Person:John Dent (81)

Capt John Dent
Birth 20 Jan 1755
Leesburg, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA
Death 20 Sep 1840 (aged 85)
Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia, USA
Cenotaph Oak Grove Cemetery
Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia, USA

Biographical Information.
John Dent.
Born 20th January 1755. Leesburg. Loudoun Co, Virginia.
Father Listed As Walter Dent.
John Dent
United States Rosters of Revolutionary War Soldiers and Sailors, 1775-1783

nformation found on ancestry.com
Enlisted comma Monongahela County ,April , 1777 , as a private under captain David Scott ,13th Virginia regiment continental troops ,commanded by a colonel John Gibson , lieutenant colonel R Campbell , and major Taylor, under general hand he had written orders to go as sergeant to the fort on the Ohio between the mouth of the big beaver and wheeling Creek and remain there for further orders . on his return to Fort Pitt ,general hand and all but the two companies of troops under Captain Scott and Captain Heath had left. he remained there as sergeant until the commissioned ensign , 9th Virginia , October 31st , 1778 ,and lieutenant , April 6th , 1779 , and attached to Captain Jacob Sullivan's company under General McIntosh during the summer and fall. Colonel Gibson offered him the captaincy of a company of Calvary but he settled his accounts and resigned in November 1780. Pensions were granted to both the soldier and his widow and monongahelia County. Records of 1829 show that he sought land Bounty warrant as a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War but was not clear whether this was granted. His claims are approved by statements of Waitman Fleming and others. Lieutenant Dent married Margaret Evans in monongahelia county in June 1780 and the records of their marriage are on file. Margaret Dent was 78 years old and 1841.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8404990/john-dent

Pension Application of John Dent W4663 Margaret Dent VA
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris. Revised 3 Sep 2019

For the purpose of obtaining the benefits of an act, entitled “An act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the Army of the Revolution “approved on the 15th
of May 1828 I John Dent of Monongalia county in the State of Virginia, do hereby declare that I was an officer in the Continental Line of the Army of the Revolution, and served as such, from the fall of 1777 or spring of 1778 untill the month of November 1781, at which latter period I was a Lieutenant in the ninth regiment of the Virginia line, under the command of Col. John Gibson [S41578], which regiment had been reduced from the thirteen regiment of the Virginia Line –
Witness my hand this 13th
of February in the year 1829

Before me Nathan Goff, a Justice of the peace, in & for the county of Monongalia in the State of Virginia, personally appeared this day Col. John Evans [S8444] and Capt. John Evans Jr. of the said county, to me personally known, who did severally make oath that John Dent, by whom the foregoing declaration was subscribed, is generally reputed and believed to be an officer in the Army of the Revolution, in manner as therein stated.
Witness my hand and seal at the county aforesaid the 13th
of February 1829 – Nathan Goff

[Punctuation partly corrected.]
State of Virginia } SS.
county of Monongalia }
On this 28th day of August, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty two, personally appeared before the County court of Monongalia, Capt. John Dent a resident of said county, aged seventy seven years, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth, on his oath, make the following declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the act of Congress passed June 7th 1832. That he enlisted as a private soldier for three years in the said county of Monongalia in the month of April in the year 1777 with Capt. David Scott [S25425] of the thirteenth Virginia regiment of Continental troops commanded by Col. John Gibson, Lieu’t. Col. Richard Campbell [BLWt347-450] and Major Taylor [Richard Taylor S46514] – that in the same month he marched to Fort Pitt, and from thence to Kittanning a fort on the east bank of the Allegheny river about fifty miles above Fort Pitt where he with his company remained about two months – that Capt. Scott’s company was releived and descended in bark canoes to Fort Pitt – that during the fall of 1777 Gen’l. [Edward] Hand with a part of the said regiment marched towards Sandusky. that he had written orders to go as a Sargeant with about twelve men under his command to a fort situated on the Ohio between the mouth of Big Beaver creek and Wheeling creek, the name of which fort he has forgotten, and directed to remain at that fort untill further orders, that he found people living in the fort – that before cold weather he was ordered back to Pittsburgh and found that Gen’l. Hand had left there and all the troops gone east of the mountains except two companies, one commanded by the said Capt. Scott and one commanded by Capt. Heath [Henry Heth VAS456] – that during the winter of 1777 he was employed as a sargent in taking deserters, many of the soldiers having deserted in consequence of the troops being ordered east of the mountains — that in the spring of 1778 Col. Gibson received intelligence that Gen’l. [Lachlan] McIntosh was marching to Fort Pitt, and sometime in the spring Gen’l. McIntosh arrived and in about three weeks afterwards he was presented with a Lieutenants commission, without any application on his part – that he was then attached to Capt. Jacobus Sullivan’s company – that during the summer or early part of the fall of 1778 he with the troops under Gen’l. McIntosh descended the Ohio river to Big Beaver creek, near to which the troops erected a fort and named it after the commanding officer [Fort McIntosh] – that during the fall of 1778 Gen’l. McIntosh with the said regiment the 8thPennsylvania regiment and several regiments of militia marched to Tuscarora [sic: Tuscarawas River], a tributary of the Muskingum river, where Fort Lawrence [sic: Fort Laurens] was built, where he remained untill about the first of February 1779 – that Gen’l. McIntosh at Fort Pitt in March 1779 proposed to give him the command of seventy five men to go out and harass the indians, that he and his men, painted and dressed like Indians, continued in that kind of service untill November 1779, that he then marched to and wintered at Fort McIntosh, where he was sometimes left commander, there being no field officer there, Gen’l. McIntosh having gone to Fort Pitt – that in the spring of 1780 he marched to Fort Pitt where he found Gen’l Brodhead [Daniel Brodhead VAS1812] in the command. Col. Gibson then gave him orders to take the command a captain of a company of Cavalry to pursue and bring in deserters, which service he was in untill November 1780, at which time he settled up his accounts with the army and resigned his commission, having been in the service about three years and seven months – that his commission was destroyed by being accidentally washed to pieces in his cloaths.
He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or an annuity except the present, and he declares that his name is not on the pension roll of any agency in any state.
Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid.
[Signed] John Dent

[The following are from bounty-land records in the Library of Virginia.]
I do certify that John Dent enlisted into the service of the United States in the Virg’a. Line, in the month of May in year 1777 and was appointed an Officer in the 13thVirg. Reg’t. in the year 1778, and continued in the same Reg’t. until Nov’r. 1780, when he resigned, Being then a Lieutenant.
Given under my hand at Fort Pitt, May 25th
1780. Jno. Gibson, Late Colo. Virg’a. Line
Sir/ please to bring my land warant and you will oblidge Sir/ your very Hum’l Ser’t
To Capt David Gray John Dent
12th July 1785
[Signed] John Dent

NOTE: On 27 Sep 1841 Margaret Dent, 78, applied for a pension stating that she married John Dent in June 1780, and he died 20 Sep 1840. Her brother, Col. Dudley Evans, 75, stated that he knew of Dent’s service. Another brother, John Evans, stated that he knew of the marriage. As evidence of the marriage a family record was submitted said to have been written by John Dent in the leaves of a Bible used by his children as a school book:
Elizabeth Dent Daughter of John Dent and Margaret his Wife was born the 26thDecem’r 1780
John E. Dent son of John Dent and Margaret his Wife Was born the 24th January 1783
George Dent Son of John Dent & Margaret his Wife Was born the 18th Novem’r. 1784 & Expired at New orlians the 3d. Day of July 1805
Dudley E. Dent Sone of John Dent and Margaret his Wife Was Born the 1thDay of March 1787
Ann Dent Daughter of John Dent and Margaret his Wife Was born the 23dDay of May 1789
Nimrod Dent Sone of John Dent & Margarit his Wife Was born the 18thDay of June 1792
Margaret Higgs Dent Daughter of John Dent and Margaret his Wife Was born the 1thDay of April 1794
Enoch Dent sone of John Dent & Margaret his Wife was born the 21thDay of May 1796
James Dent Sone of John Dent & Margaret his Wife Was born the 15thDay of August 1798
Marmaduke Dent Sone of John Dent & Margaret his Wife Was born the 25thDay of February 1801 Analey Dent Daughter of John Dent and Margaret his Wife Was born the 8thDay of April 1803
Evans Dent sone of John Dent and Margaret his Wife Was born the 28thDay of February 1808

https://revwarapps.org/w4663.pdf