Stacey Williams

Stacey Williams (c. 1742-September 21, 1820) – The only known Black veteran who joined a Pennsylvania Continental unit and left behind a pension narrative.¹ Stacey Williams enlisted on April 29, 1777 in Newtown, Pennsylvania.² He served in the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment “commanded by [Lt. Colonel Henry] Bicker and afterwards by [Lt. Colonel Josiah] Harmar Pennsylvania Line and in the company commanded by Captain [Jacob] Humphries.”³ Williams encamped at Valley Forge and fought in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse and in South Carolina with the Southern Campaign.⁴ After the war, he settled in Middletown Township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.⁵

 

Endnotes

1. Ancestry.com. U.S., The Pension Roll of 1835 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: United States Senate. The Pension Roll of 1835.4 vols. 1968 Reprint, with index. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1992; and John U. Rees, ‘They were Good Soldiers’: African-Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783 (Warwick, UK: Helion & Company, 2019), 105.

2. “Private Stacey Williams,” Valley Forge Legacy: The Muster Roll Project, accessed December 10, 2020, http://valleyforgemusterroll.org/muster.asp.

3. Ancestry.com. U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

4. Ancestry.com. U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

5. Ancestry.com. U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.