Correspondence in Pension file of James Blackwell

On August 28, 1930, Dr. Blackwell Markham of Durham NC wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Pensions in Washington, D.C. asking for information on the following Revolutionary Pensioners of North Carolina.

• James Blackwell, 10th Regiment, Bradley's Co. enlisted July 20, 1778.
• Thomas Marcum, private.
• Thomas Blackwell, private.

The information provided in the response gives a bit of insight into the Blackwell, Pope, Cook, Clopton and Nall families of the Granville County, North Carolina area.

The digital images of the original file including the correspondence can be found at Fold3.com in the Pension file  of James Blackwell(North Carolina) which include his widow's pension W. 18613 .  Below is the information(typed by me) which was included in the 2 page letter from E.W. Morgan in response to Dr. Markham's inquiry. 

Rev. & 1812 Wars Section

October 30, 1930

Dr. Blackwell Markham

First National Bank Building

Durham, North Carolina

Dear Sir:

You are advised that it appears from the papers

in the Revolutionary War Pension claims, W. 18613, that

James Blackwell of Granville County, North Carolina

enlisted and served twelve months and twenty-two days

as a private in Captain John Dickerson's Company of

North Carolina Light Horse and was discharged May 10,

1777.

He served three months as captain in the Granville

County North Carolina Cavalry and was discharged

November 17, 1781.

He was allowed pension on his application executed

November 8, 1819 while a resident of Granville County, 

North Carolina, aged about eighty-eight years.

He died April 1, 1823 or in 1824.

Solder married July 17, 1767 Elizabeth Clopton,

who died in 1768.  He married April 2, 1773 in Granville

County, North Carolina, Temperance Pope, who died

February 14, 1840.

Digital Images from Fold3 located at :
https://www.fold3.com/image/11705429
https://www.fold3.com/image/11705430

Digital scans of original info from The National Archives (http://www.archives.gov)
NARA M804. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application
Files. Roll 0256.  James Blackwell (North Carolina)

Two Henry Cook Revolutionary War Applicants

While I do have experience researching pensions most of that research has been with Confederate Pension files.  I wrote a blog post in 2014 looking at how many ancestors I had that fought in the Revolutionary War which gave me an idea of how many different options I had for joining Daughters of the American Revolution. I'm not considering doing that but it impressed  me when I found 11 lines which descendants had used to gain membership.  In retrospect, this really should not have been surprising as most of my ancestors were in America prior to 1770s.   With Confederate Pensions I had always loved the widow's applications because you can find copies of marriage records there and lists of children's names and ages.  You can find that in some of the soldiers but they don't always remember the children like the mother's do.   The women always seemed to give a lot more detail with the exception of the details for the battles in which the soldier had participated.  The Revolutionary Pension files for the soldiers seem to tell much more than that of the Confederate files that I have read over.  I accessed the Revolutionary War Applications through HeritageQuest.  I am lucky to have a library which provides this access to its patrons and allows them to research from the comfort of their own home.  My Cook line is one of my major brick-walls so I decided to find a few of the Cook men who applied.  The two I selected were both named Henry Cook and were in TN at the time they applied.  They both had been in areas where my Cook line was known to have been but do not appear to be kin to me at this time.

Henry Cook 21947  S2460 (the #s listed through out his file)
Applied while living in Carroll Co TN (in 1833)
born March 12 1752 at Thompson's Creek Virginia
Family moved to Orange Co NC near Butler's Fort.(when claimant was a "stout boy")
That was where he lived during the time of the American Revolution.  He remained in Orange Co NC until 1796 when he moved to Woodfin Co KY at which place he lived for about a year.  He then moved to Columbia Kentucky(Adair Co KY) and remained there about 8 years.  Around 1807 he moved to Bedford Co TN and the next year on to Franklin Co TN where he lived for abt eight years.  In 1823 he moved to Carroll Co TN where he was living at the time of filing for the pension.  There is more detail in the application about the battles in which he participated but I was focused more on his life after he made his way to TN.  He doesn't mention a wife or children but the 1830 Federal Census for Carroll Co TN lists a Henry Cook(pg 189) who is between 70 & 80 yrs of age.  In the same household there is a white female between the age of 60 & 70 and a white female between the ages of 15 & 20

Henry Cook  11970  S3181(the #s listed though out his file)
Applied while living in Williamson Co TN (in 1833)
born May 15 1760 in Lunenburg Co Virginia
He states that he served 3 tours(one as a sub. for this father John Cook) He has a brother who also fought named John.
Lived in the Lunenburg Co area for awhile.  Moved to Halifax Co VA in 1801. then on to Williamson Co TN.  There is a a great deal of information about the battles in both of the Henry Cooks' pension applications.  I would recommend picking a few applicants who either have names you are researching or who live in the area in which you have ancestors and reading through their files.  If you are lucky you might find a connection to your own lines.

Several other sites(both free & subscription sites) besides HeritageQuest have American Revolutionary War Records.  Fold3, Ancestry and FamilySearch are among those that come to mind.

Description
Surname Range : Cook, Elizabeth - Cook, Jacob
Source Information
Ancestry.com. U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Original data: Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.