Pension Application

W.16852 (Widow: Sophrona—died 21 November 1836, seven children survived. Nicholas died 17 May 1824.)
State of New York
Madison County SS.
            On this 17th day of June 1845 before the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of said county in open court the same being a court of record, personally appeared Nicholas W. Bort aged fifty six years, who being first duly sworn doth on his oath depose and say that he is the administrator sole of Sophrona Bort who was the widow of Nicholas Bort, sometimes called Barth. That he makes this declaration in order to records the pension to which the said Sophrona Bort was Entitled at the time of her death for the Revolutionary Services of her husband the said Nicholas Bort who was in the service of the United States in the Revolutionary War. And served as a Lieutenant land also as Adjutant as this deponent was always informed, land believes true.
            This deponent recollects of having seen the commission and also the uniform found &c of his father Nicholas Bort but does not know what has become of them. That a part of his services he thinks was under Col. Clyde and he thinks he served also under Col. Willet. That the marriage of the said Nicholas Bort & Sophrona Bort whose maiden name was Sophrona Myers took place before the Revolutionary, as the deponent was always informed and believes true. That this deponent’s father the said Nicholas Bort in his life time kept a family record in which he had in his own handwriting in the German language the record of his marriage. That this deponent saw the said record and that according to the said record of which this deponent tore a page, it appears that his father the said Nicholas Bort was born in 1741 and his mother the said Sophrona was born in 1751 and their marriage took place in 1767. That the said family record was lost with some of the papers by this deponent to [?] Ford Esq to forward to the department & some times last fall since which this deponent had not seen them and this deponent has been informed by a communication that no papers have been recroded at the Pension office.
            That his father the said Nicholas Bort died nineteen or twenty years ago leaving the said Sophrona his widow him [?] that the said Sophrona remained his widow and died in the said county of Madison in the month of November in the year 1836—That his father the said Nicholas Bort in his life time received a pension for wounds received by him in the service in the Revolution War.   That at the time of his death there was due him about one year and two months pension, which his widow claimed to draw and had papers prepared and sent but was informed the papers were in or [?] defective and he did not receive the money, and which seems this deponent also clearly? as administrator as aforesaid.
            That this deponent does not recollect all the officers, names and whom to [?] under Nicholas Bort served nor can he state all the various capacities in which he served. But the service was mostly in the Mohawk Valley and about Johnstown in the State of New York.
            That this claim is made under the act of July 4, 1836 and that the arrears due to his father being for about fourteen months is also claimed. The corner of the family record herein before referred to is so mutilated that it cannot be ascertained precisely what the date of the birth of Nicholas Bort above named father of this deponent was. But deponent supplied the date from some other circumstance. (Signed) Nicholas Bort
            Sworn and Subscribed in open court this 17th day of June 1845. H. C. Miner, Dep. Clk Mad. Co.

[The below record makes no sense to me at all but it was in the file. ajb, transcriber.]
Family Record
Births
Caty Bort was born Nov 18th 1799
Jacob Bort was born July 4th 1801
Henry Bort was born March 17th 1803
Polly Bort was born Feb 18th 1805
Betsy Bort was born Jan 30th 1807
Barbary Bort was born Dec 18th 1808
John Bort Junr. Was born Nov. 25th 1810
Margaret Bort was born August 30th 1812
David G. Bort was born June 10, 1814
Cornel.? Bort was born April 15, 1816
Wm. Bort was born August 24, 1820
Alanson Bort was born Nov 2nd 1822
Henry E. Bort was born August 13, 1826
Chauncey Bort was Bron Dec. 19th 1830
John Bort was born February 8th 1777.
Marriages John N. Bort to Jemima Bort was married January 14th 1799.

State of New York
Herkimer County SS.
On the 26th day of Dec. 1845 came before me John Bort to me known and being duly sworn says that the record hereto annexed is his family record taken from his bible and is correct and true and that said record was commenced more than 30 years ago. And that his own name & date of birth is at the bottom of said record, and that it was taken from his fathers record that was kept of his family which record is now lost, that he has often seen his father’s family record and that his own age and date of his birth is a true transcript of the original as kept by his father in regard to his own name and date of his birth and that he is a son of Lieut. Nicholas & Sopronia Bort deceased as he believes, and that he was brought up in his father’s family until he was twenty one years of age, and that his sister Catharine & Nancy & his brother George were older than this deponent and that his brothers Solomon, Nicolas, Henry, Christian & Barnet and his sisters Margaret & Betsy & Barbary were younger than this deponent and that he this deponent remembers that his father Nicholas was in the service of the Revolution as a lieutenant and also recollects being in fort Willett, when his father was brought there from the battle of Johnstown wounded in the breast, and that he recollects of his mother, himself, land the other children leaving the house on the approach of the Indians and torys and hiding in the bush, when his father was at fort Plain with the army—and has heard his parents and some of the old soldiers say that his father was engaged in the service of the Revolution the most of the time from its commencement to its close—and has heard Henry Seeber a revolutionary soldier say that he was present when this deponent’s father was wounded and that he fought resolutely in a sitting posture & unable to stand after he was wounded, and this deponent believes from what he can recollect and from what his father and old neighbors have told him that his father lost his farm in consequence of his service in the war, and the loss he sustained in the depreciation of Continental money. And also that the residence of this deponent’s father and family was in the Valley of the Mohawk River, where it was indestructible necessary the most rigid exertions should be used to guard the country from the Indians and Tory’s and that he believes his father exerted himself to the utmost of his ability in the service of his country during the Revolution all which this deponent believes to be true. (Signed) John Bort.
26th day of Dec. 1845, Micaiah Benedict, Justice of the Peace.

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