I found the State of New Hampshire has a lot of records from the Revolutionary War period. I had no problem proving Edward Marden served for the state. Military rolls and other similar documents seldom give us much information, but they are worth looking at.
I am not going to post any of the documents I found, but if you are interested, they are available at Footnote.com for review.
Most of the rolls for soldiers in New Hampshire have been published in book form which can be found online and on CD. However, at Footnote.com I can view the actual document and evaluate what it says for myself. I will now list what I found.
The Ranger Company that Edward served with was known as Captain Benjamin Whitcomb Independent Company of Rangers.
Various Muster Rolls & other documents relating to Capt. Benjamin Whitcomb’s Company of Rangers
- Muster Roll dated 25-Jun-1777 – Edward Marden, private, enlistment term is “During War”
- Muster Roll dated 11-Nov-1777 at Saratoga – Edward Mardeen, private, enlisted Dec-30
- Muster Roll dated 26-Nov-1778 – Edward Mardeen, private, enlistment term is “During War”
- Muster Roll dated 31-Dec-1778 to 31-Oct-1779 – Edward Mardeen, private, enlistment term is “During War”
- Muster Roll dated 31-Oct-1779 to 1-Nov-1780 at Haverhill 23-Nov-1780 – Edward Mardeen, private, enlistment term is “During War”
- Muster Roll dated 23-Nov-1780 at Haverhill – Edward Marden, private, enlistment term is “During War”
- Return of men undated but stated to be an account of the men at the time the Company was disbanded – Edward Marden of New Hampshire, belonging to Northumberland and being credited to Northumberland, enlisted 30-Dec-1776 for the duration of the war.
- Muster Roll dated 1-Nov-1780 to 1-Feb-1781 – Edward Mardeen, private, enlistment term is “During War”
- compiled list dated 30-Jun-1786 – Edward Marden, private, paid to Dec. 31, 1781
A note on this last list refers to paying the men “the depreciation of their wages” from 1-Jan-1777 to 31-Dec-1779 and “the whole wages” from 1-Jan-1780 to 31-Dec-1781. It might be interesting to investigate just what is being referred to here.
I found a curious document at Footnote.com dated November 1895 [yes that is 1895 not 1795!] by the War Department [of the US I think?]. The document states it is an investigation of some of the names on a list found in the NH State Papers, page 239 with a copy of the page from the book attached to the document. A note at the bottom of the document (which looks like it was rubber stamped on) says the copy was verified and corrections made as indicated. The list being verified contains the name of “Edward Marden – Whitcombs Corps” and the following text heads the list.
[7-25] [Continental Soldiers’ Receipt for Bounty.]
We the subscribers acknowledge to have received of John Taylor Gilman twenty five Dollars each in Bills of the New Emission which sums is advanced to us by the State of New Hampshire as part of the Money ordered to be sent to the Army for the Soldiers of their Line, & for which sums we promise to account in the same manner as the money which shall be paid to the Soldiers in Camp, shall be accounted for — Exeter 7th Feb’y 1781 —
I can’t even image why government officials are taking the time to verify this document more than 100 years after the war. The list contains the names of 64 men who received $25 each in bounty money. It is an odd assortment of men from a dozen or more different companies, including 13 from Whitcomb’s Corp. The list suggests Edward Marden and a few fellow soldiers were in Exeter on 7-Feb-1781 where they received bounty money due them. This date is during the transition period after Whitcomb resigned his commission and his men were reassigned to the Continental Line. Perhaps they have reported to Exeter to receive their new assignments.
Perhaps I didn’t learn much of value to my investigation but it was not a complete loss of time. I know that Edward’s name was commonly misspelled as “Mardeen”, so when looking for him I need to check on that spelling as well as Marden and Mardin. I also know that Edward’s time with the Rangers was without serious incident since there are no special notes for him in any of the rolls. Other men are noted as sick, wounded, prisoner, deserted, killed, etc.
There is one last type of document I would like to mention. I found these documents at Footnote.com in the pension files of other solders. This is one of the nice things I like about the Footnote pension records. They are indexed by all the names found within the pages not just the name of the soldier. On HeritageQuest only the soldier’s names are indexed. I would have never found these at HeritageQuest without searching the files of every man Edward served with.
One document shows that Edward gave testimony for a fellow Ranger named Moses Hunt. Edward is referred to by others as “a credible witness and respectable old man”. In his testimony, Edward mentions “he and I were at the taking of Burgoyne in 1777”.
Another deposition by Edward Marden is dated 12-May-1818 and states he served in Capt. Dustin’s Company of Col. Dearbon’s Regiment of the New Hampshire Line with Moses Moor of Bath, NH for the years 1782 and 1783.
Edward’s deposition for Alexander McKeen states he was stationed in the town of Stratford in the month of March 1780 when McKeen and others arrived there on snowshoe. He also says they “were ordered to the southward & marched I think in the last of February 1781.” Here he appears to be referring to the disbandment of the Ranger Company. But perhaps at the age of 82, Edward’s memories are a bit off, because I have that bounty list mentioned above which places Edward in Exeter on the 7th of February. This deposition is dated 19-Jul-1831 and Edward is no longer signing his name which suggests his health has deteriorated so that he can no longer guide a pen well.
Edward gives depositions for at least three other fellow soldiers. They are interesting to read but they provide no details that would add to my knowledge of Edward.
Have any of my readers found interesting information in military documents that help you understand your ancestor better?
The Ne-Do-Ba Research Journal 