Four Sons of Repentance Townsend Served in American Revolution
THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
John Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Four Sons
of Repentance Townsend Served in American Revolution
Repentance
Townsend who was born about 1712 in Sheffield, England
and died about 1794 in Abbeville
County, South Carolina
had five known sons, four of whom served as soldiers in the American
Revolution. The sons were Thomas,
Samuel, Andrew, John and Henry. The
first four, Thomas, Samuel, Andrew and John, were American Revolution
soldiers. Thomas, Samuel and Andrew made
applications for Revolutionary pensions in which they delineated their
service
to their country. Evidently John did not
apply for a pension, for no record of his application has been found.
With a first name like Repentance, it
was fairly easy to trace the migrations of this ancestor of many in the
Townsend line who eventually settled in Union County, Georgia.
He and his wife, Mary Taylor
Townsend, who
was born about 1716, were in Augusta County,
Virginia
as early as 1746. It was there that their
eldest son, Thomas,
was born in 1753. Thomas is important to
the Union County, Georgia Townsend line, for it is through this son,
Revolutionary
soldier, that we trace the links through Thomas’s son, Edward
(1789-1860) and
Edward’s son, Eli Townsend (about 1810-1849) and Eli’s wife, Sarah
Elizabeth
(Sally) Dyer Townsend.
From Virginia,
Repentance Townsend migrated to Anson County, North Carolina,
where his name appears on land documents.
Repentance and Mary probably did not move about much in North Carolina
but were on land that
underwent name changes as new counties were formed there.
A portion of old Anson
County
became Mecklenburg
County in 1762,
and then Tryon
County
in 1768, Lincoln
County in 1779,
and Gaston
County
in 1846. The state line between North
and South Carolina
was in dispute, and part of Gaston
County, NC
fell into
the old Camden District of South Carolina, later called York District. It was from the old Camden District, SC that Thomas,
Andrew,
Samuel and John, sons of Repentance Townsend, signed up to serve in the
American Revolution.
By an act of the US Congress passed June 7, 1832, those who had
served in the Revolution were eligible for pensions.
Therefore, we see Thomas Townsend, Sr., the
eldest of Repentance Townsend’s sons, making application for a pension
as an
eighty year old man on July 1, 1833, in Habersham County, Georgia,
where he then lived. His full affidavit,
a lengthy document, is available from the National Archives in Pension
Claim
Number W3889. In brief, Thomas Townsend
served periods as a private in the militia, both as a volunteer and a
draftee
from 1775 through 1781.
He was granted a pension of $80.00 per
year (not quite $7 per month) beginning November 6, 1832, until his death on February 17, 1836
in Lumpkin County,
Georgia. After his death, and basing her application
on the act of Congress of July 4, 1836, that made provision for the widows
of Revolutionary
soldiers to draw a pension, Thomas’s widow, Susannah Townsend, on April 8, 1844,
applied for
benefits. She was then 95 years of age
and unable to attend court. Martha
Alexander testified to the veracity of Susannah Townsend’s
application.
Susannah was twice a widow. Her
first husband, Thomas Stephens, had been killed by the Indians. Susannah Hamilton Stephens, widow, married
Thomas Townsend on December
16, 1778 in Abbeville
District, SC. Thomas and Susannah Townsend had these
children: Edward (who became the father
of Eli who married Sally Dyer), Andrew, Eleanor, and Thomas, Jr.
Did Susannah Townsend, widow of Thomas
Townsend, receive the applied-for widow’s benefits from her husband’s
service
as a Revolutionary War soldier? This
writer could not find a record of her receiving a pension.
We have further information on the
other three sons of Repentance who served in the Revolution. Samuel Townsend (1755-1849) died in Coosa County, Alabama
on May 14, 1849
and was buried in Pine
Grove Cemetery. John Townsend (1761-?), likewise, after
traveling about rather extensively, ended up as did his brother Samuel,
in Coosa County, Alabama. Andrew
Townsend (1764-1838) received a
pension of $20 a year and died in St. Clair County, Alabama. Henry, Repentance’s fourth son in the
Revolution, did not make application for pension. His
whereabouts at his death are unknown to
this writer.
[Sources: Some
Townsends of North Georgia by E. E. Townsend and online
documents of
pension applications and Revolutionary service.]
c2009 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published July 30, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood Road,
Milledgeville,
GA
31061-2411.]
Updated October 4,
2009
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