Pension Application of Francis Charlton: W3657

                        Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris

 

State of Virginia; Montgomery County:

 

At a court held for Montgomery county at the court house on Monday the 4th day of February 1833.

            On this 4th day of February in the year 1833, personally appeared in open court, before the Justices of the peace for the county court aforesaid, now sitting, Francis Charlton a resident of the county of Montgomery and state aforesaid aged 74 years, on the 3rd day of this month (yesterday) 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 7th of June 1832: That he entered the service of the United States as a militia man on his first tour the year he cannot, (from his age and the consequent loss of memory) now recollect, but he knows it was at the time Donnally’s fort on Greenbrier river was attacked [in 1778], under the command of Captain Joseph Cloyd and Lieutenant Henry Patton, and under the command of Israel Lorton whom the applicant believes was a Lieutenant also: His tour was from the first of April to the first of July in the same year, the expedition was one against the Indians and was confined principally to the western part of Virginia in the counties of Monroe, Giles & Greenbrier. the applicant went from the county of Montgomery: The next tour was in the same service at the same places, and Captain Daniel Trigg was [blank]  [Samuel] McGee was our Lieutenant  this tour was for one month, and was for the purpose of dispersing an assemblage of Tories in Montgomery who had embodied themselves for the purpose of meeting the English who were in North Carolina and Colonel [George] Skillern at that time ordered out the Horse of Botetourt county for the same purpose; The fourth [sic] tour was for one month and was under the command of Captain Daniel Trigg and we were marched to the Lead mines in Wythe for the purpose of preventing the British and Tories from taking the mines as they then contemplated; The applicant was left there under Capt. Henry Patton, but shortly after went to North Carolina under the command of Captain Isaac Taylor of the United States troops, the applicant volunteered and went on with the United States troops and under the command of Captain Taylor. Major Thomas Quirk was the Major under whom the applicant served at the lead mines. The fifth tour was for one month, and was on Blue Stone [sic: Bluestone] river, and at Alps Valley [sic: probably Abbs Valley in present Tazewell County VA], and Captain John Preston commanded the company. The was produced by the murder of W. Moore & family by the Indians and the order was to disperse and drive the Indians from that country. all the foregoing tours was from the County of Montgomery; The applicant never received any written discharge for his various tours, but several dismissions after the tour of service had expired, all of which he completed; 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 any agency in any state whatever. Sworn to & subscribed the day and year aforesaid.        Francis his X mark Charlton

 

NOTES: In Montgomery County VA on 7 Feb 1852 Susanna Charlton, about 82 years old, applied for a pension as the widow of Francis Charlton, declaring that she married him in the winter about 1789 and that he died on 25 Nov 1851. On 20 May 1855 she applied for bounty land, giving her age as about 85 and stating that as Susanna Akers she married Francis Charlton in Feb 1792 in Montgomery County. Her applications were supported by declarations from relatives who provided additional information about the family.