Morrison's Pensions


Pension Application for Anthony Glean

#23657 New York & Sea Service
State of New York
County of Saratoga
            On the twenty fifth day of August 1832, in open court before the court of Chancery now setting at Saratoga Springs personally appeared Anthony Glean resident of the Town of Saratoga Springs in the County of Saratoga and State of New York aged eighty one years, who being first duly sworn acceding to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7, 1832.  That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated.
            In April or May 1775, a volunteer company was formed in the city of New York, where he then resided to be made up of Seafaring men who had been thrown out of business by the troubles then arising.  The company was raised to defend the Batter of New York.  Captain Malcolm, an old Sea Captain was commandant of the company.  Captain Shaw another old sea captain was first lieutenant.  The second lieutenant was also a Sea Captain by the name of Campbell, as he now recollects.  The company was raised for one year and each man equipped himself with clothes & a gun & bayonet.  The company was not attached to any regiment.  Captain Malcolm took command at the Battery at New York and continued in command of the Battery at New York and continued in command of the Battery till the British took possession of the city of New York in August 1776.  The company was raised for a year, but they continued in the service as an organized company till the city of New York was evacuated by the Americans. 
              When the British took possession of the city the company was disbanded & being all sea faring men some of them went on board the ships of war and some remained in the land forces.  Captain Malcolm was soon appointed a Colonel.  Captain Shaw the first lieutenant of the company & Captain Campbell the second lieutenant went on board the Frigate Montgomery.
              The applicant owned a North River sloop lying in the East River at New York when the Battle of Long Island was fought.  After that battle and before the city was evacuated, the sloop was loaded with provision and military stores belonging to General Washington’s army.  The stores were conveyed to Fort Washington after unloading at Fort Washington the applicant was ordered to New York by General Washington to bring off the sick from the hospital and military stores and he took off from the hospital fifty-seven sick men and made the rest of the load up out of military stores.  Before applicant got his sloop out of New York with this cargo the British appeared at Greenwich.  He landed the sick men at Dobb’s Ferry and one half of the stores at Fort Washington and the other half at Fort Constitution opposite West Point.
              The applicant then went to Esopus and brought down a cargo of provisions and about twenty barrels of beer and landed the whole at Fort Washington.  On this trip from Esopus, the sloop touched at Poughkeepsie where the United States Frigate Montgomery was nearly ready for launching.  At Poughkeepsie, the applicant saw Captain John Hodge, who at New York had previously engaged the applicant to go on board the Frigate as sailing master.
              Capt. Hodge then informed the applicant that the Montgomery was about to be launched and that he must attend the launch and go on board of her.  The applicant returned from Fort Washington to Poughkeepsie leaving his sloop in the service of the United States and attended the launch of the Frigate in September 1776.  He went on the Frigate as sailing master. The applicant assisted during the fall of 1776 and ensuing winter in rigging the Frigate.
              In May 1777 the Montgomery and Congress Frigates the sloop Camden and the Lady Washington and Shark gallies composing all the armed vessels the United States had in Hudson River were stationed at Fort Montgomery. 
              In the Spring of 1777 a new arrangement was made in the navy and on the 25th of May as appears by (one) an entry in the applicants old pocket book, made at that time, he was (brought) transferred to the Lady Washington as Sailing Master and had command of her about a week.
              Some time later applicant went on board the Lady Washington.  Abraham Lewis (he was) 1st Lieutenant of the Montgomery was ordered to take command of the Lady Washington.  The Lady Washington had been commanded by Captain Cook and before Captain Lewis took command the applicant by order of Captain Hodge had made out a return of all the ammunition, spare rigging, stores &c on board and delivered the applicant as sailing master.  Captain Lewis when he took command made out a return of the ship’s officers and crew of the Lady Washington and delivered it to the applicant.
              The return of the list of the officers and crew is in Captain Lewis’ hand writing and is now produced to the court and annexed to this declaration.
              The return belonged to the applicant as sailing master.  This roll has been preserved in an old pocket book, which the applicant used during the Revolutionary Was and in the same Pocket Book, which is not produced to the court, has also been preserved an order for provision in Captain Lewis’ hand writing, which is also shown to the court and annexed to this declaration and in the same Pocket Book has been preserved some of the money received by the applicant during the Revolutionary War, which money is produced to the court and annexed to this declaration.
              About the 20th of July, only a few days after Captain Lewis took command of the Lady Washington, the applicant was on board the Montgomery and was told by Capt. Hodge that he was from that day to act as first lieutenant of the Lady Washington and also to act as Sailing Master and that his pay would be forty dollars a month.
              All the papers received from Congress at that time were those which showed the rank of the several officers of the Navy.  Capt. Hodge said the commissions would be sent on, but no commission was received by any of the officers of the navy.
The applicant copied from a paper in the possession of Capt. Hodge onto a leaf in the old pocket book, the rank of the officers of the army and navy.  This leaf is now entire in the Pocket Book and is shown to the court in the hand writing of the applicant.
              Commodore Grinnell of the Congress Frigate commanded the squadron.  The squadron lay in Hudson River and near Fort Montgomery till Oct. 1777.  The last of July 1777 the three small vessels under the command of Capt. Lewis of the Lady Washington were ordered down to King’s Ferry opposite Stoney Point, to guard the passage of Hudson River into the Highlands.
              On the 4th or 5th day of October 1777 when the British Fleet and army came up to attack Fort Montgomery, Capt. Lewis sailed up and anchored under the guns of Fort Montgomery and remained there until after the Battle at Fort Montgomery.  The action began a little after 12 o’clock at noon but the British did not enter the fort till dark.  All the armed vessels except the Lady Washington were lost.  The Lady Washington was the last vessel that left Fort Montgomery.  The Lady Washington took off from the Fort, Col. Lamb. Col. Dubois and about 250 of the officers and soldiers, who escaped capture when the Fort was taken and landed them the next day at New Windsor.
              During the night while the Lady Washington was getting under way.  The jolly boat attached to the Lady Washington took from the shore (during the night) Gen. George Clinton who had command at Fort Montgomery and who had escaped to the river with only two soldiers and carried them across the river.  The jolly boat fell into the hands of the enemy.  The Lady Washington sailed up as far as West Point that night and lay there till day light.
The next day Commodore Grinnell took command of the Lady Washington, the only vessel that remained of the squadron and ordered her above the Chevaux defrise and she came to anchor at Polypus Island, a little below New Windsor, (a little below Newburgh).  While the Lady Washington lay at Polypus Island, the applicant received from Captain Lewis the order for provision preserved and now shown to the court and annexed to this declaration.  The applicant got the provision according to the order and delivered it on board.  The order was presented to Major Reese, then Commissary General who made an order for the provision endorsed on the original.  The applicant signed a receipt for the provision and retained the order.
              About the 12th of October, the British Fleet came up the River and the Lady Washington sailed up the river and ran into Esopus Creek and by order of Commodore Grinnell, the Lady Washington was sunk in Esopus Creek, on the 14th day of October as appears by an entry in the old pocket book, made at that time.  The same day before she was sunk in the night the Lady Washington lay in the mouth of the creek and had an engagement with the British vessels lying in the river; in the afternoon the British Army landed and burnt Kingston and all the vessels in the creek.  The sloop belonging to the applicant was burnt at that time.  The Lady Washington was (burnt with) sunk with all her guns on board.  Capt. Lewis and a part of the crew including the applicant remained at Esopus for the purpose of getting up the Lady Washington, but for want of proper means after several attempts the project of getting her up was abandoned.
              It appears by an entry in the old Pocket book made at that time that the attempts were made on Thursday, Friday and Saturday the 14th, 15th, and 16th days of November 1777.  The crew went into winter quarters.  Applicant and Capt. Lewis staid all winter at the applicant’s father’s house in Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County.
              In the spring of 1778 the Lady Washington was weighed and fitted for service and took her station at West Point.  Capt. Lewis had command, the applicant (entered) acted as sailing master and lieutenant.  The whole season of 1778 was spent in guarding the river and ruing the winter the ship was moored in the Highlands.
              In the spring of 1779 the ship was employed in guarding the river till July, when the British Fleet came up and their army landed at Verplank’s Point.  The applicant was then ordered by General Washington himself to reconnoiter the enemy every day and report every night.  The applicant in pursuance of the order of Gen. Washington watched the movements of the British until their fortifications at Stoney Point were completed.  When Gen. Wayne prepared to take Stoney Point, two sloops used as transports were ordered down to Stoney Point to take off the cannon and stores and the Lady Washington was ordered by Gen. Washington himself to attend the transports and protect them.  The sloops were loaded with the cannon and stores from Stoney Point under the cover of the guns of the Lady Washington but while the sloops were loading, the British brought all their guns to bear upon the Lady Washington from Verplank’s Point and she was sunk with all her guns at Stoney Point.  The logbook and everything in the ship was lost the officers and crew lost all of their papers and clothing except what was on them.  The old pocket book was in the applicant’s pocket and is the only writing saved by him.  The sloops and cannon with the stores got safely up to West Point. The officers and crew barely escaped from the ship.  The water was four feet between decks when the officers and crew left the ship. 
              After the loss of the Lady Washington, the officers and crew went up to West Point.  The men to man the vessels were selected from the regiments as the vessels were lost, the men joined their regiments.  Those in the Lady Washington now joined their regiments.  The Lady Washington was lost the 15th or 16th day of July.  The officers of the Lady Washington received a furlough from the service until they should be called for.
              In the spring of 1780, the applicant was appointed to take charge of the guard boats at Verplank’s Point.  His orders were not to let any boat pass up or down the river without a pass from the commanding officers at West Point and continued in command during the whole season.  Capt. Lewis gave the orders to the applicant.  The applicant had two field pieces mounted at Verplank’s Point in addition to the guard boats; the applicants orders were after haling to fire a musket and if the boats did not come to, to fire among them.  The applicant was continued in command of the guard boats till peace in 1782.
              In October 1778 applicant left West Point and went up to Pleasant Valley in Dutchess County to his father’s house for clothes.  On his way up to Pleasant Valley he called on Gov. George Clinton who had been taken up off at Fort Montgomery and who was then governor of New York, before he got away from Poughkeepsie, applicant was requested to aid in taking a Tory by the name of Captain Ackley and the applicant had command of the party that captured Ackley.  Ackley’s name appears in the old pocket book and is there written Caleb Ackley, the request to aid in his capture came from Governor Clinton.  The applicant stayed only one day at Dutchess County at this time.
              He has no other documentary evidence of his service except the roll or return of the Ship’s company and the order for provision above mentioned.
              He knows no person whose testimony he can procure to his service except Ezekiel Whitney at Waterford, Saratoga County, who was on board the Sloop Camden when Fort Montgomery was taken.
              He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the roll of any agency of any state.

              To the questions directed to be propounded the answers.
              He was born in the city of New York on the 12th day of January 1751.
              He has a record of his age made by his father in his Bible, it is at his house in the town of Saratoga Springs.
              He lived in the city of New York when he entered the service.
              After the Revolutionary War he lived three years at Morrisania about then miles from New York.  He then moved into Pittstown in the County of Renssellaer, lived there nine years and then removed to the town of Saratoga and has resided in that town and in Saratoga Spring which was set off from Saratoga ever since.
              He volunteered under Captain Malcolm and shipped on board Montgomery Frigate and was transferred to the Lady Washington as stated above.  He served along with Gen. Washington and Gen. Clinton, Col. Lamb, Col. Dubois and the officers in the Stations along the North River as well as the regiments on those stations.
He never received a written discharge.
He never received a commission, but it was promised to him.
              The Rev. (?) en Foot of Saratoga Spring, Clergyman & Miles Beach of Saratoga Springs, Postmaster are acquainted with him and can testify to his character as an officer of the Revolutionary (Army) Navy and to his character for truth and veracity. (Signed) Anthony Glean
Subscribed and Sworn the 25th August 1832, Gill Davison, Clerk in Chancery.

Return to opening page of Morrison's Pensions

Copyright © 1998, -- 2007. James F. Morrison and Berry Enterprises. All rights reserved. All items on the site are copyrighted. While we welcome you to use the information provided on this web site by copying it, or downloading it; this information is copyrighted and not to be reproduced for distribution, sale, or profit.