Last updated 04/27/2012 10:43 AM
Joseph Cathcart is a very interesting person and very likely related to my line of Cathcarts.
He was born about 1748 in County Antrim, Ireland. In 1773, he immigrated to York County, Pennsylvania. Five years later, he moved to Fairfield District, South Carolina, where he later served as a spy for General Sumter during the Revolutionary War. He apparently stayed in South Carolina until about 1804, when he left for to Knox County, Tennessee. Finally, he moved to Monroe County, TN where he lived until his death in 1846.
For more information about Cathcarts in Tennessee, see my Tennessee page.
Pension Declaration
State of Tennessee
Monroe County
On this 20th day of September 1832 personally appeared in aforesaid Court, before the Justice of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions now sitting, Joseph Cathcart, a resident of the said county and state aged 85 years, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress, passed June 7, 1832.
That he was born in Ireland, and came to the U.S. and settled in York County, Penna in 1773. In 1778 he moved to Fairfield So. Ca. where he shortly after joined the Militia in Capt John Frances’ Company, Col Jn.o Winn’s Regiment, under Genl Sumpter [sic]. The first service he did was, that he was marched in said Francis company to one Caldwell’s, where Tories and British were collected, and had an engagement with them and took them, (which was about 20 miles before York C. House). He went on with the prisoners as far as Hills’ Iron Works when he returned home with the company, still however in service and daily on the watch, for the country was full of British or Tories, there being but three Whigs in the neighborhood in whom he could confide. A few days after he reached home a company of Tories under command of Capt. [Rogers] took him to Camden about 40 miles, charging him with being a rebel spy. When he was taken to Camden there was one Capt Smith (a Tory, but a neighbor of applicant) who took his part and had his trial brought on one day when the witnesses were absent, which saved his life. While he was confined in Camden, Gen’l Sumpter (having learned of his confinement by one James Boyd) said he would give two men in exchange for him. For the charge of spying should have been sustained, as Gen’l Sumpter had himself appointed applicant as a spy, his position being favorable for the purpose, and Whigs being scarce in that quarter. He acted as a spy till the end of the war, nearly two years and lost all his property, being considerable, with the exception of two cows which were in the woods. He was engaged in various ___ and skirmishes of which he cannot now give a minute account, as it is long since they occurred, and his memory has failed to a great degree. He was then on the watch and [immediately] between the adverse parties, again taken prisoner by the Tories, but a liberty party rescued him a few days afterwards. In the summer, not long before the surrender of Cornwallis, he went out for the last time, in the same company he had been in informally before (Capt. Frances’) and was at a battle at the taking of a fort on the Congaree. He can sometimes remember the name of the fort, but cannot now. The British and Tories stacked their arms and surrendered. They marched the prisoners off, he forgets where. Applicant cannot at this time tell how often he [went] out or how long at each time, but he considered himself in active and dangerous service, and indeed in constant service for one year, and if the time he acted as a spy under Genl Sumpter’s command be taken into account, which was highly dangerous and difficult, hw was in service more than two years.
He has no documentary evidence and three is no person by whom he can prove any service by him rendered so far as he knows. He hereby relinquishes any claim whatever…
… to a person or _____ except the present and ______ that his name is not on the Pension roll of the Agency of any State. There is no clergyman living in his neighborhood, he therefore [procures] a justice of the peace in his stead.
Sworn to and subscribed }
The day and year aforesaid } [signed] Joseph Cathcart
Wm [S. Callaway] Clerk }
We, William Upton, a Justice of the Peace and William Montgomery, citizens of Monroe County, Tennessee hereby certify that we are well acquainted with Joseph Cathcart who has subscribed and sworn to the above declaration, that we believe him to be 85 years of age; that he is [reported] and [believed] in the neighborhood where he resides, to have been a soldier of the revolution and that we concur in that opinion.
Sworn to and subscribed }
The day and year aforesaid } [signed] William Upton Wm Montgomery
Wm [S. Callaway] Clerk }
And the said court do hereby declare their opinion, after the investigation of the matter, and after putting the interrogatories proscribed by the War Department, that the above named applicant was a revolutionary soldier, and served as he states. And the Court further certifies that, it appears to them that William Upton who has signed the proceeding certificate is a justice of the peace for Monroe County aforesaid and that William Montgomery, a Citizen of said County who has also signed the same, is a resident of said County and is a credible person and that their statement is entitled to credit.
[3 signatures:] Thos [Caldwell], Wm [Bayles], John [Monroe?]
I William S. Callaway, Clerk of the County Court of Monroe County do hereby certify that the foregoing contains the original proceedings of the said court in the matter of the application of Joseph Cathcart for a pension.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and private seal having no seal of office in Madisonville. September the 20th 1832
(Seal) [signed] Wm S. Callaway
I H. S. White, Senator in Congress certify that I ___ believe the above to be the signature of Wm S. Callaway, who was at the above date Clerk of the said Court.
State of Tennessee/Monroe County
Personally appeared before the Subscriber, a Justice of the Peace for said County of Monroe, Joseph Cathcart, who being duly worn, deposeth and saith, that he is the identical individual who made the declaration hereunto attached, before the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions on the 20th day of September 1832, to which he now makes the following
Amended Declaration:
That he was born in Ireland on, as he believes, the Month of May AD 1748. He has no record of his age. When he was called into Service he resided in Fairfield District So. Carolina, and volunteered each time. He never received, nor applied for any discharge. He states that the following persons are, at present his neighbors and can testify as to his integrity and their belief in his services as a soldier of the revolution [esp] Michael ___, Alexander Mullins, Aaron Dean, & Hiram Defrize.
The period applicant served in the war was the three last years of the Revolution. He was more than two years in Service, and was in the last battle fought in the South – at the [taking?] of the fort on the Congaree River. He [resided] in South Carolina ever since the Revolution, until AD 1814, when he moved to Knox County, Tenn, where he lived till 9 years ago, when he moved into said Monroe County where he now resides.
Sworn to and Subscribed } [signed] Joseph Cathcart
Before me this 18th May 1833}
[signed] William James
Justice of the Peace
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Last updated 04/27/2012 10:43 AM