Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File W. 13594, Constant Graves, R.I.

SERVICE
NUMBER
968
Graves, Constant Knight Comfort
W 13594
Former Widow
CONTENTS
[Blank lined area for entries]
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3236
Rhode Island
Comfort Knight former widow of Constant Graves deceased
who died on the 5th August 1804 of Providence, in the State of R.I.
who was a Paymaster in the Company commanded by Captain Garzia of the Rgt, commanded by _____ in the R.I. State line for Mts. Private Infy.
9th Regt Artillery
Inscribed on the Roll of Rhode Island at the rate of 48 Dollars 70 Cents per annum to commence on the 4th day of March, 1834.
Certificate of Pension issued the 22 d day of Feb y 1834 and 1 st Hon. T. R. Knight Senate U.S.
Arrears to the 4th of Sept 1839 $44.46 Semi-annual allowance ending Mar. 4. 24.38
$438.84
{ Revolutionary Claim, Act July 4, 1836, Section the 9 th Sub Section 3738 }
Recorded by Alma Clerk, Book _____ Vol. _____ Page 92

State of Rhode Island
County of Providence
On this 31 st day of December A D 1839 personally appeared before me David Potter one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas within & for said County Comfort Knight now resident in Slatersville in said County aged 79 years & upwards who being duly sworn according to law doth on her oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the acts of Congress of July 4 1836 March 3 d 1837 & the Joint Resolution of Congress of March 7 1838 - She declares & says that she intermarried with Constant Graves on the 28 th day of March 1779 she remembers it from the circumstance that it was her birth day, she was 19 years of age on that day, but her marriage is not recorded in the public records of said Town of Slatersville, but it is in her old Bible herewith annexed & the birth of her oldest child is also recorded in an old Hymn book herewith annexed his name

so as Samuel & he was born March 6 1780 that after there was an intermarriage the said Constant Graves her husband performed several terms of duty in the Army in Jonathan  James Knight's Company on Rhode Island but she cannot specify his services but must refer to the evidence And she further declares that she lived with the said Constant as his wife until August the eighth day of when the said Constant died 1804 and she further declares she lived a widow until the 23 d day of October 1814 when she intermarried with James Knight & lived with him as his wife until 22 d day of October 1839 when he died also that since his death she has remained a widow wherefor she requests a pension by virtue of the acts of said for the services of her said first husband Constant  Constant Graves which he performed in the Army both before & after her said intermarriage with him the said Constant belonged to her said estate Attest my Israel Potter
Constant X Knight Mark

Providence So In the City of Providence Dec 31 st A D 1839 Personally appeared before me the within named Comfort Knight and made oath to the foregoing declaration by her subscribed in my presence by making her mark And I further certify that from age and infirmities she is too feeble to attend Court
Isaac Patten Just. C. C. Pleas

Comfort Knight 4916
formerly widow of Constant Graves R.I.
Act 4 July 36 & joint res. 3 March 37 res. 7 July 38 on Roll Capt. Gargia - 8 June 78 to 10 March 79 -
9 mo. 90s Maloffs 3 mo. private of Infantry
no deduction
Hon. N. R. Knight Senate U.S.

I, Josiah Westcott of Scituate in the County of Providence do hereby certify and say that I have had the office of Town Clerk of Scituate twenty five years last May, and have by virtue of said office the custody of the Records of Marriages and Births &c. that I have examined said Records from the year 1778 up to the year 1820 And I cannot find any Record of the Marriage of Constant Green to Sarah Bates who is now the Widow of former Knight, nor can I find any Record of the birth of any child of said parties, I also certify that but very few Marriages or Births appear to have been recorded during that Period or since in Scituate January 15. A.D. 1840.
Witness Josiah Westcott Town Clerk
State of Rhode Island &c.
President J. In Providence in said County on this 15 th day of January A.D. 1840. Josiah Westcott before me appeared & made oath that the above statement is true
I certify that the said Josiah Westcott is a credible witness
William H. Smith Justice of the Peace

State of Rhode Island &c.
Secretarys office Jan 15. 1840.
I Henry Bowen Secretary of said State and Keeper of the Records and the Seal thereof.
So certify, that at the date of the official certificates annexed, the said Laurel Potter was associate Justice of the Court of Common Pleas within the County of Providence: William H Smith, Justice of the Peace for the City of Providence in said County, and William Harrison Justice of the Peace for the town of Warwick in the County of Kent, severally elected and commissioned as appears of record. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Seal of said State at Providence the day and year above written.
Henry Bowen

August 13, 1925
Mrs. Burton A. Crane 517 West Tenth St., Erie, Penn.
Madam:
I have to advise you that from the papers in the Revolutionary War pension claim W. 13549 it appears that Constant Graves while a resident of Scituate, Providence County, Rhode Island enlisted in March 1777 and served one month as private in Captain Jonathan Knight's Company, Colonel John Waterman's Rhode Island Regiment.
He enlisted June 8, 1778, served nine months and nine days as matross in Captain Garzia's Company, Colonel Elliott's Rhode Island Regiment of Artillery and was in Sullivan's Rhode Island Expedition.
In 1780 he enlisted and served one month as private in Captain Samuel Wilbur's Company, and in 1781 and served one month in Captain Jonathan Knight's Company, both tours in Colonel John Waterman's Rhode Island Regiment.
Soldier married March 28, 1779 in Scituate, Rhode Island, Comfort Bates born March 28, 1780. He died August 3, 1760
Miss Wilson see this as it was taken from the 1812-17 pension claim for his daughter

1804 in Scituate, Rhode Island. His age is not given.
His widow Comfort married the second time on October 23, 1814, James Knight who died October 22, 1839.
His widow Comfort was allowed pension on her application executed December 31, 1839 on account of the services of her first husband Constant Graves. She was then a resident of Scituate, Rhode Island. It is not stated whether James Knight was a soldier of the Revolution.
Constant and Comfort Graves' oldest child Samuel was born March 6, 1780 and their son John was born about 1787, and living in Scituate, Rhode Island in 1839.
Respectfully,
I did not use the date of births as given on a copy from the Bible returned. It was not a certified statement of the widow's data was a personal statement —
WINFIELD SCOTT Commissioner.

MRS. BURTON ASHLEY CRANE 517 WEST TENTH STREET ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA
June 26, 1925.
Dept. of the Interior, Pension Bureau, Washington, D.C.
Commissioner of Pensions,
Dear Sir;--
May I have copy of the pension record of the Samuel Knight, who died at Providence R.I. 2 July 1826, listed among Revolutionary pensioners of 1818 ?
Also of Comfort Knight, of Scituate, R.I., on pension roll of 1840, ae 80 yrs; resided with John Graves, ?
Thanking you, I am
Very truly,
Mary Knight Crane

R. d.
1925-Aug 13 - H. T. M. B. Co. Bureau (MMS)
Rev WIDOW, &c.
File No. 13594
Couplet Knight Former Witness Constant Brade Prisoner War
Act: July 4th 86
Index: Vol. 2 Page 408
[Arrangement of 1870.]

Div of Bounty Land
General
Comr of Pensions, Washington,
D.C.
OFFICIAL
This Envelope is to be used only for Post-Office Business.

Department of the Interior PENSION OFFICE
Washington, D.C.
18
I am James James Graves was born March 1781 Comfort Graves -- -- Feb 16 - 1757. & was married 28th Nov 1779 This is all of record in the two books sent to this Office - Evans clk Aug 14 77

Widows
File No. 13.594
Comfort King Widow of Constant Grunes
Receipt for Bible in enclosed and to be filed
Sep. 18. 1877.
trans dk.
[Handwritten flourish]
trans

N. O. W. B. L. Division. Evans
Department of the Interior. PENSION OFFICE.
Washington, D.C. Sep 8. 1877.
Dear Sir
I herewith transmits to your address the old Testaments which were sent to this office to be filed in evidence when Mrs. Cornforth Knight made application for pension in 1839.
Please acknowledge the receipt of the books on the back of this letter and return it (the letter) to this Office in the enclosed envelope.
Very respectfully J. H. Bentley. Commissioner M.O.W.M.
Phenix P.O.C. Kent County R. T. For W. H. Graves.

Kent Co Coventry Record the Book
Sept 12 A 1877
William H. Graves

Post Office
G. R. BRAYTON, P. M.
Providence, R. I. Sept 5 th 1877
Com of Pensions,
Sir:
If you will send Bible, filed, by Heirs of Comfort Knight or Constant Graves, in 1839, to W m H. Graves Phenix, Kent Co. Rhode Island - it will reach a grand-son
Respectfully,
G. R. Brayton
Postmaster

have unknown at P. O. and I regret that limited clerical force precludes searching of ancient records
R. Swanton P. M.

Bounty Land Div P.W.B.E.
Department of the Interior PENSION OFFICE
Washington D.C. June 5 th 1872.
Dear Sir
Please furnish this office with the names and Post Office address of some of the descendants of Comfort Wright widow of Constant Graves late a Private in the Re d . War.
Application for pension was made by the widow in 1839. She was at that time 79 years of age.
A Bible, containing a family record, was filed in Evidence. It is now desired to return said Bible to the family. Any information you can gather having this object in view will be thankfully rec d . by this office.
Please return this communication with your reply. To the Post Master Providence R.I.
Very respectfully J. G. Burleigh Commissioner Pensions

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Young catnip
March 79 Knight July 80 Wilbur - 81 Knight
Warwick Bristol R.I.
1- 1 1-

Providence Jan 16 1870
Sir
I herewith enclose the application of Comfort Knight formerly in company of Constant Graves who served in Elliott's regiment of Artillery. As there is now no one living, as it is believed, who served with him in that regiment she relies on the Rolls in the Pension office - There are many who have heard of his serving in that regiment but did not serve with him. I also enclose an old Bible which contains a record of the marriages & an old Testament which contains the record of the births of their eldest children - referred to in her declaration.
I am respectfully yours -
J. L. Edwards Esq
Betsy C. Knight

I Stephen Young of Scituate in the county of Providence in the State of Rhode Island do testify & say that I am now eighty two years of age. that I was well acquainted with Constant Graver formerly of said Scituate, husband of late Comfort Graver now the widow of James Knight, I was well acquainted with the said Constant before her marriage with said Constant.
And I further testify & say that the said Constant & myself did several tours of duty together as privates in Capt Jonathan Knight's and Capt Samuel Wilbur's companies & when on duty were in Colonel John Waterman's Regiment, of Militia. In March 1777 the said Constant & myself served together as privates one month , in Capt Jonathan Knight's company stationed at Warwick neck about fifteen miles from our home, for which we were paid & received rations.
Just after this service I enlisted into the fifteen months service & did not see him again till after my said enlistments expired, but I frequently saw him on duty. My enlistments expired as one of them on the sixteenth of March 1778. the other on the 16 th of March 1779.
I think the said Constant served in the Artillery Company commanded by Capt Gorgea in Col Elliot's Regiment. I think he told me that he belonged to that Regiment in 1778. but how long he served in it I cannot say.
In the year 1780, in July of that year we served one month together as privates in Capt Samuel Wilbur's company. We marched from Scituate through Providence to Bristol where we were stationed about 30 miles from our home.
In the year 1781, in the spring or winter just before the French army left Rhode Island for the Westward, (I remember the time from that circumstanc e ) the said Constant & myself served together one month in Capt Jonathan Knight's company sta-

toned at Middletown on the island of Rhode Island. We enlisted for said months, & served into our time It appears to me we enlisted in March of that year.
During the two last terms the said Constant was a married man, the husband of the said Comfort.
Stephen Young
State of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations
Providence ss. In the city of Providence on this 31 day of December 1839 Stephen Young who signed the foregoing statement which I reduced to writing made oath to the truth of the facts therein stated before me, the undersigned. I certify that the said Stephen is a credible witness.
William H Smith Justice of the Peace

I John Graves of Scituate in the county of Providence do hereby say that I am now I am now fifty two years of age; that Constant Knight the widow of James Knight is my mother and her first husband Constant Graves was my father. My said father died on the Eighth day of August 1804. I was in the room with him when he died. My mother lived a widow after my father's death un- til she married the said James Knight in October 1814, and she lived with him until October 22, 1839 when he departed this life. & she has lived a widow ever since.
John Graves
State of Rhode Island &c.
Providence ss. In the city of Providence on this 31. day of December 1839. John Graves, above named made oath before me that the facts by him stated above are true.
I also certify that the said John is a credible witness
William H Smith Just of the Peace

I Nathan Miller of Warwick in the County of Kent and State of Rhode Island being now in the eighty eighth year of age an Oath do testify and say that I was well acquainted with Constant Graves of Situate in the County of Providence. I was at Warwick Neck on occasion of an alarm in the year 1778 and I remember seeing said Graves on duty there attached to Captain Gorgee's Company after that I saw him on Rhode Island in the same year and in the same Company in Sullivan's Expedition he was there on duty at that time a month. I do not recollect of seeing him on duty after that time.
Nathan Miller
State of Rhode Island
County of Kent
In Warwick the 9th day of
January AD 1840 Personally appeared before the Subscriber one of the Justices of the Peace within and for the County of Kent. Nathan Miller the above deponent and made Oath to the truth of his said deposition and subscribed the same in my presence and I further certify that the said Nathan Miller is a Credible witness.
M y Garrison Justice of the Peace