Mapping Widows Who Were Married Before December 1783
How to Use the Map
Choose a widow from the list on the left by scrolling through and clicking on their name. This will narrow the display to show just their unique location point on the map. Click again on a widow’s name to unselect and return to the master map that displays all location points. Each point is placed within the geographical center of towns, if mentioned. If a widow did not indicate a specific town but did give the name of a county as a place of residence, the geographical center of the county is used as the location point. If no county was given, then the geographical center of a State is used.
Clicking on a point will open a tab on the right side of the map, which will give more information about the widow, including maiden name, if known, date of their marriage, location, and the presiding official.
Learn more about the sources that went into the making of this map.
Widow Ages
Margaret White, née Ellis (W.6477), was one of two widows who were 69 years old when they applied for their pensions. She was married to Anthony Walton White, lieutenant colonel of the 3rd New Jersey Regiment, and later commanding officer of light dragoon corps in the Southern theater. General White died on February 3, 1803, and his widow Margaret sought a pension under the Act of 1836, applying on October 12, 1836. Margaret died in 1850, and is buried in a peculiar family plot on a raised piece of ground in the parking lot behind the AMC New Brunswick movie theater on the south side of Route 18.
Ursilla Halfpenny, née Rosebrook (W.856), was the oldest of the cohort of widows married in 1783 or before. She was 98 years old when she applied for her pension in Middlesex County, New Jersey on July 23, 1839. She was married to Thomas Halfpenny in New Brunswick by “Reverend Mr. Lyte of the Dutch Church” in September 1780, while Halfpenny was serving with the Continental Army. He died on March 20, 1817.
Dates of Marriage
The earliest marriage recorded amongst all applicants for widows’ pensions was that of Rhoda Farrand, née Smith (W.17894), to Bethuel Farrand, which occured on December 26, 1763. The location was not recorded, but in the spring of 1776, they were living in Rockaway, Morris County, when Bethuel entered service as a Lieutenant of Morris County militia. He died on May 27, 1794, while living in Pequannock, Morris County. Mary applied for her pension on June 28, 1837, having then moved over 200 miles north to Addison, Vermont.
Mary Carhart, née Walling (W.3768), married Thomas Carhart on December 18, 1783. to become the last of this cohort of widows to be married. The location of their wedding also was not documented, but Thomas was living in Middletown, Monmouth County, when he entered service in 1780 in Captain Thomas Walling’s Company of Asher Holmes’s regiment of Monmouth County militia. Thomas died in Middletown on February 26, 1811, where Mary was still living when she applied for a pension on August 15, 1838.
Religious Denominations in Jersey Veteran Marriages, 1762-1783
Like today, New Jersey was a diverse place during the Revolutionary era, particularly in terms of the number of religious faiths practiced by its residents having an “extraordinary, almost unimaginable diversity of religion.” The widow pensions provide a small glimpse into the number of individuals aligned with particular denominations. Mary Bray (W.5920) was the only Anglican widow, married to Daniel Bray on May 14, 1772 by “Rev’d Mr. Frazer of the Church of England.” Notably absent were Catholics, and a considerable portion of marriages, 15% of all marriages performed before the end of 1783, were civil ceremonies officiated by a Justice of the Peace and not an ordained minister.