Pension Application of Francis Hunter: S13472

                        Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris

 

State of Virginia County of Bedford  S.S.

            On this 29th day of May in the year 1833 personally appeared in open Court the same being a Court of record before the Justices of the County Court of Bedford now sitting Francis Hunter a resident of the County of Botetourt and State of Virginia aged seventy one 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 June the 7th 1832 –

            That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated. That in the year 1777 whilst a resident of the County of Louisa and State of Virginia he thinks sometime in the month of August in that year he was drafted into service in the militia of the State of Virginia and served three months. He was marched from Louisa Courthouse, through Hanover and New Kent counties to Williamsburg in the State of Virginia, under the command of Capt. David Anderson– at Williamsburg they joined a regiment commanded he thinks by a Colo. Smith but of this he is not certain, the names of the other field officers he does not remember being of the time but little more than 16 years of age – He was stationed at Williamsburg during the whole term of service and was there discharged he believes in the month of November 1777 – He thinks that neither himself nor any of his company received a discharge in writing, but if they did his has been lost. In the month of August in the year 1779 still living in the same County of Louisa he was again drafted and served in the militia of the State of Virginia and served a tour of six weeks under the command of Captain Richard Pollard [sic: probably Paulet]. His Lieutenants name was also Pollard– He was marched from Louisa to Charlottesville in the County of Albemarle in the State of Virginia where he was stationed guarding British prisoners taken at the defeat of Genl. Burgoyne – The officer who commanded the army who guarded the prisoners he thinks was a Colonel Skelton or Skillington he does not remember which. He was discharged in the latter part of September in the year 1779 – His discharge if ever he received one has been lost. In the latter part of May in the year 1781 he was again drafted into service in the militia of the said State of Virginia from the County of Bedford and State of Virginia to which county he had removed, and served a tour of two months guarding military stores at New London then in said County of Bedford (now Campbell County)– The officers who commanded him during this tour was Captain Preston Gilbert from whom he received a discharge which is filed herewith dated the 1st day of August 1781– He can prove his services by Mary Wright whose affidavit is herewith filed. He knows of no other person now living by whom his services can be established– in answer to interrogatories propounded by the Court he states–

1st That he was born in the county of Louisa in the State of Virginia the 28th day of Aug 1761 –

2nd That the original register of his age was once in his possession but it has been destroyed – before its destruction he had transcribed it upon a register now in his possession.

3d At the time he was called into service the two first tours as before stated he lived in the county of Louisa in the State of Virginia – at the time of third tour he lived in the County of Bedford in which county he continued to reside until the year 1831 when he removed to the County of Botetourt in said State of Virginia where he now resides.

4th He served with no regular troops he believes except at Charlottesville and he has no recollection of the continental or militia Regiment with whom he was stationed except as before stated.

6th He is known to the Rev’d. Nicholas A. Cobbs and Taliaferro G. Hubbard who will testify as to his character for veracity & their belief of his service as a soldier of the Revolution – 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. As a reason for his not making his declaration in the County of Botetourt where he resides the said Francis Hunter states – That he lived in the County of Bedford for fifty years and only removed to the County of Botetourt in which he now resides in the year 1831. There is no clergyman living near him in the County of Botetourt nor is any other person by whom it could be established that it was generally reputed and believed that he was a soldier of the Revolution. That fact he can establish by a clergyman and others residing in Bedford County – He is a stranger to the members of Botetourt Court– But well known to the Court of Bedford County. The only witness by whose testimony his service can be proved also resides in the County of Bedford.

Sworn to and subscribed in open court by Francis Hunter}

 

NOTE: The pension was paid until 4 March 1840, the probable date of death.