As I said in an earlier post, one of the first Revolutionary War pension files I found for an ancestor was that of my 4x great grandfather Asa Barrows.:
Image 1 is of the first page of the file, with the following written and evenly spaced across the page on one line:
Service Mass. Barrows, Asa Number S. 16038
Image 2 is a preprinted form with handwritten information
added. I’ve bold faced the preprinted words:
Maine 18077
____________________________________
____________________________________
Asa Barrows
of Oxford Co.
in the State of Maine
who was a Private
in the company
commanded
by Captain Benson
of the regiment
commanded
by Col. Cotton
in the Massachusetts
line for 10 months.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Inscribed on the Roll of Maine
at the rate of 33
dollars 33
cents per annum
to commence on the 4th day of March, 1834.____________________________________
____________________________________
Certificate of Pension issued the 23
day of July
1833
and sent to T. Clark
Paris, Me.
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
Arrears to the 4th of March 1833 66.66
Semi-anl. allowance ending 4 Sept… 16.66
____
$83.32
_____
{Revolutionary Claim,
Act June 7,1832}
Recorded by Jm Cuffield
Clerk
Book 6
Vol 1
Page 4
Image 3 is of perhaps the next page in the same notebook. The right hand page is blank. On the left hand side the following is written:
9669-
Asa Barrows
12th April 1833
Obj(?) 5-14.16.
P.332
10 mos.
$33.35
Thomas Clark, Esq.
Paris
Maine.
Image 4 is the preprinted Brief of Asa’s claim:
Brief in the case of Asa Barrows of Hamlins Gore
in the State
of Maine
(Act 7th June,1832)
1. Was the declaration made before a Court or a Judge?Open court.
2. If before a Judge, does it appear the applicant is
disabled by bodily infirmity? (left blank)
3. How old is he? 81 years.
4. State his service as directed in the form annexed.
There are three entries:
April,1775- 8 months as a Private under Capt. Benson and Col
Cotton.
Dec. 1776 1 month and 12 days as a Private under Capt. Perkins.
July 1780 14 days as a Private under Col. Churchill.
5. In what battles was he engaged? None.
6. Where did he reside when he entered the service?
Plymton,Massachusetts.
7. Is his statement supported by living witnesses, by
documentary proof, by traditional evidence, by
incidental evidence, or by the rolls? By a living witness.
8. Are the papers defective as to form or
authentication? and if so,in what respect? Correct.
I certify that the foregoing statement and the answers
agree with the evidence in the case above mentioned.
Richard Cutts
Examining Clerk.
Image 5 is of a largely blank piece of paper, perhaps the outside of an envelope or folder. Handwritten at the top is
“Asa Barrows” with the numbers
“9669” written below it. At
the bottom of the page is the signature,
“Thomas Clark, agent.”
Image 6 is the statement of Asa Barrows:
STATE OF MAINE.
______
County of Oxford
, ss.
ON this 20th
day of August
, A.D. 1832
,personally appeared
in open Court, before the Court of Probate
now sitting,
Asa Barrows
,a resident of Hamlin’s Gore
in the County
of Oxford
and State of Maine,aged 81
years,
who being first duly sworn according to the law, doth,
on his oath, make the following declaration , in order
to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress, passed June
7, 1832. That he enlisted in the service of the United
States as a private((this part crossed out))under the
following named officers and served as herein stated
((end crossed out portion)) in April, 1775 at Plymton in the
county of Plymouth in the State of Massachusetts, his then
residence, and served for the term of eight months, in the militia
company commanded by Capt Joshua Benson, in the regiment
commanded by Col. Cotton; and mustered in Middlebury,
the ajoining town, marched to Roxbury near Boston,where he
was stationed under Gen. William Heath; at the expiration of
said term was discharged by Gen. Thomas -which discharge he
lost a long time since.
On an alarm in December 1776, he marched as a volunteer in the
militia company from Plymton, under the command of Lieut
Joshua Perkins to Barrington, in Rhode Island; was there
stationed & served about six weeks, at the expiration of which he
was verbally discharged. And on the last of July, 1780,he
marched (inserted later here: “as a volunteer” end insertion)in
the militia company from Plymton aforesaid to Tiverton (under
the command of Capt. Pereg Churchill) in Rhode Island where he
was stationed and served about two weeks,and was there
verbally discharged. He has no documentary evidence to prove
his service as a volunteer as aforesaid, and he knows of no
person whose testimony he can procure, who can testify to his
service as volunteer aforesaid.
He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a
pension or annuity except the present, and declares
that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of
any State.”
Asa Barrow’s larger and less refined signature is written at the right hand corner of notation of “
before Stephen Emery, Judge.” It might be the judge’s actual signature or perhaps his clerk
signed his name.
A few observations. I was curious how far Asa marched on these three occasions and went to the
Rand McNally page which has a mileage calculator. Of course, the distances are driving distances and Asa and his fellow soldiers might have taken a more direct cross country route but it still gives
me a good idea on the marching involved.
Plympton to Boston is 48 miles.
Plympton to Barrington RI is 44 miles.
Plympton to Tiverton RI is 39 miles.
Interesting that Boston is the furthest away of the three.
The march to Barrington must have been in response to the British under Sir Henry Clinton landing
at and occupying Newport. I must confess that I wasn’t aware that the British remained in Rhode Island for most of the Revolution and when you consider that people in this area were still that
close to British forces,it must have been a tense period for them.
Pereg Churchill was, I believe, actually Peleg Churchill
Hamlin's Gore no longer exists. It was annexed in 1872 as I found out over at Chris Dunham's
Maine Genealogy Site.
And Asa Barrows was about to find that someone could swear to his service in the War after all.
Source Information
- Title
- Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900
- Author
- Ancestry.com
- Publisher
- Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com
Operations, Inc., 2010.Original data - Revolutionary War Pension and
Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804,
2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Reco
