Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File R. 3920, Laban Garnett, Navy (Mass.)
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Service Number
Navy (Mass) Garnett, Laban R3920
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3920
Saban Garnett
Service:
Enlisted: 18
Discharged:  18
Application filed:
Alleges:
Re-enlisted:
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                  Rejected
                  Maine
                 Laban Garnett
                 let  B. R. Jones
                 12 Aug 1834
                  3920
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[front of envelope]          free


Honorable J. L. Edwards
           Commissioner of Pensions
                Washington City
                            D.C.

[there is a round post mark]

       Machais
(illegible) 6
        ME
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                                      V
               Dennysville     July 22d   1834
Honorable S. L. Edwards
                   Commissioner of Pensions
                         Sir
                                       I enclose the declaration & proceedings of the Court, in the Case of Laban Garnett a petition for a very small pension, under the Act of June 1832
   There may be some mistake about the name of the Frigate he says they called her by many different names, because the British had such a spite against her, on account of having been a present from the French _
    The petitioner is very ignorant & in destitute circumstances.  It will not be possible for him to procure any further contemporary evidence.  he lives in a new Township and has no acquaintance with any clergyman, and his discharge is burnt _ Two persons know of his having served on board an armed ship in 1783 & have testified.
   Should the enclosed paper be judged sufficient, he wishes his certificate sent to me, if there is anything further necessary to be done to his case that is within my power I will attend to your request. 
                     Your Obedient Able Servt
                        Benjamin R. Jones
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          31.675
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                  State of Maine,
              ____________________________________________

I Albert G. Lane Register of the Court of Probate for the County of Washington in the State aforesaid, hereby certify that the foregoing contains the original proceedings of the said Court in the matter of the application of Laban Garnett for a pension. _
   In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and the seal of said Court this fourteenth day of July A.D. 1834..
                           Albert G. Lane   Register

[on the bottom left there is the imprint of a round seal but it is too faint to read]
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                      Declaration

In order to obtain the benefits of the Act of Congress passed July 7, 1832

State of Main}
County of Washington} Ss.
       On this Fourteenth day of July AD 1834 personally appeared in open Court, before the 
Court of Probate now sitting, Laban Garnett a resident of Township number Thirteen in the County of Washington and State of Maine aged Sixty seven 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 Act of Congress passed June 7th 1832.
   That he entered the Service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated:    in answer to the interrogatories by the Department of War.  That he was born in Hanover in the County of Plymouth, State of Massachusetts, November 5th 1766 - That he has no record of his birth the old Bible in which it was kept having been burnt with his dwelling house in 1812 -
  That he was living in Pembroke when called into service that he lived in Pembroke, Massachusetts, eleven years after the peace, since then he has lived in several places around the bay of Passamaquaddy and now lives in Township Number Thirteen between Machias and Dennysville, Washington county, Maine.
    That on the 11th day of February 1783 he entered the service of the United States as a private on board a ship then called the Deane Frigate of forty eight guns.  This ship was said to have been presented to the State by the French, she was commanded by Captain Joseph Nicholson, the first Lieutenant was Dillaway, or some such name, they cruised in various parts of  the Atlantic, up the bay of Funday, and to the southward of the West Indies.  Captured a British Brig from Nova Scotia, loaded with Smoked Alewives, the prize was afterwards driven ashore by a Brttish ship and burnt at Marshfield; the next prize was a Merchant brig coming from England, the next was a British privateer of 18 guns, the next was a packet schooner from Bermuda for England 3 days out, with a great many passengers. The last prize they captures was a twenty gun ship, she was taken after the peace and not returned.
   That he served Five months being the term for which he entered on board of the said Deane Frigate as powder monkey and received a discharge, and was paid off by the ship's agent, one Smith of Boston, that he kept his discharge untill the year 1812 when it was burnt in his house, as above stated, with all his other papers & property.  
   That he is known to Christopher Benner and Joseph Garnett who are the only persons in his present neighborhood who know of his sevivces as a soldier of the Revolution, that there is no Clergyman in his present neighborhood with whom he is acquainted and that there is no other person within the vicinity of the court to his knowledge that has any personal knowledge of his reputation as a Revolutionary Soldier he having resided for twnety years past untill the last fifteen months more than Forty miles from his present place of Residence.
Sworn to and Subscribed the day and year aforesaid.            his
                  Laban    X    Garnett
                          mark
John Dickinson    Judge
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We Christopher Benner of Dennysville and Joseph Garnett of Township Number Thirteen hereby certify that we are well acquainted with Laban Garnett, who has subscribed and sworn to the within declaration, that we believe him to be sixty seven years of age, that he is reputed and believed in the neighbourhood where he resided within our knowledge for many years to have  served on board a man of war in the Revolution & we concur in that opinion.
 Sworn to and subscribed this day and year 
aforesaid.  [the precious sentence was             crossed out.]                his
                Christopher   X    Benner
                                  mark

                    his
  Joseph      X     Garnett
                   mark

Sworn to and subscribed the day & year aforesaid_
             John Dicksinson    Judge

I Joseph Garnett aged sixty years do hereby certify and make oath that I was pressent when my brother Laban Garnett enlisted to serve on Board the Dean Frigate so called, I remember that he was absent about five months except once when he came home with a prize and staid one night, that I went to Boston with my father after the money for his last payment, that I have known him ever since the Revolution, and believe the whole of the within declaration, by him subscribed to be true..                       his
                    Joseph     X       Garnett
                                 mark
Sworn to and subscribed the day  & year aforesaid.
                              John Dickinson      Judge
And the said Court do hereby declare their opinion after the investigation of the matter and after putting the interogatories prescribed by the War department, that the above name applicant served as he States.  And the Court further certifies that it appears to them that Christopher Benner & Joseph Garnett who have signed the preceding certificates are residents in Dennyville & Township No. thirteen, are credible persons, and that their statement is entitled to credit.
              John Dickinson       Judge