Pension Application of Joseph and Mary Ann Ramsey: S7348
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
State of Virginia}
County of Wythe} S.S.
On this 14th day of October 1839 personally appeared in open court before Christopher Brown[?] Thomas Sanders Robert Sayers and William Groseclose the court of Wythe County now sitting, Joseph Ramsay a resident of the county & state aforesaid aged seventy eight years & ten months 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 7 1832. That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated. That he enlisted in the service of the State of Virginia at that time called the colonial service under the command of Captain John Montgomery in the January of 1778. in the county of Montgomery & state aforesaid where he then lived and marched to Harrodsburg in the State of Kentucky which was at that period a part of the State of Virginia this declarant remained there but a short time & then marched to the Falls of the Ohio where Louisville now stands, where the company to which he belonged joined the Illinois Regiment under the command of Col. George Rogers Clark. From there he marched with the Regiment to Illinois and was present at the taking of Kaskaskia [4 July 1778]. This declarant states that he does not recollect others of the field officers who commanded at that period than Major Bowman and Col Clark he having returned to [one or two illegible words] guard[?] to Ross[?] Clark who was a prisoner taken at Kaskaskia under the command of Capt. Montgomery. This declarant remained in the county of Montgomery now a portion of which is Wythe County until the return of Capt Montgomery who went on to Richmond in Virginia in company with the Prisoner who was there promoted to the Rank of Colonel and directed by the Governor of Virginia who was Thomas Jefferson [sic: Patrick Henry, succeeded by Jefferson on 1 June 1779] to raise a Regiment in Virginia. In the month of January 1779. this declarant was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the company commanded by Captain Thomas Quirk & detached to Colonel John Montgomerys Regiment. The regiment so commanded by Col. Montgomery marched in the Spring of 1779 to Illinois & was there commanded by Gen’l Clark who had been promoted from the rank of Colonel. After the regiment to which this declarant belonged reached Kaskaskia an expedition against Detroit was undertaken & the army under the command of Clark was ordered upon that Expedition. After they reached Opist[?] now Vincennes a counsel was held & the Expedition abandoned. After the failure of this expedition against Detroit, this declarant and one Captain Jesse Evans were sent into the settlements as recruiting officers. Evans[?] went to Richmond in Virginia for instructions whether they should enlist soldiers for the period of three years or during the war when Evans returned this declarant commenced his recruiting service & was stationed at the Lead Mines in the now county of Wythe [near Fort Chiswell]. he continued this service until the fall of the year 1780. when the recruits were sent to join the Illinois Regiment. This Declarant conducted the recruits on their way to the west and meeting with General Clark in the Wilderness of Kentucky on the 1st of November 1780. he there resigned his commission as Lieutenant & returned home. Soon after his return he volunteered under the command of Colonel William Preston on an Expedition into North Carolina against the English Army under the command of Cornwallis. Shortly after their arrival they had an engagement with the English at Whitsels or hitsels Mills in the County of Guilford [Wetzel’s Mill on Reedy Fork, 6 March 1781] & another skirmish on the Allamance river [sic: possibly the skirmish at Clapp’s Mill on Alamance Creek, 4 March 1781]. This declarant does not now remember the length of his services in this service, but he continued during the time Preston was on the Expedition. This declarant had until recently in his possession the pay rolls of this company to which he belonged under the command of Captain Quirk in the Illinois regiment & the commission or Instructions of the Governor to recruit for that service. He believes that his name is to be found in the Army Rolls for the State of Virginia. He further states that he does not know of anyone now living who can testify as to the length of time he served during the Revolutionary War, but he can prove that was in that service. This declarant further states that he was in the service from January 1778 regularly until the 1st of November 1780. being a period of near three years. That the term of his services under Preston was nearly equal to if not more than two months, but of this he is not certain.
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
Sworn to & subscribed the day & year aforesaid [signed] Joseph Ramsey
NOTE: In 1845 or 1846 Mary Ann Ramsey, 71, applied for a pension and for restoration of a portion of her late husband’s pension that had been withheld because of his alleged indebtedness to the United States, as well as an increase in pension for which he had applied. She stated that Joseph Ramsey died on 16 June 1845. She could not recall the date of her marriage, but stated that her eldest son, Thomas, was then 54.