Revolutionary War Pension Application of William Robards State of Kentucky Jessamine County

On the 21st day of January 1839 personally appeared Wm Bronaugh, Esq., Justice of the Peace, in and for the county and state aforesaid, Elizabeth Robards, a resident of said county of Jessamine and state aforesaid, aged seventy-eight years in June month, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth on her oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the Act of Congress passed July 7, 1838, entitles an act granting half pay and pensions to certain widows. That she is the widow of William Robards, deceased late of Jessamine County, Ky, who was an orderly sergeant in the militia service of the State of Virginia during the war of the Revolution, and as such was in service from the month of May 1778 till sometime in the month of December. Thereafter, under the command of Captain Nathaniel Mape, and during that time was stationed at different places upon the Eastern Coast of Virginia, and again in the month of January 1780, the said William Robards volunteered and marched down to the Eastern Coast of Virginia and was attached to the company of Capt. Frederick Woodson of the Virginia Regulars, where he remained till the month of June of said year, when he was discharged and returned home to the County of Goochland. In what capacity her husband served in the expedition she does not recollect. It may have been as a private, but she has often heard him speak of being commissary at some time whilst he was in the army, and it may have been upon this tour, but she is of opinion it was in the tour to the South under General Gates. In this last expedition, he was under the command of Capt Edmund Curd / Conn? of the Virginia Militia, and Thomas Briston was one of the lieutenants of the company. And she is impressioned with the belief that Col. Lucas commanded the regiment. She recollects distinctly that in this expedition to the South the said William marched from Goochland County in the month of July on court day, which she thinks was the second Monday of the month, and that he did not get back until the latter part of the month of November or the first of December. She recollects well that the weather was quite cold when he returned. She again repeats it as her best impression that he was commissary on this tour of service. And William again volunteered about the first of July 1781 and was down upon the Eastern Coast of Virginia, and at different places in Virginia until about the last of the summer. She thinks in the month of August of said year when he returned home to Goochland. She recollects hearing her said husband speak of seeing Richmond on f-- when it was --- by the British. But in what capacity her said husband served in this expedition she does not recollect, but she is impressioned as orderly sergeant. She knows her said husband was much in the army during the Revolutionary War, and indeed was but little at --- when there was need of his services; but it is not to be re-- that she can have a very particular recollection as to dates or officers connected with her husband’s revolutionary services, except in relation to his tour to the South under General Gates, of which she has a most special recollection. She further declares that she was married to the said William Robards, dec., by Parson William Doughap of Goochland County, Va on the sixth day of September, seventeen hundred and eighty, and that her husband, the aforesaid William Robards, died on the 18th of November, eighteen hundred and twenty-three, that she was not married to him prior to his leaving the service, but the marriage took place previous to the first of January seventeen hundred and ninety-four at the time above stated. She further states that she knows of no record evidence of her marriage and that the discharges of her said husband have all been destroyed. Sworn to and subscribed on the day and year first above written before Justice of the Peace as aforesaid. Elizabeth Robards Wm Bronaugh, Esq.