Pension Application of Thomas and Catharine Kessler Lawrence: W2632

                        Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris

Virginia  Montgomery County to wit

            On this 3^rd day of June 1833. personally appeared in open court before the justices of the peace for said county which county court is a court of record, Thomas Lawrence a resident of said county and state afsd about 69 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 provision made by the act of Congress passed 7^th June 1832  That he entered the army of the United States in the year 1777 in a redgment of New York malitia under the command of Colo James Venderburg of New York. The captain of the company to which he was attached was Capt Joshua Champlain The Lieutenant Colonel was Benjamin Burcham. the Major was William Clarke and Rodger Morey was the Lieutenant. The applicant resided at the time he went into the service in what was then called Paulding’s presinct in New York  it is now called as he is informed Washington County. The applicant under a regulation which then existed in New York entered the said Redgment by enlistment for the term of two years and served the whole term of his enlistment and was discharged after the completion of the said  time  he thinks he was discharged in the year 1778 or the early part of the year 1779. Those who refused to enlist for the two year under the above mentioned regulation discharged merely the duties of Malitia men and but for short time’s During the early part of his service he was stationed at a place called the Fish Kil river [sic: Fishkill River] near the north river awaiting the movements of the British on the north river from the Fish Kil river. he was marched to the interior for the purpose of guarding a magazine which was under the charge of Colo Vanderburg at the plantation of the said Colo about 15 miles from the said river. about the year 1783 he removed to the county of Montgomery where he has resided ever since. He hereby relinquishes every claim whatsoever to a pension or anuity except the present and he declares that his name is not on the pension role of any agent in any state whatever. Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid    [signed] Thos Lawrence

NOTE: In Montgomery County on 1 Aug 1853 Catharine Simpkins, about 56, applied for a pension stating that she married Thomas Lawrence about 29 March 1824, that Lawrence died 12 June 1835, that she married Robert Simpkins on 12 Jan 1837, and that Simpkins died 21 June 1848. In May 1855 Catharine Simpkins applied for bounty land, giving her age as 58 and adding that her first marriage occurred in Montgomery County, and that her name before then was Catherine Kesler. Her application was supported by Frances C. Kessler and Patience S. Simpkins.