Pension Application of John and Rhoda Buford: W5967
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
State of Virginia
Bedford County to wit} S:
On the 27th day of July 1835 personally appeared before the Court of Bedford now sitting, John Buford a resident of the County of Bedford aged seventy seven years who being first sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provisions made by the act of Congress passed the 7th day of June 1832. Viz.
That in February 1776 he thinks about the 10th he enlisted under Capt. Gross Scruggs in the County of Bedford to serve a tour of Two Years & rendezvoused at New London [now in Campbell County] a few days and was marched from thence to Williamsburg under Sergeant William Canada as a guard to a waggon loaded with ammunition that he remained in Williamsburg one or two weeks with Capt Scruggs & Lieutenants Isham Talbot and Joseph Early & Ensign Barnabas Arthur arrived . . . . with the balance of the Company that he marched from thence to Portsmouth principally under the Command of Major Josiah Parker and remained at Portsmouth until the 10th day of August when he swapped places with a man by the name of Stewart who was marching to the Cherokee Towns that he marched from Portsmouth and joined Capt. James Bedfords Company in the County of Bedford where he remained until the Colo came and which was early in September. That he marched from thence to Long Island on Holston River [at present Kingsport TN] under the Command of Colo Charles Lewis from Albemarle County & Maj’r [illegible] Lieutenants Jacob Early & William Richison[?] & Ensign John Fields that in this Tour he rated as Sergeant & James Trainer as Orderly Sergeant. That he was marched from Long Island about the 1st of October to the Cherokee Towns upon the Tennessee River under the Command of Colo. Wm Christian, that he remained at the Cherokee Towns a week or two and that he returned home in the last Days of November 1776 that he was engaged in the service of this tour as a private in the 1st about six months & 10 days and in the last was engaged 3 months & 20 days that he has no written discharge and never had any that he had a Certificate from Capt. Scruggs Certify to the exchange between himself & Stewart but has lost or mislaid it. He refers to the affidavit of Edmond Hancock & James Fields for the service of these Tours That the next tour he served he enlisted in early part of June 1778 under Capt. Samuel Campbell in the County of Bedford that he was marched to the County of Greenbrier where he was Commanded by Colo Samuel Lewis that he was mostly in service in [illegible] fort and was engaged as a Spy 28 days that he was discharged about the first of November & he thinks on that very day, that William Thornhill was the ensign & he thinks John Phelps was the Lieutenant. He was engaged in the service of this tour about four months as a private and 28 days as a Spy. He received no written discharge for this tour and knows of no person living that served the whole of this tour with him but refers to the affidavit of Pleasant Preston for the service of this tour. The next tour he served he went as a Substitute for Wegmand St. Clair, that he was marched from the County of Bedford under the Command of Capt. John Otey, Lieutenant George Dooley on the 16th day of January 1781 from the County of Bedford to Petersburg where he remained a day or two from thence he marched to Cabin point [in Surry County] from thence he was marched to a place near Portsmouth & camped Capt Otey joined the infantry with his Company and was Commanded by Major Deck [sic: probably Alexander Dick], Generals Parker & [Peter] Muhlenberg but was principally commanded by General Parker he marched then to . . . the Great Bridge upon the South branch of Elizabeth River that he was one of the Company under Capt Otey & Lieutenant George Dooley who took a boat below the great Bridge from the Brittish that he was marched to Petersburg and discharged on the 15th day of April 1781 he was engaged in the service of this tour three months that he received no written discharge, but can prove the service of this tour by Capt William Arthur & Isaac Cundiff, who served at the same time with him whose affidavit is hereto Annexed That the next tour he served he was drafted to serve a tour of six weeks that about the 10th day of May in the year 1781 he marched from New London then in Bedford County in Capt Alex’r. Cummings Company under the Command of Lieutenant or Ensign Charlton Hoggette [sic: possibly Chatton Doggett] That he joined Capt Cumming about Prince Edward Courthouse That he marched from thence to the County of Hanover in General [Robert] Lawson’s brigade & Joined the main army Commanded by Layfayette [sic: Lafayette] & [Anthony] Wayne where he remained until the 5th of July Maj’r Parnell[?] was one of the Commanding Officers who was wounded on the fourth of July by accident that he has no written evidence of this Tour nor does he know of any living witness that he can prove it by he was engaged in the service of this tour one month & hereby [illegible word] that he has not received a pension, nor never has of any description whatsoever for Services to the United States or any other, and hereby relinquishes all claims to any other but the present:
Answers to Question 1st? I was born either in the County of Orange or Culpeper in the State of Virginia on the 13th day of October 1757
Answer to Question 2nd: I have now no register of my age, my parents had it Registered in a Bible which is now destroyed?
Question 3, 4, 5, & 6th.
Answered in the declaration
I refer to William Leftwich a minister of the gospel and Thos. Preston Matthew Peter Pleasant Preston D. Saunders & B. Preston who are acquainted with me and as to their belief in my having served in the Army &c. John Buford
NOTE: On 23 July 1852 Rhoda Buford, 88, applied for a pension stating that she married John Buford on 28[?] Dec 1786, and he died 11 Feb 1852. The original file, but not the copy available through HeritageQuest, also apparently includes a record of their children.