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On this 10th day
of September 1832 personally appeared in open court before Mr. Thomas
Stuart, Presiding Judge of the Circuit Court of Williamson County, in the
State of Tennessee, Isaac Furgurson aged [?] years, a resident of said
County and State, who being duly sworn according to law doth on his oath
make the following declaration […section illegible…] in his 20th […] in 1779
as a volunteer under Captain James Turner. Governor Dunmore on the breaking
out of the war had returned to England and soon after came back again with a
fleet and landed on Gwinn’s[?] Island. Capt. Turner marched him with the
company against those British from Halifax County to Gwinn’s Island. His
Lieutenant was Fleming Bates. There the company to which he belonged joined
the forces collected from the different counties under Major (I think,
Thomas) Nelson. He with the other men were set to work in raising
fortifications opposite the Island in order to plant some artillery[?].
After this about two hundred men, including this applicant, were stationed
at these fortifications while the main body moved lower [down] the River in
order to cross and move up and attack the British at a given time. At the
time appointed the artillery men stationed at the fortifications commenced
the cannonading, but from accident the men who had gone below did not cross
soon enough to commence a simultaneous attack and the British retreated
without suffering much damage. Our artillery Capt. in this action was killed
with a bomb thrown by the Americans themselves. The next day Dunmore sailed
up the Potomac as if to attack Baltimore but did not do it. He was marched
then up the same River to a place called Cherry Point where he arrived after
two or three days. He had not been [there] more than a day or two when
Dunmore sailed down with his fleet by him and escaped and he was pursued no
further. He was then marched back home and got a discharge from Capt. Turner
for three months tour, which discharge he does not recollect what has become
of it.
He went to school until the next summer of 1778 or ‘79 when a considerable
force of the British having landed at Craney[?] Island on James River
opposite Portsmouth in the neighborhood of which they were causing great
ravage to the country, there was a call for volunteers and he entered a
volunteer company commanded by Capt. Peter Rogers, several companies
volunteering and some drafts men militia coming from the same county and of
the same expedition against these British. He was marched accordingly from
Halifax and down to Hampton. We then marched on and were landed at
Portsmouth. After the forces were collected at Hampton, General Lawson
commanded them. When he and the men with him had crossed over to Portsmouth,
he then saw that the British had burned Norfolk. At Portsmouth and there
about he lay for some time. His General watched the maneuvers of the British
until they left those parts and he returned home getting a second discharge
from Capt. Rogers for a three months tour of service. He does not recollect
what became of it.
He remained at home until 1781 when there was another call for men. The
British had collected and garrisoned themselves at Ninety Six. He entered a
company commanded by his old Capt. James Turner and was marched with the
company from Halifax to Salisbury, the place of rendezvous where Major Ross,
a Continental officer, took the command of the men and he was marched by him
immediately to Ninety Six where Gen. Green commanded. He then was put to
work laying fortifications and making entrenchments. This place was besieged
for some time and one or two places of minor importance were taken, when
Lord Rawden [w… a…g?] reinforcement compelled him to raise the siege. When
Gen. Green raised the siege, he marched his men with this applicant
northward and having crossed Broad River, he made a stand, the British being
then on the opposite side. He then marched his men towards Camden, but
before he got there he halted and sent his baggage with two or three hundred
militia, of whom he was one, to the high hills of Santee. He was marched day
and night over and thru dangerous routs and after a fatiguing march of
several days he arrived a[t] the place where the baggage was to be left.
Green in the meantime had fought the Battle of Eutaw Springs. He marched
from the high hills of Santee to Salisbury where the prisoners taken at
Eutaw had been sent, and this applicant and the militia who were with him
commanded by Major Armstrong took charge of the prisoners and delivered
[them] at a place called Halifax Old Town in Pittsylvania County. Thence he
returned home receiving his third discharge for a tour of three months
service.
He was then employed by the Quarter Master William McGraw[?] to haul a load
of provisions, ammunition & etc. to Salisbury. After that he was procured to
take another load to Port Royal which was about two hundred miles. Then he
took or was engaged to take a load of flour to headquarters then at Little
York, but before he arrived Cornwallis surrendered. He was engaged in this
business at least one month for which service he never received one cent.
He was born in North Carolina, Edgecombe County. He volunteered every tour
but the last, in which he was drafted. He was aquainted with Green, Ross,
Nelson and Lawson who were with the troops with whom he served. I have a
record of my age now in my possession taken from my father’s family bible.
He has no documentary evidence except those he has named which are lost. He
knows of no one in this county except Charles Pistole, who can testify to
his services as stated.
I have lived in Virginia, Halifax County until 1806 when I moved to
Williamson County, Tennessee, where I now reside. He hereby relinquishes
every claim whatever to a pension or annuity and declares that his name is
not on the pension roll of any agency in any State.
[signed] Isaac Furgurson X his mark
Sworn to and subscribed in Open Court 30 August 1832
[signed] Preston Hay, clk & etc.
Widow’s Application
State of Tennessee )) Circuit Court for said County
Williamson County )) July Term A.D. 1843.
On this twentieth day of July A.D. 1843 personally appeared here in open
court before the Honorable Samuel Anderson. Nancy Furgurson a resident of
the said County of Williamson, aged near 80 years. Who being first duly
sworn according to law doth make on her oath the following declaration in
order to obtain the benefit of the provision through an Act of Congress
passed July 7th, 1838 entitled “An Act … pensions to certain widows.” That
she is the widow of Isaac Furgurson who was a Private in the Army of the
Revolution in the State of Virginia and whose name is upon the pension roll
for the agency of West Tennessee as a Revolutionary pensioner having been
placed there in the year 1833 as appears from the original pension
certificate which is now in her possession and which is dated the 28th day
of August A.D. 1833. A copy of the same is here wit appended and marked A
and made a part of this declaration. That this said Isaac Furgurson served
several tours of duty as a private in the Virginia troops as she always
understood from him in his lifetime. She understood from him that he lived
in the County of Halifax in the State of Virginia when he entered the
service and then had served a tour of nine months before his intermarriage
with her. After their intermarriage he served another tour of six months. He
entered the service this last time in said county of Halifax sometime in the
early part of the year 1781. The declarant is unable to give a detailed
statement of the incidents and events of the several tours of service of
said Isaac Furgurson. But she supposes such incidents and events are fully
stated in the declaration of said Isaac Furgurson which is now on file in
the proper office. She further declares that she was married to said Isaac
Furgurson on the 27th day of October 1779 in the said County of Halifax in
the State of Virginia and that her said husband died on the 2nd day of
September A.D. 1841 in the said County of Williamson. The only record she
has or knows of her marriage with said Isaac Furgurson is an entry in their
family bible, which entry is in the file owning words and figures “to wit
Isaac Furgurson and his wife Nancy was married October 27th, 1779.” This
entry is as the declarant believes in the hand writing of said Isaac
Furgurson. She further declares she was married to said Isaac Furgurson
before he performed his last tour of service and previous to the first of
January 1794, viz. at the time above stated, and she removed with her said
husband from Halifax County in the State of Virginia in the year 1806 and
settled in said County of Williamson in which County she continued to live
with her said husband until his death at the time above stated and where she
still resides. She further declares that she has never intermarried with any
other since the death of her said husband but has remained and still is a
widow. And that her said marriage with said Isaac Furgurson took place
before he performed his last tour of service above mentioned.
Sworn to and subscribed on the day and year above written before Mark L.
Andrews, Clerk of said Circuit Court for said County of Williamson in Open
Court.
[signed] Nancy Furgurson X her mark; M.L. Andrews, Clk.
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