St. Mary's Co. Maryland - Philip Graves, Revolutionary War Pension

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Submitted by:  Gene McLaughlin  mclaughlin@atlantech.net
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                 Philip Graves Rev. War Pension Application
                                      
   Following is a transcription of five pages of handwritten testimony by
   Philip Graves, born 1762, in St. Mary's County Maryland. The
   handwritten document was uncovered by Carol Monk (carolmonk@home.com)
   who is researching parts of the Graves family. Carol shared the
   document with me. Carol and I have each independently transcribed the
   handwritten application and agree 100% on the interpretation. I have
   attached a few "Transcriber's Notes" to the application relative to my
   checking on the geography that is mentioned in the deposition.
   Carol retrieved this deposition from a microfilm file of Arkansas
   Pensioners.
   According to Linda Reno (lreno@erols.com), Philip was the son of Jesse
   Graves and Margaret Alvey of St. Mary's County, MD. Linda Reno reports
   that Philip had two brothers, John Sanders Graves and Charles Graves.
   According to Linda, and various gedcom files that I have seen (Don
   Anderson (marty@ideasign.com), Larry Williams (Larry
   Williams@compuserve.com), all three brothers migrated to KY and other
   points West. John Sanders Graves appears in the Anderson and Williams
   gedcom files. Charles Graves, son of Jesse Graves does not show up in
   any gedcoms that I have seen.
   Philip was a "nine month" member of the Maryland or St. Mary's County
   Militia and served in Col. Jeremiah Jordan's Regiment (or Battalion?)
   in St. Mary's County during the year 1781 or 1782. In his application,
   Philip describes briefly the capture of a British schooner on the
   Wicomico River. I have scanned the original handwritten papers and
   will email a PDF file of the scans to anyone who wants them. Gene
   McLaughlin.
   Deposition of Philip Graves, Hempstead County Arkansas. Transcribed
   from the microfilm handwritten document by Carol Monk and Gene
   McLaughlin, February, 1999.
   
   State of Arkansas }
   County of Hempstead }
   
   Beginning of 1st page
   On this second day of July A.D. eighteen hundred and thirty eight
   personally appeared in open Court before the honourable County Court
   of Hempstead County and state aforesaid now sitting Philip Graves who
   being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the
   following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of Act of
   Congress passed June 7, 1832 - Viz: that he entered the service of the
   United States a private militia soldier under the following named
   officers and served as herein stated to wit: he entered the said
   service a private in the militia of the Maryland line in the first
   part of the month of March in the year of our Lord seventeen hundred
   and eighty one or eighty two -- he would not be positive which and
   served under Col. Jerry alias Jeremiah Jordan who commanded the
   regiment of infantry of the line to which he belonged - he does not
   recollect the number of the regiment. He does not recollect the name
   of the major under whom he served. His captain was Francis Miller. He
   does not recollect the names of the subaltern officers of the company
   to which he belonged. He doesn't recollect the precise day he entered
   the service aforesaid - but it was in the first part of March in year
   1781 or 1782 aforesaid. When he entered the said service he lived in
   St. Mary's County, State of Maryland. He don't recollect whether he
   was drafted or not into the aforesaid service. And if he was drafted
   he thinks he could not have drawn in proper person or he doubtless
   would have recollected it. Consequently, if
   end of 1st page
   beginning of 2nd page
   drafted at all, it must have been by some third person drawing for him
   in his absence -- but he thinks that the militia of his said State of
   Maryland was so closed(?) that the militia men thereof were compelled
   to make their tours of duty in regular succession so that each company
   and man had to serve their respective tours of duty before those that
   had so served could be called upon a second time. St Mary's County
   aforesaid is on the Western Shores of Maryland & it being a part of
   the County very much exposed to the enemy (the British) the regiment
   to which he belonged and which he never left during the whole term of
   its service, was stationed in the east of said county during the whole
   period of its and this declarant's said tour of service at a kind of
   village or rather in a thickly settled neighborhood called Lauellens
   (?). [Transcriber's note: This word is very difficult to read in the
   handwritten deposition but several people have deciphered it as
   beginning with the letters "Lau," Lan ," or "Lar." Checking Rand
   McNally's Commercial Atlas and the U.S.Geological Survey place name
   data base, I could find no listings for a town or village beginning
   with these letters on or near the Potomac or Wicomico Rivers in St.
   Mary's County. If there was such a place on these waters, it
   apparently has ceased to be known by this name. There is a place
   called "Laurel Grove" located about ten miles north of the
   Potomac-Wicomico headwaters. - Gene McLaughlin] This was on the
   Potomac River where sometime in the summer of eighteen hundred and
   eighty one or two the aforesaid regiment, he being with it at the
   time, attacked a British schooner in what is called Wycomico Bay
   [Transcribers's Note: The Wicomico River forms a wide headwater where
   it joins the Potomac River in St. Mary's County, MD, but is not
   currently known on maps and charts as a "Bay." - Gene McLaughlin.] and
   brought her to and boarded her and run her up into Bromley Creek
   [Transcriber's Note: Neither Rand McNally's Commercial Atlas nor the
   U.S. Geological Survey Place Name Data Base shows a listing for
   "Bromley Creek" in Maryland. The Geological Survey Place Name Data
   Base does show "Bramleigh" Creek, located in the area just north of
   the junction of the Potomac and Wicomico Rivers in St. Mary's County,
   MD, which is the area that Philip speaks of in his deposition. This is
   undoubtedly the "Bromley Creek" referred to by the person that took
   Philip's deposition. - Gene McLaughlin]. He does not know what became
   of the said schooner after this. He does not know the precise
   organization of the militia of the State of Maryland at the time he
   entered the service aforesaid, but he is confident that he and the
   regiment to which he belonged were called into said service by
   competent authority and did not go into it spontaneously without a
   regular call. He was in no other battles than the above affair with
   the said schooner. He remained in the said service till the last of
   the aforesaid year 1781 or 1782 (the year he entered
   end of 2nd page
   beginning of 3rd page
   the said service) never being absent therefrom any part of his time on
   his own or on any civil business from the time of his entering till
   that of his leaving of the said service -- to wit from the first of
   March 1781 or 1782 till some time in December of the same year doing
   and performing a tour of nine months duty complete. When he left the
   said service and went home having received a written discharge from
   said Captain Francis Miller aforesaid which he has long since lost --
   never thinking it would be of any use to him, he never took any care
   of it and don't know what has gone with it. It was not long after he
   left the said service till hostilities measurably ceased between Great
   Britain & the United States. He don't know the names of any of the
   regular officers with whom he was acquainted -- not having served in
   immediate conjunction with any part of the regular army of the U.
   States, He was very well acquainted in the said service with Col. Jack
   alias John Thomas who commanded a regiment of Maryland Light Horse and
   was frequently back and forth from his own command to that of the
   aforesaid Col. Jeremiah Jordan who commanded the regiment to which
   this declarant belonged. And that he has no documentary evidence and
   knows of no person whose testimony he can procure who can testify to
   his said service. And that the reason why he has not applied before
   this time for his pension is that he being a person that can neither
   read nor write and living in remote parts of a frontier county [or
   country] was never informed till about a year ago that he was entitled
   to a pension and since he was so informed he has till very recently
   believed that he would be obliged to prove his said service by the
   testimony of one or more witnesses in order
   end of 3rd page
   beginning of 4th page
   to entitle him to a pension which he states (?) he is not able to do.
   There is no clergyman living in this declarant's neighborhood & he
   knows of none in his county with whom he is sufficiently currently
   acquainted to procure his certificate of this declarant's veracity and
   of his being believed in his neighborhood to have been a soldier of
   the revolution -- that this declarant was born in St. Mary's County
   State of Maryland in the year of our lord seventeen hundred and sixty
   two and is consequently about sixty-six years old. He has no record
   evidence of his age, but supposes his name and age were recorded in
   the said St. Mary County (MD). Since the Revolutionary War he has
   lived in St. Mary County Maryland, in Nelson County, Kentucky, in
   Lincoln County Missouri and now in Hempstead County Arkansas.
   He was called into the service aforesaid by rotation or by drafting he
   does not know or recollect (if he ever knew) which. He does not know
   ["the" is crossed out?] names and ranks of any regular officers nor
   the numbers of any continental or militia regiments (nor the names or
   rank of the officers thereof) except of Cols. Jordan and Thomas and
   Capt. Miller aforesaid and a captain Mills of the aforesaid regiment
   of infantry to which this declarant belonged. That he received a
   written discharge from the afd. service and thinks it was given by the
   afd. Capt. Miller under whom he served, but he has never taken any
   account of it and has long since lost it. He never received any
   commission or appointment while he remained in the said service but
   was a private all the time.
   The names of persons in his present neighborhood with whom
   end of 4th page
   beginning of 5th page
   he is acquainted that can testify to his character for veracity and
   their belief of his services as a soldier of the Revolutionary War, he
   says are John W. Williams, Esq. & Saml. Moore, both of the County of
   Hempstead and State of Arkansas afd. And that he is the same Philip
   Graves whose name ought to be on the muster rolls of the said regiment
   in the W. Dept. U.S. 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.
   Mr. John Williams Esq., residing in the Co. of Hempstead and State of
   Arkansas aforesaid and Samuel Moore residing in the said County of
   Hempstead and State of Arkansas hereby certify that they are well
   acquainted with Philip Graves who has herein vouched and sworn to the
   above declaration, that we believe him to be seventy six years of age
   - that he is reputed and believed in the neighbourhood where he
   resides to have been a soldier of the revolution and that we concur in
   that opinion.
   Signed, Philip Graves, by his mark (X)
   Sworn and subscribed the day and year aforesaid.
   Signed
   Allen M. Oakley
   Clerk
   signed:
   John W. Williams, Esq.
   Samuel Moore