Pension Application of Timothy and Mary Spencer: W4341

                        Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris

 

Virginia Grayson County to wit.

            On this 25th day of February 1833 personally appeared in open court, before the County Court of Grayson now sitting, Timothy Spencer a resident of the County of Grayson and State of Virginia aged seventy four years, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following amended declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7th 1832.

That he was born in the year 1759 in the county of Bucks & State of Pennsylvania  He has no record of his age, nor was there ever one that he recollects–

that he entered the service of the United States, in the fall of the year 1776 as well as he now recollects (being drafted), under Capt. Smith of Salem North Carolina, he then residing in the County of Surry State of North Carolina, and marched against the Cherokee Indians. He marched to the Cherokee towns a distance of three hundred miles through the Wilderness, and the army with which he marched destroyed the towns and crops of the Indians and retook a Mrs. Beane who had been captured by the Indians. He recollects well the meeting between Mrs. Beane and her two sons William & Robert, which was a very affecting one [see note below]. On this expedition Col. Joseph Williams of Surry County North Carolina, commanded the Regiment to which he was attached. He had a written discharge for this tour of duty which he has lost. He was three months in service on this tour. He afterwards (year not recollected but several years after the above mentioned tour) then residing in the county of Henry (now Patrick) State of Virginia enlisted or was drafted, he does not recollect which, but believes he enlisted for a tour of eighteen months. He does not recollect the name of the Capt. he served under, but recollects that he first served under Col. Tunstall of Henry County Virginia, who gave him several furloughs till called for, the troops not being ready to march. He was then marched under a Lieutenant, whose name he does not recollect, to Hillsborough in North Carolina where he was put under the command of Col. Buford [see note below], but does not recollect the names of his company officers. He was during this tour six months in actual service and twelve months on Furlough, till called for, which required him to be constantly on the alert and ready to march.

Some time after (time not recollected) he went into service as a substitute for one Benjamim Farmer from the county of Surry North Carolina under Capt. Scott on a three months tour of duty. marched through North Carolina beyond Salisbury, where he joined the command of General Davidson [sic: probably William Lee Davidson of the North Carolina Militia]. He was then ordered to take charge of a waggon to convey some wounded prisoners to Salisbury, with a promise that he should be discharged from his three months tour aforesaid upon the performance of that service. When he arrived at Salisbury, he was induced by Capt. Alexander the Captain of the Guard, to go on with the prisoners to the trading ford of the Yadkin, where he was discharged by the said Capt of the Guard according to the promise of the General. He received a written discharge which has been preserved and is forwarded with this Declaration. He states positively that he did not enter the service on the last, mentioned occasion by contract as a waggoner but was ordered while on the march to drive a waggon which was without a driver.

He has then served three tours, amounting in the whole to one year actual service, and twelve months on furlough subject to be called on at any moment.

He has resided since the war of the Revolution a part of his time in the County of Montgomery and State of Virginia, and the ballance of his time in the County of Grayson (now) formerly a part of the County of Patrick Va – On all the above tours of duty he served as a private Soldier.

He has no other Documentary evidence of his services than the discharge aforesaid – Jabez Johnson Senr and Martin Dickenson his neighbors and to whom he is known will testify as to his character for veracity and that they believe he was a soldier of the revolution. There being no clergyman living in his neighborhood

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– Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid.  Timothy his+mark Spencer

State of Virginia}

Grayson County} Ss     On this 30th day of November 1859 personally appeared before me William Cloud a Justice of the peace in and for the County Court of Grayson the same being a court of record Mary Spencer a resident in said county aged seventy eight years who being first duly sworn according to law doth on her oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the act of Congress passed July 4th 1836

That she is the widow of Timothy Spencer who was a private in the militia in the Revolutionary War and late a Pensioner of the United States, That she is unacquainted with the particulars and nature of his services, but for the same refer to his declaration, the voucher and other evidence filed by him in the Pension office upon which his Pension was granted, she further declares that she was married to the said Timothy Spencer on the 20th day of August 1779, she believes in the County of Stokes [sic: formed from Surry County in 1789], State of North Carolina. That she knows of no record evidence of her marriage and the remote period at which time it occured renders it impossible for her to produce a living witness to the performance of the ceremony, she can only prove her marriage by almost immemmorial reputation, she can prove that she and her deceased husband the aforesaid Timothy Spencer lived together raising a family and believing and reputed to be man and wife for forty or fifty years in the neighborhood where she now resides. That she and her husband the aforesaid Timothy Spencer never kept any record of the birth of their children that they were both illiterate. That she has two children living near neighbors to her the oldest one towit Kindness Woody the widow of Taulton Woody, who is fifty eight or nine years of age  the other towit Samuel Spencer the fourth child who is fifty one years of age

That her husband the aforesaid Timothy Spencer died on the 28th day of July 1837 and that she still remains a widow ever since that period as will more fully appear by refference to the proof herunto annexed

Sworn to and subscribed on the day above written}   Mary her X mark Spencer

before me}                  William Cloud JP

 

NOTES:

            A Mrs. William Bean is said to have been captured by Cherokees on 20 July 1776 and condemned to be burned at the stake. She was rescued by a respected woman of the tribe and is usually said to have been returned to her family after a time by the Indians. Compare the pension application of William Cloud: W5247.

            Apparently Spencer joined Col. Abraham Buford at Hillsborough but was discharged before Burord’s troops were massacred at Waxhaws SC on 29 May 1780. Spencer’s second tour of 18 months therefore evidently began late in 1778. Col. William Tunstall resigned in March 1780.

            Spencer’s third tour apparently occurred before 21 July 1780, when Davidson was shot in the stomach at Colson’s Mill NC.

            Spencer evidently lived in the southwest corner of Patrick County at the time it was transferred to Grayson County around 1806. In the 1840s that eastern part of Grayson County became Carroll County.