Display Patriot - P-318775 - William WHITFIELD/WHITEFIELD
William WHITFIELD/WHITEFIELD
SAR Patriot #:
P-318775
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.
An excerpt transcribed from the Revolutionary War Pension of William Whitefield, *S38466:
State of Alabama
St. Clair County Sct.
On this twenty fifth day of November 1829 personally appeared in open Court being a Court of Record for the County of St. Clair, called the Circuit Court of St. Clair, by reason of its being one of the counties composing the third Judicial Circuit for the state of Alabama, & which Court hath the power of fine & imprisonment; which proceeds according to the Course of the Common Law with a Jurisdiction unlimited in point of amount keeping a record of its proceedings and is expressly made a Court of Record by the laws of the State aforesaid William Whitefield resident in said County aged seventy-nine years in January next who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the provision made by the acts of Congress of the 18th of March 1818 and the 1st of May 1820, that he the said William Whitefield enlisted for the term of one on the 16th day of February 1789 in the State of Virginia Goochland County, in the company commanded by Captain Morris, who marched us out to Valley Forge, at which place the command of the company was taken by Captain Curtis Kendall, in the Regiment commanded by Colonel Richard Parker in the line of the State of Virginia on Continental establishment; that he continued to serve in the said Corps until the 16th day of February 1779 when he was discharged from the service at Middlebrook in the State of New Jersey. That he hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension except the present, that his name is not on the pension roll of any state, and that the following all the reasons for not making earlier application for a pension: That at the time the law allowing pensions to the Revolutionary Soldiers past he was in circumstances of health, which although poor, did not prevent his subsisting himself with some comfort & he determined that as long as he was able he would not call upon the government for help; about six years ago however enfeebled by age, though in circumstances and unable to procure a comfortable subsistence, he did make an application for a pension, & have frequently renewed it, as yet however he has been unsuccessful – though, as he, in charity to the officers of the government, believes, his own ignorance, in knowing how to make his application. And in pursuance of the act of the first of May 1820, I do solemnly swear that I was a resident citizen of the United States on the 18th day of March 1818 and that I have not since that time by gift, sale or in any manner whatever disposed of my property or any part thereof with intent thereby so to diminish it as to bring myself within the provision of an act of Congress entitled “an act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and naval service of the United States in the Revolutionary War” passed on the 18th day of March 1818, and that I have not nor has any person in trust for me any property, or securities, contracts or debts due to me nor have I any income other than what is contained in the schedule…
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William X Whitefield
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Author: James Alexander Long
William Whitfield was born in England around 1750 and immigrated to Goochland County, Virginia where his marriage to Mary Towler is recorded in the Register of Reverend Douglas on December 14, 1772.
On February 16, 1778, William enlisted in the Ninth Virginia Regiment of Foot for a term of one year’s service. The Ninth Virginia Regiment was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Burgess Ball served in the Northern Army of General George Washington at Brunswick, New Jersey as well as at White Plains and West Point, New York. At the Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, The Ninth served in General Muhlenberg’s Brigade of General Marquis de Lafayette’s Division.
On September 14, 1778, the fifteen Virginia regiments, having been reduced in size by casualties of battle, disease and desertion, were reduced to eleven regiments. The men of the Ninth were absorbed by the First Virginia Regiment, commanded by Colonel Richard Parker. William's company commander in the First Virginia was Captain Custis Kendall. In his request for a Revolutionary War Pension, William stated that he also served in the company of Captain Nathanial G. Morris, but Morris, a Captain in the Ninth Regiment, was a prisoner of war from October 4, 1777 to March of 1779 so William probably never actually met him before being he was discharged at Middlebrook, New Jersey on February 16, 1779.
After the war, William resided in the Pendleton District of South Carolina before moving to St. Clair, Alabama. In 1818, the United States Congress passed a law giving a pension to all Revolutionary War veterans. William did not apply for a pension, stating that as long as he had property, his mare, and could make a living for himself he would not ask the government for help. After he sold his mare and bought a horse, the horse died, so he no longer had any property, and he became sick. In 1829 he applied for a pension of $8.00 a month. He began receiving payments from pension S-38-466 on January 20, 1830.
William Whitfield died in September 1835 in Shelby County, Alabama. William and Mary “reared twelve children, all married but one who had lately died”.
Their son, James Towler Whitfield, lived in Bushy Fork Township of Person County, North Carolina. James’ son, also named William Whitfield, was the schoolmaster of the Van Hook School, a log cabin school which is preserved today at the museum in Roxboro, North Carolina.
Submitted by compatriot James Alexander Long, Blue Ridge Chapter, NCSSAR.
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