Person:Samuel Colby (21)

Revolutionary War

23 Aug 1851: Son Edmond Colby, age 40, makes affidavit regarding service of father in Revolutionary War: "father Samuel Colby as he verily believes was a resident of Edgecomb Maine in the time of the Revolutionary War and that he enlisted into the Revolutionary Army from that town in the month of March 1777 and that he served in Captain John Willey's Company, Col Michael Jackson's Regiment, and after that in Capt. Pierce's Company to the close of the war except for the time he was in Col. Baldwin's Regiment of Artificers as stated herein....[W]hile his said father was under Capt. Wiley in the year 1778 he was detached from his company to perform duty in a Company of Artificers under the command of Capt. Jacob Low in Col. Baldwin's Regiment and that he served in said Company nearly ten months after which he returned to duty in his own company." Edmond Colby also testified that Samuel Colby was "promoted in the first place to a corporal and afterwards to a Sergeant." Apparently, Samuel Colby's pension had been computed as a private; Edmond's affidavit is an effort to recover his father and mother's correct pension amount.

Samuel Colby's pension file includes his application of 20 Jun 1820, with a schedule of real and personal estate as follows:

Real estate - 19 acres poor rocky land without woods - a small house 35 years old out of repair, & small barn 22 years old rotten.

Personal - 2 heifers, 1 pair steers, 6 sheep, 1 swine, a little worthless furniture. No income except my pension.

I am indebted to the amount of $35 and have no debts due to me

His schedule of family states he is by occupation a fisherman, which he is not able to pursue due to "infirmity and lameness in both my arms." Household members are:

My wife Polly, 53, infirm

son Cornelius, 18, common ability & health

daughter Mary, 15, do

daughter Rosanna, 13, do

son Edmund, 9, usual health

1. ↑ Town of Westport, Compiler, Parsons Cromwell Colby Cemetery.
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Colby, Samuel, in United States. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files. (Washington D.C.)
   Pension No. W. 20,907 1/2.

   Massachusetts: State of Service. Maine: State of Residence. File includes Samuel Colby death date: 1 Feb 1847, Mary Colby death date: 15 Oct 1849. Surviving children are as of 23 Aug 1851: William Colby, Benjamin Colby, Cornelius Colby, Edmund Colby and Rosanna Plummer

3.   Colby, Sylvanus (Westport), in Maine, United States. Revolutionary War Land Grants and Pension Applications
   http://digitalmaine.com/revolutionary_war_me_land_office/195/, viewed online 8 Jun 2018.

   The land grant application of Sylvanus Colby, Samuel's brother, contains an affidavit describing the Revolutionary War service of both Sylvanus and Samuel Colby.