Revolutionary War Pension Accounts

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) holds the Applications for Revolutionary War soldier's and widow's pensions in Record Group 15 (Records of the Veterans Administration). Bounty-Land-Warrant applications are interfiled with the Revolutionary pensions. All these files are reproduced on NARA microfilm M804, a total of 2670 rolls. Long-distance researchers usually request pension info by using NATF-85.
Further records related to the pension, in addition to the ones filed in Record Group 15, exist in different record groups. Some of the added records relate to payments. For example, the pension payment ledgers and final payment vouchers are in Record Group 217 (Records of the United States General Accounting Office). One series within that group has 144 boxes of payment records from the Records of the Third Auditor. The title is "Settled Accounts for Payment of Accrued Pensions (Final Payments)."
Instead of receiving their payments directly from the government, Revolutionary pensioners dealt with local pension agents. On 6 April 1838, Congress enacted legislation concerning unclaimed pension funds. When pensioners failed to claim the payments from the agents within eight months, the funds were to be returned to the Treasury of the United States. Thereafter, the pensioner, his attorney, his heirs, or his estate must apply directly to the Treasury to obtain any such accrued payments. The documents cited below resulted from this act.

Jesse Hooper: from "Hooper, Jesse, children of, West Tennessee, Box 68, File 9038."
Former private Jesse Hooper had lived in Davidson County, Tennessee for some forty-odd years, and before that had lived in the State of Georgia. Pensioner Jesse Hooper died on 8 July 1839, leaving a widow Elizabeth. She died soon after, on 23 August 1839. On 3 February 1840, the heirs of the pensioner, therefore, were:
1. William T. Hooper,
2. John Hooper,
3. Mary Story, who was widow of Henry Story,
4. Martha Benningfield, wife of James Benningfield,
5. Elizabeth Cartwright, wife of Thomas Cartwright,
6. C L Hooper,
7. Anna Russell, wife of Thomas Russell,
8. Alston Hooper, and
9. Isaac Hooper, deceased, who left a minor child named Durinda and whose guardian was Matilda Hooper.
All these heirs were then residents of Davidson County, Tennessee.
- Full transcription of the scanned images cited below.
- Scanned original documents- Warning, these large files may load slowly.
  - Cover paper of the application for payment of the accrued pension.
  - Revolutionary Claim, the original certificate of pension held by Jesse Hooper.
  - Jesse Hooper's heirs' signatures appear in a three-page document which sets up the power of attorney for the heirs' claim.
  - Certifications (the fourth and fifth pages of the above document) for the Power of Attorney. Heirs are listed again.
  - Agent's letter which accompanied the heirs' application for payment.
James and Elizabeth Hooper: from "Hooper, James, widow of, Savannah, Georgia, Box 63, File 5460" and from "Hooper, Elizabeth, administrator of, Georgia, Box 72, File 12519."
Private James Hooper had lived in Dekalb County, Georgia for 11 years before his death and had prior residence in Franklin County, Georgia. James Hooper died on 28 April 1836, leaving Elizabeth Hooper his surviving widow.
- Full transcription of the scanned images cited below for Elizabeth Hooper's claim as widow of James Hooper.
- Scanned original documents
  - Cover paper of the application for payment of the accrued pension.
  - Widow's claim for payment of James Hooper's accrued pension.
  - Power of Attorney documents.
  - Agent's letter which accompanied the heirs' application for payment.
  - Revolutionary Claim, the original certificate of pension held by James Hooper.
On the same date that the widow Elizabeth Hooper made her claim for the arrears of pension due her husband, she also applied on her own behalf for a Revolutionary War Widow's pension. Only widows who had been married to soldiers before 1794 were then eligible; therefore, Elizabeth needed to prove the fact of marriage before 1794. Fortunately for genealogists, she had difficulty obtaining such proof from Virginia. Thus, she removed pages from the family Bible and sent them to Washington. The pension office therefore preserved a record of the birthdates of James and Elizabeth, of six children, and of two grandchildren. Before Elizabeth received her pension certificate, or could draw any pension payments, she too died. The documents below concern her heirs' claim for the accrued widow's pension of Elizabeth Hooper. Elizabeth died 24 April 1840 and left heirs (as of 26 Sept 1840):
1. Milly Word of Franklin County, Georgia
2. Mary Reid of State of Mississippi
3. Thomas C. Hooper of State of Louisiana
4. Obadiah Hooper, who left for Cuba about 1833 and not heard from since
5. James Hooper of DeKalb County, Georgia
- Full transcription of the scanned images cited below for heirs of Elizabeth Hooper, plus trancription of a final page too dark to be scanned.
- Scanned original documents
  - Cover paper of the application for payment of the accrued pension.
  - Revolutionary Claim, the original certificate of pension granted Elizabeth posthumously.
  - Attorney's statement on printed form.
  - Power of Attorney appointment form identifying heirs.
  - Agent's letters which accompanied the heirs' application for payment.

I am grateful to Wade Glascock for his assistance in obtaining the information on this page and its daughter pages. This page is © 1998, 2001, 2003 by Anne Goodwin. Comments or corrections are much appreciated. (The volume of email prohibits personal replies for all but a small number of messages received.)

Hooper Data

Found in Revolutionary War Pension Accounts Outside of NARA Record Group 15