Henry Walker Affidavit for Revolutionary War Pension Application

State of Illinois, Fayette County

Kindly provided by Jeff Radcliffe

Be it remembered that on this third day of September Eighteen hundred and thirty two, personally appeared before the County Commissioners Court of the County of Fayette, no sitting, the same being a Court of Record, Henry Walker Senior, a resident of the County of Fayette, and State of Illinois, aged seventy four years on the Eighth day of October last, who being first duly sworn according to Law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7, 1832.

That he was born according to the best of his knowledge at Prince Edward County in the State of Virginia, on the Eighth day of October 1758, but has no record of his age. That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated. About two years before the battle of Kings Mountain on the seventh of March, but cannot remember the year. He then living in Montgomery County, Virginia, he volunteered as a Spy in Capt. George Parris’s company of militia in Col. Wm. Preston’s regiment, which company was raised in either Wythe or Montgomery County in the State of Virginia. The company was that year employed in the Spy Service on the waters of the New River in the State of Virginia, and between that river and the Clinch river in said State, and also upon the waters of the Greyandotte, that he continued in said company in the service aforesaid from the time aforesaid (7th March) to October or November of the same year. The next year, in February or March, he was employed in the same service and upon pretty much the same ground , as a member of Capt. Frederick Edward’s Company in Col. Preston’s regiment, and continued in the same service until sometime in the month of October following. In the following year, as near as the deponent can recollect, in August or September, he joined Capt. George Parris’s Company, in the regiment aforesaid, and rendezvoused at Chissel’s Mines on the New River in the said State, and then moved to Wallings Bottoms up the New River, and from that place to or near the Mulberry Fields in North Carolina, where on hearing that Furguson was embodied on Kings Mountain, the regiment was divided, and part sent against Furguson, and the other to go against the Tories embodied at the Moravian Towns. Among the later was this deponent – That he met the Tories at the Shallow Ford of the Yadkin River and had a battle in which the Tories were defeated, and made their escape. In the battle, Capt. Parris was wounded and carried to Hoozer Town where this deponent staid (sic) until December, detailed to guard and take care of the wounded. The next February or March, he volunteered in Capt. Henry Pattons Company, under the command of Col. Preston and marched immediately to the Moravian Towns and from thence down the Reedy Fork of the Haw River, where he had a battle with the British, which battle was called the battle of Whitesells Mills, on the Reedy Fork of the Haw River, our troops being beaten, he retreated and rendezvoused at Gilford C. House N.C. and from thence marched to join Gen. Greene at the Iron Works, which was in May or June of the same year, when he was discharged and returned home. He never obtained a written discharge. He knows of no one living, by who he can prove any of the services enumerated, unless some of his old friends may yet be living in the State of Virginia, from whom he has not heard from for five and twenty or thirty years – unless a brother which ten or eleven years ago resided in Kentucky (but whether now living, or where, this deponent cannot say) may have some remembrance of some of said services, That the Rev. Charles Radcliffe and Robert K. McLaughlin have known him for many years and can testify to his character for veracity, and their belief of his services as a soldier of the Revolution. He hereby relinquishes every claim whatsoever to a pension or annuity except the present, and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any State.

And this deponent further says that since his services aforesaid, he has resided in the State of Virginia, about seven or eight years in Kentucky, and for the last twenty eight or nine years in the State of Illinois.

Sworn and subscribed, this 3rd day of September 1832 in open Court
Signed Henry Walker

James W. Berry, Clk

We Charles Radcliffe a preacher of the Gospel residing in the County of Fayette and Robert K. McLaughlin residing in the town of Vandalia in the same county, hereby certify that we are well acquainted with Henry Walker, who has subscribed and sworn to the above declaration. That we believe him to be seventy four years of age – that he is reputed and believed in the neighborhood in which he resides to have been a soldier of the Revolution, and concur in that opinion.

Sworn and subscribed, this 3rd day of September 1832 in open Court

Signed
Charles Radcliffe
R. K. McLaughlin

James W. Berry, Clk.