Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 30508, for Justinian Jefferson, Maryland
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Md.
Jefferson, Justinian
S30508
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Kentucky 31,968 Justinian Jefferson of Mason Co. in the state of Kentucky who was a Private in the company commanded by Captain Murdock of the regt. commanded by [blank] in the Md. line for 6 months
Inscribed on the roll of Kentucky at the rate of 20 Dollars ___ Cents per annum to commence on the 4th day of March, 1834.
Certificate of Pension issued the 17th day of July 1842 and sent to Hon. Garret Davis, House of Representatives
Arrears to the 4th of Sept '42     $ 30.00
Semi=anl. allowance ending to Mar '43 10.00
$240.00
Revolutionary Claim
Act June 7, 1832
Recorded by D. Brown Clerk
Book E 2. Vol. 7. Page 27
Reported to Agent
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35.367
Justinian Jefferson
Kentucky
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Declaration
In order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7th, 1832.
State of Kentucky
County of Mason
On this 7th day of June 1842, personally appeared before me John McCarthy a justice of the4 Peace in and for the County of Mason & Commonwealth of Kentucky, Justinian Jefferson, a resident of the County of Mason & State of Kentucky, aged Eighty four years on the 2nd day of September [blank] 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 volunteered as a private in the Maryland Militia in the spring of 1781 as well as he now recollects, in Montgomery Maryland. At the time he volunteered he belonged to a militia company commanded by Capt. George Walter. This militia company was required to furnish four men & for this purpose the company was laid off into [blank], and as as they then [blank] it "cleared one of the [blank]" The first officer under whom he was placed was named Campbell (an Irishman) but he does not now recollect the rank he held. From Montgomery County where he volunteered or enlisted he marched under Campbell to Georgetown in Maryland where he remained some time under the command o Campbell & from Georgetown he was marched to Annapolis & after remaining there some time was marched back again to Georgetown where Captain William Horedock or Hendock took command of the Company to which he belonged.  He cannot recollect the name of any of his field officers at this period, but he recollects
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that his orderly Sergeant was named Applegate.  Whilst in the company of Captain Horedock he recollects that Hezekiah Murphy and a man by the name of Hickman belonged to his [blank] and he cannot recollect the names of the others so as to state them with accuracy.  From Georgetown he was marched down to the siege of York where he arrived in the evening the battle commenced.  This was in the fall of 1781.  He was at the siege of York and recollects well to have seen Genl. Washington, Lafayette De [blank] & [blank] there, and was present at the time Cornwallis surrendered his sword to Gent. Washington.  He recollects well how they gained ground on the British by digging entrenchments in the night time nearer and nearer to where the British were.  He recollects also that the French ships blocked  up the river below and as he understood to keep out the British ships.  As well as he recollects he was discharged from the militia after the siege of York having marched back as he thinks to Georgetown.  From Georgetown he went home and was there taken sick, but he cannot remember when his discharge was given him or who it was signed by, as he could not read.  Before he went home but at what point he cannot now recollect, but he thinks just after the siege of York, he had enlisted for three years in what he understood to be Genl. Washington's life guard.  He recollects that Hezekiah Murphy enlisted with him and he thinks they enlisted under a Col. Coleman. He had a furlough to go home given him and after he arrived at home he was taken sick and the time given him by his furlough being nearly out he applied to a magistrate & had it extended on account of his not being able to travel.  So soon as he was able to travel he went to the head of Elk where he found the troops. He was however still sick & unable to
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do much service.  From the head of Elk he was sent to Fredericktown Maryland he still being sick. He was finally discharged but where or who gave him his discharge he cannot recollect.  His last discharge was a conditional one, and he was to be ready again at a minutes notice.  He cannot remember how long he served in the Militia, or how long in the regular army, but he knows that he got home in the summer of 1782 and was never called on afterwards. He recollects that at the time he enlisted a quarrel took place between Capt. Murdock & Col. Coleman. The captain did not like to give up his men and Coleman said he would have them and this was the cause of the quarrel.  He recollects of having seen Genl. Smallwood but recollects nothing else of him.  He never received any thing for his services except $8 in Continental paper which was paid to him by a man by the name of Hickman. The 8 Dollars he got was worth about $4.  He has lost both of his discharges long ago,, and he knows of no one living at this time by whom he can prove his services.  Though he is informed that his name together with Murphys are on the list of Discharged Soldiers of the Maryland Militia at Annapolis Maryland,  He has a record of his age & was born in 1758 in Maryland where he lived for 35 or 36 years. He then removed to Mason County Kentucky where he now resides.  He states that he is now so old that his memory has failed him and that he cannot recollect names & circumstances as well as he could a few years ago. He applied for a pension about the year 1820 he thinks, but it was refused him, because they said he had too much property to have a pension.  When they refused him
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his pension he then declared that he never would apply again.  But he is now so old, and his wife she is yet living is also old and infirm, that he thinks he ought to apply again and that his circumstances require that assistance which the bounty of his country has provided for the soldiers of the Revolution. He states that he has no documentary evidence in his possession showing his services or the time he went into the army or the time he was discharged.  He believes that he volunteered or enlisted in the Maryland Militia in the spring of 1781 that he served therein until a period of five months after the siege of York, when he enlisted as herein before stated in what was called as he understood it at the time Washingtons life Guard and in which he served until the summer of 1782, a period he believes of seven months, when he was discharged and returned home.  He hereby relinquishes any 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.  Justinian his X mark Jefferson
Sworn to an subscribed before me. John McCarthy J.P. Md
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after all the erasures and interlineations which appear upon the face thereof had been made. and I hereby declare it is my belief from my examination and from Knowledge of him that he was a revolutionary soldier and served as he states.  Given under my hand the 7th day of June 1842.
John McCarthy J. Peace
Mr Hiram Baker a clergyman residing in Mason County Kentucky and Samuel Cracraft and John McCarthy residing in the same County, hereby certify that we are well acquainted with Justinian Jefferson who has subscribed and sworn to the foregoing declaration. that we believe him to be Eighty four years of age; that he is reputed and believed in the neighborhood where he resides to have been a Soldier of the Revolution, and that we concur in that opinion. Sworn and subscribed the 13th day of June 1842.
Hiram Baker
Samuel Cracraft
John. McCarthy
State of Kentucky
Mason County Sct
At a court began and held for Mason County, at the Court House thereof in the town of Washington on Monday the 15th day of June in the year 1842 was this day produced in Court together with the
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certificate of John McCarthey a Justice of the Peace for Mason County, certifying that the same had been sworn to before him, together with the statements of Hiram Baker, Samuel Cracraft and John McCarthey, which were sworn to by the said  Hiram Baker, Samuel Cracraft and John McCarthey. The Court is of the opinion that the said Justinian Jefferson is entitled to a pension,  and that the said Hiram Baker, Samuel Cracraft and John McCarthey are entitled to full credit, which is ordered to be certified to the proper office of Government.
In testimony whereof I John James Key clerk of the said Mason County Court have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of said County, at Washington this 14th day of June 1842.  Jn. Jas. Key
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[blank] deponent states that he knowd said Jefferson from his pers. recollection in state of Mary Land untill said Jefferson moved from Mary Land to Kentucky and some time after said deponent moved to Kentucky where said deponent found said Jefferson living in
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Commonwealth of Ohio, Sct.
The deposition of John Jackson taken the 28 day of May 1842 in Ohio Brown County union township to be read as evidence on the part and in behalf of Justinian Jefferson a revolutionary soldier the deponent being seventy seven years of age and first duly sworn deposeth and saith
that said Deponent was raised and lived with said Jefferson boy and man in the state of Mary Land untill said Jefferson moved from the state of Mary Land to Kentucky; and that said Jefferson was raised by said deponents father from the time said Jefferson was a small child and said Jefferson went into the army of the revolution from the same place and neighborhood where said Deponent lived Deponent believes in 1781 with the militia of the Mary Land Line deponent states he knows said Justinian went into the army from the state of Mary Land Montgomery County and knows said Jefferson  since ten or twelve years, after said Jefferson returned from the army said Deponent dont know how long said Jefferson served or in what capacity said deponent knows he read two discharges that said Jefferson got from the army of the revolution for said Jeffersons services and Deponent believes that one of said Jeffersons discharges was given and an a discharge by a general Smallwood. Deponent cant say what the name of the other officer was that signed the other discharge but said Deponent believes it was the Captain that served in General Washingtons Life guard
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said deponent states that he knows said Jefferson from his pers. recollection in state of Mary Land until said Jefferson moved from Mary Land to Kentucky = and some time after said deponent moved to Kentucky where said deponent found said Jefferson living in Kentucky Mason County where said Jefferson now lives and said deponent knows that it is the same identical person that was raised by said deponent's father and went to the army of the revolution = and this deponent further saith not.
John Jackson
Brown County Sct.
The foregoing deposition of John Jackson was taken subscribed and sworn to before the undersigned a Justice of [blank] in and for the State of Ohio Brown County at this time and place and for the purposes contained in the caption thereof = and further certify that from old age and frailty that it was very hard and difficult for said deponent to go to the state of Kentucky at this or perhaps any other time = and I further state that from the character of said deponent that what ever he states on word or oath that it may be relied on as truth and fact  given under my hand this 28th day of May 1842.
John Beasley
Justice of the Peace
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The State of Ohio
Brown County
I John H. Blair, clerk of the Court of common pleas within and for said county of Brown, do hereby certify that John Beasley Esq. whose name is subscribed as Justice of the Peace, to the foregoing certificate, was at the date thereof, and now is an acting Justice of the Peace within and for said county, duly commissioned and qualified as such, that the name "John Beasley" heretofore written is in the proper hand writing of the said Beasley , and is genuine; and that full faith and credit are due to all his official acts, as such Justice of the Peace; that his commission bears date April 16. April 1840, and will expire on the 16th of April 1843. 
In testimony whereof I have hereto subscribed my name and affixed the seal of said court, at Georgetown, this 10th day of June A.D. 1842.
John H. Blair Clerk B.C.R.
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35.367
Justinian Jefferson
Kentucky
Admitted
Private 6 mo. $20.
Cap. Murdock [blank]
Act of June 1832
Hon. Garrett Davis 
[blank]
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Land Office, Annapolis, 9th May, 1842.
I hereby certify that by "A List of discharged Soldiers of the two Battalions of Militia raised to serve nine months in the Continental Army in the year 1781" and remaining in this office, That the name of Justinian Jefferson, appears upon said List to have been discharged on the 3rd of December, 1781, and received the sum of 10.lb. 8.
George G. Brown
Reb. Land Off. W. [blank] Md.
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July 14 1842
J. L. Edwards Esq.
Pension Office
Hon. G. Davis
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Washington City 12th July 1842
Col Edwards
Dr Sir
I send you the application of Jefferson a soldier of the revolution for a pension. [blank] proofs accompanying. I ask your early attention to it.
Yrs respectfully
Garrett Davis
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Washington City 14th June 1842
Hon. Garret Davis. 
Enclosed you have the Decl. of Justinian Jefferson of Mason Cnty, for the purpose of obtaining a pension, with such proofs as could be easily had. You will remember that his name is on the roll of discharged militia of Maryland at Annapolis in the land office.  I apprehend he is also entitled to county land (40 acres [blank]) from the state of Maryland.
The old man's Declaration is definitive, as that he could with detail his services with certainty.  He only recollects prominent facts. His declaration is written from his own story.  He in 1820 applied for a pension, but owing to his having a considerable property at that time he failed to obtain it, and he then declared
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that he never would apply again and hence the delay. All who speak of him here regard him as being a soldier of the revolution & he has born that reputation since he first came to Ky.  If you can assist him in procuring his pension for I believe verily that none have a juster claim to one, you will deliver this family a signal service.  I do not think that he ever stood in need of the bounty of his country before. He and his wife are now both old and infirm, and have raised a large family and they have I imagine divided their substance amongst them.
[blank] to communicate.  All is anxiety here upon the subject of the tariff.  That seems to be the only measure that we poor devils can hope to carry, out of the numbers making up our political doctrines.
You have no doubt seen Judge Randalls opinion in relation to deeds of trust  made after the enactment of the Bankrupt Law.  You must know that many in your county as well as mine have assigned their property through this means to preferred creditors,  and as we understand that opinion
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they are utterly worthless.  Now Judge Monroe has decided that a deed thus made is not fraudulent by the Laws of the state in state law, and the debtor cannot be forced into Bankruptcy  or as to distribute the property, thus  conveyed, under the operation of the Bankrupt law to the whole of the creditors.
If your leisure will permit I should be glad to have your opinion upon the subject, and such other opinions as you may be apprized of, and whether the soundness of Randalls opinion is questioned or acquiesced in.
Very respectly,
Mr. Rbt.  [blank]
H. Taylor
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30508
[blank] Invalid
File No. 30 508
Jestinian Jefferson

[blank] Rev War
Act: June 7th A.D.
Index: Vol. 8, Page 209
Arrangement of 1870
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Mason County Kentucky June the 13th 1842
Dear Sir
This is to inform you that I have sent you [blank] best and all I can do in the present Declaration. the old man's mind is so much affected by old age and affliction that he can give no better account of his services than merely to recollect unconnected occurrences that can give you no consistent information, as the Law requires. When questioned or conversed about the army and his services, his mind surely and frequently will do no better at this date he can only tell of some unconnected events that was transcribed in the Revolution and some times he tell and remembers some of his officers named and then in another conversation he will give another set of names and forget the first that he would  name but they will all be proven and right names and the officers he knowd in the army, before he was struck down about three years ago I believe with a kind of paraletic he could have given every necessary information required but you will see sir that we could not get him to court at the time his declaration was taken = he got fall and either his hips or his back or both is so much cripled that he can't bear to be moved in any manner that he could have been taken to court. We have done the best we can and when his Declaration was taken, he could not give near as much information as he did some other times of conversation. Sir the Letter [ blank] Anderson I sent you before stating he was marched from York town to [blank] Eutau Springs he now says was wrong, it was to the head of Elk, since Declaration, when old Mr. Howard was alive he knowd all about his service & old Mr. Watson
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but they are both gone, and the only evidence we have at this time of his services is what is contained in Jacksons deposition = and as the said Jackson was only about fifteen or sixteen years old at the time my father went into the army and since I can do no better than we have done = the services as stated is certainly truth but will be cause to make them answer the Evidence Required by Law with me is doubtfull. but sir gladly commit the papers to your care = and management and your attention and trouble will be thankfully received and faithfully reciprocated.
Yours Respectfully
Perry Jefferson to Garrett Davis Esq.
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Jefferson 
to Bequest Cracraft
Mr. G. Davis
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Mr. Jeremiah Cracraft = Sir the information desired in this request is to find the name of  [blank] or Justinian Jefferson on the War Register of the Revolution of the united States he was of the Maryland Line was marched to the siege of York under the command of Captain Wm Moudock or Modack and while at York the said Jefferson Enlisted under Colonel Coleman and was marched from York to the Eutau Springs and was there discharged. the said Jefferson says that the name of [blank] or Hezekiah Murphy is recorded either before or after hi name. They both enlisted at the same time.
Yours Respectfully
Perry Jefferson