Payment Pension Voucher from the National Archives for Daniel McCoy who died in Armstrong County in 1821

While visiting my daughter in August in Rockville, Maryland, I went to the National Archives for three days while she was working during the day.  I had been there for three days in June looking for information on Daniel McCoy, a Revolutionary War ancestor who had applied for a Revolutionary War pension in June, 1820, prior to his death on 30 January 1821.  See previous blog posts on him for more information.  I wanted to find the pension payment vouchers to see what additional information they might provide on him that wasn't in his pension file.  There was nothing for him in the Selected Final Payment Vouchers that I checked in June (Record Group 217, Series 722).  I also checked Registers of Pension Payments (14 unindexed volumes) in Record Group 217, Series 206 in June to see if they showed when he was paid by the Pennsylvania agency in Philadelphia but there were no entries for him.  This is not as daunting as it seems since only certain volumes contain records for the Pennsylvania agency.  The early volumes are the only ones that contain information on payments made under the Act of 1818 but I did not know this until I looked at all the volumes.  

I decided to look at the Settled Accounts of Pension Agents in Record Group 217, Series 721 when I went back there in August.  I knew he had been approved for a pension on 10 July 1820 from his pension file and I knew that he had died on 30 January 1821.  I began by checking the Pennsylvania agency in Philadelphia for the fourth quarter of 1820 and the first quarter of 1821 but found nothing for him.  I then checked the second quarter of 1821 and hit the jackpot.  Daniel and John McCoy, as the administrators of his estate, filed for the pension payment due him.  They appointed Robert Toland, an attorney in Philadelphia, to receive the payment for them.  A pension payment could only be paid at that time by  a pensioner receiving the payment himself at the U.S. Bank in Philadelphia or having an agent receive it for him.  The administrators for Daniel McCoy, Sr. received $86.93 for the period from 4 March 1820 to 30 January 1821 when he died.  Among the papers with the pension payment voucher is a letter dated 9 December 1820 stating that the schedule of his property had been received and that his pension would be paid the next March but no arrearages would be paid.  The Pennsylvania agency was checked for the third quarter of 1820  but I found nothing for him.  Since he was approved for a pension on 10 July 1820 retroactive to 8 June 1818,  he should have received $167.16 in arrearages according to his pension file.  No record could be found of it having been paid during the period from July, 1820 to May, 1821 when the final payment was made on his pension.  I will look for it again if I am able to go back to the National Archives. The papers that were found with his pension payment voucher are included here since they contain valuable information that is difficult to access. 

The pension payment voucher was number 874 and was filed with the M's for the second quarter of 1821 for the Pennsylvania agency in Philadelphia.

 This is the pension certificate that was issued to him in July, 1820.

This is the four pages that the administrators submitted to receive the final pension payment for Daniel McCoy, Sr.  Note that it gives the date when he died and includes the signatures of his administrators, Daniel and John McCoy, who were also his sons.

This was the letter sent to Daniel McCoy, Sr. in December, 1820 that the schedule of his property had been received and that he would be paid the following March but that no arrearages would be paid.

The following is the power of attorney for Robert Tolland.

The following is the receipt for the final payment.