OLIVER HITCHCOCK REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION APPLICATION, WASHINGTON COUNTY, NEW YORK

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Oliver Hitchcock

On this twenty eighth day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and thirty two personally appeared in open Court before the Judges of 
the Court of Common Pleas in and for the County of Washington now sitting, 
Oliver Hitchcock, a resident of the Town of Granville in said County of 
Washington and State of New York aged seventy two years and upwards who being 
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 to wit: That in September 1776 and he thinks on the 17th 
day of that month he was drafted at Springfield then County of Hampshire in the 
State of Massachusetts for two months service into Capt. Burt's Company in Col. 
Stow's Regiment and General Lincoln's Brigade and shortly thereafter marched 
from Springfield to Hartford, New Haven, Fairfield in the State of Connecticut 
and to New Rochelle & East Chester in West Chester County in the State of New 
York where they had a skirmish with the British in which Col. William Shepherd 
of the State of Massachusetts [illegible] men was wounded in the neck. That he 
went to the vicinity of the White Plains and from place to place in that 
vicinity where he was at the time of the Battle of the White Plains on which 
occasion he was sick in his tent and remained sick until the commission of his 
said two months service when the company in the latter part of November of the 
year aforesaid were dismissed and he was carried home sick. Heard in this 
campaign Col. Moseby his surgeon [illegible] was killed by the British at a farm 
house and he further declares that early in March 1777 he volunteered in 
Springfield aforesaid for one months service in Capt. Burt's Company and Col. 
David Leonard's Regiment and immediately marched for Ticonderoga through 
Pittsfield & Williamstown in Massachusetts and Bennington & Manchester in 
Vermont and from there to Whitehall then called Skenesborough in New York and 
from thence on the ice down Lake Champlain to Ticonderoga where he continued 
under the command of Col. Anthony Wayne until dismissed in April when he went 
home after an absence of five weeks or more. No other Regiment was there at this 
time.

And he further declares that about the first of July 1778 he volunteered for six 
months in Springfield aforesaid in Capt. Rowley's Company of West Springfield 
and soon marched from Springfield to Rhode Island in a direct route to 
Providence in that state from thence went on to the Island where he was put in 
Col. Jacob's Regiment and General Cornwall's Brigade with his Company and 
continued on the Island until after the Battle with the British when the army 
retreated off the Island at Howlands Ferry to the main land the last of August 
or first of September and the troops encamped in various places along the shore 
that he continued there until the first of January 1779 when the Company was 
dismissed and he went home to Springfield having served in this Campaign the 
term of six months in the company of [illegible] the Commander in Chief as he 
understood also was Gen. Geene on this Island who he believes had some command 
during the action that he saw there Gen. Glover, Col. Shepherd of Massachusetts.

Also he further declares under oath that he served in the Staff Department he 
supposes as an Express under the Directions of the Deputy quartermaster general 
William Smith stationed at Springfield from the fore part of September 1779 to 
the fore part of March 1780 being six months. That he was sent with a package 
from Springfield to Maj. Greene a brother of Gen. Greene to Coventry in Rhode 
Island and thence to Providence in Rhode Island to a person whose name is not 
now recollected, thence to Boston with a package to John Adams and from thence 
to Exeter in New Hampshire thence to Newburyport to Ipswich with a package to a 
person whose name is not now recollected to all which places he had packages of 
communications from Springfield given him by said Deputy quartermaster and also 
went two or three times with communications to [illegible]ville in 
Massachusetts, and also to Northampton on Massachusetts & to South Hampton in 
that State and to Northfield in that State and once or twice to Hartford in 
Connecticut with communications from said deputy quartermaster general and was 
sent by him to Great Barrington in Massachusetts with packages to a William 
Pinchon and also a package to General Green at West Point and also at another 
time with letters and an order for money to Biddle or Bidwell the Commissary 
General of the Continental army at Morristown in New Jersey and by him sent to 
Philadelphia to his assistant where this Declarant obtained fifty thousand 
dollars which he brot to said Deputy quartermaster general at Springfield 
aforesaid. That during all this six months he was under the controll and at the 
call of said William Smith as quartermaster general and was not in any other 
busines during said term. That he never at any time received a written Discharge 
and that he does not know of any person now living by whom he can prove any 
services set forth in this his Declaration.

And to questions put to him by the Court this declarant answers as to wit: 1. 
That he was born in Springfield in the State of Massachusetts, that he has a 
record of his birth taken from that of his father by which it appears he was 
born on the 18th of February 1760 which he believes is true, 2. That at the 
several times when he entered into the service aforesaid he was living in 
Springfield, Massachusetts where he continued to live until February 1785 when 
he removed to Chester then County of Hampshire and State of Massachusetts. From 
there he removed to Lebanon Springs in the County of Columbia & State of New 
York in March 1788 and from thence to Pittstown in the County of Renselaer & 
State of New York in April 1813 from thence removed to Argyle in the County of 
Washington & State of New York in 1827 and from thence to Granville in the same 
County on the 27th day of April 1832 where he now resides, 3. That he never 
served as a substitute for any person in the service of his country. That he 
entered the service at the several times as above set forth, 4. And that the 
names of officers recollected are those set forth as above, 5. Known in his 
present neighborhood by person of [illegible].

He hereby relinquishe 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 or territory whatever. And he says there is no clergyman in his 
neighborhood who can testify to the tradition of his service nor any 
[illegible].

[signed by Oliver Hitchcock before I.S. Seigh, Clk]

And the Court hereby declares their opinion after investigating the matter and 
after [illegible] the interrogations prescribed by the War Department, that the 
above named applicant was a Revolutionary Soldier and served as he states. And 
the Court further certifies that it appears that George Gillis who has signed 
and sworn to he annexed affidavit is a resident of Argyle in this County and 
that Lewis & Samuel Hitchcock whose affidavits are annexed are residents of 
Pittstown in the adjoining County of Rensselaer and that the said witnesses are 
all reliable persons and that their several statements are entitled to credit 
and it is the opinion of the Court that the witnesses whose affidavits are 
annexed could not without too much expense & inconvenience to the applicant be 
proved in open Court to testify.

Certificate of Pension issued the 6 day of Aug. 1833 and sent to L. B. Packer, 
North Granville, arrears to 4th of Sep. 1832 $75, semianl. allowance ending 4 
qtr $25