Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 18120, for John Mc Lellan, Massachusetts
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Mass.      McLellan, John    S 18120
              McLlellan
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Maine 31,474
John McLlellan
of Cumberland in the State of Maine
who was a Matross
in the company commanded by Captain D. Strout of the ........................commanded by.......in the Masstts. (line- crossed out) for 12 months.

Inscribed on the Roll of Maine at the rate of 
40 Dollars ......cents per annum to commence 
on the 4th day of March 1831

Certificate of Pension issued the 11th day of July 1838 and sent to Hon. C. S. Davis, Portland Maine

Arrears to the 4th of March 1838 $280.00
Semi-anl. allowance ending 4 Sept.  " 20.00
$300.00
Revolutionary Claim
Act July 7 1838
Recorded by S. A. Elliot clerk
Book E Vol. 1 Page 35
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31.669
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United States of America
Maine District SS.
At a Special District Court of the United States begun and holden at Portland, within and for said District, on the eighth day of May A. D. eighteen hundred and thirty four before the Honorable Ashur Ware, Judge of said Court.
On this eight day of May aforesaid, personally appeared in open Court before said District Judge John McLellan a resident of Portland in the county of Cumberland in said Maine District, 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 provision made by the act of Congress passed June 7th, 1832 That he entered the service of the United States under the following mentioned officers and served for the period of eighteen months complete as herein stated: viz. that in September 1781 at Cape Elizabeth in said county of Cumberland, he entered as a private ^soldier for during the was, in a company of Massachusetts State troops then commanded by David Strout, who succeeded George Denke as commander of the company. ^He has no recollection to what regiment belonged or who was the Colonel. The company when commanded by Denke consisted, as he believes, of about 40 men, but was afterwards reduced considerably below that number. The company was stationed at a fort built at Spring Point at Cape Elizabeth near Falmouth, now Portland, and was defended by fire carriage guns viz one eighteen pound cannon, three nine pound and one four pound in a travelling carriage. The men were armed and equipped with muskets and accoutrements. Joseph Noyes was commissary and paymaster. Capt. Leach was the commander before Denke. It had also been commanded by Capt. Morton. He served in the company till the 5th of April 1788 when he was discharged at the Fort. When he entered, he took the place of Lemuel Denki who had been private. He signed some paper, but does not now directly remember the terms. He engaged to serve during the war. He refers to the depositions of Daniel Davis, James Sawyer, John Hatch, &Sarah Fernald for his service & to Henry Ilsley, Isaac Ilsley Esquire, (Illegible) collector and Revd. Elisah Kellog & Ichabod Nichols for his character. He lives in Portland. Refers also to Nicholas Emery  Esquire.
He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or an annuity, except the present, and he declares that his name is not on any pension roll and any agency in any State.
John McLellan

Sworn to and subscribed, the day and year aforesaid. Before Ashur Ware U. S. Judge for the District of Maine.
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The said John McLellan in answer to the interrogatories put by the war Department further states that he was born at Cape Elizabeth the 1st day of August 1766, and that there is a record of his birth in that town. He lived at Cape Elizabeth when he first entered the service, and removed to Portland immediately after he was discharged. That he has lived at Portland when at home ever since. That he received no written discharge and he has no documentary evidence of his said service. He believes that he did not serve for less than eighteen months and for that service he claims a pension.
John McLellan

And the said Court do hereby declare their opinion (after the investigation of the matter, and after putting the interrogatives prescribed by the War Department) that the above named applicant was a revolutionary soldier, and served as he states.
Ashur Ware
Judge of the U.S. for District of Maine

I John Mussey Clerk of the District Court of the United States for Maine District, do hereby certify, that the foregoing contains the original proceedings of the said Court in the matter of the application of John McLellan for a pension.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the said Court, on this twelfth day of May A. D. one thousand .
eight hundred and thirty four.
John Mussey
Clerk of the U. States District 
Court for Maine District
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18120
INVALID
File No. 18120
John McClellan
Act: June 7th '32
Index: Vol 1, Page 249

{Arrangement of 1870}
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John McClellan
(To accompany bill H. R. No 197)
December 22, 1837

Mr. Bond, from the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions, made the following  REPORT

The Committee on Revolutionary Pensions, to which was referred the petition of John McClellan, have examined the same, and report:
The petition was favorably reported on, but not disposed of by the House, during the last Congress.  The committee, on re-examination, adopt the former report, and submit a bill for the relief of the petitioner.

January 24, 1837
The Committee on Revolutionary Pension, to which was referred the petition of John McClellan, have considered the same and report:
The petitioner states that, during the American Revolution he enlisted as a soldier, and was attached to a company of artillery, and stationed at Cape Elizabeth, from the fall of the year 1781 to the spring of 1783, when he was honorably discharged.
His statement is made under oath, and is generally sustained by the testimony of three or four credible witnesses.
The committee feel satisfied that the petitioner was in the service of the United States at least one year, and they report a bill for his relief accordingly.
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24th Congress, 2d Session
Rep. No. 144
No. of Reps

John McClellan
(to accompany bill H. R. No. 874)
January 24, 1837

Mr. Bond, from the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions, made the following REPORT:

The Committee on Revolutionary Pensions, to which was referred the petition of John McClellan, have considered the same, and report:

The petitioner states, that during the American Revolution he enlisted as a soldier, and was attached to a company of artillery, and stationed at Cape Elizabeth, from the fall of the year 1781 to the spring of 1783, when he was honorably discharged.
His statement is made under oath and generally sustained by the testimony of three or four credible witnesses.
The committee feel satisfied that the petitioner was in the service of the United States at least one year, and they report a bill for his relief, accordingly.
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Pet, of John McLellan
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To the Honorable The Senate and House of Representative of the United States of America in Congress assembled.
The petition of John McLellan of the city of Portland, formerly Falmouth, in the county of Cumberland, and State of Maine, gentleman humbly shows, that he served as a soldier in the company commanded by David Strout, stationed at Cape Elizabeth, formerly a part of said town of Falmouth, for the term of one year and eight months ending April 3d 1783. that said company, then diminished and reduced to the number of a sergeants guard, was stationed at the fort in said Cape Elizabeth, and stationed there for the express purpose of protecting said Falmouth and Cape Elizabeth from the attacks of the enemy; said Falmouth having been burnt by the enemy in the year 1775, and in consequence of a peculiar state of hostile feeling ^ in the enemy, towards the in habitants of said Falmouth, the said inhabitants being in constant danger and subject to frequent alarms the military duty of said company was strict and constant, so that your petitioner, with his companions,  were obliged to live in the fort at Cape Elizabeth, and sleep in the barracks there, during the whole of said period except when they were ordered to stop boats and keep on the watch for the enemy. That said company was in the Massachusetts line of troops and received their regular rations from the commissary during the whole of said period. Your petitioner further shows that no law of the United States makes provision for a pension in his case which he considers as meritorious as that of many persons to whom pensions are awarded by existing laws;  that he is very poor and is in need of relief. He therefore prays your Honors to take his case into consideration and to afford him relief, by extending towards him such a portion of the public bounty, as in your wisdom you will see fit, and as his case shall be found to require-and as in duty bound will ever pray &c.
John McLellan
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Mr. Edwards,
Please to forward the pension certificate to of John Maclellan to me at Portland, as soon as it is convenient & oblige.
Your obd. serv.
C. S. Davies

Washington
July 10, 1838

Also please to inform me as some time whether a  similar pension is granted to Danl. Davis & if so, to enclose his certificate to me for him if you think proper.
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(Copy)  
War Department 
Pension Office
July 8, 1834

Sir,
The service alleged to have been performed by John McLellan at Cape Elizabeth does not appear to have been constant and active services. As the State of Massachusetts after the 20 February 1781 maintained only a sergeants guard of twenty men, at Falmouth and Cape Elizabeth, the corps to which Mr. McLellan belonged was probably a company of local Militia the being enrolled in which gives him no claim to an allowance under the act of 7 Jue1832. 
The papers are placed on our files.
I am respectfully 
your obt. serv.
(Signed) J. L. Edwards
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Jn. McClellan

Hon. C. S. Davis
Portland
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25th Congress,
2d Session        H. R. 197
December 22, 1837
Read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House to-morrow.
Mr. Bond, from the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions, reported the following bill:

(the above has a line drawn through-crossed out)

A Bill ( crossed out-replaced with)  An Act
 For the relief of John McClellan
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of War be, and he is hereby, directed to place the name of John McClellan, of the State of Maine, on the roll of revolutionary pensioners, and to pay him at the rate of forty dollars per annum during his natural life, commencing on the fourth day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.

Approved, July 7th 1838 a true copy compared with the roll in this office.
Dept. of State
July 9th 1838
A. Vail
Chief Clerk
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H. R. 197
John M Clellan
Act July 7 1838
Maine Roll $40 per annum, commencing 4 March 1831
sent cert. to Hon. C. S. Davies, Portland Maine
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I James Sawyer of the city of Portland in the county of Cumberland and State of Maine mariner ^aged seventy one years, depose testify & say that I am well acquainted with John McLellan of said Portland and have known him ever since his boyhood. I further testify depose and declare that in the autumn and I believe in the month of September in the year 1781 the said John McLellan enlisted as a soldier in the company commanded by David Strout stationed at Cape Elizabeth in said county and of the Massachusetts troops which company had consisted of about forty soldiers or matrosses and was reduced to twelve men stationed in the Fort at said Cape Elizabeth. That I well remember said McLellan to have been a soldier and an enlisted soldier in said company under the command of said Strout from the time of his said enlistment until the news of peace in April 1783 unless the said McLellan obtained leave of absence or was about during two periods within the two dates aforesaid one of which periods was about two months and the other of about six weeks in which I was about privateering, but I well remember that said McLellan was doing duty as an enlisted soldier at each time when I went privateering as aforesaid in the said fort and that each of said periods when I returned he was doing duty as a soldier. And I have always understood & believed and have no doubt but that said McLellan remained an enlisted soldier as aforesaid during each period of my said absence. I further testify depose & say that  Joseph Noyes of Falmouth in said county was commissary & paymaster and I am knowing to the fact that said McLellan received his wages from him and that said Noyes supplied said McLellan & the rest of the men in said fort during the tie aforesaid with their rations. I further testify depose & say that I had a brother named Ephraim Sawyer ^now deceased, who served as an enlisted soldier with said McLelland and with a man named Daniel Davis during the time above mentioned and I distinctly recollect that in the first part of April 1783 after the news of peace the fired off all powder which remained. This was according to my best recollection & belief on the next day after the news of peace and on the next day after firing away the powder said McLellan my said brother and the said Daniel Davis and all rest who were in the fort, I believe twelve in all were discharged. And further saith not.
James Sawyer

State of Maine
Cumberland SS. On the twenty fifth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred & thirty four James Sawyer above named personally appeared before me the undersigned a Justice of the Peace within & for the county Cumberland aforesaid and made oath that the foregoing deposition by him subscribed is true according to his best knowledge recollection & belief. And I do certify that good faith & credit are due to said deponents declaration under oath.
J. D. Hopkins Just of the Peace for said county of Cumberland
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I Daniel Davis of the Cape Elizabeth in the county of Cumberland State of Maine mariner aged seventy one years do testify depose and say that I have always known John McLellan formerly of Cape Elizabeth and now of the city of Portland in the county of Cumberland from his boyhood-- and I further say that said McLellan in the fall of the year 1781 and I believe in the month of September enlisted as a soldier or matross in the Artillery company stationed at the Fort in said Cape Elizabeth commanded by David Strout which said company was of the Massachusetts troops and had consisted of about forty men be was then reduced to twelve--and I further testify depose and say that said McLellan continued to be an enlisted soldier in said company and stationed at said Fort from the time of his enlistment until the news of the peace of 1783 and received his regular rations and pay with the rest of the men stationed at said fort in said company under said Strout during all the period aforesaid. I further say that I well know the above because during all the time aforesaid & for several months next preceeding it I was an enlisted soldier in the same company myself and I very well remember that on the first part of April 1783 having just received new of the peace--Capt. Strout opened the magazine in said fort and by his orders all the powder  in cartridges & casks which remained was fired away in the eighteen pound piece and the four nine pounders in the fort the smaller pieces were not used on the occation and the next day after burning the powder the said McLellan, myself and the rest of the soldiers belonging to said fort were discharged.  And further saith not.
Mark-The X of Daniel Davis
Witness J. D. Hopkins

State of Maine
Cumberland SS on the twenty fifth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred & thirty four Daniel Davis above named personally appeared before me the undersigned one of the Justices of the peace within & for the county of Cumberland aforesaid and made oath that the foregoing deposition by him signed is true according to his best knowledge recollection & belief. And I do certify that full faith & credit are due to the declaration of said deponent under oath.
J. D. Hopkins, Just. of the peace for said county of Cumberland
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I Sarah Fernald of the city of Portland in the county of Cumberland and State of Maine, widow, aged seventy one years to testify depose and say that I am a daughter of Captain David Strout late of Cape Elizabeth in the count aforesaid that my said father commanded a company of Artillery stationed at the Fort in Cape Elizabeth during & from the year 1781 to the time of the peace of 1783 whichc company was of the Massachusetts troops. I further testify depose and say that when said company which had consisted of about forty men was reduced to twelve viz. early in the autumn of 1781 and I believe in the month of September John McLellan then of said Cape Elizabeth now of the city of Portland enlisted as a solder in said company and under my father's command and that said McLellan contimued to be an enlisted soldier in said company and stationed at said fort from the time of his said enlistment untilthe peace of 1783 and received regularly his rations together with the rest of said company from the commissary who if I remember right was Joseph Noyes. And further saith not.
Mark of 
Sara X Fernald
Witness J. D. Hopkins

State of Maine
Cumberland SS  On the twenty fifth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred & thirty four Sara Jernald above named personally appeared before me the undersigned one of the Justices of the Peace within & for the county of Cumberland aforesaid and made oath that the foregoing deposition by her signed is true according to her best knowledge recollection & belief. And I do certify that full faith & credit are due to the declaration of said deponent under oath.
J. D. Hopkins, Just. of the peace within & for the County of Cumberland

Maine District SS
District Clerk's office Sept. 26, 1834
In testimony that J. D. Hopkins Esquire is a Magistrate as above & annexed and that the signatures purporting to be his are genuine. I have hereto set my hand & seal official the day & year last above written.
John Mussey Clerk U.S. Court (illegible)
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I James Sawyer of Portland in the State of Maine, on oath declare that I have known John McLellan of Portland, ever since he was a boy and that he belonged for some time to a company of soldiers stationed in a Fort at Spring Point at Cape Elizabeth, before the close of the revolutionary war. The company was first commanded after the fort was built, as I recollect by George Denkes and afterwards by David Strout. The said Denke gave up the command of the company and went our privateering and took his son Lemuel Denke who had been a private in the company with him; The said McLellan took Lemuel Denke's place as a soldier in the Fort, I well remember that this was in the fall of the year 1781. I went out in the same privateer. I was gone two cruises, the first about two months, and the second six weeks. When I went away and when I returned both times, the said McLellan was serving as a soldier in the fort.  He remained there till after the peace. I was at the fort when they fired off the guns for peace and my brother, who was in the company, Daniel Davis and said McLellan were discharged at the same time. That was in April 1783.
James Sawyer
March 28,1834
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Cumberland SS March 28th, 1834 
The aforesaid James Sawyer made oath that the foregoing declaration by him signed is wholly true. He is a person of truth and veracity.
Signed & sworn to before
Charles S. Davis, Justice of the Peace

I certify the aforesaid James Sawyer to be a credible person.
C. S. David, Justice of the Peace
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I Daniel Davis of Cape Elizabeth in the State of Maine, on oath declare and say that I well know John McLellan of Portland and have known him ever since we were boys in Cape Elizabeth where he was born. The said McLellan entered the company of soldiers stationed at Spring Point in said Cape Elizabeth in the fort there, after the same was commanded by David Strout. I remember his being a private in the company in winters and one summer, before was discharged. I recollect that he entered before husking time in the fall of the year 1781. He was discharged at the same time I was In April 1783. We discharged the guns the day before on account of the rejoicing for peace; and replaced item in the fort. I am well satisfied from recollection that the said McLellan served in said company as much as a year and a half.
Daniel  X  Davis
  His mark

Cumberland SS. The above signed Daniel Davis made oath that the foregoing declaration by him signed is wholly true. The above signed Daniel Davis is a person of truth and veracity. Signed and sworn to March 28th 1834 before
S. S. Davies, Justice of the Peace.
I certify the above signed Daniel Davis to be a credible person.
C. S. Davies Just. of the Peace
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I Sarah Fernald of Portland in the
State of Maine, declare and say, that I
am now seventy years of age. I was the
youngest daughter of David Strout, formerly
of Cape Elizabeth, who commanded the
fort at Spring Point at Cape Elizabeth, at
the last part of the revolutionary war.
He was afterwards a justice of the Peace,
He has been dead about forty years. He
was called the Captain of the fort. My
mother was dead at the time he was in
command, I well recollect that he lived in
the fort from the autumn till the
next spring a part of the time that he
was in command. During that winter
my father received an injury in his left
foot, while in the exercise of his command,
which disabled him from being so active
in discharging his duty as he had before
been. His foot was much swelled by the
injury and was first lanced by Dr John
Degeo, and he was afterwards under the
care of Dr Louther, who was a physician
in Falmouth now Portland, After this injury he was unable to walk without crutches or a cane. He did not live in the fort the next summer after this injur but used to visit the fort frequently. As
soon as he was able, he used to be back
and forward at the fort even day or
two: -  sometimes every day. Our house
was near the ferry about a mile from the fort,
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My father continued to be commander of the fort, as I understood, tell the spring when the peace took place, which was not until after the next winter. It was considered in the family that the injury to my father's health and constitution, occasioned by the accident in the fort, was finally the cause of his death.
I well remember that John McLellan now of Portland was a soldier in the fort under my father. I was acquainted with him during that time: he used to be at our house with my brothers. I remember his being a soldier in the fort full a year; how much more I cant say- I well remember, that at the news of the Surrender of Cornwallis, one of the guns was brought out of the fort and fired a number of times. Mr McLellan was one of the men
engaged in bringing out and discharging the gun; , and my father was present giving derections. My father always kept the key of the magazine, I remember that they were firing over at Falmouth opposite (now Portland) rejoicing for the victory the same day.  I do not so well remember what took place the last winter my father commanded at the fort, as I think I was from home a part of the time
Sarah Fernald her mark

Cumberland ss. May 8th 1834 The above named Sarah Fernald who signed the above, her name being written at her request by her daughter in my presence made oath that the foregoing statement was wholly true
according to the best of her remembrance, before,
C S Davies Justice of the Peace
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I further certify that the aforesaid Sarah Fernald is a credible person.
C. S. Davies Justice of the Peace
Page 25

Ichabod Nichols
Elijah Kellog
C. S. Davis Justice of the Peace
Page 26

I Nicholas Emery residing in the
City of Portland in the State of Maine certify
that for about twenty six years I have been
acquainted with John McLellan of said Portland who has subscribed and sworn to his
declaration of having entered the service
of the United States and continued therein as
stated before the Hon. Ashur Weare Judge of
the District Court of the United States on the 8th
of the present month
And from my knowledge of said McLellans character for truth and veracity, I have the fullest
confidence in the truth of his representation as made in said declaration
Nicholas Emery
Portland May 9th 1834
Page 27

Maine District SS
District Clerk's Office May 12, 1834
In testimony that Charles S. Daveis Esquire is a Magistrate as written and that the signatures to be his are genuine. I have hereto set my hand and affixed the seal of the District Court the day and year last above written.
John Mussey Clerk U. S. Courts
Page 28

Petition of John McLellan to be placed on the list of revolutionary pensioners & be granted a pension.

Dec 12 1836
Ref to the Committee on Rev. Pensions

Jan. 24, 1837 Bill No. 874
Dec. 11 1837
Ref. to the Committee on

Revy. Pensions
Dec. 22 1837
Bill No. 197

Hon. Wm Bond

truth of service
Rev. Pens.
Page 29

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
.MAINE DISTRICT SS.
AT a Special District Court of the United States begun and holden at Portland, within and for said District, on the twenty sixth day of September A. D. eighteen hundred and thirty-four before the Honorable ASHUR WARE, Judge of said Court.
On this twenty sixth day of September aforesaid, personally appeared in open court before said District Judge John McLellan a resident of the city of Portland in the county of Cumberland in said Maine District, aged sixty-nine 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 provision made by the act of Congress
passed June 7th, 1832. That he enlisted as a matross in the company of Artillery commanded by David Strout and stationed at Cape Elizabeth in the said County in the month of September AD 1781 and that he continued to be an enlisted soldier or matross in the said company until the fifth day of April AD 1783 at which time he was discharged - that his said service was under three enlistments according to his best knowledge recollection & belief he cannot say that it was not under more than three enlistments - that said company had consisted of about forty men but at the time of his first enlistment as aforesaid it was reduced to twelve and so continued until his discharge aforesaid  - and during the whole term of his said service there was no other officer than the said Strout -  that the said company was stationed in the fort in said Cape Elizabeth  - the said company was of the Massachusetts troops -  and that he said McLellan & the rest of said company received their regular rations and pay from Joseph Nayes Commissary & Pay-master -  that said company was not, to the knowledge of said McLellan, attached to any regiment and he never knew of any other officer in it thou said Strout - who continued to command the same until the said McLellan's discharge aforesaid - Said McLellan further declares that at the time of his first enlistment aforesaid he resided in said Cape Elizabeth.
The said McLellan declares that he has no documentary evidence of his said service that he was stationed in the fort aforesaid during the whole period of his said service and was in no battle - that the
[damaged original, illegible]
aforesaid on the conclusion of peace - and no written discharges were given to any of said company- thare was only an open public and verbal discharge by the said Straut,-- that before said Straut commanded at said Fort George Drake commanded said company and when he commanded the said company it consisted of about forty men.
he hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or an annuity, except the present, and he declares that his name is not on any pension roll of any agency in any State, 
the State of
John McLellan
Sworn to and subscribed, the day and year aforesaid. Before
Asher Weare
U. S. Judge for the
District of Maine.
Page 30

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.
Ashur Ware 
Judge

I, John Mussey, Clerk of the District Court of the United States for Maine District, do hereby certify, that the foregoing contains the original proceedings of the said Court in the matter of the application of John McLellan for a pension.

In Testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the said Court, on this twenty ninth day of September A. D. one thousand eight hundred thirty-four
John Mussey, Clerk of the U. States District
Court for Maine District.