Bath County Kentucky
Mathew Pettit a Citizen of Kentucky states that he was a private soldier in the Continental Army and served for three years and at the end of that period was honorably discharged which discharge was burnt in his house at a time when his house was burnt.
That he was enlisted for three years at Jacob Creek near to Col. Mounts. Mill in the County of [blank] State of Pennsylvania by Capt. James Pickett [Piggott] of the 8th Pennsylvania Reg’t. Commanded by Col. Willson and Col. McCoy – and afterwards by Col. Broadhead who gave him his discharge at Fort Pitt at the end of the time afore’sd. His enlistment was in 1777 to the best of his recollection – and of course his discharge was in 1780, but the time may be corrected by the period when Col. Broadhead was stationed at Fort Pitt.
That he is now in indigent circumstances and has not property of the value of thirty dollars real and personal and is unable to work by reason of a wound in his arm or rather in his shoulder near the back bone which disables his left arm especially now in his advanced years he being about 58 years old this fall – He is also injured by a wound in the left leg both of which wounds he got in the Battle of Brandywine – He asks for the pension allowed by law to him as a revolutionary soldier in consequence of his total inability to support himself and says further that his family is large having four children the oldest of which is only eight years of age, and further that he has never had a pension allowed him for his wounds.
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And that he has no other evidence of his services save that which is sent herewith or what may be found in the war office.
Mrs. Rebecca Mitchell states that she is the sister of said Matthew Pettit and lived at her father’s when her brother enlisted in the Continental Army.
That he was absent from home more than three years and she has always been informed and believed that he served out his time and was honorably discharged –
That she knows of her own knowledge that said Pettit is in very indigent circumstances with a young family of four children and unable to support them by work.
State of Kentucky
Bath Circuit
Ordered that it be certified to the Secretary of War that the proceeding examination of Mathew Pettit and Rebecca Mitchell was taken on oath in open court and that it does appear to the substantiation of the court by said examination that the said applicant, Mathew Pettit was during the Revolution was an enlisted soldier and that he served as such as in said examination as stated and that he, said Mathew Pettet is in such meager and august circumstances as to require the aid of his country provided by the Act of Congress in such cases provided the foregoing statements sworn to in open court in due form of law, In Testimony whereof I hereunto set my hand and affix the seal of my office this 17th day of June 1818 and in the 27th year of the Commonwealth.
Att: Thomas Triplett, Clerk
On 14th of August 1820 Mathew Pettit also gave a statement, giving further information about his family. "I am by occupation a farmer and I am unable to provide a living by my labors owing to age and infirmity and wounds received in the Revolutionary service. I have a wife, aged forty two years and children Druscilla aged 14 years, Nancy aged 12 years, Samuel aged 10 years, Ann aged 8 years, Polly aged 6 years and David aged one month." When his son, Samuel married Nancy Sharp on the 29th of December 1828 in Bath County, Kentucky, Matthew and his wife, Molly gave consent for the marriage.
Matthew Pettit is listed on the Kentucky 1835 Pensioners List for Bath County, Kentucky.
He died in 1836. Andrew Pettit, orphan of Matthew Pettit deceased, age 16 was apprenticed to learn the trade of farming on 9th May 1836. (Bath County, Kentucky Deed Book J, pages 525, 526) This child Andrew being the same age as David above is noted as Andrew David Pettit. Captain Andrew Pettit served in the 40th Kentucky Infantry, Union Army in the Civil War. He died 10 February 1897 in Bath County, Kentucky. (Owingsville Outlook, 18 Feb 1897)
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