Pension Application of Henry Daring R2898 VA Half-Pay
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris.
State of Virginia,
On the 24th day of July, 1839, personally appeared before the undersigned a Justice of the peace
for the County of Augusta, in the State aforesaid, Mary Daring, a resident of the County of Rockingham, and State of Virginia, aged fifty years, who, being first duly sworn according to law, doth, on her oath make the following declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by act of Congress, passed July 4th, 1836; That she is the daughter of Henry and Barbary Daring, dec’d; and that the said Henry Daring was an Ensign in Col. Crocketts [Joseph Crockett’s, pension application S46377] Regt, Virginia Line, in the War of the Revolution, and was employed in the Illinois service; and that she always understood that he acted a part of the time as Captain.
She further declares that she and Margaret Daring are the only children now living of Henry
Daring by Barbary Daring; but that Henry Daring had another child by Barbary Daring, named John
Daring, who married, and afterwards he and his wife died, leaving Elizabeth, an only child to survive them, now the wife of Azel Glover, of the State of Ohio.
She further declares that Barbary Daring had, previous to her marriage to Henry Daring, an
illegitimate son, who was called Reuben Newman, who died, as she understood, in march last.
She further declares that Henry Daring & Barbary Daring, were married, as she frequently heard
them say, in December, 1782; and that Henry Died, as near as she can recollect, in the Spring of 1805; and that Barbary Daring died on the 16th of March, 1837.
She further declares that Jacob Newman, administrator of Henry Daring, decd. received from the
general government, a sum of money, being as she understood, the half pay to which her father Henry Daring was entitled, on account of his Revolutionary services; and which will appear by a reference to the papers filed in the War Department, by said Newman
Mary herXmark Daring
Virginia, Augusta County, to wit:
This day personally appeared before me, a Justice of the peace, for the County aforesaid, Smith
Thompson [pension application S38438], who made oath that he knew Henry Daring, who was an Ensign in Col. Crockett’s Reg’t., Virginia Line, in the War of the Revolution; and that the said Henry Daring served more than two years, in the war of the Revolution; and that, to his personal knowledge, he was in the service till November, 1783, the close of the war, when the Army was disbanded. Given under my hand, this 29th day of July, 1839.
State of Virginia, Augusta County, to wit:
This day personally appeared before me, a Justice of the peace for the County aforesaid, Peter
Heiskell, who made oath that he was personally and intimately acquainted with Henry Daring, who was an Ensign in Col. Crockett’s Rgt, Virginia State Line, in the War of the Revolution; that he had frequently slept in the same bed with him, and that he saw him often in his regimentals, and marching. And that he, Daring, was in the service to the disbanding of the army, and that he knew him distinctly to be in service, till all was over, and that he was a married man at the time. Given under my hand, this 2nd day of August, 1839.
Henry Daring is entitled to the proportion of land allowed an Ensign in Colonel Crocketts Regiment in the service of this State for the war.
Council chamber Sam Coleman
November 1790/ Beverley Randolph [Governor]
A warrant for 2666b acres issued the 27th day of November 1790 to the said Henry Daring (No 4507)
a Copy from the Records of the Virginia Land Office: as Witness my hand & seal of Office hereto
affixed at Richmond this 4th Nov’r 1839./
S. H. Parker Reg. L Office
Augusta County, to wit:
This day personally appeared before me, a Justice of the peace for the County aforesaid,
Smith Thompson, who made oath that he saw Henry Daring, in actual service, in the Summer of 1783, in the County of New Kent, in Virginia, at a Ferry, on the Pamunky [sic: Pamunkey] River; that he saw him afterwards marching, then going towards Richmond, in Virginia. That he is clear and positive as to his seeing Daring in service at the time and place he has stated. That he shaved, and dressed Daring’s hair at that place. That he (Thompson), being a Barber and Hair Dresser, often shaved the officers and dressed their hair. That he had seen Daring at different times during the Revolutionary War; that he was a man of a good deal of humour, and was very fond of cracking jokes. That Henry Daring was at that time, he thinks, a Lieutenant, or called Lieutenant Daring. That the Daring he saw, and shaved, and dressed his hair, was the same Daring, who was an officer in Crockett’s Regiment. Given under my hand, this 17th day of December, 1839.
To the Twenty sixth Congress of the United States [1839 -1841]
Your petitioners, Margaret Daring and Mary Daring, who are the children and heirs of Barbara
Daring, who was the widow of Henry Daring an Ensign in the regiment of the Virginia state line,
commanded by Colo Crockett, in the war of the revolution represent that they are entitled to a pension in right of their deceased father and mother under the laws of Congress, which has been denied them at the Pension Office, upon the assumed ground that the evidence presented is not such as the laws contemplate. The petitioners believe the evidence by them exhibited, if not sufficient to satisfy every technical requirement, is, nevertheless, all sufficient to convince any enlightened & unbiased judgment, of the justice of their claim, they therefore, pray your Honorable body to to take the subject under consideration & to accord the pension so justly due to them. And they will ever pray &c.
Margaret Daring & Mary Daring By their agent
[The following is among the bounty-warrant papers in the Library of Virginia:]
I Certify that Henery Daring served as an Ensign in the Western Battalion under my Command from the eight of Nov’r 1779 until the 21st Dec’r 1781 at which time the Reg’t. or soldiery thereof) was Discharged agreeable To law. Said Daring continuing to hold his Commission until the end of the war.
given under my hand at Richmond the 18th Nov’r 1790 Joseph Crockett Lt. Colo Com[mandan]t. WB
NOTES:
A document in the file certifies that a bond for the marriage of Henry Daring to Barbary Hockman was issued in Shenandoah County VA on 5 Dec 1782.
On 29 Aug 1833 Jacob Newman of Staunton VA wrote as follows:
In the year 1805 Capt Henry Dearing who was Lieut. & Capt. of the Virginia State Line during the
Revolutionary War, died in Rockingham County, Virginia, leaving a Widow, Barbara, who has since
intermarried with John Bowyer, and three children, viz John, Mary and Margaret Dearing. John Dearing removed to Ohio and died, leaving a daughter Elizabeth: the other heirs reside in Rockingham, Va. at present. It appears that Capt Dearing was entitled to Bounty-Land on account of his revolutionary services. Very recently a Mr. Ward of Culpepper [sic: Culpeper] County Virginia, called on Bowyer and Mary and Margaret Dearing, and obtained a power of attorney from them. This power of attorney was executed by these persons in entire ignorance of their rights, they being illiterate persons, and misled by representations made by Ward, which they believe to be unfounded. I am not well informed on the subject of this claim. I am not advised whether a Warrant was ever obtained by Capt Dearing for his Bounty-Land but I presume a Warrant has issued from the Virginia Land Office, either formerly or recently, and Mr. Ward’s object is to procure scrip for it agreeably to the provisions of the Act of Congress passed May 30th 1830 – and the object of the Power of Attorney which he obtained him to sell the scrip.
He has gone to Ohio to get a similar power from the heir of John Dearing as is supposed. The power of Attorney procured from the heirs in Rockingham County Va. was obtained by misrepresenting the amount to which Capt Dearing’s representatives were entitled as is believed, and by misrepresenting the character in which the agent himself acted, making the impression upon those persons that he was an officer of the government, and authorised to attend to such claims. He agreed to let the heirs have the half of what he recovered, but whether he is a responsible person, and even the half of what he may recover would be safe in his hands is unknown to these heirs, he being an entire stranger to them. They will forthwith execute a Power of Attorney to some other person, the legal effect of which will be to revoke the agency of Mr. Ward. The object of this communication is to respectfully solicit you, if not inconsistent with your official duties, to withold the issue of any scrip, or the delivery of it to Mr. Ward, or other person in whose name his power may be drawn, until the subject can be better understood by these heirs, and their rights enquired into by their more intelligent friends.
On 5 Sep 1833 Jacob Points of Staunton VA wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury in part: “There
was a power of attorney granted (as the Grantors believed) to a certain Daniel Ward of Culpepper county, Virginia, by the same heirs, to enable him to collect what might be due them – but with entire ignorance of the extent of what was due them, as an affidavit, which I also herewith enclose, will show satisfactorily. Besides to day I learned that a person by the name of Green has recently presented a power of attorney from the said heirs for the same purpose. Now as I know that they never granted but one power of attorney besides the one to me, and as it is known that the said Ward in an agent or partner of the said Green, it is fair to presume that the power got by Ward was fraudulently obtained in Green’s name.”
A letter to the Commissioner of Pensions dated Oct 1839 from David Points of Staunton includes
the following: “The half-pay due Henry Daring was, in the first place, drawn by Charles James Faulkner of the County of Berkeley, in the State of Virginia, to whom a power of attorney was executed by fictitious claimants of the County of Monongalia, Va. and the administrator of the true Daring, who was Jacob Newman, afterwards presented the claim at the Treasury Department, when he was told that Mr Faulkner had already drawn the half pay.”
On 27 June 1839 Margaret Daring and Mary Daring assigned power of attorney to James Points of
Augusta County. On 10 July 1839 Azel and Elizabeth B. Glover made a similar assignment of power of attorney.
http://revwarapps.org/r2898.pdf
