Pension Application

W.15812 (Widow Maria or Maracha)
State of New York
Cattaraugus County
Surrogates Court SS.
J. Rensselaer Lamb County Judge, acting as Surrogate do hereby certify that at a Surrogate Court held at the Court house in the village of Ellicotville in said county on the 26th day of August 1851; satisfactory evidence was exhibited to said court that Martinus VanSlyke late of the town of Ashford in the said County of Cattaraugus, deceased, was the identical person described in and application for a pension as having served under Captain Andrew Fink (1) as a soldier in the war of the Revolution, that he died at the town of Ashford aforesaid on the 29th day of July 1833, that he left him surviving, Moracha VanSlyke his widow, and the only wife he ever had, that he also left the following named children, Augustus VanSlyke, Polly, the wife of Isaac Christman, and Caty, the wife of Jacob Moyer, and that he left no other child or children; that the widow Moracha VanSlyke died in the said County, sometime in the month of December 1839, leaving her surviving children above named and that the said children are all above the age of twenty one years.
In testimony whereof I have herein set my hand, affixed the seal of [ends here]

State of New York
Cattaraugus County SS.
            On this Eleventh day of December 1845 at a Surrogate Court held in & for said County personally came Augustus VanSlyke and upon his oath by me to him duly administered according to law, makes the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the act of Congress passed July 4th 1836. That he is the son of Martin VanSlyke, who served in the American Revolutionary Army and his wife, Maracha, whose maiden name was Maracha Staring, that the said Martin and Maracha were married before the revolutionary war and about the year 1774 by the Rev. Domenie Romein (2) or Romine at Charlestown or Johnstown (3) or that vicinity. That the said Algartitan VanSlyke served during a large part of the war of the revolution and was at the battles of Oriskany & Johnstown. That declarant is unable to state the names of all the officers under whom he served but does recollect of hearing him speak of having served under Colonel Fisher(4), Colonel Vedder, Col. VanSchaick & Captain Gardinier, Captain Parsons & Capt. Yeomans.
            That his only knowledge as to the said services & marriage are from his recollection of what his parents having told him consequent as to the said services & marriage and from his recollection of what his parents have told him consequent to the same. That the said Martin VanSlyke died at Ashford Cattaraugus County New York on the 29th day of July A.D. 1833. That the said Moracha or Mary VanSlyke died at Ellicotville on the 4th day of January 1839 and was at her death the widow of the said Martin VanSlyke.
            Sworn & Subscribed before me in open court the 11th day of December 1845. Witness my hand & official Seal. Robert H. Thankland, Surrogate

Martin enlisted as a private in Captain Andrew Fink’s Company [Third Company] in the First New York Continental Regiment commanded by Colonel Goose Van Schaick on 27 of January 1777 for duration of war.
In an affidavit by J. Douw Van Olinda Pastor of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Caughnawaga Martinus Van Slyck married Maria Storn on Gugust 13, 1774 by Rev. Thomas Romeyn. Affidavit was dated 12 of August 1846.
The First New York was not at Oriskany which was fought on the 6th of August 1777 and the Battle of Johnstown was fought on the 25 of October 1781. The First New York did march with General Benedict Arnold to the relief of the besieged Fort Schuyler [Fort Stanwix]. In October of 1781 the First New York was with General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia. The First New York was in the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey on the 28th of June 1778.
There is a Martin VanSlyke listed as serving as a private in Captain Joseph Yeoman’s Company in Colonel Frederick Visscher’s Regiment of Tryon County Militia [Third Regiment]. Captain Yeoman’s Company did not exist until 1779. I did not find anything where Martin was discharged from the First New York before 1783. Captain Charles Parsons Company of the First New York served until June 1783. In 1781 the New York Continental Regiments were consolidated and Captain Fink was discharged and his enlisted men who served until the end of the war would have been put in the remaining companies of the First New York.

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