The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
On March 23, 1762, in Hampton, Virginia, situated on the James River in the county of Elizabeth City, James Langley was born. Not much is known about his life in Virginia, but his known story began in 1780 when James was then living in Orange County, North Carolina. It was there that he joined the American Forces as a Private in the North Carolina militia and began his first tour of five in service to his country.
After three months of service during this first tour, serving as a substitute for a man named Sherman, he received his discharged on November 9, 1780. His second tour commenced at the first of the year of 1781 where he served as a volunteer under the command of Colonel Armstrong and fought the Tories at a shallow ford on the Yadkin River. He was discharged from this tour after a period of three months approximately twelve miles from Charlotte Court House in North Carolina. His third tour of duty began in Virginia where he served as a substitute for a man named Parish. It was during this tour that he stated he was marched to the Dismal Swamps and stationed near a British Fort. This tour of duty lasted three months. On his fourth tour of duty, which started in Brunswick Virginia, he marched to the James River under the command of Baron Stuben. There, with a small force, he guarded a Ferry Crossing so Baron Stuben could march the main Army to join General Washington and LaFayette. This tour lasted three months. In his fifth and final tour, in 1782, he served under Colonel Seiver in the Cherokee Nation for two months.
The total military duty of James Langley spanned a period of fourteen months from 1780 to 1782. During his service, he was fortunate to serve under many illustrious leaders including: Major Walton, Colonels’ Armstrong, Garland, Seiver and Robinson; and Generals Washington, LaFayette, Gates and Butler and Baron Stuben. The information on the service of James came from his sworn testimony to the Court in Troup County, GA. June 24, 1833, when he applied for a pension for his Revolutionary War service. His pension file number is S31813, which was granted and paid at the rate of $46.66 per annum. According to the records, he received his last pension payment September 4, 1853, from Savannah, GA. It is not known if he received any pension from the State of Alabama after his move to Chambers County.
After the war, James lived in the High Hills of Santee, South Carolina before moving to Georgia where on November 11, 1806, in Baldwin County, he married Elizabeth Bandy. It was there in 1810 that his daughter Elizabeth (also known as Eliza) their first child was born. In the 1820 Census James was living in Putnam County and 1825 he was listed in the tax records as living in Pike County, GA. It was in Pike County that his daughter Elizabeth married Richard Bassett, Jr. on January 11, 1827. Richard was the son of Patriot Richard William Bassett who served in Maryland in Lee’s Legion.
From Pike County, James moved to Troup County according to his pension application filed in 1833. Sometime between the years of 1834 and 1840, he moved his last time to Stroud, Chambers County, Alabama. James was one of the first settlers of the community of Stroud. His wife Elizabeth, died before he left Georgia so moving with him to Alabama were sons William, born 1817, and John L., born 1823, and daughters Bathia, born 1821 and another daughter named Elizabeth, born 1831.
James lived out his remaining life in Stroud where he died in 1868 at the age of 106 years old. He is buried at Mt. Pisgah Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery
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