New Jersey’s Revolutionary Widows

Beginning in 1836, the widows of Revolutionary veterans became eligible for pensions. The first act, passed on July 4, 1836, allowed for the widow of a Revolutionary soldier who was married “before the expiration of the last period of his service” the “full annuity or pension which might have been allowed to her husband, by virtue of the [Act of June 7, 1832], if living at the time it was passed.”

The widow pensions provide an important glimpse at the often-overlooked lives of the women of the Revolutionary era, many of whom personally experienced the living near the front lines.  Like the veterans pension, the widows’ pensions relied on traditional evidence, which gave these women the opportunity to tell their own personal stories of how they and their families endured the dangers of living in the Crossroads of the Revolution.

 One such widow was Sarah Martin. On March 13, 1838, aged 83, Sarah made a declaration in hopes of receiving a pension under the Act of 1836. She told the court about her husband Gershom’s service, and of the horrors of living alone with her children in British-occupied Middlesex County in the winter of 1777:

 “…the enemy frequently came to my house and often threatened to kill me – at one time they made me cook eggs and ham for them and because the child cried they swore they would kill my youngest child and make me bake it for them, and one of the drunken officers actually did strike at the child with his sword and gave me a severe cut across the arms. My house was sacked as many as thirty times during the war & before it was burnt, being on the road from New Brunswick to Amboy.”

 Through the 1840s, the benefits for widows were extended to those who were married before January 1, 1794, then allowed to those who remarried after their veteran husband died, until, on February 3, 1853, all widows of Revolutionary veterans, regardless of when they were married, were eligible. One final act, passed on March 9, 1878, allowed a pension to any widow whose husband served at least 14 days as a soldier during the Revolution.