Pension Application of William Tinch (Tench): S39521

                        Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris

            Virginia Patrick county  October Court 1827

Personally appeared in open court, being a court of Record for the County of Patrick according to the [word illegible] of the common law, with unlimited jurisdiction and keeping a record of its proceedings William Tinch resident in the said county of Patrick aged sixty six years, who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the provision made by the Act of Congress of the 18th March 1818 and the 1st May 1820. That he the said William Tinch enlisted in the army of the United States in the fall of the year 1779 for the term of eighteen months in the county of Brunswick and State of Virginia in the company commanded by John Marshall in the regiment commanded by Colo. Buford in the line of the state of Virginia in the United States continental establishment. That he continued to serve in the said Corps under the said Buford and Colo. Heath of the 4th United States Regiment until the defeat of said Buford on the 29th of May 1780 in which he was badly wounded in two places in the head and fell into the hands of Colonel Tarlton [sic: Tarleton], the commander of the British forces who kept him a prisoner until the expiration of about eight months from the time of his enlistment, when he released him, having given him a passport to protect him from the tories – That he put himself immediately under the care of a Doctor where he remained an invalid for four months. That immediately upon his recovery from his wounds aforesaid he volunteered his services under Capt. Elliott of the county of Brunswick aforesaid and marched with him to Yorktown, where he remained during the siege till the capture of Lord Cornwallis – Immediately after which he was marched with a portion of American troops to New Castle Baracks and discharged. Both the passports of Tarlton and the last mentioned discharge have been lost or mislaid. That he hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension except the present, That his name is not on the roll of any State except Virginia as above stated. And that the following are the reasons for not making earlier application for a pension; That he has resided in the Western country for many years till within a short time, That the witness by whom he expected to prove his service resided in this country, and that it was not untill he came to this country to reside that he was informed that this declaration would answer the purpose without other evidence than his own oath.  And in pursuance of the Act of the 1st of May 1820 I do solemnly swear that I was a resident citizen of the United States on the 18th day of March 1818 and that I have not since that time by gift sale or in any manner disposed of my property or any part thereof with intent thereby so to diminish it as to bring myself within the provisions of an Act of Congress entitled “An Act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and Naval service of the United States in the Revolutionary War, passed on the 18th March 1818, and that I have not, nor has any person in trust for me any property or securities or debts due to me, nor have I any income other than what is contained in the schedule hereto annexed and by me subscribed, Viz. One mare $12.50  One table $1  One set steel spoons 50 cents  1 pepper box 12 ½ cents  1 salt Cellar 50 cents  two chairs 50 cents  1 Cary plough $1.50 amounting in the whole to $16.62½ cent – Since the 18th of March 1818 the following changes have taken place in my property. The mare mentioned in the above Schedule was [illegible word] for a horse which was sold by an Officer to pay my debts for $6.62½ cents.

            William his+mark Tinch