Written by Harry Grant Rowland for application to the Sons of the American Revolution, 1908.

"James Knapp, my great grandfather, lived at Greenwich, Conn, from the date of his birth in 1764 until 1798 or 1799 when he emigrated to Cayuga County, New York. When 16 years of age he joined Capt. I. Lockwood's Company of Sea Coast Guards stationed at Stamford, Conn. He drew pay as a soldier from Jany 1, 1780 to Jany 1, 1781. His name will be found in the State Records of "Connecticut in the Revolution" Page 576.

My uncle Lewis Halsey Knapp, a grandson of James Knapp who himself was born in the year 1832, says of his grandfather James Knapp 'About the history of James Knapp my grandfather I well remember of so many times sitting by his side and listening with all the eagerness of a childish mind to him telling his stories of the Revolutionary War. He told me much about the tories, those who did not take up for the colonies, and the many outrageous acts they committed down in Connecticut. Oftimes they would even shoot their neighbors through their windows at night. He told me that he went out on guard duty during the last of the war. Certainly if he was born in 1764, he was old enough before the close of the war. He certainly was true to the colonies. I have heard him talk hours and hour of the hardships and sufferings he endured and knew in those dark days'...

My mother who was born in 1830 and died in 1905 has frequently related to me the fact that her grandfather, James Knapp, served in the Revolution in Connecticut and when she was a child frequently related to her his experiences in the war."