Reuben Riggs (1749 - 1837)

Born 22 Nov 1749 in Morris, New Jersey

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Crawford) Riggs — married 2 Mar 1779 in Rowan County, North Carolina.United States

Descendants

Died 6 Jun 1837 at age 87 in Giles, Tennessee, United States

Biography

Reuben Riggs

Reuben Riggs is the son of Edward Riggs and Jane Buckley. He was born in 1748 in Morris County, New Jersey.

He married Mary Crawford.^[1]

From 1808 until his death in 1837, he lived in Giles County, Tennessee. His last record is a 1832 pension application. He did not appear in the 1840 census. In 1830 both he and his wife were still living.^[2][3]

Revolutionary War Pension Application

1832 Revolutionary War Pension Application of Private Reuben Riggs

State of Tennessee

Giles County

Set on this 20th day of August 1832

Personally appeared in open court, before the justice holding the court of Pleas & Quarter Session for the county & state of service, at this August term of said court Reuben RIGGS of said county of Giles, resident therin aged eighty five years, who being first duly sworn according to law does on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefits of the Act of Congress passed June 7th, 1832. The said Reuben RIGGS saith and declares that he first entered the service under one Col. [Benjamin] CLEVELAND in Surry County, North Carolina, one SAUNDERS being his Captain, the day not recollected but most probably in the month of June in the second year after the declaration of Independence and during that year served a tour of three months and also served a similar tour under the same officers during the year following. These tours were against the Indians committing depradations about the head of the Yadkin river. The declarant then moved into Washington County in North Carolina but now in East Tennessee where in the month of December 1780 he volunteered under Col. [John] SEVIER in an expedition against the Cherokee indians. They mustered at Stockdon's Mill & proceeded on the expedition until Col. CLARK & Col. [Arthur] CAMPBELL of Virginia overtook & joined Sevier. RIGGS was in Captain PREVITS [PRUETT] company until its close, the declarant was present at several skirmishes between the whites & Indians, on Boyd's Creek of French & Broad river & at Echols________.Telleco & ________ what time that campaign closed he does not now remember, but supposes that some history or other record testimony in the public office of his county will show. He has no documentary evidence, having long since lost his discharge and that he knows of no person now alive who can testify to his services, the last man who could have done so to his knowledge, died during the last year, one Jesse RIGGS of Lincoln County, Tennessee. The said Reuben RIGGS duly relinqueshes any claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on any pension roll of any state or territory whatsoever. Sworn and subscribed this day and year aforesaid.

Reuben RIGGS

(his signature)

Duncan LESTER---Clerk Mr. Stephen SHELTON, Clergyman residing in the county & state aforesaid & Thomas MARTIN merchant of the town of Pulaski, in the county and state aforesaid do hereby certify that we are well acquainted with Reuben RIGGS,who has subscribed & sworn to the above declaration and we believe him to be eighty five years of age & that he is respected & believed in the neighborhood where he resides to have been a soldier of the revolution and that we concurred in that opinion.

Sworn and subscribed

1. Interrogatories propounded by said court to the said Reuben RIGGS.

2. Where & what year were you born?

Answer: In Morris County, New Jersey in 1749 (some read it 1747)

3. Where were you living when called into service?

Where have you lived since the revolution?

Where do you now live?

Answer: In Surry County, North Carolina & Washington County as before stated when I entered the service & from Washington I moved to Grainger County in East Tennessee where I lived until about 1808 when I moved to Giles County, Tennessee where I have resided ever since.

4. How were you called into service?

Answer: In all the above campaigns I volunteered.

5. State the names of some of the Regular Officers?

Answer: I have stated all of the general officers whose names are now recollected

6. He further states that he received discharges from his said Captain SAUNDERS & PREVITT but has no recollection of what has become of them.

Reuben RIGGS (his signature)

Sworn and Subscribed the day and year aforesaid

Duncan LESTER------Clerk

Sources

1. ↑ "North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979 ," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q285-YBN2 : 28 November 2018), Reuben Riggs and Mary Crawford, 02 Mar 1769; citing Rowan, North Carolina, United States, p. , North Carolina State Archives Division of Archives and History; FHL microfilm 418,150.
2. ↑ 1820 United States Federal Census Ancestry.com Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.Original data - Fourth Census of the United States, 1820; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M33, 142 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Census Place: Pulaski, Giles, Tennessee; Roll: ; Page: ; Image: . Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1820usfedcenancestry&h=1009599&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Residence date: 1820 Residence place: Pulaski, Giles, Tennessee, United States Ancestry Record 7734 #1009599
3. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPR7-PR34 : 7 August 2020), Reuben Riggs, ; Burial, , Giles, Tennessee, United States of America, Mount Carmel Cemetery; Find A Grave: Memorial #191406417 . There is no photo of a stone. No source noted for precise dates. His brother's (Sam) pension app. does mention that their sister had the family Bible with the birthdates in it. A pension log shows payments ending for Reuben in Mar 1836.

• Revolutionary War Privates, Reuben and Samuel RIGGS, of Morris County, New Jersey, and Tennessee, Compiled by Bobby G. Carwile and C. Hammett, 2001, for TNGenWeb (TNGenNet) and the Combs &c. Research Group. TNGenWeb.
• "United States Census, 1820," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHLR-YLW : accessed 18 November 2020), Reuben Riggs, Giles, Tennessee, United States; citing p. 10, NARA microfilm publication M33, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 124; FHL microfilm 193,686.
• "United States Census, 1830," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHPM-T7S : 7 September 2017), Reuben Riggs, Giles, Tennessee, United States; citing 171, NARA microfilm publication M19, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 176; FHL microfilm 24,534. 1 m 80-90, 1 m 30-40, 1 m <5, 1 f 80-90, 1 f 50-60, 1 f 20-30
• "United States Revolutionary War Pension Payment Ledgers, 1818-1872," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q24Q-LLSC : accessed 19 November 2020), Reuben Riggs, 04 Mar 1831; citing Tennessee, United States, NARA microfilm publication T718 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1962), roll 8; FHL microfilm 1,319,388. Payments start Mar 1831, end Mar 1836.

See also:

• Riggs Surname Study, Edward of Roxbury, Charting the Immediate Descendants of Edward Riggs 1589-1672, of Roxbury, Suffolk County, MA. Edward of Roxbury.
• Capt. Edward Riggs IV [1720--1820], by Don Blauvelt, Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000. rootsweb
• Cowen Family History, compiled by Sarah Gaunt Thompson.
• Cowen Family History, compiled by Judy Cowen-Hodges.
• Cowen Family History, compiled by Sharon Moffitt Cowen.
• Lechner Family History, compiled by Michael Lechner, with my father Ted Harrold Lechner. Lechner Family History.
• Family Search Profile
• Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.Ancestry Family Trees Ancestry Family Tree 7140381