Caswell County NcArchives Military Records.....Rice, Jeptha August 23, 1821
Revwar - Pension 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Nancy Poquette npoq@hotmail.com July 4, 2006, 2:14 am

Pension Application Of Jeptha Rice, Natl Archives Microseries M804, Roll 2032, Application #W5700
Carteret County, North Carolina, August 23rd, 1821, John Lawrence came 
personally:
“…and made solemn oath that he was well acquainted with Hezekiah and Jeptha 
Rice (brothers), and sons of Hezekiah Rice, Senior, a Welshman who settled in 
the state of Virginia prior to the Revolutionary War. He was neighbor to my 
father and had three children, Hezekiah, Gideon and Jeptha Rice. Gideon was 
lame with the white swelling in his right knee. Hezekiah, Jr. and Jeptha Rice 
received commissions in the Continental line of this state in the Revolutionary 
war against England. Hezekiah died in the service with the small pox. Jeptha 
was said to be killed. He never returned.”

“Gideon Rice had two children, Churchwell and Dempsey. Dempsey was lost at sea 
without issue. Churchwell is now the only survivor of said Hezekiah and Jeptha 
Rice provided the six children of Titus Leach who married the widow of Gideon 
should not be considered as lawful heirs. I have lived in the neighborhood of 
the above Rices and moved from Virginia with Gideon Rice and his family to this 
state and further this deponent saith not.”

Sumner County, Tennessee, October 14th, 1838, personally appeared, Nancy Rice, 
aged 76 years:
	“That they were married a short time before the surrender of Lord 
Cornwallis. Her said husband, the said Jeptha Rice entered Revolutionary 
service as well as she remembers, either in the company commanded by his 
father, Hezekiah Rice or the company commanded by Captain Winn Dickson [or 
Dixon] and was attached to the regiment commanded by Colonel Henry Dixon of the 
North Carolina line. Her said husband enlisted for three years or during the 
war. Soon after he entered the service he was promoted to the rank of first 
lieutenant, which grade he held until about the close of his service she was 
informed he took the rank of captain…”

“Her said husband was taken sick and was furloughed and came home. While on 
this visit home, he and declarant intermarried before his term of service 
expired. After their marriage which was as before stated as well as she can 
remember, was on the 27th day of August 1781. After her marriage, her said 
husband went on one tour of duty to the army and after his return home he held 
himself in constant readiness to return to the army whenever called on until 
the whole Revolutionary soldiers were disbanded.”

“Her husband, the said Jeptha Rice, performed much hard service in the 
Revolutionary War. He was in the Battle of Eutaw Springs, in Gates’ Defeat, in 
the Battle of Guilford and several other engagements. She thinks he was in the 
battle of Brandywine and Monmouth. The last two battles she has not so distinct 
a recollection as the other three engagements before named. She remember 
however to have heard him often speak of being engaged in a severe engagement 
which was fought on a Monday when many of the soldiers were overcome by the 
severe heat and while in this condition drank free of cold water from which 
several of them died, and she thinks this battle of which her husband spoke was 
the Battle of Brandywine, but in this however, she may be mistaken. In one of 
the engagements he was wounded in the fleshy part of his breast, the scar of 
which was visible to the day of his death.”

Davidson County, Tennessee, June 14th, 1853, Joseph H. Rice aged 49 years, 
personally appeared:
	“That he is the son and administrator of the said Nancy Rice, who was a 
Revolutionary pensioner of the United States…That he has often heard his 
father, the said Jeptha Rice, speak of his services in the Revolutionary War. 
That at the beginning of the war, he was living in Caswell County in the state 
of North Carolina, and that he entered the service in said county and state in 
the company commanded by his father Hezekiah Rice. This was at the commencement 
of hostilities in North Carolina. This service was performed as a private, as 
declarant thinks.”

“That sometime subsequent to his first enlistment, to wit, in or about the year 
1776, as declarant thinks, his father was promoted to ensign, and soon 
thereafter to lieutenant in the regiment commanded by Lt. Colonel Henry Dixon, 
who had been promoted from captain. That his father continued to serve as a 
lieutenant in said regiment for several years. That after his father’s death, 
to wit, in the year 1825, a suit was brought by the heirs of his father, the 
said Jeptha Rice, to recover 2060 acres of land, being the amount of Warrant 
No. 958 issued in the name of his father, the said Jeptha, and which had been 
located by some person or persons for the University of North Carolina.”

“The Court decided that they were the heirs of the said Lieutenant Jeptha Rice 
and adjudged them the title thereto, and a grant No. 25456 was issued for 2560 
acres to Baldwin Rice, Levi Smith and Polly, his wife, Henry Rice, William 
Posea and Elizabeth, his wife, Matthew Rice, Elisha Gibson and Patsy, his wife, 
Joseph Rice, ____ Smith and Amy, his wife, and henry Rice. This land was 
located in Bardin and McNairy Counties, Tennessee, and a portion of it is now 
in the possession of some of the children, who reside thereon.”

	“…That he believes an error occurred in the allowance of only sixty 
dollars per annum to his mother, as that allowance appears to have been made to 
her as the widow of Jeptha Rice who was a private, and he never understood that 
his father served as long as one year in that capacity. That his service as a 
private was performed in the first part of the war, after which as before 
stated, he was promoted to a lieutenancy and served as such for several years 
as he always understood from his father, after which and during the latter part 
of the war, he was appointed quartermaster and in that capacity continued to 
serve, but for what length of time he is unable to state…”

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