Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 30992, David Dinning, N.C.
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[typed form, with handwritten responses]

[3-1776]

SERVICE
N. C.

*Dinning, David 

NUMBER
S.30992

CONTENTS
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[typed form, with handwritten responses]

30992
Revy War 
INVALID Own

File No. 30,992
David Dinning

Pri [Private] Rev War

Act: June 7th, 1832
Index: - Vol. 2, Page 498

[Arrangement of 1870.]
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[typed form, with handwritten responses]

Kentucky 27,608.
David Dinning
of Simpson Co. in the State of Ky. who was a Pr. [private] in the Company commanded by Captain Gwinn of the Regt. commanded by Col. Ochale [O'Neal] in the N. Carolina line for a Militia …. 6 Months of Cav. $25.00

Inscribed on the Roll of Ky.
at the rate of 25 Dollars 00 Cents per annum,
to commence on the 4th day of March 1831.

Certificate of Pension issued the 5th day of Sept. and Sent to - J L Moore, Franklin, Ky.

Arrears to the 4th of Sept. ’34 87.50
Semi=anl. [annual] allowance ending 
4 Mch. [March] ’34 12.50
$100.00

{Revolutionary Claim}
{Act June 7, 1832}

Recorded by J T Sprague, Clerk
Book E Vol. 7 Page 120
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31,821 David Dinning Kentucky

from 1780 pr. Cavy. 6 months $25.

John L. Moore Franklin Kentucky
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State of Kentucky} 
Simpson County Sct} 
On this 19th day of August 1834 personally appeared in open Court before the Honorable Asher W. Graham Sole Judge of the Simpson Circuit Court & State aforesaid, now sitting it being the August Term of said Court, David Dinning, a resident of the aforesaid County & State, aged seventy-four years, this last May, who being duly sworn according to law, doth on oath, make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed 7th of June 1832. That he entered the service of the United States under the following named Officers, and served as herein stated.
[Marginal note:] Introduction Oath & description of Court.

[Marginal note:] 1st Campaign Declarant served precisely three months under Capt. Gwinn & Col. O'Neale as volunteer horse company and as Rangers to suppress the Tories or Loyalists of Orange, Chatham, Randolph & Orange [sic, Guilford] to wit from 1st March 1780 to the 1st of June 1780.
That in the month of February 1780 in the County of Orange North Carolina, in which County, this declarant was most altogether raised and reared up in life and at that time a resident of the said County & State and had been many years previous thereto, he enlisted as a volunteer under Captain Edward Gwinn, whose volunteers, besides this Declarant, all collected together at the house of Col. OcNale [William O'Neal] in the said County of Orange N. Carolina, and on the 1st day of March 1780 this Declarant with the other Troops were strictly speaking volunteers were marched out, under the Command of the said Col. OcNale [O’Neal], who was both the commander and Col. of the Army, (and the volunteers under his command were horse volunteers or cavalry, and so were all those that enlisted & volunteered under Captain Gwinn together with this Declarant were also Cavalry) into Guilford County N. Carolina from thence into Chatham County, and from thence, into Randolph County, and from thence through Guilford County back again into the aforesaid County of Orange, all four of which Counties lay at adjacent to each other in the said State aforesaid N. Carolina. Then the said Col. Ochale [O'Neal] countermarched into the aforesaid Counties as the Tories would be most embodied and outrageous in either County, and in this way this Declarant and
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[Marginal note:] To wit From the 1st March 1780 to the 1st of June 1780

the other Cavalry under Captain Gwinn and Col. OcNale [O'Neal] were kept continually engaged in scouring out and suppressing the Tories, called in those days by the British officers Loyalists, who were very numerous and outrageous in the said four Counties as aforesaid and in marching and countermarching from one end to the other of either of the afsd [aforesaid] four Counties as they exigencies at the time required for the purpose of awing and suppressing the said Tories or Loyalists in those days of perilous distress, and on the 1st of June 1780 this Declarant with the other Troops under Captain Gwinn were discharged at the house of the said Col. Ochale [O'Neal] in the afsd [aforesaid] County of Orange, in writing by the said Captain Gwinn, and the said written discharge has not only the name of the said Captain Gwinn to it, but that of Col. OcNeale [O'Neal] also, and which discharge this Declarant has lost or mislaid so that he cannot now find it for he did not think much of it in any way. 
3 In this campaign this Declarant served three months to wit from the 1st of March 1780 to the 1st of June 1780. He does not make any calculation for any days in the month of February as already stated he enlisted in, but throws them away altogether and afsd [aforesaid] at calculation for he cannot with certainty recollect their number, he throws them away entirely.

[Marginal note:] Two other tours not set out but given up for the want of exact recollection

He would further state that he served two other short tours as a volunteer horse Ranger under the afsd [aforesaid] Captain Gwinn To wit one before the above described campaign and one after, but these were of short duration in keeping under the Tories as afsd [aforesaid] as they would embody in any one of the Counties afsd [aforesaid] but owing to the great lapse of time since he will not now undertake to set them out as he
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cannot do so with any particularity, hence he gives the time up that he served in those two for lost. He also states that this Declarant and the other volunteer horse Troops under Captain Gwinn & Colonel O'Neal were called minute men, because, they had to march out, at a moments warning generally.

[Marginal note:] 2nd Campaign served three months To wit From the 1st of Jany [January] 1781 to the 1st of April 1781 under Capt. Gwinn, Generals Pickens & Green

The next campaign this Declarant served in, was when Lord Cornwallis was marching triumphantly, as it were, in, and through the State of N. Carolina, this Declarant again enlisted as a volunteer under the afsd [aforesaid] Captain Gwinn of the said County of Orange N. Carolina who, raised a volunteer horse Company in the same County of Orange and on the 1st of January 1781, this Declarant with the other volunteer cavalry under the command of said Gwinn, were marched off from the said Gwinn's house in the afsd [aforesaid] Cty [County] of Orange near Hillsborough in said County and here Captain Gwinn joined General Pickens' cavalry from South Carolina, and from thence through Caswell County, and then by a circuitous and varied marches through the many mountains to General Green's [Nathanael Greene's] army across the River Dan and, which had been for some time retreating from the pursuit of Lord Cornwallis as this Declarant was then informed, and halted at Irwin's Ferry on said River on the Virginia side thereof, At this River Cornwallis ceased to pursue General Greene any further. The reason why General Pickens conducted his little Army from Caswell Cty [County] through the mountains to General Greene's retreating Army across the Dan at Irwin's Ferry, was because a British Col. by the name of Tarlton [sic, Banastre Tarleton], famous for impetuosity in all his movements, and for barbarity in all his deeds, was then making circuitous routes with his cavalry through that whole stretch of Country collecting and protecting his Loyalists and Genl. Pickens was afraid of him, and to avoid him Tarleton, Genl. Pickens made his march through the mountains as afsd [aforesaid] in order to get to Greene and aid him if possible.
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General Greene at the last named place being reinforced by some Virginians and Marylanders about the 20th or 21st February recrossed the Dan, and marched slowly towards the upper Country, near the head waters of the river Haw in N. Carolina and from thence towards Alamance and then by marching and countermarching and making various movements between Troublesome Creek and Reedy fork, sometimes, approaching and at other times receding from his light Troops in front of him. Here General Greene became afraid of Lord Cornwallis, and consequently he moved off across the river Haw and made his encampment. But before he proceeds any further with Greene's marches he would state that after Genl. Pickens landed at Genl. Greene's Army, across the Dan as already stated, the volunteers with this Declarant, under the said Captain Gwinn were ordered to send their horses home, and to take it on foot with the other foot soldiers of Genl. Greene, and which was done accordingly.
After a while Genl. Greene received strong reinforcements To wit some from Virginia under Lawson and a good many under Generals Eaton and Butler of N. Carolina, from here, General Greene moved his Army to Guilford Courthouse within seven or eight miles of L. C. Wallis camp, this was done on the 14th of March 1781. And early in the morning of the 15th Captain Gwinn ordered this Declarant and five other men to take up and carry eight horses each to their respective houses, and the horses that six man could carry were carried into Orange Cty [County] except two or three this Declarant carried and delivered into Caswell Cty [County], and as he was delivering these last horses he heard the Cannon roar at the Battle ground between the contending armies of General Greene & L. C. Wallis about two o'clock as he supposes of the day. The reason why this was done, was because on the morning of the 15th a battle was preparing to be fought, and if the British should be successful, the
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[Marginal note:] 2nd Campaign served three months To wit From the 1st of Jany [January] 1781 to the 1st of April 1781 under Capt. Gwinn, Generals Pickens & Green

horses thus carried off would be preserved from their possession, and after delivering the said horses into Caswell County as afsd [aforesaid], this Declarant with one other, then walked back on foot, and joined General Greene's Army at the Iron works on Troublesome Creek, from this place Genl. Greene pursued L. C. Wallis who was retreating out of the State, to a place called Ramsey's Mill here Genl. Greene halted, and at this place this Declarant was discharged by Genl. Butler by a written discharge, fourteen others besides himself were discharged upon one piece of paper, he does not now recollect whether Captain Gwinn put his name to it or not, but presumes that he did, and that the said discharge is lost for this Declarant has now no recollection of what became of it nor in what way it was lost as he thought it then a matter of no consequence. And to the best of his recollection this Declarant was discharged at Ramsey's Mill as afsd [aforesaid] on the 1st of April 1781, making the time he served in this Campaign three months.

Interrogatory 1st This Declarant was born in Ireland in Derry County on the [blank] day of May 1760 as he has been informed by his parents who are now dead, but cannot recollect on what day of that month if he ever heard, which makes him seventy-four years this last May and he is now in his seventy fifth year.
2nd He has no record of his age, after this Declarant was eighteen months old, his parents emigrated from Derry County Ireland to the United States of America and settled in Orange County N. Carolina on the Waters back Creek in this County, this Declarant was raised say from two years of age up to manhood, and the Bible in which this Declarant's name was registered in Ireland got wet with salt water in crossing the ocean from Ireland to this Country, which wetting completely destroyed the said Bible, as this Declarant's parents have repeatedly
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told him and others, in their lifetime.

Inter. 3rd He was living in Orange County North Carolina, and he continued to live there after the Revolutionary War was over until the fall of 1799 at which time, he removed from Orange County to Sumner County Tennessee there he lived eighteen years of his life, and from thence he moved to the place where he is now living in Simpson County Kentucky, tho’ [though] it was then Logan Cty [County] Kentucky, but by an Act of the Legislature of this State passed either in 1819 or 1818 a new County was formed out of the Counties of Allen Warren and Logan, to be called Simpson County, and the Simpson line running through Logan County included this Declarant's residence into the then new County of Simpson, where he has been living ever since to this time, and that he still resides upon the old spot.

Inter. 4th Already answered in the body of this Declaration. 

Inter. 5th Ditto. Ditto As well as he can. Tho’ [Though] he would here state, that he has given the general circumstances of his services in the above two campaigns as well as he can recollect them, for after the lapse of near fifty years and by reason of old age and the consequent loss of memory to a great extent, he has not been enabled to set out as specifically the marches and countermarches that were made in his 1st campaign in the Counties of Orange, Chatham, Guilford and Randolph as might be desired, but he has done as well as he can, and can do no better. And that he was not engaged in any civil pursuit, during the time he was serving the two campaigns herein set out, but was continually employed, during the
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time afsd [aforesaid] in the services of his Country, and that he suffered much in the 1st Tour under Gwinn & O'Neal by far more than he did in the one under Greene.

Inter. 6th Already answered herein as to the Discharges, he never received a Commission from any person during the two Tours afsd [aforesaid], before, nor since, and that he has no Documentary Evidence of any kind of his Revolutionary services, and that he knows of no person now living in this State or any where else by whom he could prove his Revolutionary services.

Inter. 7th In answer to this, he states, that Thomas McClanahan, David Moore, George Kirk, James Millikin and Enoch Parvill are near neighbors of his, in his present neighborhood, and to whom he is personally well known, for many years past, and can testify as to his character for veracity, and their belief of his services as a soldier in the Revolutionary War at any time whenever all or any of them may be called on.
Having stated everything as well he can 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. Subscribed and sworn to the day and year afsd [aforesaid] 
[Signed] David Dinning {Seal}

We Orison H. Morrow - a clergyman and Patrick H. Boisseau a citizen residing in the County of Simpson State of Kentucky hereby certify, that we are well acquainted with David Dinning, who has subscribed and sworn to the above declaration, that he believe him to be seventy four years of age this last May; that he is reputed and believed, in the neighbourhood [neighborhood] where he resides, to have been a soldier in the Revolution & that
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we Concur in that opinion. Subscribed and sworn to the day and year afsd [aforesaid]
O. H. Morrow 
P. H. Boisseau.

And the said Court do hereby declare their opinion after the investigation of the matter, and after putting the Interrogatories 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 to them that Orison H. Morrow who has signed the preceding certificate is a Clergyman resident in the County of Simpson State of Kentucky, and that Patrick H. Boisseau who has also signed the same, is a resident in the aforesaid County & State and is a credible person and that their statement is entitled to credit.
Asher B. Graham Judge of said County

State of Kentucky} 
Simpson County Sct} August Circuit Court 1834. 
I, John L. Moore, Clerk of aforesaid Circuit Court of the aforesaid County of Simpson and State aforesaid, do hereby certify that the foregoing contains the original proceedings at Court in the matter of the application of David Dinning for a pension. 
In Testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal of my office this 19th day of August 1834
Jno L Moore, Clerk of the Simpson Circuit Court

[written sideways & through] 31,821 David Dinning Kentucky from 1780 pr. Cavy. 6 months $25. John L. Moore Franklin Kentucky