. The first man to write in opposition to English tax measures was George Simms, who tended the ferry at Louisburg [Franklin Co.]. When Governor Tryon drew up plans for his elaborate palace at Newbern, he levied a tax to pay for it. The farmers way off in Bute weren't interested in building Tryon's mansion, and refused to pay up. Whereupon the equally determined governor sent a British officer, Major Lynch, to collect the tax personally. The unfortunate go-between was met three miles west of Louisburg by a citizens' committee, declared an 'enemy of the county,' and strung up on the spot."

According to Sharpe, the War of the Regulators was a result of this incident. Locals also claimed that the term "lynching" for "impromptu necktie parties" came from the hanging of Major Lynch. [Others attribute the term "lynching" to Capt. William Lynch of VA, author of he Lynch Law.]

In addition a nearby creek was named Lynch Creek.

This story was published in The Connector, newsletter of the Tar River Connections Genealogical Society in the Winter 1999 issue.

Reminder of Home

NC Pine Trees Thrive in Tennessee

It must have been an adventuresome spirit that carried the 70+ year old Samuel R. Smith and his wife from Granville County, North Carolina to Montgomery County, Tennessee in 1833-34. It was a 500 mile trek through the Cumberland Gap to the untamed country in middle Tennessee. [Do you know anyone in his early 70s? Can you imagine him starting out on a 500 mile walk through wilderness?] There were about three hundred and fifty people in the group making its way to the new land. Their belongings were carried on ox-carts and many of the settlers walked most of the way. Before they reached Montgomery Co, TN, Smith's party was detained for a week by the birth of his granddaughter, so we know that some of his family traveled with him.

The Smiths settled on Piney Fork near what is now Ft. Campbell, KY. Samuel knew he would never return to NC so he carried a piece of North Carolina with him in his saddlebag—seven tiny pine seedlings. One of the first things he did when he reached his new home was to plant the fragile trees.

Samuel Smith was a generous man. He gave land to establish a church near his new home—Asbury Church. It was built of logs and served as both a church and a school. The building was later destroyed by lightning but the Asbury Church survived.

Smith died at his new home on January 16, 1837 just a few years after his arrival. He was buried at a site selected by him near one of his North Carolina pines— still small at the time of his death.

Bicentennial Celebration

By 1976, when this country celebrated its bicentennial, the pine tree near Samuel Smith's grave was well over 100 feet tall. Its needles blanketed the little cemetery where Samuel and five of his relatives were buried. But the graves were covered with undergrowth—overgrown and forgotten. As part of the 200th birthday celebration, the Girl Scouts of America and the 20th Engineer Battalion at Ft. Campbell cleared the grave site and reseated the granite headstones

On August 13, 1976, when the project of clearing the cemetery was completed, a ceremony was held and the spot was dedicated as Samuel Smith Memorial Park. A speaker noted, "The undergrowth has been cleared, and Samuel Smith's headstone feels the sun."

There is a bronze plaque at the entrance to the cemetery.

Why Did Smith Go to Tennessee?

What made Samuel R. Smith leave his home in North Carolina and travel to Tennessee in his old age? His service to his country during the Revolution provides the answer to that question. On August 8, 1833, he applied for a Revolutionary War pension in Granville County, NC.

In his pension application application, Smith stated that he enlisted in the patriot forces in Warren County, NC in 1778 as a substitute for someone whose name he could not remember. He served three months during which time his company marched from Oxford to Wilmington, NC. "Our duty was principally to guard that town and the Country round about from the incursions and ravages of the Enemy consisting principally of Tories. Our service was occasionally to march on expeditions in various parts of the country round about that town; but the most of the time we were on duty in the camp in the suburbs of it."

Smith re-enlisted in late 1778 or early 1779 in Oxford, Granville County, NC as a substitute for William Dodson. [He later married a Miss Dodson!] The company first marched to Hillsboro in Orange Co., NC and then south to Augusta, GA. Smith's pension application states, "We were marched through Salisbury in North Carolina to South Carolina and through many little towns in that State the names of which he cannot recollect and joined the American Army then stationed there for Augusta on the Savannah River." Smith also recalled, "… the men had to march near or quite four hundred miles to the scene of duty [Georgia]."

On February 13 or 14, John Ashe's men, including Samuel Smith, joined South Carolina General Andrew Williamson's troops on the east bank of the Savannah River opposite Augusta. Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell, observing the large number of Patriots across the river, marched his Loyalist troops out of Augusta, moving south along the river. Ashe's troops trailing after them as far as Brier Creek where they set up camp. Smith said, "I was of the detachment that was commanded by Generals Ashe and Bryant who were sent to take post at Briar Creek. … "

The Battle of Brier Creek

Ashe had been ordered to cross the Savannah River and continue after Campbell, but when they reached Brier Creek, they found that Campbell had burned the bridge. The American force moved its camp further up the creek for security. Smith recalled, "[We] were not there stationed but a few days … before the fatal and ever to be regretted attack on us by the British, … ."

Campbell had turned his troops over to Col. Mark Prevost who decided to attack the American force from the rear. While Ashe was engaged in conferring with other American leaders, Prevost moved his troops up the west side of Brier Creek, built a bridge across it, and moved his men onto the east side behind Ashe's men.

The historical marker at the site describes the ensuing rout this way: "Confusion and hysteria reigned among the American soldiers as their officers vainly tried to keep them in line while ammunition was being distributed. …The British opened on the American center with cannon. . … With dead and wounded falling on every side, the center broke and retreated in riot. The British poured through the hole in the American center and within a few minutes, the right … broke and ran into the swamps of the Savannah. …."

In Smith's words, "… our entire defeat and dispersion. [I] with eight others after skulking about and under the banks of Brier Creek, effected our Escape to Savannah River, across which River we obtained a conveyance by paying three dollars a piece to a Boatman." The nine patriots eventually were able to rejoin the American Army.


John Ashe was eventually court martialed for his lack of preparation for the British attack.

———

Based on his pension application, Samuel Smith was granted 1000 acres in Tennessee for his service during the war.

Genealogy

Samuel R. Smith was married first to Miss Sallie Williams and then to a Miss Dobson. To the first union were born four sons and one daughter: Harry, Elizabeth (Betsy), Charles, John and Wiley. By his second marriage, there were three children: Mary, Samuel R., Jr., and Sarah Long.

————

Sources:
[Samuel Smith] http://www.tngenweb.org/montgomery/soldiers/samuelsmith.html
[Transcription by Will Graves of Samuel Smith's Revolutionary War Pension Application] http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/s7560.pdf
[Battle of Brier's Creek] http://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/790304.htm; http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/49march1779.html; and many others
[Court martial of Gen. John Ashe] http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr14-0306


This story was published in The Connector, newsletter of the Tar River Connections Genealogical Society in the Winter 2005 issue.