This ancestor, however, left a chronicle of his service in his own words. John Phillips, the son of Welsh immigrants and a descendent of Mayflower passenger George Soule, joined Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys in January, 1776. In 1832 he appeared before the Court of Common Pleas in Clarks Summit to request the pension he was entitled to as a soldier in the war. Here is the record of his service:
Pennsylvania
Luzerne County
On the sixth day of April Anno
Domini one thousand eight hundred thirty four personally appeared in open Court
before the Honorable David Scott Charles D. Shoemaker and William J. Ross
Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County John Phillips a resident of Abington Township
in said county aged eighty two years who being first duly sworn according to
law do then his oath make the
following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress
passed June 7th 1832.
When
General Montgomery was killed and the Americans were defeated at Quebec there
was an express sent to Lt. Colonel Schuyler.
Came (?) an order of the Northern forces requesting him to send us a
reinforcement immediately. He sent a
Commission to Col. Seth Warner of Vermont to raise a regiment for three months
and march them to Quebec with all possible speed and the tenth day of January
A.D. seventeen hundred and seventy six I enlisted under Capt. Samuel Wright in
the regiment raised by Col. Warner and on the fifteenth of the same month
started for Quebec and was there until the sixth day of May ensuing when the British came up the
river with their Frigates loaded with Troops and we had to make our escape as
best we could.
We continued our retreat up the
St. Lawrence to Point Shambly from thence to three rivers (Trois- Rivieres) from
thence to the Sorell, Shambalee and St. Johns and from thence up Lake Champlain
to Ticonderoga and from thence I arrived at home on the twenty seventh day of
May having served as a private four months and seventeen days under Capt.
Wright in Col. Warner’s regiment. The
next face(?) is November and about the first of the month the British hove in
sight of Ticonderoga and the Vermont militia were all called out. We marched to Mount Independence and were
stationed there to keeping watch night and day.
I was there in service as a private twenty seven days under Capt. David
Goff in Col. Herick’s regiment and received no pay due. February 1777 I removed into Pittston on the Susquehanna in the Valley of Wyoming and in
the month of June of the same year I spent ten days in building small forts of
? and F? under the direction of Capt. Jeremiah Blanchard for the purpose of
protecting the settlement of Wyoming from the Indians and Tories. Near the middle of December in the year 1777
Col. George Dorrance was ordered with a detachment of militia to go up the
river and take a number of Tories. I was
one of the private soldiers under Col. Dorrance in this expedition and we went
as far as New Sheshiquin and took and brought down twenty eight of the Tories,
some of whom were released and others sent to Litchfield Jail having been
engaged in service eight days.
Near the middle of June A.D. 1778
I was engaged with the inhabitants of Wyoming under the command and direction
of Capt. Jeremiah Blanchard in making preparations for defense against the
Indians whom we expected. We built a
Block House and kept guard night and day until the Indians did arrive and on
the third of July the Wyoming Massacre commenced in Abraham’s Plains where they
were nearly all cut off. I remained on
duty in the Block House on that day and was not in the battle. I was engaged in building the Block House and
keeping guard twenty days. Wyoming being
thus in the hands of the Indians I removed my family to Dutchess County NY.
Sometime in June 1779 the British appeared to be coming up
the North River to West Point and the militia being called out I went with them
as a private soldier into the Highlands under the Command of Capt. George
Head. We were gone twelve days. Again in the last of July or first of August
there was another alarm and I went again under the same Capt. down as far as Fishkill
and was gone six days. In the spring of
1779 there was a call for every sixth man of the militia for nine months—we
were classed six in a class and had the offer either to draft or hire a man in
our place. My class hired a man who
served the time and drew the wages. This
is the whole of my service and makes in time counting one month and a half, the
one sixth of the time served by the man hired by my class, eight months and
fifteen days that I was engaged in the defense of my Country.
1st I was born in Beekman Township Dutchess
County State of New York on the 24th of December 1751 Old Style.
2nd I have
no record of my age save one made by myself in Bible agreeably to the
information given me by my father and sister.
3rd I lived when called into service in Pawnal in
the County of Bennington Vermont where I lived until February 1777 when I
removed into Pittston Luzerne County Penna from where I removed to Dutchess
County where I lived four years before I came back again to Pittston and have
resided in Luzerne County ever since and at present in the Township of
Abington, except one year which I spent in Dutchess County after the “Peninsula
War” in which the Yankees were driven from Wyoming.
4th I enlisted in the manner and at the times
herein before stated.
5th When I was in Col.
Warner’s regiment at Quebec Col Dubois was there with his regiment and
retreated with us—Benedict Arnold was at Quebec while I was there and had the
Command, Gen. Montgomery having been previously killed. I do not recollect any other officer or
regiment.
6th I never received a written discharge from the service and
don’t know of any being given to soidiers in our regiment.
7th I am kinsman to the
Rev. John Miller of Abington—have been intimately acquainted with him for more
than thirty years. I am also known to
General Stans (?) Esq., Andrew Bedford of Abington Center P.O.(?) Dr. John
Wilson P. ch {?} of Factoryville P.O.(?) in same township and to Ezra Hall P.ch
of Hallsville P.O. same township. I am
also known to Gen. Wm Ross Post Master of Wilkes Barre, Isaac Bowman, Benjamin
Perry, George M. Hollinback, David Scott, and Ziba Bennett Esquire, all of
Wilkes Barre. I was also well acquainted
with Abraham Bradley Esq. of Washington City when he resided in Wilkes Barre.
8th I have no
documentary evidence of my service and know of no person whose testimony can
prove my service.
I hereby relinquish any claim whatsoever to a pension or
annuity except the present and I declare that my name is not on the pension
roll of the Agency of any State.
Sworn and subscribed in
Open Court on the day and
year first above written.
H.
Pettibone, Prot.
