RETURN TO "WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT WILLIAM SECORD?"
John Secor (a second John Secor in this database)
There is information on John Secor at the site Heritage Quest Online:
http://www.heritagequestonline.com/hqoweb/library/do/index
The database of interest is Revolutionary War Era Pension & Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files. For John, the reference is:
Series: M805, Roll 724, Image 350, File S43122, Pages 1 to 6
Starting on Page 3, John tells his story in applying for a Revolutionary War Pension:
"State of New York
Delaware County
On this 31st day of August 1820 personally appeared in open Court being the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Delaware and made a Court of Record by the acts of the Legislature of the State of New York in such case made and provided John Secor aged sixty four years resident in the town of Roxbury in said County of Delaware, who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath declare that he served in the revolutionary war as follows, that he enlisted into a company commanded by Captain Amos Hutchings in regiment commanded by Colonel Lewis Dubois in 1776 for nine months, that in June 1777 he enlisted again under the same captain and colonel for three years that he served out the said two enlistments and at the expiration of each term he was regularly discharged that the above regiment belonged to the New York state line. And the date of the original declaration of this deponent was as he believes the thirteenth day of May 1818. And that he has received a pension certificate the number whereof is 10,219.
And I the said John Secor do solemnly swear that I was a resident citizen of the United States on the 18th day of March 1818 and that I have not since that time by gift, sale or in any manner disposed of my property or any part thereof with intent thereby so to diminish it as to bring myself within the provisions of an act of Congress entitled "an act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and naval service of the United States in the revolutionary war" passed on the 18th day of March 1818 and that I have not nor has any person in trust for me any property or securities, contracts or debts due to me, nor have I any income other than what is contained in the schedule hereto annexed and by me subscribed.
Sworn in open
John Secor
court this 30 August
1820 H R Phelps
Dep Clk
Schedule of Property
1 pig, 2 plates, 1 platter, 5 tea cups & saucers, tin teapot
1 kettle, 1 old tubb, 1 chest, 1 spider, 1 shovel, 1 ax, 1 hoe
2 pails, small keg, meat barrel, 2 [dry?] caskes, 1 empty Hh
1 old cracked potash kettle, 1 testament & a few
school books
I have due to me from one man about three dollars & about
ten from another.
I have not wearing apparel and bedding sufficient for myself and
family and am from necessity compelled to receive small charities
from my neighbors to prevent myself and family from suffering.
I am by occupation a shingle maker but from a low state of health
and a troublesome rupture which prevents me from sitting I am
unable to pursue the same. I can not support myself by my labor.
I have a wife Eleanor aged 56 years. She enjoys tolerable good
health for a woman of her years a part of her time but is
occasionally troubled with what the physicians term the cramp
convulsion upon nerves. When she is free from these spasms she
may do sufficient to support herself. Also William aged 12 years.
He is a weakly unhealthy boy and totally unable to labor any at
all. Also Elisabeth aged 7 years. She is unable to labor one hand
being so cramped as to render it incapable of being opened. Also
Sarah aged 4 years. She is quite troublesome having what is
termed the scald head.
I owe in all about $30.00 principally to physicians for attending
on my family.
John Secor
I Homer R Phelps Deputy Clerk of the County of Delaware do hereby certify that the foregoing oath and the schedule thereto annexed are truly copied from the record of the said Court. And I do further certify that it is the opinion of the said Court, that the total amount in value of the property exhibited in the aforesaid schedule is nineteen dollars and fifty cents.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the Court of Common Pleas of said County this sixth day of September 1820.
H R Phelps Dep Clk"
On page 6 of the file there is the following statement:
"State of New York
Schoharie County
On this thirteenth day of May 1818 before me the subscriber one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas for the said county personally appeared John Secor aged sixty one years resident in the town of Blenheim in said county aforesaid who being by me first duly sworn according to Law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the provision made by the late act of Congress entitled an act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and naval service of the United States in the revolutionary war. That the said John Secor enlisted in the town of Orange now called Hempsted & now in Rockland County in said state in the company of Captain Amos Hutchings of the [sic] nine months [?] in the month of April 1776 in Col [Dubmois's?] Regiment & that he served in said company & regiment untill February 1777 and that in the month of June following he enlisted for three years into the company commanded by the said Amos Hutchings in the 5th regiment commanded by Col Lewis Dubois in which said company & regiment he continued untill the expiration of the said three years that he was in the service of the United States in all four years five months eleven days that he was in the Battles of Harlem Heights - Gidneys Hill - White Plains and the taking of the Hessians at Trenton - the British at Princeton - the taking of Stoney Point - was with Gen Sullivan in several engagements with the Indians - & that he is now in reduced circumstances and stands in need of the assistance of his country for support & that he has no other evidence now in his power of his said service.
Sworn to & declared before me the day and year above written.
John Brewster"
John's submission was accepted and he did receive a pension. Some notes on page 2 of the file indicate that he may have died in 1830 or 1831.
The above information gives John's age as 64 on Aug. 31, 1820 and 61 on May 13, 1818. That suggests that he was born between May 13 and Aug. 31, 1756. While he was from present-day Rockland County, this does not state that he was born there. On May 13, 1818 John was living in Blenheim, Schoharie County, NY, but he had moved to Roxbury, Delaware County by Aug. 31, 1820. As there was more than one John Secor in most of the NY census records, I can't be certain of which, if any, of them is the same man.
The information that I can see in the Ancestry family trees suggests that this John was the son of David and Rebecca (Halstead) Secor, with David the son of James/Jacques and Anne (Terrier) Sicard, with this James/Jacques the son of Ambroise Sicard the immigrant. I have not attempted to confirm this information.