Pension Application of Philip Bowyer S39202
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
State of Virginia Augusta County, to wit:
On the 28th day of April in the year 1823 in Open court, being a court of record for the County aforesaid in the state aforesaid (in which proceedings are had according to the courses of common law, & has unlimited Jurisdiction in civil actions in point of amount, – has the power to fine & imprison & has all its proceedings duly registered) personally appeared Philip Bowyer a resident of the County & State aforesaid aged seventy eight years, who, being first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath declare, that in the year 1777 he enlisted in Capt. Wallaces Company of the Virginia line, continental establishment for three years or during the War. That he was shortly afterwards marched to Fredericksburg where he was placed under Capt. [Alexander] Parker, in a regiment commanded by Colo. Parker [Richard Parker, mortally wounded at the siege of Charleston SC, 24 Apr 1780], the No. of which he does not recollect. that after being taken to several places in the state of Virginia, he was marched to the south, to the states of North & South Carolina, where he remained in the said service, until the close of the war (upwards of three years) when he was discharged at a place called Middle River [possibly Middle Tyger River] near the North & South Carolina line. That he received an honourable discharge which he has unfortunately lost. The declarant saith, that he was not in any engagement during the time of his service having been generally employed to guard the baggage. And in pursuance of the act of Congress of the first of May 1820, he doth solemnly swear that he was a resident Citizen of the United States on the 18 day of March 1818 and that he has not since that time th by gift sale or in any manner disposed of his property or any part thereof with intent thereby so to diminish it as to bring himself within the provisions of an act of Congress entitled “an act to provide for certain person 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 he has not nor has any person in trust for him any property or securities contracts or debts due to him nor has he any income other than what is contained in the Schedule hereto annexed and by him subscribed. he has no family – his occupation was that of a shoe-maker, but he is now nearly blind, being barely able to discern light from darkness, and therefore as well as from his great age, & other bodily infirmities is incapable of following it, or any other business & he stands in need of the aid of his country for support.
Schedule of the property of Philip Bowyer. I have none of any kind whatever.
(Signed) Philip [his X mark] Bowyer
Augusta County, to wit:
This day [15 Apr 1823] Cathrine Shoulderman personally appeared before me, a Justice of the peace for the county aforesaid & made oath, that she knows that Philip Bowyer, the person who has made the annexed declaration, enlisted as a soldier in the service of the United States, during the revolutionary war: she thinks it was in the year 1777, & that he continued at least three years in said service; she recollects the fact the better from the circumstance that the said Bowyer, when he went into said service left his wife at this deponents Fathers house, in the county of Shenandoah in what is commonly called the Massinetty [Massanutten] settlement.
http://revwarapps.org/s39202.pdf
