Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File B. L. Wt. 1927-100, for Job Tobias, Massachusetts
Page 1

(3-1776)
Service: Continental Mass
Number: B.L.Wt. 1927-100
Tobias, Job (Indian)
or
Tobey

Contents
Page 2

Job Tobias
No. 1927
Page 3

Application for Bounty 
Land by the Heir of
Job Tobias
No. 3

name appears on the company
of Sappers and Miners---
Page 4

Printed at the Envoy Office, Hudson (N.Y.)
DEPARTMENT OF WAR.
STATE OF Massachusetts)
COUNTY OF Barnstable } SS.
I, Joseph Tobias son and heir at Law, to Job Tobias deceased, do upon oath, testify and
declare, that, to the best of my knowledge and belief Job Tobias aforesaid, about, or in the year 1777 entered, or enlisted into the service of the United States, for the term of ""During the War:"" and, that he served in Regiment No........... of the Massachusetts Line, commanded by Colonel .........................; and that he continued in the service aforesaid, until the close of the War, when he was regularly discharged from the ...............Regiment of the .........................Line, commanded by Colonel.........................
I further testify and declare that my father the above said Job Tobias enlisted in the Town of Sandwich in the County and State aforesaid, into the service of the United States for the term of "during the war" and served to the close of the same and was discharged from the company of Sappers and Miners and that
the said Job died at sea about thirty one years ago.
I have never received a warrant for the Bounty Land promised to Job Tobias aforesaid, on the part of the United States, nor do I believe he has ever received it, or transferred his claim, in any manner, whatsoever:---
THEREFORE KNOW All Men, By These Presents, that I Joseph Tobias aforesaid, do hereby
constitute and appoint Reuben Baldwin of Greeneville, in the State of New-York, to
be my true and lawful Attorney, for me and in my name, to demand and receive, from the
Secretary of War, of the United States, a Warrant for the quantity of Land due me the only heir of Job Tobias as aforesaid. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this twenty seventh
day of December A.D. 1831.
-Joseph Tobias
Signed, seal and delivered in presence of
Nymphas  Marston

COUNTY of Barnstable ss.
Personally appeared before me Nymphas Marston a Justice of the Peace, in and for the County aforesaid Joseph Tobias subscriber
to the above declaration, who acknowledged the power of Attorney thereto subjoined, to be
his free act and deed; and likewise made solemn oath to the truth of the foregoing
declaration. Dated this twenty seventh day of
December A.D. 1831
Nymphas Marston Justice
of the Peace

STATE OF Massachusetts}
COUNTY OF Barnstable ⎬ SS.
In testimony that the above written Nymphas
Marston was a Magistrate, duly authorized to administer oaths, and take acknowledgments, &c. in the State of Massachusetts at the above
date, and that his name there subscribed, appears to be his usual signature; I have hereunto affixed the Seal of the Court and subscribed my name, at Barnstable this tenth day of January 1832
-Abner Davis   Clerk of the Court of Common
Pleas Barnstable County
Page 5

I Gideon Hawley of Sandwich in the County
of Barnstable in Massachusetts aged sixty five
years, being one of the Overseers of the Indian
Plantation of Mashpee in said County, on
oath testify and say that I was well acquainted with the following named Indians who belonged to said Plantation and who are
now deceased, to wit, Jacob Kester, Simon
Penfreaney, James Hester (who was a Pensioner of of the United States at the time of his death and an Indian, whose real name I understand was Job Tobias, but who was commonly called Job Tobey, and that I have always understood and believed and so now believe that said Jacob Simon, James and
Job were in the Army and I still recollect that said Jacob, James, and Simon came home on a furlough sometime during the war and came to my father's house, who was the minister of the gospel to said Tribe of Indians, and they
returned again into the Army as I understood-
from the close of the war to the time of the deaths of said Jacob, Simon, James and Job.
I resided near them and often saw them- and I and the said Hawley do further testify on oath that I am 
(over)
Page 6


also an Overseer of the Herring Pond Indians,
whose location is in said Sandwich and the
adjoining town of Plymouth, and that I
was well acquainted with Isaac Swift
an Indian of sd Herrring Pond tribe, who is
now deceased, and I have always understood and believed and now believe that sd Isaac Swift a soldier in the Army of the Revolution
and I further testify that I saw said Isaac
same at my fathers house and also at the Tavern of Benjamin Fessenden (who was my uncle) in Sandwich a short time before he, the sd Isaac went into the army and it was then said that he was going into the army and I afterwards understood that he was gone into
the army--- I further testify that the widow of said Isaac (whose name is now Patience Crook,) resides at present on the said Plantation of Mashpee.
-Gideon Hawley

Barnstable }
Decr 17th 1832} 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Barnstable County ss. 
Be it known that before me Nymphas Marston, one of the Justices of the Peace in
and for the County of Barnstable aforesaid personally appeared the above named Gideon Hawley, who is well known to me and is a man of truth and a credible witness, and made oath in due form of law to the truth of the foregoing Deposition which was written by me from his verbal Statement and subscribed
by him in my presence. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand at Barnstable in this eighteenth day of Dec. A.D. 1832
Nymphas Marston  Jus. Peace
Page 7

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Barnstable County ss. 
At a Court of Probate holden at Barnstable within said County on the sworn Tuesday of
January being the tenth day of said month
Anno Domini 1832.
The subscriber Register of the Court of Probate for the County aforesaid, hereby certifies that satisfactory evidence has this day been added to this Court to prove that Joseph Tobias otherwise called Joseph Tobey is the
only child and sole heir at law of Job Tobias, late of the Plantation of Mashpee in the County of Barnstable, deceased who was a soldier in the Corps of Sappers & Miners in the army of the Revolution.
Given under my hand & seal of said Court, this tenth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.
-Abner Davis   Register of Probate for the County of Barnstable.
Page 8

N. B.
The Scrips signed in satisfaction of this claim you will Please to forward to me at Freehold Greene County N. York
R. B.
No 3.
Page 9

Probate Certificate
in the Claim by the
heirs of Job Tobias
Page 10

Affidavit of Isaac Wickham 
& Nathan Pocknet
Page 11

State of Massachusetts }
Barnstable County } Ss
Isaac Wickhams a revolutionary pensioner of the United States aged seventy one years and
Nathan Pocknet aged sixty one years, both of the (Illegible) of all available in the County aforesaid, being first severally sworn according to law, do depose and say and each of them severally says, that they were well acquainted with several men of colour who enlisted as
soldiers in the Army of the Revolution and
served to the close of the Revolutionary War,
among whom were the following persons, to
wit, Job Tobias otherwise called Job Tobey) Jabez Jolly, Jacob Kester Isaac Swift, Simon Perpener and James Hester, all of whom died before the passage of the pension law of the United States in favor of the surviving soldiers of the Revolutionary Army except the said James Hester who survived and drew a pension from the United States for some
time but has since died - and the said
Isaac Wickhams one of the Deponent saith
that he was personally acquainted with all
the aforenamed persons while they were in the
Revolutionary army having seen them all
when in the service many times and that said Jolly was a fifer said Jacob Kester was a
sergeant and said Tobias belonged to the
corps of Sappers and miners and the others
were common soldiers-- and the said Pocknet
the other deponent saith that he well remembered when all the abovenamed persons came home from the army at the close of the war of the Revolution--- And the said
Page 12


deponents both say that they were well acquainted with all the aforenamed persons from the time they left the army till near the time of their deaths respectively--- and the said Pocknet one of the Deponent says that the aforenamed Job Tobias was commonly called Job Tobey but his real name was Job Tobias and said deponent says that he once sailed with said Job in the same ship and
he the said Job subscribed the shipping papers by the name of Job Tobias ---and the said
Nathan , the deponent saith that he has a personal knowledge of all the matters above stated by them except as to Jabez Jolly only, respecting whom he has no knowledge
except from common report, as the said Jolly resided at a considerable distance from the deponent and died soon after the war as the deponent is informed-
-Nathan Pocknet
-Isaac Wickham

State of Massachusetts }
Barnstable County ⎬ ss
Be it known that personally appeared before me, the subscriber, one of the Justices of the Peace within and for the County aforesaid
Nathan Pocknet and Isaac Wickham subscribers to the foregoing Deposition
who are both to me well known to be
men of truth, and are credible witnesses
Page 13

and made solemn oath to the truth
of the foregoing deposition by them
subscribed
Dated at Barnstable this thirtieth
day of December A.D. 1831
Nymphus Marston
Justice of the Peace
Page 14

Sandwich Dec 21       Free
Hon Secretary of War
War Dept
Bounty Land Office
Washington
////////////////////////////////
Rpl. Dec. 31. 1832
Page 15

Sandwich Barnstable County Massachusetts
December 20, 1832.
Sir
I herewith transmit further proof of identity in
support of the claim for Bounty Land by the
heirs of the six coloured men, who were soldiers in the Mass line, in the Army of the Revolution; whose papers of application for such Bounty, were transmitted in my letter of the 2d of May last past - and have to request that the examination of those papers and
Documents, thus transmitted may be resumed, and the result thereof, be forwarded to me at this place; as the claimants are anxious to know the result of their applications-- I would observe that the proof of the identity of the heirs in the foregoing claims has been collected with much care and pains, rendered more difficult by the almost extinction of some of the families of the original soldiers; and is more or less applicable to the tribes of Aboriginies to which they belonged-- The claimants, together with myself, are indebted to Gideon Hawley Esqr and Mr Ezra Crocker, (who have the oversight of the affairs of Indians, being especially appointed to that
office by the commonwealth of Mass'ts) for their ready assistance in identifying, and tracing the decent of the sd soldiers
whose age, and intimate acquaintance with sd tribes of Indians for a long series of years, has enabled them to be perfectly well
acquainted with each of the soldiers referred to above, and with their descendents, except Jabez Folley, who was from the north shore of this cape; and not personally known to said Hawley and Crocker, as another reason sd Jabez being a Drummer was prevailed upon to accompany the French Army and Fleet home to France and has not since been heard from
The proof of identity in this case will be found in the Deposition of Obed Coffin (who was a soldier, and is a pensioner of the U. States) forwarded in my former communication.
I also herewith transmit the papers in
relation to the claim for Bounty Land by William Stevens who is a son and only heir to Peleg Stevens, deacs'd --- late a private in Col Brooks 7th Massts. Reg't in the Revolutionary Army- claiming a Warrant in his favour, for the quantity of Bounty Land due him as the only heir to the before mentioned Peleg Stevens Dec'd---
Page 16

a power of Attorney for that purpose is duly executed to me; also one authorising me to draw scrip from the General Land Office, in the last mentioned claim---
It is evident from the Certificate of the Secretary of State of the commonwealth of Mass (herewith transmitted that sd Peleg Stevens, enlisted into the Army of the Revolution "for the War," and continued to serve as a " During War soldier", as far as the Rolls and Records in the Massachusetts line are carried forward in the Secretary's office which appears to be to the 31st of December 1781 - and unless some disqualification, or forfeiture to sd Bounty Land occurred after that period, it is presumed that said Peleg acquired
a right to sd Land Bounty from the U. States---
     If the before mentioned claims, or any of them should be considered admissible; you will please to issue Warrants in satisfaction of the same, and deposite them in the General Land Office accompanied by the power of Attorney authorizing me to draw Scrip of the same--- I would hereby countermand the directions endorsed on the back of the power
of Attorney in the claims of the heirs of the coloured man designating Freehold as the place of transmission of the scrip-- and would request the same to be forwarded to me at Sandwich Barnstable County Mass.
I would further observe that said Peleg Stevens was was a wounded invalid soldier, and was admitted to the Invalid list Roll of pensioners, and drew a pension as such several times previous to his Decease, which occured soon after the termination of the Revolutionary War-
Sir
At the particular request of Ensign Jason Blake
and his Daughter with whom he resides, and for their qualifications,  permit me to make the inquiry whether a Land Warrant has ever issued to any individual in satisfaction of his claim for Bounty Land from the United States-- Said Jason says that he served as a Sergeant in Capt Kellams Company of Col Rufus Putnam's 5th Mass. Regt untill the 1780, and then as Ensign till after the peace:-- and has never to his knowledge sold, or transferred his right to the U. States Land Bounty - further says that his commissions are in
Page 17


file in the pension office at Washington---
From a conversation had with sd Jason, it appears that soon after the termination of of the Revolutionary War; a Gentleman by the name of James Cullock (who was a Representative from Wentham) bought
the right sd Jason had acquired to the Mass. State Bounty Land, and it is to be feared that the sd James has claimed the United States Land Bounty also; altho it was not the intention of said Jason to sell the same---
Pleas to answer this communication and forward the same to me at this place
Verry respectfully Sir, I am your Obedient Servant
Reuben Baldwin

Hon. Secretary of War
War Dept Bounty Land Office
Washington
Page 18


THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Form VAM-51
Division of Veterans' Administration Archives
12-5-41
BOUNTY LAND WARRANT RECORD CARD*

Name: Tobin, Edward  Grade: Private
Line:  "in the Invalids"
Warrant Number: 13835  Acreage:    160
Issued:  November 11, 1791
to John Addoms,  assignee

*The information concerning the issuance of warrants carded on this form is found in volumes 2 to 4 of ""Land Warrants Issued Prior to 1800"" which are registers of bounty land warrants issued to non-commissioned officers and privates under congressional resolutions of September 16, 1776, and subsequent
dates. Other records relative to the applications for warrants appear to have been destroyed in the War Department fire of November 9, 1800.
Information concerning warrants surrendered to the Federal Government is to be found in General Land Office records in The National Archives.