Pension Application of William Coff: S39347

                        Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris

State of Virginia  Botetourt County  To Wit

            On this 11th day of December 1826 personally appeared in open Court being a Court of record for the County aforesaid William Coff a free man of Colour lately of Franklin County now a resident of the County of Botetourt aged about sixty years who being first duly sworn according to Law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the provision made by the act of Congress of the 18th of March 1818 and the first of May 1820 that he the said William Coff enlisted for the term of eighteen months on the day of [blank] in the year 1780 in the State of Virginia in the Company commanded by Capt [illegible] in the regiment then commanded by Col. Davis[?] afterwards by Cols. Howes [sic: probably Samuel Hawes] and [Richard] Campbell in the line of Virginia on the Continental establishment  that he continued to serve in the said Corps until the year 1782 when his time of service expired when he was discharged in the State of North Carolina having been present during his service at the Battle of Guildford [sic: Guilford Court House NC, 15 May 1781] Eotaw [sic: Eutaw Springs SC, 8 Sep 1781] and at several skirmishes – that he freely relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension except the present  that his name is not on the role of any State as far as he knows or believes, except as before mentioned and that the following are the reasons for his not making earlier application for a pension namely that he is poor old and illiterate and did not know that he was entitled to one until long after the passing of the law aforesaid and has since been prevented from presenting his claim in due form by the difficulty of procuring the necessary proff.

            And in pursuance of the act of the 1st of May 1820 he took in open Court the following oath to wit 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 provision 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 – that sine the 18th of March 1818 I have made no sale of property whatever. That he is by occupation a Farmer and lives on rented land that he is lame from having one of his legs fractured and that his Family consists of his wife between forty & fifty years of age and two sons the eldest 14 and the youngest eleven years old  He also gave in an oath the following Schedule of property independently of necessary clotting [sic] and Bedding  To wit one blind horse worth ten dollars —      William ✕ Coff

NOTE: Coff’s pension was paid until 4 March 1840, probably the date of his death.