Pension application of John Clayton R2031 Hannah fn22SC
Transcribed by Will Graves 5/27/11
[Methodology: Spelling, punctuation and/or grammar have been corrected in some instances for
ease of reading and to facilitate searches of the database. Where the meaning is not
compromised by adhering to the spelling, punctuation or grammar, no change has been made.
Corrections or additional notes have been inserted within brackets or footnotes. Blanks
appearing in the transcripts reflect blanks in the original. A bracketed question mark indicates
that the word or words preceding it represent(s) a guess by me. Only materials pertinent to the
military service of the veteran and to contemporary events have been transcribed. Affidavits that
provide additional information on these events are included and genealogical information is
abstracted, while standard, 'boilerplate' affidavits and attestations related solely to the application,
and later nineteenth and twentieth century research requests for information have been omitted. I use
speech recognition software to make all my transcriptions. Such software misinterprets my
southern accent with unfortunate regularity and my poor proofreading fails to catch all
misinterpretations. Also, dates or numbers which the software treats as numerals rather than
words are not corrected: for example, the software transcribes "the eighth of June one thousand
eighty six" as "the 8th of June 1786." Please call errors or omissions to my attention.]
State of Tennessee Monroe County: SS
On this 8th day of April 1845 personally appeared before me Alexander Sloan an acting
Justice of the peace, and one of the Justices of the County Court of said County, Hannah Clayton,
a resident of the County and State aforesaid now in the 76th year of her age, who being first duly
sworn according to law, doth, on her oath, make the following Declaration, in order to obtain the
benefit of the Act of Congress passed the 7th July 1838, entitled "An act granting half pay and
pensions to certain widows," (and an act approved the 23rd day of August 1842, amendatory
thereof, and a resolution approved the 16th day of August 1842, entitled, A resolution declarative
of the Pension Acts of July 7th 1838) and the act of the 3rd of March 1843 granting one year's
pay and pensions to certain widows, and the act of the 17th of June 1844, continuing certain
persons on the Pension roll four years longer; that she is the widow of John Clayton who was a
Lieutenant in a company of South Carolina State Troops under the command of Captain Motley
of Greenville District, and in a Regiment commanded by Colonel __ Earl [Earle] of said District;
her husband the said John Clayton entered his Country's Service soon after the commencement
of the Revolutionary War to wit early in the year 1776 and continued in service, at different
times, as in his lifetime he has often related to the said Hannah Clayton, until after the capture of
Cornwallis in the fall of 1781 and she verily believes that her husband served as aforesaid in said
company and Regiment, at different periods more than two years, between the date of his
entering this service and his leaving it, and that she relies on her late husband's statements to her
in his lifetime for the truth of her declaration that his service was principally rendered in the
Carolinas and mostly in the country immediately around Earle's Fort on North Pacolet River; that
owing to her great loss of memory and infirmities of age, she is unable to name any other officers
with whom her husband served, or to relate minutely the particular incidents of his service she
has heard him rehearse, or to state the Countries through which he marched or the engagement or
skirmishes he was in, but that she remembers to have heard him say that he was in active service
during the 2nd invasion of the Carolinas by the British in the year 1780 and 1781; that she knows of no living witness by whom she can prove the service of her husband, nor has she any written
or documentary evidence in her possession to establish the fact; that about the year 1809 her
husband's mill on War Creek in Hawkins County Tennessee where he then resided, was washed
away, and all his books and papers being in the mill, including the evidence of his service in the
Revolutionary war, were lost and destroyed. She further declares that she was married to the
said John Clayton on the __ day of __ in the year 1788, in Greenville District, South Carolina;
that her husband the aforesaid John Clayton died on the 15th of November 1828 then aged about
94 years; that she was not married to him prior to his leaving the service, but that the marriage
took place previous to the first day of January 1794 to wit, at the time above stated.
Sworn to and subscribed on the day and year above written before me.
S/ Alex Sloan S/ Hannah Clayton, X her mark
[fn p. On April 10, 1845, in Monroe County Tennessee, Lucinda Avans, 68, gave testimony that
she is the sister of Hannah Clayton, formerly Hannah Kyle; that she was not present at the
marriage of her sister to John Clayton but believes they were lawfully married and lived together
as man and wife; that John Clayton was reputed in Greenville district South Carolina to have
been a Lieutenant in the revolutionary war.]
[fn p. 16: Certificate from the South Carolina Comptroller General's office dated July 3, 1845
showing an indent to Mister John Clayton for 21 pounds 19 shillings and 3 ¼ pence sterling for
duty in Roebuck's Regiment per audited account.]
