John Malott

Research note: John’s pension file

John’s pension file tells the same story as his brother Dory’s, and was clearly taken down by the same clerk on the same day, 6 November 1832, at the Clermont County court in Batavia. John described the same tours of service: marching to join Washington on the Delaware in 1776; being pressed into service with “my brother Dory Malott together with Ignatius Knott” to butcher meat for the prisoners at Fort Frederick; being drafted in October 1777 and wintering at Valley Forge; guarding prisoners; and helping round up Tories. He said the three were messmates and lived on the same farm in Washington County. Dory and Ignatius Knott swore to John’s service, as John and Knott swore to Dory’s. Both brothers were granted pensions on 26 June 1833, with consecutive certificate numbers.

John’s file adds details Dory’s does not. He, too, had a record of his age copied from his father’s Bible. He lived in Washington County until 1791, “the year of St. Clair’s defeat,” when he moved to Mason County, Kentucky; about four years later he crossed into Union Township, Clermont County, Ohio. Where Dory signed his declaration, John made his mark.

After John died on 28 February 1838, his widow Elizabeth, then 71, applied for a widow’s pension. She swore that they had married in 1784, and Dory, then 82, swore that he had known them from the time of their marriage and that they lived together as man and wife until John’s death. Her neighbor J. A. McAdams wrote to the pension office that Elizabeth and her witnesses were “very feeble” and asked it to “have compassion on the widow of a soldier of the revolution.” She was granted $80 a year in 1843.

Two questions the Pension Office raised. The file holds two papers in which the office questioned his claim. The first is a printed checklist, “Brief objections to the admission of Pension Claims,” filled in by a clerk for “John Malott” (page 21 of the file as viewed on Ancestry). It has ten questions. John’s claim passed nine: the declaration gave his residence and was made in his own county, it gave the periods of his service and the names of his officers, he had given up any other pension claim, and the court’s opinion, the clerk’s certificate and the seal were all present. The one answer marked “No” was the fifth: whether he had stated the length of his service and his different grades precisely enough for the department to decide the amount. The form says such answers needed further proof or explanation. The pension was granted on 26 June 1833, probably after the sworn statements of Dory and Ignatius Knott about his service, though the pages that settle this have not been seen.

The second is a letter from the Pension Office dated 12 July 1837, signed J. L. Edwards and addressed to the pension agent at Cincinnati (page 26). It returns the vouchers in the case of “John Malott, a pensioner under the Act of the 7th June 1832,” and says: “In his original application for a pension in November 1832 he made his mark, and now after the lapse of nearly five years he writes his name. Some explanation on this point is necessary before an Order to pay can be granted.” This independently confirms that John made his mark in 1832, as our page says. It also shows that the office held up payment in 1837 until it understood why a man who could only make his mark now signed his name. The letter does not say how the question was answered. John was alive then and died on 28 February 1838. The explanation may be in the pages around page 26, which have not been seen.

Source: U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800–1900, file W.3839, “Malott, John, and Elizabeth,” Maryland (National Archives microfilm M804), viewed on Ancestry (pages 21 and 26 of the images); and file S.2737 (Dory Malott).