REUBEN RIGGS Revolutionary War Pension Application STATE OF TENNESSEE -- GILES COUNTY On this 20th day of August 1832 personally appeared in open Court, before the Justices holding the Court of Pleas & Quarterseasons for the County and State aforesaid, at this August term of said Court Reuben RIGGS of said County of Giles, resident therein aged eighty five years, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefits of the Act of Congress passed June 7th, 1832. The said Reuben RIGGS saith and declares that he first entered the service under one Col. Cleveland in Surry County, North Carolina. One Saunders being his Captain, the day not recollected, but most probably in the month of June in the second year after the Declaration of Independence, and during that year served a tour of three months and also served a similar tour under the same officers during the year following. These tours were against the Indians committing depradations about the head of the Yadkin River. The declarant then moved into Washington County, in North Carolina but is now in East Tennessee, where in the month of December 1780 he volunteered under Col. Sevier in an expedition against the Cherokee Indians. They mustered at Stockdons Mill and proceeded on the expedition until Col. Clark and Col. Campbell of Virginia overtook and joined Sevier. Declarant was in Captain Previts' Company in that campaign until its close, the declarant was present at several skirmishs between the whites and indians, one on Boyd's Creek of French Broad River and at Chota and Hiwassee, Tellico and ______, what time that campaign closed he does not now remember, but supposes that some history or other record testimony in the public office of his County will show. He has no documentary evidence, having long since lost his discharges and that he knows of no person now alive who can testify to his services. The last man who could have done so to his knowledge, died during the last year, one Jessee RIGGS of Lincoln County, Tennessee. The said Reuben Riggs duly relinquishs any claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on any pension role of any state or territory whatsoever. Sworn and subscribed the day and year aforesaid. Reuben RIGGS Germain Lester, Clerk (his signature) We, Stephen Shelton, Clergyman residing in the County and State aforesaid and Thomas Martin, merchant of the town of Pulaski, in the County and State aforesaid do hereby certify that we are well acquainted with Reuben RIGGS, who has subscribed and sworn to the above declaration and we believe him to be eighty five years of age and that he is respected and believed in the neighborhood where he resides to have been a Soldier of the Revolution and that we concurred in that opinion. Sworn and Subscribed the day and year aforesaid. Germain Lester, Clerk 1. Interrogatories propounded by said Court to the said Reuben RIGGS. 2. Where and what year were you born? Answer: In Morris County, New Jersey in 1749. (some read this as 1747!!!) I have the record of my birth in my fathers Bible - now at home. 3. Where were you living when called into service, where have you lived since the Revolution, and where do you now live? Answer: In Surry County, North Carolina and Washington County, as before stated when I entered the service and from Washington I moved to Grainger County, East Tennessee where I lived until about 1808 when I moved to Giles County, Tennessee where I have resided ever since. 4. How were you called into service? Answer: In all the above Campaigns I volunteered & served in person not by substitute. 5. State the names of some of the Regular Officers? Answer: I have stated all of the General Officers whose names are now recollected. 6. He further says that he received discharges from his said Captain Saunders and Previtt but has no recollection of what has become of them.