William Higginbotham
State: VA
Pension S. 46,448
Revolutionary War Pension Declaration
Pension Office Abstract
Name: William Higginbotham
Rank: Private
Service: Virginia Troops
Service History
He enlisted in 1778 as a dragoon under Capt. Lewis Martin in Col. George Baylor’s regiment.
Battles engaged in: Monmouth, Stony Point.
Residence at enlistment: Virginia
Residence at application: Perry County Tennessee
Date of application for pension: January 1829
Age at application: about 76
Remarks: Transfer made to White’s regiment after Baylor’s defeat.
State of Tennessee
County of Perry
On the 6th day of February one thousand eight hundred and twenty nine personally appeared in open court before the County Court of Perry County William Higginbotham a resident of said County aged seventy six years 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 act of Congress entitled “An act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution” passed March 18th 1818.
That he the said William Higginbotham enlisted in the army of the Revolution for and during the war under the following officers and served as herein stated. He enlisted as a volunteer in the year 1778 in the State of Virginia and continued in service until the close of the war in the year 1783. He served as a private dragoon under Capt. Lewis Martin in Col. George Baylor’s regiment of light dragoons. He was in the battles of Monmouth and Stony Point and many skirmishes. He continued in service after Baylor’s regiment was cut to pieces at Tappan and was attached to Col. White’s regiment of dragoons until the close of the war.
He further states that he is in reduced circumstances and stands in need of the assistance of his country for support; and that he has no other evidence now in his power of his said services.
[signed] William Higginbotham
Sworn to and subscribed in open court
6th February 1829.
James K. Martin, Clerk
Supporting Affidavit
We Robert Reese and Andrew Cain residents of Perry County Tennessee do hereby certify that we are well acquainted with William Higginbotham who has subscribed and sworn to the above declaration; that we believe him to be seventy six years of age; that he is reputed and believed in the neighborhood where he resides to have been a soldier of the Revolution and that we concur in that opinion.
[signed]
Robert Reese
Andrew Cain
Sworn to in open court this 6th February 1829.
James K. Martin, Clerk
Letter from William Higginbotham
Perry County Tennessee
November 3rd 1835
Hon. Lewis Cass
Secretary of War
Sir,
I understand that papers in my pension business were forwarded from your office to Tennessee and cannot be found. I therefore request they be forwarded to me at once if convenient.
Your obedient servant
William Higginbotham
Treasury Department Revolutionary Claims Statement
Treasury Department
25 Feby 1829
William Higginbotham of the County of Perry in the State of Tennessee has applied to the Secretary of the Treasury for the benefit of the Act of Congress entitled “An Act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution,” approved 18th of May 1828. He states that he enlisted in the Continental Line in the year 1778 and during the war continued in service until the close of the war in a corps of cavalry in the Virginia line.
He further states that he has not received a certificate for the reward of eighty dollars provided by the resolve of May 1778 and that he was not on the 3d day of May 1828 on the pension list of the United States and that he has received no pension under any act.
By order of the Secretary
[signature illegible]
Additional Notation
“The records of this office do not show that William Higginbotham of the Virginia line ever received a certificate for the reward of eighty dollars.”
Signed: Robert Taylor
2 May 1829
The file confirms service in Baylor’s 3rd Continental Light Dragoons, later attached to White’s dragoons after Baylor’s defeat at Tappan. It also places William Higginbotham in Perry County, Tennessee by 1829.