We continue our story of Warren's role in the American Revolution with the pension record of Isaac Smalley, born in 1756, the brother of Captain David Smalley and twin brother of Jacob Smalley. Isaac, who died January 25, 1844 in Warren Township in his 88th year, married Rachel on May 15, 1779. She died May 10, 1838. Their children were Nathan, 66 years old in 1852, Mary Coon, Deborah Martin and Rachel Putnam. His pension of $24 per annum began January 1, 1828. "Whereas Isaac Smalley, a soldier in the Revolutionary War and inhabitant of the township of Warren…in the seventy-first year of his age did on the 20th day of May in the year 1818 make out the following statement of his services in the aforesaid war and sent them to the Secretary of War and he sent them back and wrote that there was no provision made in the Act of Congress for express rider, and did not think it his duty to place me on the pension list; and I then…sent the papers to a friend who said he would enclose them and direct them to Congress with a [petition] to pass some act to make me equal to my fellow sufferers in that tedious war and my said friend mislaid them so that cannot be found…. "Isaac Smalley (came before me) and being duly sworn according to law…says that he enlisted in the army of the United States in the Revolutionary War for the term of five months in a company commanded by Captain Platt Bailey on the fifteenth day of June 1776 and…that he was in the battle on Long Island and the White Plains and several small engagements while returning through the State of New Jersey in a regiment commanded by Colonel Johnston and after Johnston's death Colonel Phillips took command. And…that he served out the aforesaid turn faithfully and was discharged in a writing mislaid. "And…that he enlisted yet another time in the Continental Establishment in the Revolutionary War for the term of one year commencing on or about the third day of March in the year 1779 in a company of Express Riders commanded by Jeremiah Dunn and afterward by Captain John Atkin. For some reason the duty of this company was to attend at headquarters at the office of General Washington and General Green, quartermaster general, and to receive all the letters (of) both the said officers (and) to convey them to any part of the United States at the pleasure of the said generals as there was no mail establishment at that time; and no man could be enrolled in that company except well recommended to be a faithful friend to the cause of his country as they was entrusted with all the private (correspondence) of the army; and every man received an appointment under the signature of General Green authorizing us to take a horse if ours failed…. (N)one was entrusted with the despatches but the said Express Rider and many rode night and day to do our duty if the nature of the business required it; and…that he served faithfully thirteen months on the duty the time he enlisted as the nature of the business required it…. "He enlisted at another time in the said establishment in the Revolutionary War…as near as (he) can recollect in May in the year 1780 for the term of six months in a company commanded by Captain David Smalley and joined a battalion commanded by Major John Gotches and lay at Hackensack and the English Neighborhood in order to oppose the enemy when they broke on that neighborhood and we had several small engagements…. (H)e was in the militia on a tour of duty at Elizabeth Town and New Brunswick and several small skirmishes…. On May 10, 1784, Isaac Smalley received payment of 20 pounds, 11 shillings, three pence for the depreciation of his Continental pay in the Somerset County Militia. (Pension No. S4866; spelling corrected) © Warren Township Historical Society |