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.
Author: Frederick Arnold Weyler
04Dec1832 in Copiah County MS, Jacob Neely testified that he believed he was about 77 years old. During Spring 1780 served to assist militia commissary in Caswell County (Hillsborough) NC. Then Jacob joined the company of Captain John Douglas and went under Colonel James Williams to South Carolina and fought in the Battle of Kings Mountain. He assisted some of his wounded fellow soldiers to return home. In the Fall of 1781 Jacob served in actions against Tory David Fanning to retrieve the kidnapped Governor Thomas Burke. Jacob was deployed in various shorter deployments of the county militia.
After the war, Neely moved to Georgia, then Alabama, then Mississippi. He was pensioned at $60/annum for 18 months service as a private. Jacob’s son Thomas Neely, of Rankin Co. MS, stated that his father died on July 16, 1845. Jacob’s family included wife Rebecca Neely and children:
Thomas Neely 02Apr1787 - 16Feb1874
David Neely 22Jan1791
James Neely 30Jan1793 23Jun1879
Polly and Elizabeth 04Feb1795
Henrietta Neely 24Dec1797 - 20Sep1830
Wilkins Neely 20Nov1800 – 06Sep1833
Thomas Neely [Nieley, Neeley]
Jacob Van Hook (FPA #S9509) deposed:
That in the year 1780 at the time Ferguson was raising troops from Tories on Kings Mountain that Col. James Williams received orders from the Governor [Abner Nash] to raise companies to go against the British and Tories stationed on said Mountain and the orders from the Governor was that every person who would furnish their on horse and a gun and serve two months should have a credit and discharge for a tour of three months service and that he received a discharge for tow tours of three months each. That he volunteered and went under Capt. John Douglas, Lieutenant Thomas Neiley [sic, Neely or Neeley] & Ensign John Barnett and marched from Caswell Courthouse N. C. to Salisbury crossing the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers at the Island ford, from thence crossing the three forks of Broad River to Cowpens in South Carolina and from thence re-crossing at Old Nation Ford to Kings Mountain and was in the battle at that place when Col. Ferguson the British Commander was killed—and was sent on to Salem with the prisoners and was discharged at that place.
Jacob Neely deposed that he assisted his brother Thomas as commissary in Caswell County.
The Coleman Clayton and Matthew Pryor depositions name service under Lt. Thomas Neeley at Kings Mountain.
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