Websited with info on Norman Clark:
http://home.fuse.net/flund/source/clarkn-revpensionapp.htm


Revolutionary War Pension Application 1832
Series: M805 Roll: 190 Image: 443 File: S16715 Pages: 8

Cover

Norman Clark of Clarkville, NH who was a Lieut. in regt. of Col. Holman in the Mass. line
$103.33 per annum to commence on the 4th day of March 1831
Paid under act of 6 April 1838 from 4 Mar to 23 May 1842; notified of death 7 Dec. 1844

Pages 3-5

23 July 1832, declaration before Joseph Wiswall, Esquire, justice of the peace made by "Norman Clark of Clarkville aged eighty eight years and upward" to obtain benefit of Act of Congress passed June 7th 1832.

He was born in Newton, Middlesex Co., Mass. Dec. 12th 1745. He lived in Princeton, Worcester Co., Mass. when called into service and continued to live there until July 31st 1826 when he removed to this place (Clarkville).

He enlisted as a minuteman in the year 1774 and served about 12 months before the Battle at Lexington, under the command of Capt. Bocas Moore, the only officer whose name he remembers. Capt. Moore and his men were mobilized to Lexington but arrived too late; they persued the enemy to Cambridge. He remained there until an army of eight months men were organized, when he returned home after about 5 weeks.

In 1776 the officers of the Militia of Princeton were ordered to raise 17 men to defend the City of New York. They called for their men and spent the entire day trying to persuade some of them to enlist. Not one had signed, so the men were dismissed to meet again the next day. That day also their "endeavors to enduce them to sign the enlisting orders were unavailing and the day far spent and seeing no prospect of obtaining the compliment of men required, he this deponant notwithstanding the pressing calls upon him to remain at home went forward and put his name to the orders, after which the whole number wanted were in a few minutes obtained and the same evening he the deponant was unanimously chosen Lieutenant and afterward received a regular Commission as such signed by Colonel Nicholas Dick" which was subsequently lost. The company was commanded by Capt. Flint, part of Maj. Weeks' regiment, Lt. Col. Raimant and Col. Jonathan Holman.

The company left Princeton about July 15 arriving in New York City July 27. He was stationed in New York for 3 weeks, then ordered to Greenwich, where he remained until Sept. 14. On that day he took command of the Brigade Guard which manned the breastwork about 5 rods from the bank of the North River. The enemy passed up the river and landed a mile or two above them. The guard was dismissed and he then took command of Capt. Flint's company, the captain being absent. He received orders to retreat, but the men were almost captured, although they managed to retreat with no losses. That evening they joined the main army at Harlam Heights. The next day he led a company of volunteers into battle. Many of the men fell and he was wounded by a musket ball passing through his left thigh. He remained in the hospital nearby nearly a month, and was then moved to a hospital in New Jersy where he remained 5 or 6 more weeks because of how ill be became as a result of the wound. He returned home in very delicate health about Dec. 25.

He served further in 1777. He was a captain under Gen. Starks, stationed to cut off any attempted retreat by Gen. Burgoine near Saratoga, until the British surrender.

Pages 6-7

4 Dec. 1832, affirmation by Benjamin Clark (Quaker), counsellor-at-law of New York City, son of Norman Clark

He thinks he remembers his father's return home in late 1776 or early 1777 [when we would have been under 3 years old], but has a distinct memory of the ball which his father said had wounded him, which was preserved in the family for many years.

He instigated a search of Norman Clark's papers left behind in Pittsburg, 200 miles from Clarksville, and there were discovered two documents that he believes to be authentic supporting the application. These included a certificate from Col. Jonathan Holman dated Dutton Mass. Feb. 1792 as to his father's service and wound. There was also found a Commission, partly in print and partly in writing, by the major part of the Council of Mass. Bay ... to the said Norman Clark as "Second Lieutenant of a company to be raised in the County of Worcester for the service of the Continent, whereof Joseph Flint was Captain." Benjamin remembers seeing this among his father's papers many years before. He did not know whether or not his father ever had a commission as Captain, and did not locate one.


http://home.fuse.net/flund/LundEssays/revolutionl.htm

Norman Clark (170)

Norman Clark's obituary reported the start of his military career. "At the age of 17 years, he engaged in actual military service in the old French war." [New-Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, 1842-06-23; VII, 404, pg[3]]

On 19th April, 1775, he mustered as a Private to Lexington with a Company of Minute Men from Princeton, Mass. and he served in Whitney's Massachusetts Regiment from June to December, 1775. He volunteered to march to the support of New York and was elected Lieutenant of the recruits from Princeton in the Massachusets Militia in 1776. He was wounded at Harlem Plains, north of New York, on 16th September, 1776, shot in the thigh with a musket ball. After recovering, he returned to service and rose to the rank of Captain in the Massachusetts Militia in 1777 and 1778. (His full pension application includes his description of his service in detail, which is an interesting story.)

After the war was over, he returned home to farm, but soon became involved in more military action - in Shay's Rebellion. The young republic the Revolution created faced a difficult time. A severe economic depression forced people unable to pay their debts first into court, then into jail. These troubles were viewed as arising from the mercantile elite of Eastern Massachusetts, especially Boston, who demanded hard currency to pay foreign creditors. The farmers of Western Massachusetts, after years of frustration, reacted with an armed uprising that lasted for six months at the end of 1786 and start of 1787. Squads of farmers organized themselves and marched to close the hated debt courts, and eventually against the arsenal that provisioned troops sent by the state to suppress their activities. The rebellion was broken and participants fled or went into hiding when charged with treason.

In March the governor of New Hampshire issued a proclamation exhorting his citizens to assist Massachusetts by refusing to harbor and by helping capture the participants in the rebellion who had fled over the border. Near the top of the list of named offenders, "charged with the crime of treason" is Norman Clark of Princeton. [The New-Hampshire Mercury and the General Advertiser, 1787-03-07; III, CXVII, Pg.[1] Proclamation by John Sullivan, President of the state of New Hampshire]. In the aftermath of the rebellion, clemency vs. execution was strongly debated by a divided public, but nearly all Shaysites were eventually reprieved or pardoned, included Norman Clark. He appears in the 1790 census listing for Princeton, head of a large household. In 1791 his name is listed in a tax roll with the now honorific "Capt."