Mary "Mollie" Sisk (Campbell)

ENTRY IN CULPEPER COUNTY, VIRGINIA RECORDS DATED JANUARY 21, 1793, IN DE ED BOOK R, PAGE 202. ELIAS CAMPBELL SOLD TO BARTLETT SISK FOR TEN POUN DS AND OUT OF AFFECTION FOR HIS DAUGHTER MARY, WIFE OF BARTLETT SISK, O NE NEGRO GIRL AGED 12 NAMED MARGET. THIS TRANSACTION WAS WITNESSED BY JAM ES LILLARD SR, JOHN LILLARD, AND JOEL YOWELL. BURIED AT BIG PIGEON PRIMITATIVE BAPTIST CEMETERY, NEWPORT, TENNESSEE.

US pensions East Tenn Bartlett Sisk

last drew pension Sept 1848

1780, October 7--During the American Revolutionary War, a segment of Lord Cornwallis' forces led by Maj. Patrick Ferguson was defeated in the Battle of King's Mountain, in Cleveland County, North Carolina, by "mountain men" militia commanded by John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, William Campbell, and Benjamin Cleveland. Daniel Sisk of Wilkes County, North Carolina, was among the Americans killed in the battle. (See "Sisks in the American Revolution")

Bartlett Sisk and Timothy Sisk Jr., evidently were brothers; another descendant's biography published in 1893 identified the elder Timothy as Bartlett's father, living in Culpeper County, Virginia, at the time of Bartlett's birth in about 1753. According to that biography, Bartlett in "early manhood enlisted in the defense of the Colonies...under General Daniel Morgan he participated in many prominent engagements, and was always in the front, doing valiant service in the cause of liberty". (For Bartlett Sisk biography details see Tennessee File, Bartlett Sisk.)

Bartlett's official record in the U. S. Archives accounts for his participation in only one major engagement, the Battle of Stone Ferry, South Carolina on June 20, 1779. The record is identified as S.1722 in the file of Revolutionary War Pension Claims. The following is extracted from Bartlett's declaration to obtain a pension, made and executed in open court in Cocke County, Tennessee, Aug. 29, 1832: "...served under General Butler, Col. Charles McDowell, Capt. Jacob Camplin, Lt. John Cook and William Runnels, ensign...that he was in Wilkes County when he entered the service as a volunteer...in the State of North Carolina, and the he rendezvoused at Hamilton's old store and marched thence to headquarters, then from place to place until he arrived at a place called Stono, where he was engaged in a battle at that place under the above named officers, that there was 44 of the Americans killed and 104 wounded and sometimes afterward he got his discharge and that most of his time he marched through the states of South and North Carolina and Georgia.

"Said applicant further states that he removed to Virginia and there in the county of his birth, Culpeper, again entered the service of the United States and was drafted and served under the following name officers--General Campbell, Major Rucker, Cpt. Elijah Kirtly, and Simeon Blewford, that he rendezvoused at Culpeper Courthouse, Va., and marched to headquarters where he remained three months, was relieved and went home, making in all seven months..."

The declaration bore the certification and signatures of Jacob Casplin, Cpt. George McNabb, and Abraham Lillard, the latter two being residents of Cocke County. The Archives jacket containing the pension file bears the notations that an order to pay "at the rate of 23 dollars and 33 cents per annum to commence on the 4th day of March, 1831," that an order to pay was indicated as of 18 October 1831, and that certificate of pension issued the 18 day of Sept. 1833, in the amount of $69.98, including arrears of $58.32. There also was a notation, "date of death not on". (Bartlett Sisk died in about 1840.) In addition to the pension record, the Archives jacket contains a letter from A. D. Hiller, assistant to the administrator, under date of Jan. 19, 1937, in response to an inquiry from Congressman William L. Nelso. This letter says the date of Bartlett's birth and the names of his parents are not shown. It identifies Colonel McDowell's command as the North Carolina Regiment, and Major Rucker's as "Virginia troops". The letter added, "There are no data on the soldier's family."