Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 15,558, for Phineas Penfield, Connecticut
Page 8

I well remember he volunteered at the Danbury Alarm under Capt Leml Hotchkiss in the year 1777   I also remember he volunteered under Capt Peter Curtis in the year 1778  He was gone at this time about two weeks   we both lived at home with our Father   I am 72 years old next November.
        [Signed]  Nathaniel Penfield

Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid
      [Signed]  Thomas Lee Judge of Probate
                              Berlin District

State of Connecticut
Hartford County}  Js  Berlin  August 2" 1832

We Jonathan Cogswell a Clergy man in the town of Berlin - Parish of New Britain and Doctor Samuel Hart's residing in the same hereby certify that we are well acquainted with Phineas Penfield who has subscribed and sworn to the foregoing declaration that we believe him to be 76 years of age; that he is respected and believed in the neighborhood where he resides, to have been a soldier of the Revolution and we concur in that opinion.
                        [Signed] J Cogswell                                                                                                                
                                      Samuel Hart 2nd
Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid
            [Signed] Thomas Lee  Judge of Probate  
                                 Berlin District

And the Said Court hereby declares their opinion after the investigation 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 the said Jonathan Cogswell who has signed the preceding certificate is a Clergyman resident in the town of Berlin Parish of New Britain
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O. W. and N. Division.
  Department of the Interior
BUREAU OF PENSIONS,
   Washington, D. C., ___________________189____

In reply to your request for a statement of the military history of Phineas Penfield, a soldier of the Revolutionary War, you will please find below the desired information as contained in his application for pension on file in this Bureau.

[A chart follows with five columns and two sub-columns; data follows]

DATES OF ENLISTMENT
LENGTH OF SERVICE
RANK
OFFICERS UNDER WHOM SERVICE WAS 
      RENDERED    CAPTAIN  COLONEL
STATE

July 76   3 mo    pri     Capt. John Langdon 
       Col. Strong   Conn.
July 77   8 mo n  pri    Capt. Peter Curtis 
       Col. Strong   Conn.
Nov  79  2 mo    Corpl  Capt Peter Curtis
       Col Strong   Conn.

Battles engaged in,   None mentioned
Residence of soldier at enlistment, Farmington
Date of application for pension, [June 13, 1832 
      crossed out]  June 30 -32
Residence at date of application,  Berlin, Conn.
Age at date of application,  76 years
   Remarks:  No record of Jacob White    Name 
                   of wife and children not given.
                              Very respectfully,

                                          Commissioner.

C. H. Eddy Esq
Windsor,
    Conn

7941 b-3m
Page 13

                 Berlin  (New Britain)  Feby 17 1833
 
Dear Sir
    This letter will accompany the papers of Phineas Penfield returned, we hope they will meet the ]illegible]  of the Department; he has spared n pains to establish his claim - no  one, unless they have had the trial, can imagine the difficulties that prevail in these old worn out soldiers substantiating their claims, not one that has been before this Court has the last memorandum of his services - they normally did not expect to be paid - most of them are very poor - and some [word inserted] not able even to write their names - and their statements are made from memory & conversing with their old comrades which in many cases they have not seen for half a century - they often differ as to officers - having been at different times & under  different officers - there is no doubt of an applicant who has been before this Court not being a soldier in the Revolution - the age they have being as proof of their good habits generally; we could get all the inhabitants id necessary. of the older class, to testify that they
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Hon. Lewis Cass
   Secretary at War
    City Washington


LT
Page 17

                 Berlin (New Britain) Feby 21st 1833

Dear Sir

    This letter will accompany the application of Lemuel Smith whose papers were returned - we hope for evidence will be satisfactory as to proof of his claim - much pain has been taken, some further proof is annexed - I have supposed the objection No. 10 in the brief was an error. as it was the same text that the Clerk has affixed to all the papers - is the only one when in the Office - and is on the same [illegible] orPhrase used in the different Office in this vicinity - the name of the district, with the word Probate
An early decision is urgently requested - none have been granted to my knowledge in their District; -  the applicants are disheartened thinking they never to get their rights - many are very needy - some are dead  3 have died since their papers were sent   3 have gone to the poor house  2 are near the close of life by cancerous affliction - the expectation of something to assist them in their distress in the closing terms is great indeed!

                                        Yours with Esteem
                                       Thomas Lee
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State of COnnecticut'Hartfoed County}  Js   Berlin February 14th 1833

I Nathaniel Penfield of Berlin aforesaid certify that in the month of October in the year 1776 we heard that my Brother Phineas Penfield who was in the service of the United States at New York was in his way home and very sick  My father and myself set out to meet him and found him in New Haven  he had a faint turn & was supposed to be dead   the neighbors were called in to lay him out after being in that situation about an hour revived      and recovered  he was in the service at this time three months  I am 72 years old last November   
                         [Signed}  Natl K. Penfield

Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid
        [Signed]  Thomas Lee Judge of Probate 
                           Berlin District

State of Connecticut
Hartford County} Js  February 14th 1833

I Nandiah Woodruff of Farmington in said Hartford County certify and say, that I have been a long time acquainted with Phineas Penfield of Berlin aforesaid - That I know that said Penfield was a private in a company of State troops, enlisted for the term of eight months, under Capt Peter Curtis, of Col Eno's Regiment, that said Company did duty in Fairfield County Connecticut & West Chester County and [illegible] in the State of New York, from the beginning of May 1777 to sometime in the month of January 1778. I served in the same company at the same time
        [Signed]  Nandiah Woodruff

Sworn to & subscribed the day & year aforesaid
        [Signed] Thomas Lee Judge of Probate 
                                Berlin District
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Middletown, Court 29th March AD 1833 -
Sir:  The papers of Rejoice Camp, Asher Wright, Jonathan Wells, Levi Hall, Manoah Camp, Abraham Scranton, Jabez Chalker, Stephen Tibbets, William Butler, and Louis Francis, which were returned to this District four times since for corrections and addition, [next, [three words crossed out] have at length been completed, and the last of them forwarded to the Department.  Most of the applicants are in very low circumstances and unable to bear the necessary expenses of the proceedings. We should perhaps do injustice to name any particular individual of them; it is sufficient to say, they are most of them poor and need the aid of Government for their support.  In the course of the investigation which has been long and somewhat tedious, we have been drawn into a more intimate acquaintance with them, and have no hesitation in declaring, after what we have seen and heard, that their Declarations are entitled to respect and every way worthy of credit.  We with them [illegible] to the full extent of their claims, because we believe they have performed. and we think them equally worthy [both words underlined] and deserving [word underlined] with those whose papers have been acknowledged by this Court and their funding already granted. [last four words underlined]
We have forwarded to the Department, six month, since,
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                                       War Department
                                       Pension Office
                                       15th November 1838.

Sir,
    The evidence in support of the claims of Nathaniel Penfield, Elijah Francis, John Andrews, James Francis, and Phineas Penfield to pensions, under the act of 7 June 1832 has been examined.
   The statement of Nathaniel Penfield, hardly justifies the high encomiuns bestowed in your letter, upon his respectability and moral character.  He says, he enlisted in Col. Eno's regiment in March 1778. and marched to West Point and served a year; and his witnesses expressly testify to his actual service for an entire year. Now the regiment of minute men of Col. Enos , was raised for a year upon the express condition that they were to serve more than three
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I do not so understand the interp   T. Lee