Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts - State Pension Records, 1777-1841

Access and use

Location of collection:
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Archives Reference Services
Phone: (804) 692-3888
Restrictions:

There are no restrictions.

Terms of access:

The records have been microfilmed and digitized. Please use either the microfilm or the online digital images instead of the originals. The online images are searchable on the Library of Virginia's online collection discovery system.

Preferred citation:

Virginia. Auditor of Public Accounts (1776-1928). State Pension Records, 1777-1841. Accession APA 230, State government records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Summary

Extent:
7 cu. ft. (16 boxes)
Creator:
Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts (1776-1928)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Virginia. Auditor of Public Accounts (1776-1928). State Pension Records, 1777-1841. Accession APA 230, State government records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Background

Scope and content:

State pension records, 1777-1841, including proof of service, medical evaluations, orders for payment, records of payment, receipts signed by the pensioner, and statements of disability from the local court. The online index to these records lists the name of the veteran and the county in which he lived. Details about military service and the pensioner's family (such as the name of the widow and the number of children) may also be available. Though the pensions were given for service during the 18th century, the payments were issued into the mid 19th century.

It is important not to confuse records pertaining to pensions issued by the state of Virginia with records for federal pensions issued to Virginians for Revolutionary War service. The original federal pension records are held by the National Archives. The Library of Virginia has federal Revolutionary War pensions on microfilm.

The collection was microfilmed and then digital scans were made from the microfilm. The online images are searchable on the Library of Virginia's online collection discovery system. For addtional information and search tips please see About the Revolutionary War Virginia State Pensions Database

Biographical / historical:

STATE PENSION RECORDS: During the session which began in October 1777, the Virginia General Assembly passed several laws designed to increase military enlistment. These laws authorized the payment of pensions to maimed and disabled soldiers and to the widows of men killed in action. The provisions varied according to the specific terms of each act. In October 1782 an act was passed requiring county courts to certify on a semi-annual basis the continued eligibility of pensioners to receive allowances. The state auditor of public accounts maintained lists of pensioners that he sent to the county clerks for verification. He also issued warrants for the disbursement of pension funds. A few of the pensions in the collection are for French and Indian War service. The last act concerning Revolutionary War pensions was passed by the General Assembly in 1785.

For additional information please see About the Revolutionary War Virginia State Pensions Database

AUDITOR OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS: Although the colonial government had appointed auditors general from time to time, the office was not established on a permanent basis until after independence was declared. At its first session, which convened on 7 October 1776, the General Assembly passed an act creating a board of three auditors to examine and settle claims concerning receipts and expenditures for military purposes. The confusing financial situation of the state, however, resulted in a series of acts being passed over the next fifteen years elaborating and refining the duties of the auditors. Finally, at its session begun in November 1791, the General Assembly passed an act that combined the duties of the board of auditors and the solicitor general, whose office had been created in 1785 to settle the accounts of the state with the United States, and assigned them to a single auditor of public accounts effective 1 January 1792. The auditor soon became the most powerful fiscal officer in the state. All receipts and disbursements were made only upon his warrant to the treasurer, and his books were the standard against which those of the treasurer were checked.

The first changes were made as the accounts of the revolutionary era were settled. As the state moved into a period of steady financial and governmental growth in the nineteenth century, the number of accounts and funds maintained by the auditor became excessive. Thus, on 24 February 1823 the General Assembly passed an act creating the office of the second auditor to ease the auditor's burden. Although the second auditor handled several large special funds, the auditor continued to be responsible for most of the accounts concerning the daily operation of state government.

During the Civil War both the state government and the pro-Union Restored Government of Virginia, which was based first in Wheeling and then in Alexandria, had auditors of public accounts. After the war, near the end of Reconstruction, the military authorities appointed Major Thaddeus H. Stanton, of the United States Army, as auditor of public accounts. Stanton was paid by the state during his service from 3 April 1869 to 12 February 1870, although he remained an army officer. The position was returned to civilian control on 12 February 1870 with the election of William F. Taylor as auditor by the General Assembly.

Following the Civil War the complexities of an increasingly sophisticated financial world threatened to overwhelm the state fiscal offices, which had changed their practices but little since the end of the eighteenth century. Inadequate bookkeeping procedures and embezzlements of state funds resulted in a public demand for corrective action. It was not until a state government reorganization act was passed by the General Assembly on 18 April 1927, however, that the demand was satisfied. Effective 1 March 1928 the office of auditor of public accounts and second auditor were abolished and replaced by the office of comptroller--head of the Department of Accounts--to monitor the receipt and disbursement of state funds, and a new office of auditor of public accounts, under the General Assembly, to audit state and local government agencies.

The records of the first auditor of public accounts have not survived intact; periodically they have been subjected to disarrangement or destruction. When the auditor's office was created in 1776, Virginia's seat of government was in Williamsburg. In 1780, when the capital was moved to Richmond, the auditors and their records also moved. At this time, and during Benedict Arnold's raid on Richmond in 1781, some auditor's records were misplaced or destroyed. During the War of 1812, when it was believed that British troops were marching on Richmond, the state's records were loaded onto wagons and hauled to the James River for transportation upstream. Before the boats sailed, however, the alarm proved false and the records were unloaded and returned to the State Capitol.

The next threat to the auditor's records came on the night of 2-3 April 1865, when the evacuation fire broke out as the Confederate garrison abandoned the city. Fortunately, the auditor's records escaped the flames because they were stored in the basement and attic of the State Capitol, which did not burn. Following the capture of Richmond by Union troops, however, a detachment of the Twentieth New York Infantry Regiment served as a guard in the Capitol building and browsed through the records of the state's fiscal offices (sometimes recording candid opinions concerning the late Confederacy in the margins of ledgers and journals). After the state library building was completed on the east side of Capitol Square in the late 1890's the auditor's office moved into it and the older records were stored in the basement. There they remained until 1913, when they were transferred to the custody of the state library.

Acquisition information:
Transferred from the Auditor of Public Accounts in 1913.
Arrangement:

This collection is arranged alphabetically by pensioners last name.

The microfilm is arranged alphabetically by pensioners last name:

  • Absalom - Bates [Reel 1, Box 1];
  • Baylor - Camron [Reel 2, Boxes 1-2];
  • Camron - Crook [Reel 3, Boxes 2-3];
  • Crook - Edwards [Reel 4, Boxes 3-4];
  • Edwards - Goulding [Reel 5, Boxes 4-5];
  • Goulding - Hipkins [Reel 6, Boxes 5-6];
  • Hipkins - Jones [Reel 7, Boxes 6-7];
  • Jones - McGuire [Reel 8, Boxes 7-9];
  • McGuire - Mitchum [Reel 9, Box 9];
  • Mitchum - Quillin [Reel 10, Boxes 9-11];
  • Rader - Rodgers [Reel 11, Box 11];
  • Roebuck - Scurry [Reel 12, Boxes 11-12];
  • Seamster - Taylor [Reel 13, Boxes 12-14];
  • Taylor - Wharton [Reel 14, Boxes 14-15];
  • Wharton - Younger, and Miscellaneous [Reel 15, Boxes 15-16];