WILLIAM ELY

    William Ely, 2nd son of Thomas and Jane, was born March 25 1753, 
according to his statement made when making application for a pension. 

His declaration for a pension, File No. S 39 493 is preserved in the 
Revolutionary War Section, Pension Bureau, Interior Department, Washington,
D.C., together with other papers relating to his claim. This declaration
bears date of March 31,1819, at which time his age is declared to be 66 
years, and his residence Lee County, Va. In his second declaration, dated 
June 27, 1820, Lee County Virginia, he gives his age as 67 years on " the 
25th of March last" and following his first declaration he received a 
pension certificate dated July 3, 1819, and numbered 12 561. 

He stated that he enlisted under Captain Thomas Helms on February 15, 1779, 
and served 18 months or 2 years as Private with the Virginia Troops under 
Captains Hughes Woodson and Lawson and Colonel Abraham Buford. He was in 
the battle, May 29 1780, when Buford was defeated at a place called Hanging 
Rock (South Carolina), in which battle he was severely wounded in the head 
and shoulder by a saber. He was taken prisoner by the British but since he 
was badly wounded he was paroled in a few days and was permitted to return 
home. He was pensioned for two years' service. (It is said that he had a 
silver plate in his head".) 

William Ely was married, October 23, 1780, in Bedford County, Virginia to 
Mary Rollins ( Rawlings, Rollin's)' daughter of Anthony and Mary Rawlings. 

This marriage is recorded in the Quaker records, also in the Bedford County 
Court records. William Ely moved from Bedford County, Virginia with his 
mother and brothers to Montgomery County, where he purchased land adjoining 
his mother's land lying at the mouth of Bear Springs, a branch of New River.

He sold his land in Montgomery County later and moved with the family to 
Lee County Virginia, 1796-98 and settled on Sugar Run. After the Ely's came 
to Lee County they became members of the Thompson Settlement Baptist Church. 

The Minutes of the Church show: Second Saturday in July A.D. 1801, Accord-
ing to appointment the Church met and after divine service proceeded to 
business, First, received brother and sister William and Mary Ely. William 
Ely died after 1850, in the year 1853 or before. He is buried somewhere 
near what is now Hagan in Lee County, and it is said that a headstone marks 
his grave.