Morrison's Pensions

Pension Application for Christopher P. Yates

W.16486  (Widow: Maria. Inscribed on the Roll of Albany at the rate of 544 Dollars 32 cents per annum to commence on the 4th day of March, 1834.)
State of N. York
Montgomery County SS
            On the 16th day of January 1837 personally appeared before me John T. Getman, one of the Justices of the Peace of the Town of Palatine, County and State aforesaid, aged seventy five years past who was duly sworn according to law, deposeth and saith that he has been personally acquainted with Christopher P. Yates, and Maria his wife, who was the daughter of old Henry Frey Esqr, now the widow of the aforesaid Christopher Yates, from the commencement of the Revolutionary War during the same to the termination of the Revolution, and until the death of the aforesaid Christopher P. Yates, and having been acquainted with her the said widow, since the death of her husband, and having reason to belief that he is not living.
            Deponent further saith, that he distinctly recollects that early in the Revolutionary War forepart in Summer 1775, the said Christopher P. Yates as Capt., Andrew Fink, 1st Lieut. John Keysor, 2 Lieut. [?] with same enlisted soldiers near the churches at Stonearabia, which happened to be the first enlisted soldiers deponent had been and observed at the commencement of the war, and afterwards, marched off and always understood, that they had gone on the campaign with the American Army to Canada.
            Deponent further saith, that the said Christopher P. Yates, hath distinguished himself as one of the more prominent characters in then County of Tryon in supporting and prosecuting the Commencement of the Revolution, against the Government of Great Britain.
            Deponent further saith that the said Christopher P. Yates and Marcia Frey, hath cohabitated together alike husband & wife, Emediately previous, or at the commencement of the said war, and doth verily belief, that they hath been joined in legal and lawful wedlock—that they have lived and cohabited together, until the time of the death of the husband.
            Deponant further saith that he hath found it expedient in having recourse to the Church records kept by the Rev’d Doct’r Daniel Gross, and his Consistories of the Reformed Cutch Church near Fort Plain and in making a thorough search instructed that the probability was that all the church records and papers of said church were all contained and left in the said church at the time of the General Conflagration on or of Canajohary, was made desolate, by about 400 Incendiaries from Canada as always understood, not omitting Fort Plain Church , with all the records and papers contained in said church up to that time.
            Deponant further saith and do certify that he has now before him, a family record, contained, in a Bible, saith which hath belonged to the deceased, in his life time, and deponent state, that he has been well acquainted with the hand writing of the aforesaid Christopher P. Yates Esqr, for at least fifty years past, and that the [?] transcript of part of the records, contained in the aforesaid Bible, in the proper and in his own hand writing by the aforesaid Christopher P. Yates, Esqr, deceased—vizt—1750, March 29th was born Christoph’r Yates, and on February 14th 1774 was married to Maria Frey, Daughter of Hendrick Frey Esqr, dec’d born 6th Sept. 1752, [?]
            And deponent further say and declare without any hesitation or Equification whatsoever that he never heard to the contrary and always did belief and yet believing to be true, that the said Christoph’r P. Yates with Maria, the widow of the deceased, were legally and lawfully married, and do belief, that the family record so kept are correct and true, and that the said widow is an old lady, of truth and veracity and that her testimony is entitled to full credit.  (Signed) Jacob Snell
            Subscribed and sworn before this day 16th day of January 1837. John T. Getman J.P.
State of New York
Montgomery County SS.
            On this third day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty seven, personally appeared before me, Henry J. Diefendorf one of the Judges of the Montgomery County Courts being court of Record in the said State of New York, Maria Yates in the annexed papers named and being first duly sworn according to law, doth in addition to [?] of her annexed declaration made before Henry Cook Esquire, make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provisions of the act of Congress passed July 4th 1836, to wit: that she is eighty four years old and is now & has been for the whole of her life a resident of the town of Canajoharie & the adjoining town of Palatine in the County of Montgomery aforesaid.  That in the month of February, and, according to the best recollection and belief of said declarant and an entry made in the family Bible, on the fourteenth day of that month in the year of our Lord 1774 declarant was lawfully married to Christopher P. Yates, late of Canajoharie deceased.  That she continued the lawful wife & lived with the said Christopher from that time until the death of the said Christopher on the 20th day of February in the year of our Lord 1815—and that since the death of the said Christopher declarant has never been married but has always, up to the time of the making of this declaration, been and now is the widow of the said Christopher P. Yates—and declarant further saith that the paper herewith annexed purporting to contain an entry of the birth & marriage of declarant and the said Christopher, was for the purpose of accompanying this declaration cut from the family bible kept by declarant in the family ever since the death of the said Christopher and in the fami8ly of the said Christopher & declarant for a number of years before the death of the said Christopher commencing at the time or soon after the marriage of declarant with the said Christopher as aforesaid—and declarant further saith that said entry is in the hand writing of the said Christopher & is the entry alluded to in the accompanying affidavits—
            Declarant further saith that the said Christopher P. Yates was a major in Colonel Gosse Van Schaick’s Regiment in the New York Line—That he entered into the Continental Service in July 1775 and was with his company in the expedition of Gen’l Montgomery against Quebeck—That he was subsequently appointed a Major in the First New York Battallion in the service of the United States commanded by Colonel Gosse Van Schaick & continued to serve in the line until near the close of 1777.  That afterwards the said Christopher was according to the best instruction of declarant, engaged for the residue of the war in the commissary department and declarant further states that she is nearly blind & has been for a number of years with disayed & inflamed eyes and is otherwise unable by reason of bodily infirmities to attend personally at the session of any court of record all of which are held in the court house in said County of Montgomery at the distance of about twenty miles from the residence of declarant—and further declarant saith not.  (Signed) Maria Yates.
Letter included in the pension folder, dated April 25, 1940.
            Reference is made to your letter in which you request the Revolutionary War record of Christopher Peter Yates.
            The data furnished herein were obtained from papers on file in claim for pension, W. 16486, based upon service of Christopher P. Yates, in the Revolutionary War.
            Christopher P. Yates entered the service in July, 1775, and enlisted a company at Stone Arabia, New York, marched his company to Lake George and went on General Montgomery’s expedition to Quebec; he was appointed major and served in Colonel Goose Van Schaick’s First New York Regiment; he left the regiment about the close of the year, 1777, and until the close of the war, served in the commissary department.
            It was stated that Christopher P. Yates “distinguished himself as one of the most prominent characters in the then County of Tryon in supporting and prosecuting the Commencement of the Revolution, against the Government of Great Britain.”  After the Revolution, he was frequently elected a member of the State Legislature of New York.
            Christopher P. Yates died February 20, 1815, in Canajoharie, New York.
            Christopher P. Yates married February 14, 1774, Maria Frey.  She was born September 6, 1752, and was the daughter of Hendrick Frey, Esquire, name of her mother not given.
            The widow, Maria Yates, was allowed pension on her application executed January 12, 1837, while a resident of Canajoharie, New York, in which place and in the adjoining town of Palatine, she stated, that she had lived all her life.
            The following data in regard to the children of Christopher P. Yates, and his wife, Maria, are shown in the claim:
            Sally born January 18, 1775
            Henry Frey, born December 28, 1776
            Peter born July 19, 1779, died January 30, 1797.
            Anne born February 15, 1784
            Elizabeth born February 26, 1786
            Catharine born April 27, 1788
            Maria born August 26, 1790
            Susanna born September 17, 1792.
            The following data are shown, also—
            Sally Yates married October 20, 1792, name of husband not given.
            Henry Frey Yates was living in 1837, in Root Montgomery County, New York.
            Susan Yates died October 14, 1829, aged thirty-four years.
            Catharine Schermerhorn died May 3, 1835, aged forty-seven years and six days.
            Reference is made in 1837 to the Reverend Schermerhorn; no relationship was shown to the Catharine Yates Schermerhorn.
            It was stated that the widow, Maria Yates, had two sisters older than herself, one married Mr. Teel, and the other John Loucks.
            The papers on file in this claim contain no further discernible data relative to family.

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