The following is the text of John Stewart's pension record for service in the Revolutionary War as obtained from the National Archives. It is difficult to decipher the photocopy. Missing words are denoted with a "(?)." It also seems to begin in the middle of the document, indicating missing material:
"...strongly solicited to accompanying the army in that expedition with the officer of a commission as Captain; but that the (unprotected?) situation of his family (forbade?) his remaining, and he returned home. And (then?) the said Huldah Stewart well recollects that her said husband returned to her at Cambridge near Christmas, and that he had in his possession when he returned a curiously wrought leather bag, filled with papers which he (related?) to his services as commissary as aforesaid, and that he said the bag was given him for that use.
That early in July A.D. 1777, the said John Stewart resided with his family in Pawlet, Vermont, then called the New Hampshire Grants, and the the neighborhood in which they lived was alarmed by an (express?) communicating the intelligence of the Captain of Ticonderoga, and the disastrous result of the battle of (Hubbardtown?), and that the Indians attached to Burgoyne's army were overrunning the whole country. All the (whigs?) who resided in that part of the country, were compelled to abandon their settlements at the (North?), and remove South to some place of greater security. That the said John Stewart (?) a (?) put forward his family, consisting of the applicant and their young children, and remained behind himself a few hours to endeavor to (?) some of his furniture, provisions, and other valuables, which were all however found, and stolen or destroyed by the (tories?), and with the exception of one iron kettle, never recovered by the said Stewarts. Among the not, the leather bag before mentioned, containing the commissary and other papers relating to the military services of the said Stewart, was (?), and all the papers destroyed fragments of them having been found strewed upon the ground for a considerable distance from the house.
After suffering great hardships, the applicant, with her children was placed in the family of her father in Bennington where she remained until Nov. after the surrender of Burgoyne.
On the alarm occasioned by the approach of the enemy under Col. Baum, the said John Stewart joined the American forces under Gen. Stark, as a volunteer, and was in both engagements of the 16th of August A.D. 1777. In this action he personally disarmed and made prisoner a Hessian soldier, and the gun, sword, and accouterments taken from the Hessian were for many years preserved in the family of said Stewart, and a knife made from the sword is now in the possession of the applicant. The said John Stewart on this occasion was in the service of the United States as the applicant verily believes during all this time that the prisoners then taken were at Bennington. She further declares that she was legally married to the said John Stewart at the house of her father Elnathan Hubbell in Bennington aforesaid on the 12th day of March A.D. 1772, by the Rev. Jedadiah Dewey the first settled minister of said town. That she resided in said town until 1774, when they returned to Cambridge, New York. That in 1776 or 7 they removed to Pawlet, Vermont. That in 1780, they removed to Ticonderoga, New York, in 1793 to Orwell, Vermont, in 1795 to Burlington, New York, in 1804, to New Haven, Vermont, in 1812, to Middlebury, Vermont, where she has ever since resided: -- That her eldest child Cynthia was born in Bennington, Aaron in 1775, in Cambridge, Noble in 1777, and Ira in 1779 in Pawlet.
That her husband the aforesaid John Stewart died at Middlebury aforesaid on the 30th day of July A.D. 1829 and that she has remained a widow ever since that period, as will more fully appear by reference to the proof (hints?) annexed. That she has no documentary proof, and knows of no person living by whom she can prove the revolutionary services of her husband.
Sworn and subscribed on he day and year first before written.
Huldah Stewart - her mark Before Mr. (G.?) (H.?) (Jenison?), Judge
I certify that the above named Huldah Stewart is personally known to me and that she is a reliable witness. (G.?) (H.?) (Jenison?), Judge"
The following is a deposition by Ira Stewart, son of John Stewart:
I Ira Stewart of Middlebury on the County of Addison and State of Vermont, aged sixty six years being duly sworn depose and say, that I am the third son of John Stewart, late of said Middlebury deceased, and Huldah Stewart his wife, and I further say that the said John Stewart my father deceased on the thirtieth day of July, 1829, AD 1829, and that my Mother, the said Huldah, is yet living and has ever remained the Widow of the said John Stewart, and is now Ninety four years of age and in the full possession of all her faculties. I have frequently heard my father in his lifetime speak of his first campaign in the American Army, during the year 1775 under the command of General Montgomery in the invasion of Canada. The said John, my father, stated that he entered the American Service on or about the first of June A D 1775 for the term of six months at Cambridge in the County of Washington and State of New York as orderly Sergeant in Captain McCracken's Company and Colonel (Van Schaide's?) Regiment of the New York line: that he was recruiting officer for the Company, to which he belonged; and that he recruited in Cambridge aforesaid, and in Salem in the said County of Washington previous to General Montgomery's march to Canada, he joined his company with his recruits and was present in the American Army at the taking of the Isle Aux noix, St. Johns and Montreal; and that when the Army reached Canada, he was appointed (Issuing?) Commissary and continued to occupy the office and fulfill its duties until the execution of his term of enlistment, at which time he returned to his family, then residing in Cambridge aforesaid. And he further stated, that when the fort at Ticonderoga was taken by the British under the command of General Burgoyne in 1777, he resided on the Town of Pawlet in Vermont, And information having been received that a large force of British Indians were ravaging the County and advancing on that Town, he together with the other inhabitants (?) left their habitations and retreated to the Town of Bennington leaving behind them all their effects, and that at that time he lost his discharge and other vouchure (sic) of the service he performed in the American Army, together with all the rest of his papers. That while at Bennington he joined General Stark's Command, as a Volunteer, and was present and fought in the Battles of Bennington when Cols. Baum and Breyman (editor's note: this should read "Breymann") commanding the British forces were defeated, and that in that Conflict, he personally took a Hessian soldier prisoner. The accouterments gun and sword belonging to that Prisoner have been, until a few years since, in the possession of the said John Stewart's family: and a knife made from the blade of the same sword is now in the possession of the deponent.
And this deponent says and verily believes, that the said Captain McCracken to whose Company his father belonged, was present and took part in the battle of Monmouth and lost an arm in the said battle. My father was an intimate personal friend of the said Captain McCracken and on or about the year 1801 in the month of January or February I accompanied my said father on a visit to the Capt. then Colonel McCracken and heard them among other things recount their adventures in the American service during the Campaign of 1775 but from the long lapse of time and from not particularly storing his memory with it, this deponent is unable to relate their conversation.
And this deponent further states that sometime since, at the request of his mother, the said Huldah Stewart, he examined the Records in the office of the Secretary of State for the State of New York in Albany for the purpose of finding the proofs of his father's the said John Stewart's service in the American Army; and in the book of Records this deponent found the Role of the Commissioned officers of the said Capt. McCracken's Company (Van Schack's?) Regiment, but no Role of the non commissioned officers and privates of the said Capt. McCracken's Company; and further this deponent saith not.
Ira Stewart
State of Vermont
District of Addison (?)