Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File R. 939, John Bledsoe, N.C.
Page 1

(3-1776)
Service
N.C. 
Bledsoe, John
Sarah
Number
R. 939
Page 2

12797
Sara Bledsoe
S.C.
Act 7 July '38
M. '88-?'29

John H. Kilgore, Esq.
Monroe,
Walton, Co.
Georgia
Page 3

Declaration
In order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress of the 7th July 1838, entitled
"An act granting half pay and pensions to certain widows."
State of South Carolina
Edgefield District
Court of Ordinary May 1st 1846
     On this the first day of May one thousand 
and eight hundred and forty six, personally appeared before the Court of Ordinary held in and for the District and State aforesaid Sarah Bledsoe a resident of South Carolina District of Edgefield aged Eighty four years past, who being first duly sworn according to
law, doth, on her oath, make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the act of Congress passed July 7th 1838, entitled "An act granting half pay and pensions to certain widows."
That she is the widow of John Bledsoe who was a soldier and served as she verily believes and always understood, faithfully and truly in
the war of the Revolution. That her husband the aforesaid John Bledsoe was at the time of the War a resident of the State of North Carolina in the County of Wake: and went into the service of the United States as a private drafted and volunteer Soldier, from said County and State, as she has always understood and often heard him say.
That she was not acquainted with the aforesaid John Bledsoe her husband till after the close of the War and after his removal to the State of South Carolina Edgefield District, where she first became acquainted with him in the year 1787, and was soon after married to him in the State and District aforesaid. Declarant recollects well to have heard her husband the aforesaid John Bledsoe, often times, tell of his services, his privations and hardships in the War of the Revolution, but the time her husband entered service, and the time he quit the same, the Battles in which he fought and the Country through which he marched, though she has often heard him tell of them all; age and afflictions have erased them from her mind. That she recollects very well to have heard him say that he served with one
Drury Hearn (now dead) who after the death of her said husband John Bledsoe, obtained a pension from the United States, on account of his Revolutionary services, and declarant has been informed
Page 4

that the declaration of the said Drury Hearn, under an act of Congress of the 7th of June 1832, is now of file in the Pension Office, and to which she refers for a narative of his services and the names of the Officers under whom the services were rendered, for that space of time as the said John Bledsoe and Henry Hearn
rendered service together, until the said Drury Hearn left the Service; that her said husband John Bledson continued in the Service, but the length of time not recollected.
That she has no documentary evidence in support of her claim, that her husband's discharges were burned soon after their marriage:  the said discharges together with numerous other papers and clothing were in her husbands Trunk, when the House in which the Trunk was, at that time caught on fire, and was not discovered till to late to have any thing from the flames; which discharges showed
about three years service, as she always heard and understood, in the war of the Revolution; that she knows of no person now living by whom she could prove her husband's Services. 
She further declares that she was married to the aforesaid John Bledsoe on the ninth day of September in the year Seventeen hundred and eighty eight, by a Magistrate Russel Wilson, in Edgefield District, State of South Carolina; that she has no documentary evidence of her marriage other than her family Registry, which is hereto annexed, that she knows of no person now living by whom she could prove her
marriage: that the family Record hereto annexed is the only one owned by her or her husband for many years; that the entries thereon down to the birth of Elizabeth Her Daughter of Drury and Keren Happuch Hearn, is in the hand writing of one Mr. John
Trapp a Baptist Clergyman, they were taken from a Small Book owned by her husband, and registered upon the leaf hereto annexed
through his instructions: the remainder of entries thereon are in the hand writing of her Daughter Mahala Bledsoe, and that said Record has undergone no alteration whatever since the death of her husband.
That her husband the aforesaid
Page 5

John Bledsoe died on the 24th day of November in the year 1829.
That she was not married to him prior to him leaving the service, but the
marriage took place previous to the first day of January Seventeen hundred and ninety four viz at the first above stated.
Sarah Bledsoe X her mark
Sworn to and Subscribed on the day and year
first above written in open Court before me
John Hill Ordinary and Judge of said Court of Edgefield District, South Carolina. I do further certify that the declarant Mrs. Sarah
Bledsoe is personally known to me, and that she is the [illegible] and widow of John Bledsoe deceased, and that she is the identical person whom she represents herself to be in the foregoing Declaration.
That the leaf hereto annexed purporting to be a family Record of John Bledsoe dec. was taken from a family Bible in the possession of
the declarant. I do further certify that the words "have and heard" on the first page were inserted before being signed, and that the words, "That she was not married," on the second page were stricken out before being signed.  In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this the first day of May 1846
John Hill OCD

State of South Carolina
Edgefield District          ⎬
Court of Ordinary May 1st  1846
On this the first day of May one thousand
eight hundred and forty six personally appeared in Open Court Elbert Bledsoe a resident of Edgefield District and State
aforesaid, who being first duly sworn, saith that he was present and witnessed the death of the aforesaid John Bledsoe that he died on the 24th day of November in the year 1829 leaving Sarah Bledsoe the declarant his widow, and that she has remained a widow ever since period of her husbands death.
Elbert Bledsoe
Sworn to and Subscribed on the day and year above written in open Court before me John Will Ordinary and Judge of said Court
Edgefield District South Carolina. I do certify that the affiant Mr. Elbert Ellison is an intelligent and creditable witness
John Hill
O.C.D.
Page 6

State of South Carolina
Edgefield District

I  (blank) Ordinary and Judge of
said Court of Ordinary in and for the District and State aforesaid do certify that the foregoing are the original proceedings had
in said Court in the matter of Mrs. Sarah Bledsoe the applicant for pension under the act of Congress of the 7th July 1838.
Given under my hand and seal of Office this
the (blank) day of May, 1846
John Hill O.P.D.
Page 7

FAMILY RECORD
DEATHS:
Mary Bledsoe the wife of William Bledsoe died December the 8th, 1825.
Martha Bledsoe the daughter of John and Sarah Bledsoe died July the 26th, 1827
John Bledsoe died November the 24th, 182?
Casandra Bledsoe the daughter of John and Sarah Bledsoe died October the 19th, 1835
Page 10

John Bledsoe died December 1829
Sarah died Nov. 21, 1853
Married Sept 9, 1788
Page 11

South Carolina
Edgefield District ⎬
On this Tenth day of February A.D. 1885
before me H. T. Wright Judge of
the Court of Ordinary for the district and State aforesaid personally came Elbert Bledsoe a resident of the district and State aforesaid, aged forty two years, who being duly sworn according to law, declares upon oath that he is the son of John Bledsoe Deceased
who was a soldier in one of the North Carolina
Regiment of Troops in the American Army in
the war of the Revolution; that John Bledsoe Dec'd
the father of this deponent died in the district
of Edgefield and State of South Carolina on
or about the ?? day of December in the year
one thousand eight hundred and twenty nine (1829) aged to the best of the recollection of This deponent, more than seventy (70) years; that Sarah Bledsoe, who was the widows of the aforesaid John Bledsoe Deceased and who was also the mother
of this deponent, died in the district and State
aforesaid on the 21st day of November in the
year one thousand eight hundred and fifty
three (1853, aged eighty four years; that
John Bledsoe Dec'd aforesaid, the Husband
of Sarah Bledsoe aforesaid, and who
was also the father of this deponent, and Sarah
Bledsoe Deed aforesaid, who was the widow of
John Bledsoe Dec'd aforesaid, and who was also the
Mother of this this deponent, were lawfully
married in the district of Edgefield and State of
South Carolina on or about the 9th day of
September in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight (1788); that both the parties aforesaid actually lived together as husband and wife up to the date of the death of John Bledsoe dec'd aforesaid and were always so considered; that