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: Robert Harvey Starrett
Stewart Sterrett/Sterrit/Starrett was born 1762 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Between 1762 and 1764, James and his wife Marcy and their infant son, Stewart emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland to the colonies, probably sailing from Londonderry and arriving in Baltimore, Maryland, or less likely, Philadelphia. Land records show that in March 1765 James purchased an interest in three tracts of land south of Frederick, on a branch of the Monocracy River near Buckeystown, Maryland (Liber J, Folio 255, Frederick County Deeds).
On February 5, 1777 the General Assembly of Maryland enacted a law, which made it necessary to sign an oath of allegiance and fidelity to the state of Maryland and the cause of freedom. The oaths were taken before a magistrate of the court. James Sterrett was a signer and is listed in Volume II of Signers of the Oath of Fidelity to Maryland during the Revolution.
In 1781 when the 41-year-old James Sterrett was called for six months of service in the army of General Washington, James’ oldest son, the 19-year-old Stewart Sterrett, answered the call for his father and served as his substitute.
During his service in General Washington’s Army, Stewart served with the Militia of Maryland, drew his arms from the Continental Arms Factory, and served under Captain Daniel Smith of Frederick Town during the winter of 1781. He was at Yorktown, Virginia and guarded prisoners on 19 Oct 1781 when General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington. He later served under Colonel Johnson as a guard in escorting the prisoners to the army stockade in York, Pennsylvania. At the expiration of his 6-month obligation he was discharged by Captain Smith. (From his Revolutionary War Pension Application, S31991, roll 2281 of M804, National Archives Records Administration, Washington DC).
Stewart applied for a pension February 10, 1834 and was granted pension benefits of $20 per month, which was paid twice a year in March and September. Stewart evidently traveled the country after the war as he stated in his pension application that he resided in the county of Frederick and state of Maryland; that he removed from there to West Virginia where he resided about six years, then to New Orleans and from there to Hardin County, Kentucky where he remained about 25 years. While in Kentucky, he met and married Rebecca Evans in 1808; she was born in 1787. About 1820 the family moved to Harrison County, Indiana. Their final move was to Vigo County, Indiana where Stewart purchased a land patent of 70 acres in 1837. Stewart died 28 Aug 1839 and his wife Rebecca died 22 May 1850. They are buried in Hull Cemetery, just south of Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana. Their headstones were there in the 1980s when the cemetery book of Hull Cemetery was published, but the cemetery has been vandalized several times since then and the stones are no longer there.
Send a biographical sketch of your patriot!
Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.
Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here:
Send your submission1, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space 1Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.