Pension Application of Adam Rider: S40341

                        Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris

 

State of Ohio} Sct.       Be it remembered that on the twentieth day of July Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and eighteen of the Independence of the United States the 43d and of our said State the 16th personally came before me the subscriber president of the Court of Common pleas of the Second District Adam Rider of Ross County, who after being duly sworn on The Holy Evangelists of Almighty God deposeth and saith that he is in his seventieth year of his age, that he enlisted in May seventeen hundred seventy five in Hugh Stevenson’s company of Riflemen for one year, in Virginia Line and served out said time, and immediately on the expiration of that time he again enlisted in Cap. A. Sheppard’s company Colonel [Moses] Rawlings regiment in same line [word illegible] for three years  during the first enlistment he was marched to Boston and was in several small skirmishes, in that quarter and thence to Long island New York where we had a small engagement [23 Aug 1776]. Then his first enlistment expired and during his second enlistment, he with many others was captured at Fort Washington on York island [now Manhattan Island, on 16 Nov] in ‘76 and confined in an old sugar house (without sugar)  about the eleventh day after said confinement, he the deponent, climbed out of a back window on the top of a shed and escaped the sentry, and [word illegible] this New York and got a canoe and landed near palisades, and went to join the army but first thing this affiant saw in his [word illegible] was the British pursuing Gen’l. Washington & by pretending to be of[?] New York and a labourer out of [several words illegible] he got clear by turning out of the way and getting to [illegible] New Jersey commanded by Major Clark, who gave him a letter to Gen’l. Washington then about Trenton as supposed and commanded him to sew it up in lining of jacket and told him how to act. he set out and arrived at the Camp of General Washington at Princeton [in Jan 1777] and after giving the letter to the General this affiant was induced to join the army which he did at Trenton, and was at battles at Trenton, Monmouth [28 June 1778] and from thence ordered up the Susquehanna to shomokin [?] and was in that quarter the summer and untill late in the fall [ 1778], and then ordered to the South to join the army commanded by Gen’l. Green [sic: Nathanael Greene], but in the mean time this affiant’s term of enlistment expired, and he immediately enlisted at Trenton after said summer & fall expedition with Gen’l. Sullivant [sic: John Sullivan’s campaign in response to Indian massacres in New York] up said [Susquehanna] river,  this third time, for three years or during the war, in same Corps in Captain Long’s company Seventh Virginia regiment commanded by Colonel Trammell [sic: see note below] and served in southern department untill [word illegible], was in the battle of Guilford [sic: Guilford Court House NC, 15 Mar 1781] and Utaw springs [sic: Eutaw Springs SC 8 Sep 1781] and after that battle, he this affiant with others were sent off to Fredericktown Maryland, and there discharged, after Cornwallis capture, which is lost by ways unknown to affiant and he has no evidence in his possession of services, aforesaid  And from reduced circumstances he needs the assistance of the Country for support.

Sworn to & subscribed before me the day & year aforesaid}  Adam his X mark Rider

 

            Chillicothe July 20th 1818

I do certify that the bearer, Adam Rider, was a Soldier in the first company of Riflemen from the State of Virginia That he belonged to Captain Hugh Stevensons Company, and marched in said Co. to Boston. That he served faithfully, the term of his inlistment. That he enlisted, at the expiration of the year, in Capt. A. Shepherds Company (Colo. Rawlings Regiment) for three years, and was taken, with the Subscriber, who was 1st Lieut. of said Company, at the Capture of Fort Washington, on York Island, in the year 1776

Witness my hand the day and year above written       [signed] Sam Finley

To whom it may concern

 

State of Ohio Ross County Court of Common Pleas Sct

On the ninth day of March 1822 personally appeared in open court being a court of Record Adam Rider of Paxton township in the County of Ross aforesaid aged seventy five years who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath declare that he served in the revolutionary war as follows

That he served in Captain Longs Company commanded by Col. Samuel Finley during the war, that he was in the Battle of Trenton  at Burgoins defeat [sic: Burgoynes’s defeat at Saratoga 7 Oct 1777]  also in the Battles of Monmouth  Gilford  Eutaw  Fort Friday [sic: probably the siege of Fort Granby at Friday Ferry on the Congaree River near present Columbia SC, 2-15 May 1781], Fort ninety six [siege of Ninety-Six SC, 22 May - 19 June 1781]  at the Cowpens [SC, 17 Jan 1781] and at Gates defeat at Camden [SC, 16 Aug 1780] besides a number of Skirmishes and scouting parties. And 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 day of March 1818, and that I have not nor has any person in trust for me any property or securities contracts or debts due to me nor have I any income other than what is contained in the Schedule hereto annexed and by me subscribed to wit, one cow  a pot and small kettle and a mare in her sixteenth year.  that he was placed on the pension list the 15 of April 1819 as appears by certificate No.9323 and that this property is the value of about forty four dollars  that he has a wife and three children and a grand child whose father and mother are dead  that his three children are of age and living to themselves – that he has no trade and very old and infirm and unable to support himself by manual labour              Adam his X mark Rider

 

NOTES:

            The appalling conditions of the Sugar House Prison, where Rider and some 2800 others were confined after the defeat at Fort Washington, are described by Thomas Stone in Dandridge, D. American Prisoners of the Revolution. Charlottesville VA: Michie, 1911.

            I could find no information on a Captain Long, Colonel Trammel, or Colonel Samuel Finley. The Samuel Finley who signed the document in support of Rider’s application rose to the rank of Major in the regiment of Col. Thomas Posey of Virginia.