Ambrose Thacker (Fentress Co. TN)
Revolutionary War Pension Declaration W.6264
State of Tennessee, Fentress County
On this 7th day of November 1832 personally appeared before me James Campbell Justice of the peace for the county of Fentress afsd being a member of the Court of pleas and quarter sessions in and for said County which court of which I am a member when seting is court of record. Ambrose Thacker resident citizen of the county of Fentress aforesaid aged as he believes Eight seven years according To Tradition having no record of his age and after being Duly Sworn according to Law doth on his oath make the following Declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of the act of congress passed the 7th June AD 1832
That owing to his Extreme old age and infirmity that he is unable to go to any court of record and has for this reason called on a Justice To take his Declaration at his own house in said County, he states that he entered the service of the United States a Listed Soldier in the revolutionary Soldier under a certain Capt George Thompson a regular officer he Enlisted at Albemarle Court house in the State of Virginia the precise time no recollected but it was in the spring season and believed to be in the year 1775 he enlisted for two years under said Capt and marched off from said county under said capt in a few days after my Enlistment there was about Eighty men marched of at the same time counting officers and musicians Warren Cash was Ensign and Joseph Biby Lieutenant Moses Webb Drummer We marched to Williamsburg Virginia and staid there a few days and then we Joined some small forces and there we too water in a vessel with orders to go to Cambridge when we went to Join head quarters we went within twenty or thirty miles of Cambridge by water and Landed at a place which he can not designate To any satisfaction the reason we Too land was through fear of the British as danger was apprehended that their ships would come on us unaware and our force being small we went from thence to the camp near at Cambridge and there Joind General Washingtons Army when we arrived there Col Rutherford was our Col We staid time there was some british vessels there but they left there and we and we followed on toward where it was supposed they would try to Land and at some thirty or forty miles from Cambridge or ther about some of the british Landed and others were trying Land and they saw Washingtons forces and beat off from the shore in their vessels and after making ourselves ready and proposing for that purpose we went on toward Stony Point when we arrived at a place near Stony Point being some miles from that place the precise distance no recollected by this applicant it was but a few miles from said place at which palces this applicant, witness all the feelings that an approaching fight must necessary by produce on them that are about to partake of its dangers it being understood by us that the british understanding as they are Trying to land and a great many of them and they still continued to Land and a great many Landed and while they were still Landing we tried to drive them all from Landing and we fired on them and them fired on us and they drove us back there was Some killed and wounded on both sides we retreated from them and camped close to Stony Point and in a few days I was badly wounded in the head and leg but finally got well, our Capt that I started with from Albemarle Court Virginia Took the small pox at Cambridge and we left him there and he afterward died. When we left Cambridge I was put under another Captain named John Thompson no relation to my first captain as I suppose I understand he lived some where Northward though I do not know where at the end of my first two years which I served under the same Col Rutherford and Captain Thompson I enlisted the second time as soon as my first time was out at a place where we camped near the Delaware river I do not know what state it was in, before I had quite finished my second tour I signed and became enlisted a third time for two year more making six years I served the same out under the same Col Rutherford and Capt John Thompson when my three terms & enlistments were ___ making Six years close service and at which time my same Captain John Thompson Insisted that I should stand as a listed Soldier Seven months Longer and I done so and Served Seven months more under my same Col and my same Captain I was discharged finally from service in Louisa County Virginia at Col Boswells honary I received my discharge from my same Captain John Thompson for Six years and Seven months close servitude General Washington was at the place where I was finally discharged he was then going on towards york as I understand I do not recollect the precise time I was discharged but I think it was in the month of August or September and but a short time before I heard Corn Walis Taken when I hear Wallis was Taken I was then in Albemarle County Virginia where I first started from, the most of time of my services was north Virginia in the new England States and in the Northern States I did not know always where I got out of one State and into another I was in the battle of Kings bridge, I was at the Taking of Burgoine [Burgoyne] the army was divided into three parts one part under Washington the other General Leonard the other I do not know who commanded I was then under General Lea I was in the Battle at the White plains under General Washington I was at the battle at flat bush, General Washington was not there when the battle was fought we were nearly surrounded by the Enemy at that place and we had to run and rush through the Enemys line an forced through with the assistance of our arms General Washington came with reinforcements when we were on retreat we met him when we were retreating and I saw him myself I do not recollect who was our principal officer during the fight. I do not know the number of my regiment I think I did know while in the service but my recollections has left me in the particulars there was so long a time of my servitude that a great many things I believe has Escaped my recollections and some times I can recollect more than I can at other times. I know of person living by whom I can prove my service or any part thereof I have not known whether I was within the provisions of the Law for soldiers or that I could get on the right Track obtain the benefit of the act of congress until of late I have been informed that I could. I have in some way Lost my discharge and have ____ ___ I hereby relinquish ever claim to a pension or annuity Except present and declare that my name is not on the pension roll of state in the united states
Ambros Thacker
Sworn to & subscribed before me this 7th day of November 1832
James Campbell JP
I James Campbell Justice as aforesaid do hereby declare my opinion that the above named applicant was a revolutionary soldier and served as he states and I further certify that from the appearance of said applicant he is not well able to attend Court
James Campbell JP
State of Tennessee, Fentress County
I do certify that James Campbell who has officially signed this preceding certificate was at the time of doing the same and was an acting Justice of the peace for the said county and that full faith and credit is due his official acts as such in testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand private seal there being no seal of office in Jamestown this 9th day of ___ 1832
John H Richardson Clerk Fentress County Court
Affidavit of Charles Thurman, July 19, 1833,
Cumberland County Kentucky
"Charles Thurman of the County and State aforesaid late a soldier in the service of the Revolution on his Oath States that he was well acquainted with Ambrose Thacker who formerly lived in the State of Virginia. That he knew him while they were in the Service of the Army of the Revolution" ...... "this affiant does not recollect to what Regiment or line the said Thacker belonged"... "This affiant was well acquainted with said Thacker before he entered the service as they lived within a few miles of each other in Virginia"
Molly Thacker, Widow's Pension Declaration
Declaration taken June 28, 1838 by George A Brock Justice of the Peace for Fentress County Tennessee
Molly Thacker, age eighty eight declares she is the widow of Ambrose Thacker deceased
That she married Ambrose Thacker in Buckingham County Virginia in 1770 "in the time of the year of cuting the growing crops of tobacco off from the ground"
I George A Brock one of the acting Justices of the peace
in and for the county of Fentress State of Tennessee
do hereby certify that I am intimately acquainted with Molly
Thacker who has this day made and sworn to the forgoing
Declaration and that I was well acquainted with her deceased
husband for many years before his death that I am living in the
immediate vicinity where the said Ambrose died, that they
were respectable and always reputed by their acquaintances as
husband and wife, that I am convinced from the appearance of
Mrs. Thacker that she is at least Eighty Eight years of age
from the age of some of her children with whom I am acquainted I
further certify that the said Molly Thacker is wholly
unable to attend a court from bodily infirmity. I further
certify that from her great age her memory and thinking
faculties are rather to much impaired to give as complete a
narrative, as she might probably make if younger. I live in
about a half mile of Mrs Thacker and I have had a good
opportunity of being acquainted with the traditionary account of
the family and believe that the oldest of the children of the
body of the said Ambrose Thacker and the Molly Thacker
is Sixty six years of age in there about.
George A. Brock
Justice of the peace
Affidavit of Joel Thacker
Taken June 28, 1838 by George A. Brock JP, Fentress County Tennessee
"That agreeable his record of his own age as taken from the record of the age of Holman Thacker who was born the Eleventh day of February one thousand eight hundred and eighty two [1782] that from my calculation that he has his father Ambrose Thacker and his mother Molly Thacker was married about the year 1770 that it is the traditionary account of his father and mother and another that they were married in Buckingham County Virginia by the church of England minister. Joel Thacker"
Affidavit of Robert A. Dabney
Taken August 25th 1838 by Thomas Jack, Morgan County Tennessee
"that I well recollect thinking on my first acquaintance with Them that they was the oldest pair that I had probably ever seen to be both living an conversing with then I learned that they were married some years before the beginning of the Revolutionary War This conversation and information was voiced and received by and in consequence of the application of Said Ambrose Thacker for a Pension and endeavoring to arrive at his age I recollect that they informed me that they had several children before the beginning of the Revolutionary War"
Letter from Robert A Dabney, July 30th, 1838,
Morgan County Tennessee to the War Department
"She has made a Declaration as I suppose agreeable To her best memory which is enclosed in this letter together with the affidavit of her son Joel Thacker" ........"I am inclined to suggest to you that fact of her statements in her Declaration relative to her marriage seems together with the whole Declaration to be collaborated with circumstances and with the information afforded me by her and her deceased husband at and about the time of my preparing his papers to obtain his claim I have solicited information from Buckingham county Virginia and has not received any I visited on Mrs Thacker at her sons house to prepare her Declaration it seemed that her Recollection of her marriage could not enable her to arrive at the Ministers name that celebrated the same. it seems they went to that county viz Buckingham to marry from some other county not to far distance, her strength of body and mind seems small she would talk a while correctly and appear inteligent and soon seem to give out in both respects I am convinced that if she realizes any thing of claim it must be shortly. I have procured the copy of the record of the circuit court of the county wherein she resides, that was to obtain the remnant of Pension due to her that acrued between the last draw made by her husband, and his death; her situation, is not so indigent as the most unfortunate. but is really poor the great distance to Buckingham County Virginia, and whether matters of that Kind an matters record, or if so, to what Extent or whether records by the Clerks of courts or what court, or whether matters of that kind were of civil or Ecclesiastical notice I am unadvised to what tribunal to apply for information in Tennessee. all the record of marriage is the marriage bond given to the clerk of the county court and the return of the license to the offices abstracted by a Justice of the peace, or some minister of the gospel no book record is made; until last signature, has made it the duty of the county court clerk to record the license and return of the celebration. it is I venture that these contracts so important to the parties and security, have been taken no notice of heretofore the contracts of marriage, that really has been celebrated have not in many cases even been returned to the office and if returned, there was in no case notice taken of them but to file the same without making any record of it until the inconvenience has be last Legislature Reminded, by making clerks keep a Record book of the marriage for which they get the sum of one dollar instead of fifty cents which they recd before they were Recorded"......