Low Brown Revolutionary War Pension 


REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION APPLICATION OF LOW BROWN 





On this 25th day of September 1832 personally appeared before the circuit superior court of law and chancery for the 
county of Tazewell aforesaid Low Brown a resident of the said county of Tazewell and State of Virginia aged seventy six years,
 who brings first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the 
benefit of the provision made by the act of Congress passed June 7th 1832. That he enlisted in the Illinois regiment 
of the Army of the United States in the year 1779 with Capt. Jesse Evans, and served in the said Illinois regiment under 
the following manner affirms Captain George Rogers Clark, Lieutenant Col. John Montgomery, in the company of 
Captain Jesse Evans, that he remained in the service as an enlisted soldier for the term of eighteen months in the 
revolutionary war, and that he left the service on the first fay of August in the year 1780 as appears from a discharge 
of that date, which is produced by him in court and inspected, and believed to be genuine, by which it appears to be 
under the hand of Lieutenant Col. John Montgomery certifying that his time of enlistment which was eighteen months 
had expired at that time; that at the time of his enlistment he was a resident of the county of Montgomery in the 
state of Virginia, and enlisted in said county; that he marched through the country at present, the State of Tennessee 
and Kentucky by water from the mouth of Big Creek, which empties into Holston to the mouth of Tennessee river, and 
from there to Kaskaskia in Illinois; that he went from there to the opost on the Wabash, from there to the Iron Banks 
on the Mississippi, and then he was discharged. That previouss to the above enlistment, in the spring of 1774 while 
he was a citizen of Montgomery he enlisted under Lieut. John Draper, that he served in Capt. Russel company under Co. 
Christie* and General Andrew Lewis, that he was marched from Montgomery to the big levels of Greenbriar, and there met 
Gen. Lewis army, and from there to the mouth of Elk on the Kennawha and remained there a few days until canoes were made 
to transport the provisions down the river, and were then marched down the river to the point* and that he was then in 
the batle called the Shawnee battle which was fought on the 10 day of October 1774. from there he was marched toward 
the Shawnee towns and met with Governor Dunmore near the towns, and was by his order dismissed sometime in the month 
of November 1774 but received no discharge. That sometime between the two terms of enlistment above stated, he was by 
the order of Col. Preston to Capt. James Moore, apponted by said Capt. Moore an Indian spy. and that he acted as such 
for two years on the waters Bluestone, Clinch, and New River and was in company with William McGuire, Dana English, and 
Joseph Turner. He hereby relinquishes any claim whatever to a pension or annunity except the present, and he declares 
that his name is not on the pension role of any agency in any State; Sworn to and subscribed, the day and year aforsaid. 


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* Col. Christian sometimes called Christy * Point Pleasant, now is West Virginia. Historic battle against Chief Cornstalk. 



                       From the HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA by Lewis P. Summers. 


The men recruited for this service (to Vincennes) were not informed of the purpose for which they were intended, 
until they had reached the falls of the Ohio (now Louisville) The company of recruits from the Holston settlements 
did not suppose, when they entered the service, that they were to be taken upon such a long and dangerous expedition, 
and when they were informed of the purpose for which they were to be used, they objected to proceeding any further and 
left the camp of General Clark and returned to their homes. This is the one disagreeable circumstance connected with 
the history of our people. These men were recruited from a country where the people were brave and adventurous, and it 
is hard to account for their conduct upon this occasion. We are sorry to state that, by their conduct, they deprived 
this portion of Virginia of the honor of sharing in the wonderful expedition and conquests of General Clark. While the 
company, as a whole, refused to go upon this expedition, a few of the men joined other companies and took part in the 
expedition; and their names, so far as I have been able to gather then are as follows: Low Brown, Solomon Stratton, 
John Lasly, Nealy McGuire, William Peery.   





Submitted by:   John Grace