Nat Taylor has a great posting on Rev. War pensions. Like Nat, I have used the Heritage Quest database, but infrequently. I used those White papers back in the day via microfilm and gleaned as much as I could then. I have two ancestors who have pension records: Thomas Pinkham 1752-1820 and Benjamin York (IV) 1761-1845. Thomas's pension request was denied and Benjamin's accepted. Thomas's widow made the request and perhaps did not get enough affidavits from contemporaries to prove his service. The one affidavit makes it clear that Thomas was at Ft. Ticonderoga and helped transport those cannons to Dorchester Heights in 1776. Benjamin, on the other hand, filed his pension papers himself. Perhaps that was the difference.
In 1830 life expectancy was low. Only 1/3 of all people could expect to see age 60. If a young man began to fight in 1775 at age 15, and therefore born in 1760, he was age 72 in 1832 when these pensions were being handed out. So, the vast majority of my ancestors who fought in the revolution or signed the Association Test were dead by 1832. This included men such as Abraham Runnels 1719-1804 who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill with his five eldest sons, two of whom would die in the war. Another was Stephen Berry (Jr.) 1724-1820 who fought in both the French & Indian War and the Revolution.
As we decide to whom to give this stimulus package, we can rest assured that historically the U.S. government has hated giving out money.
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