William Kidd
Revolutionary Pension Application

Georgia
Oglethorpe County

On this the fourth day of September eighteen hundred & thirty two personally appeared in open court before the Justices of the Inferior Court while sitting for ordinary purposes, William Kidd, a resident of the county & State aforesaid aged nearly sixty nine years, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed the 7^th June of the present year entitled "an act supplementary to the act for the relief of certain surviving officers & soldiers of the Revolution." That he entered the American service in the Revolutionary struggle under the following named officers and served as hereinafter stated. That he was born in Mecklinburg county in Virginia on the 16^th December 1763, according to the account handed down to him by his parents, there being no record of his age as far as he knows. That he lived in Mecklinburg when he entered the Militia service in the Revolutionary war & lived there until he moved to Georgia in 1799 & settled in Oglethorpe county where he has lived ever since & where he now lives. That when he was near fifteen years old, to wit, in the summer of 1778, being well grown for his age, he was employed as a substitute in the place of one William Perry for a tour of five months military service in the Revolutionary war against Great Britain. He was received as a substitute & performed the whole tour under the command of General Lewis & Captain Anderson. He marched first to Portsmouth & then to Turkey Point not far from Baltimore & his only duty during the expedition was singly marching & guarding. He had no battle & not so much as a skirmish. When the time expired he was discharged at Portsmouth, but has lost his discharge.

In the year 1780 he performed another tour of military service, in the militia of Virginia, of five months duration as a substitute for his father James Kidd who had been drafted for that length of time. He left home this trip he thinks in the month of May. During this tour he marched to Hillsborough in North Carolina under the command of Captain Benjamin Ferrel, his regiment (the number of which he does not now recollect) was commanded by Colonel Luker or Lucas. From Hillsborough he marched to the G--------- near Camden South Carolina where under General Gates he was defeated by Cornwallis & Tarleton. During this engagement he was severely wounded by a cut on the left shoulder which he received from the sword of the enemy. His part in this battle was among the regulars on the right wing of the army. The evening before the battle the following plan was formed, which was executed the next day – four men were selected out of the company of each Militia Captain so as to correspond with the number of regulars & these select militiamen & regulars were placed alternately along the right wing of the army & of this number deponent was one. He fought in the Brigade commanded by General Stephens. Being defeated he retreated to Charlotte & thence to Hillsborough. Deponent was carried home, where he received a permit to remain until he had sufficiently recovered from under the hand of Colonel Munford, which will appear by reference to a small document hereunto annexed & marked A. which together with such further testimony as deponent may be enabled to obtain in support of his claim before its final adjustment at the War Department, he respectfully prays may be taken & considered as a part of this his declaration. His time expired before he got well enough to march & he never received a discharge from this campaign.

In 1781 he volunteered for seven weeks, under the command at first of Captain Swepston & after a little while he joined a corps of rifle men under the command of Captain Brown. He does not recollect the precise date of the beginning or end of this short tour; but he knows that he was in the Battle of Guilford during its continuance. His principle officer here was General Greene. He belonged to General Lawson’s Brigade and Colonel Munford’s regiment. His situation in this battle was in the right wing of the army. He was discharged from this tour near Deep River in N. Carolina, but has lost his discharge. He thinks he can establish this last tour by his brother James Kidd who was with him when it was performed & whose testimony he will endeavor to obtain before his claim is presented for final adjustment. His neighbors are the Honorable William H. Crawford, Major Joseph J. Moore, Robert Freeman, Esquire, Richard Gregory & Charles Carter, the two last of whom are reputed to be soldiers of the Revolution, & others, any of whom he doubts not will cheerfully establish his character as a man of honesty & truth. 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 in the Union.

William (x) Kidd

Sworn to & subscribed in open court the day & year aforesaid.
William H. Smith, Clerk

We the undersigned residents of the county of Oglethorpe & State aforesaid do hereby certify that we have been well acquainted with William Kidd, who has sworn to & subscribed the foregoing declaration, for many years, that we believe him to be a man of strict truth & honesty, & that he has served in the Revolutionary war as he has stated.

W. Gresham
Robert G. Carter

Sworn to in open court the day & year first above written.
William H. Smith, Clerk

You are our [an error occurred while processing this directive] visitor!

This page was last modified on

Sunday, 02-Apr-2006 21:37:51 MDT

� Copyright 2004 Jeanne Arguelles