SECTION 39, S47954

VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIA HALF PAY

Amos Goodwin made affidavit in Jefferson County, Kentucky that in the year 1779 in August or September of that year, Captain John Rogers was a recruiting officer for a troop of horses in Culpepper County in the state of Virginia.  The troops of horses was attached to the Illinois Regiment under the command of General George Rogers Clarke, who acted in the Virginia State Line in the western country.  Said troop of horses were enlisted for the term of two years and this affiant had a brother, William Goodwin, who enlisted in said troop on the said regimental roll in the fall of the year of 1779.   The troop was sent to Illinois where the affiant understood that the troops together with other troops were sent to carry on an expedition against the northwest Indians , and that in the fall of 1780 or the spring of 1781, the troops of horses were ordered to Illinois to the waters of the Ohio, where this affiant became acquainted with Captain William Merriweather, who was stationed there for a while in the same fort with the affiant and others at the Falls of the Ohio, and that the said Merriweather was then acting as lieutenant in said troop of horses.  This affidavit was made before John Jones, Justice of the Peace, and Warden Pope, Clerk of Jefferson County, Kentucky.

In Jefferson County, Kentucky on 13 Aug 1832, William Merriweather made application and stated that he is a resident of said county of Jefferson in the state of Kentucky, that he is seventy four years of age, that he enlisted in 1776 as a cadet in Captain Benjamin Pollard's Company of the Virginia Continental Line and was with the Grand Wing to the North of Pollard's companies till sometime after the Battle of Monmouth on 28 Jun 1778 in which the deponenet was engaged.  After this, he returned to Charlottesville, Virginia as a guard to the prisoners.   Sometime in the year of 1779, he enlisted as first sergeant in the Illinois Troops of Light Dragoons commanded by Captain John Rogers, of which his brother, James was lieutenant.   Here, he served witht he said troops till their services expired with the year of 1781.  Sometime, in the summer of that year, his brother, James Merriweather, returned to Virginia from the West, and joined the Dabney's Legion.  The deponenet was appointed as lieutenant in his brother's place.

SECTION 40

Benjamin Roberts made declaration in Shelby County, Kentucky on 04 Jan 1833, that in the year of 1789, he was commissioned a Captain in the Army of the Revolutionary War in and for the state of Virginia, in George Slaughter's company, which said Slaughter commissioned as Major.  This affiant was well acquainted with Captani Rogers who commanded the Company of Light Dragoons of thirty-two privates, Captain, Lieutenant Coronet.  The company was commanded by Captain John Rogers, Lieutenant Merriweather, and Coronet Thurston.   Said troop of horses was joined to and sent to a portion of Clarke's Illinois Regiment.  This affiant states that when he first left the Falls of the Ohio, went under the orders of General Clark to Fort Jefferson and Kaskasias.   He appointed James Merriweather, a brother of William Merriweather, then to act as lieutenant in Roger's Company of Dragoons, but when this affiant returned to the Falls of the Ohio in the spring of 1781, said WIlliam Merriweather was acting as said John Roger's Troop of Light Dragoons, in the place of James Merriweather, who had resigned his commission in said troop of horses, and accepted a Lieutenant Commission in Colonel Dabney's Legion, as this affiant understood and believes that said William Merriweather, while acting Lieutenant as aforesaid, was in the summer of 1781, by orders of General Clarke, ordered to take a portion of said John Roger's Troops of horses, with said horses, to guard and protect the frontier fort or station called Logan's Station in Lincoln County by and under said order.  Lieutenant William Merriweather took a portion of said men and horses and marched to said station and continued there to command as lieutenant aforesaid.  

SECTION 41

In the fall of 1781, he was recalled by General Clarke and said troop was discharged soon after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis.  Said William Merriweather and himself were supernumerous, each of them were supposed to be ready to go at any time, because each of them were liable to be called at any time.  This affiant was intimately acquainted with William Meriweather from the time of said Robert's return to the Falls of the Ohio, in 1781.  The said Merriweather was disbanded in the Fall of 1781 and when they were disbanded the said William Merriweather is the same man who now lives in Jefferson County, Kentucky on the Ohio River a few miles below Louisville.  This affiant is now 83 years of age and believes he is the oldest settler in the Mississippi Valley, having settled here in 1775.

SECTION 42 & 43

The above affidavit was made before George Berger, Justice of the Peace.  William Merriweather again made affidavit in Shelbyville, Kentucky on 15 Jan 1833, before George P. Miller, Justice of the Peace, for a pension certificate.

James S. Whittaker, Clerk of the Court, made certification of the affidavit made by Anthony Crockett in Frankfort, Kentucky on 12 Jan 1833 and stated that in the year of 1778 or 1779, the deponenet received an application of Lieutenant with recruiting instructions and given from the Lieutenant-Colonel, John Montgomery of the Illinois Regiment commanded by General George R. Clarke.  They afterward marched to Long Island on the Holston River.  They rendezvoused with five other companies.  After an expedition against the Chickamauga Indians was completed, the five companies sailed down the Tennessee River to the Ohio River, then down the Ohio River to the Mississippi, then up the Mississippi to Kaskaskias, the Illinois towns were the aforesaid five companies joined General Clarke's regiment composed of a few officers and a few soldiers in the month of May 1779.   When the affiant got there they remained till the month of August, when a portion of said regiment was ordered to Vincennes.  Sometime before this, in the winter of the month of February, 1779, General Clarke had taken several posts of the British in the Illinois country.  He has examined a report made by a company of field officers convened at Richmond, Virginia in 1782 or 1784 to report to the executives in the State of Virginia as to who was entitled to the benefits of half pay or commutation promised to the officers of the state and continental line of the State of Virginia passed by the act in Virginia, in 1779, upon which he finds the following persons named and belonging to the said regiment of General George Clarke, entitled to half pay as follows:

George R. Clarke, Col., Thomas Quirk, Maj., Robert Todd, Capt., Isaac Taylor, Capt., John Bailey, Capt., Richard Brasking, Capt., John Gerault, Capt., Michael Perault, Capt., Joseph Calver, Lieut., James Montgomery, Abraham Chablain, Richard Clarke, and Jarrett Williams.

The affidavit states that these named officers are entitled to land warrant and there are also others who are not name entitled, among whom are Edward Worthington, Captain James Shelby, Captain Jesse Evans, Captain Abraham Keller, Major Joseph Bowman, Captain George Todd, Joseph Ramsey, Lieutenant John Roberts and this affiant.

SECTION 44

This affiant, Anthony Crockett also knows of others being in a troop of Light Dragoons belonging to the regiment as given by the applicant Merriweather, but he does not recollect any of the officers who commanded except that they were called Roger's Horse Troops.

There is on file, a bound land warrant, number 1382 for 2666 2/3 acres of land to James Merriweather and his heirs and assigns for his services in the Revolutionary War, by a certificate from Governor O'Connell was recorded in the land office.

Anthony Crockett again made affidavit for the applicant, William Merriweather, in Franklin County, Kentucky before Alexander H. Rennick, Clerk of that county at that time.  he made declaration similar as above.

Benjamin Roberts again made affidavit for the applicant, William Merriweather on 14 Jan 1833.  He states that he had come to Kentucky to reside in 1775.  His affidavit was made before George Berger, Justice of the Peace, and James S. Whittaker, Clerk of the county at that time.

SECTION 45

Thomas Young made affidavit in Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky on 18 Jan 1832, of being acquainted with the applicant, and also that he is 82 years of age, that he was commissioned a Captain in the Regiment of Colonel Crocket, and stationed at the Falls of the Ohio at Lawrence, that he became acquainted with William Merriweather, the applicant in 1781, that in December 1781, the affiant left Louisville and returned to Virginia as a supernumerary officer and left William Merriweather at Louisville, in the service.

John Hughes made affidavit for James Merriweather in Jefferson County, Kentucky in February 1833, and stated that he became acquainted with said James Merriweather in Louisa County, Virginia in 1783. that said Merriweather, Lieutenant Colonel in Charles Dabney's Legion, and continued as such till the end of the war.  He was acquainted with said James Merriweather then and that they married two sisters, who were daughters of Captain William Merriweather of Louisa County, Virginia and marched from there to Kentucky.  He continued there till his death which occurred in the fall of 1781, that he had heard said James Merriweather and John Rogers speak of their services together in Illinois, that James Merriweather was a Lieutenant in said Roger's Company and that William Merriweather, brother of the aforesaid James Merriweather also belonged to Roger's Company and served in Illinois.

SECTION 46

This affidavit was made before Robert H. Grayson, Justice of the Peace, and Warden Pope, Clerk, of that county at that time.  Bland W. Ballard made declaration in Shelby County, Kentucky on 29 Oct 1833, that he is 74 years of age, and that he came to Kentucky in 1779 and was in all of the Indian hostilities that infested the western country from 1779 to the termination in 1792, or about that time, that he served under General Wayne in 1780 an din 1781 lived at the Falls of the Ohio in Slaughter's Corpos and frequently was dispatched to bear express from General Clarke' Station tot he places from the Falls of the Ohio, because he knew the woods and places given to him to be scouted, thus he acted as a spy at all times, in said regiment.

In the spring of 1781, he became acquainted with William Merriweather, who was then acting as Lieutenant in Captain Roger's Troops of Light Dragoons of the Illinois Regiment.  William Rogers, was at that time, absent from the command and William Merriweather had the sole command and as such was ordered by General Clark to the command of said troops to Logan's Fort or Station, at which place is now in Lincoln County, Kentucky about one hundred miles from the Falls of the Ohio.  

SECTION 47

While he was there in the summer of said year, General or Colonel Clark, sent this affiant with an express to William Merriweather, in which he, said General Clark, styled him Lieutenant Merriweather and so addressed him in writing.  He took said express and said Merriweather recognized him and gave him a receipt for the papers so safely brought to him.   Said Merriweather took other papers to General Clark as Lieutenant.  William Merriweather was a gallant officer and guarded and protected the forts of said Logan's Fort till late in the Fall of 1781 when he was ordered to return to the Falls of the Ohio.

This affidavit was made before William Kinkade, Justice of the Peace, and James S. Whittaker, Clerk of Shelby County Court.

William Merriweather was allowed a bounty land warrant for his services in the Revolutionary War on 20 Feb 1834, attested by John Floyd, and John B. Richardson, and also attested by S. H. Parker, Regular Land Officer.

William Merriweather of Jefferson County, Kentucky, who was a sergeant in the company commanded by Captain John Rogers of the Regiment commanded by Colonel Dabney in the Virginia State Line for one Colonel Dabney in the Virginia State Line for one year and nineteen days was inscribed on the pension roll of the Kentucky Agency to commence on 04 Mar 1831.  Certificate of the pension was issued on 12 Feb 1833, and sent to Honorable R. M. Johnson, House of Representatives.

SECTION 48

David Merriweather and Ebenezer Williams appeared in court in Jefferson County, Kentucky on 22 Feb 1857, and made declaration that David Merriweather, son and heir of the late Captain William Merriweather, deceased, late of Jefferson County, Kentucky, is administrator of William Merriweather, deceased and that said David Merriweather, who resided in that county of Jefferson left the following heirs:

Catharine R. Davis, who intermarried with William R. Davis, was a daughter of said William Merriweather and the only daughter who resides in Missouri in New Madrid in that state.  Mildred E. Merriweather, who intermarried with Martin D. McHenry, both of whom reside in Shelby County, Kentucky.   Emery A. Merriweather, who intermarried with William H. Merriweather and both of whom reside in Jefferson County, Kentucky, that these are the only daughters of said William Merriweather, and these daughters and the deponenet, William Merriweather, a son of said William Merriweather, are the only heirs and children of said William Merriweather.  

The above affidavit was certified by Curran Pope, Clerk of said county at that time.