Notes for: John (Johannis) Bodine, Sgt.

March 12, 2023 Update: For many years we could not figure out who this John Bodine was. Now I think things are clear enough to make a good educated guess. We had suspected that this John could very well be the John Bodine who was the son of John Bodine and Catherine Laboyteaux. They were both born in 1744 in New Jersey. Those were the only two John Bodines I had born in 1744. We had no further information on John Bodine, son of Catherine Laboyteaux, and it was like he had disappeared off the face of the map. Now I think I know why. He seems to have been the one who committed "fornication" with Hannah Van Sickeln and an arrest warrant was filled out for him. She had given birth to a son in 1765 and named him John Bodine. Hannah named the father as John Bodyne of Hunterdon County, NJ and said he was a cooper. This warrant was probably something to worry about back in those days, and so I think John must have fled the area to avoid arrest.

The key piece of evidence came from Ronny Bodine. He sent me an image of the inventory of the estate of the John Bodine who died in Ross County, Ohio in 1822. Interestingly enough, it looks like he has listed in his belongings "Aparels of Cooper' Stuff." As I mentioned above, we had suspected that the John Bodine baptized Feb. 4, 1744 in New Brunswick, NJ was the "John Bodyne of Hunterdon County, NJ, cooper" whom Hannah Van Sickeln listed as the father of her son, John Bodine, born out of wedlock. Since that John Bodyne was a cooper and this one is, too (1744-1822), it seems to pretty clearly show that they are the same person. I'm not sure we will ever get any clearer evidence. In that light, and knowing that this is an educated guess, I will link them together and finally bring this John Bodine of Ross County back into his rightful place in history! :)

Inventory of Estate

I did have a baptism date of January 5, 1743 for this Johannis, but Pam Sears had the date given now of February 4, 1744 and a source for it.

The following comes from Ronny Bodine. [And based on other notes in this file, I am assuming that the John Bodyne (cooper) mentioned by Hannah Van Sickeln is this son of John Bodine and Catherine Laboyteaux and the same as the John Bodine buried in Ross County, Ohio (1744-1822).]

The Docket of Jacob Van Noorstrand was published in the Genealogy Magazine of New Jersey, vol. 42, p. 100 and included the following entry:

Son, born 30 September 1765. On 3 February 1766, Hannah Van Sickeln appeared before Jacob Van Noorstrand, of the Somerset County court and stated she was delivered of a male child on 30th Sept last and John Bodyne of Hunterdon County, cooper, is the father. A warrant was sworn for Bodyne. On 17 February 1766, John Bodine of Reading, Hunterdon County, was directed to appear at the next quarter session in Somerset County to answer to charges of fornication. Peter Bodine, of Hunterdon County, acted as surety.


For a long time, we also had no information on any wife or kids for this John Bodine. Recently, Ronny Bodine sent me an image of a piece of paper that says the following:

I do hereby assign over my Right title Clame in trust of administration of My husbands estate John Bodine Deceased over to Joseph Foreman of the County of Ross and State of Ohio this 22 Day of Sept 1822. Margaret (her mark) Bodine.

Note from Dave: I looked up this Joseph Foreman and he was younger neighbor, it seems, of John Bodine in Colerain Twp., Ross Co., OH. I think the two families had links through the Revolutionary War.

Here is an image below of that piece of information:

Right Title Claim

And Ronny also sent me this:

This John Bodine (1744-1822) died intestate in Colerain Township, Ross County, Ohio. He left a widow, Margaret, who, after his estate was settled, received $37.97 1/4 which in today's buying power is $971. There is no mention of any children in his estate file nor any other Bodines among the handful of persons who bought his possessions.

I found info at FamilySearch.com saying John was born in Martinsburg, Virginia. I think that is someone's wild based on the fact that John enlisted to serve in the Revolutionary War from Martinsburg, Berkeley County, Virginia. I'm sure it is incorrect.

Here is what I have on John from his pension file:

PENSION FILE #S.42624 John Bodine of Ross County, Ohio

Items: The following info comes from various copies of letters in the file which summarize what is known about John Bodine from his pension files.

John Bodine enlisted at or near Martinsburg, Berkeley Co., VA in 1775. He served one year as seargeant in Captain Hugh Stephenson's Virginia Company of Riflemen from Virginia. He was discharged from Staten Island, NY on July 1, 1776. He enlisted January 22, 1777 and was a sargeant in Captain Joseph Mitchell's Virginia and under Major Caleb Gibbs in General Washington's Life Guard. He was discharged January 22, 1780.

I'm not sure how long John served as one of General Washington's life guards, but I have seen a web site saying he was part of the guards from December 1777 to June 1778. This was a unit that provided personal protection services to General George Washington.

He was allowed a pension on his application executed on November 9, 1819. The records also say he was "placed on the pension roll" on June 9, 1820. At that time he was living in Ross Co., OH. He was 75 years old. In 1821, he was living in Green Township, Ross County. He died on September 2, 1822. The place of death is not stated, but he is buried it seems in Ross County, Ohio.

There is nothing in this file that discusses his family. Several people have written letters asking this question and the response from the Administration has always been the same. It goes something like this, "There are no data as to his family." Or as another letter in the file says, "...there are no data whatever on file in regard to his family, whether or not he ever married, and had children, and no reference is made to the family of his father." One piece of advice (back in 1932) was to write the Records Division of the General Accounting Office (Washington, D.C.?) to obtain the date of the last payment of pension and the name of person paid. The following data would be needed: "John Bodine, Certificate No. 17452, issued June 9, 1820, rate $8 per month, commenced November 9, 1819, Act of March 18, 1818, Ohio Agency."

Item: Various copies of letters from people interested in this John. One of those people was Mary Sinnott who wrote a famous genealogy which included Bodines. The dates their letters were written are in parentheses. All were written some time ago.

Miss Grace S. Pierce (1918)
Washington, D.C.

Miss May E. Bodine (1928-1931)
907 W. 9th St.
Oklahoma City

May Bodine sent many letters inquiring about John Bodine. She wondered if the John Bodine in "Old Kentucky Entries and Deeds" (Jillson, p. 317) was not this John Bodine. It says, "John Bodine, 200 acres, land warrant 2853, service 3 years, seargeant VA Line, date 4-1-1784." This is thought to be this John Bodine of Ross County. I think I've figured out that May E. Bodine was May Estelle Bodine, the daughter of James Alexander Bodine and Ellen Rebecca Eddington. It does not look like she was related to this John Bodine, but just interested in genealogy. I have a note about her saying that she had worked on genealogy quite a bit.

Mrs. William Johnson (1932)
Box 131
Sparta, TN

End of pension file info.

There is some information about this family in the article "John Bodine: Two Revolutionary War Soldiers," Ohio Genealogical Society Report, 35:1, 1995, pp. 39-40. This was written by John Stutesman. This article seems like it is pretty well researched. It discusses two John Bodines who have similar backgrounds. They both fought in the Revolutionary War, both enlisted in Virginia, and both later moved to Ohio. The article calls this John, the "elder" and the other John, the "younger." It does not say that they were related. From what I gather, there is no evidence in the article to say the younger John Bodine (born in 1765) was the son of this John Bodine (born about 1744).

For this John Bodine, see Pension File # 42624 in the National Archives (Statement of Ross Co, OH), p. 214. See FTM CD# 145, Revolutionary War Pension Lists, Pension Roll of 1835, Vol. IV, Ohio:

John Bodine, Sergeant, Annual allowance: 96.00, sums received: 270.39. Description of service: Washington lf. gd. When placed on pension roll: June 9, 1820, Commencement of Pension: November 9, 1819, Age: 78(?), Laws under which they were formerly inscribed on the pension rolls, and remarks: Died September 2, 1822.

The abstract of his pension file papers says he was 75 when he applied on November 9, 1819 from Ross County, Ohio.

The following was put together from information sent to me by Ed Bodine and from the article by John Stutesman. John Bodine enlisted at or near Martinsburg, Berkeley County, Virginia, in 1775. It seems he served as a sergeant in Captain Hugh Stephenson's Virginia Company during the Revolutionary War. (I believe this was a company of riflemen which marched to the siege of Boston.) John was discharged July 1, 1776 after a year's tour of duty. Shortly afterwards, he enlisted on January 22, 1777 in the 12th regiment of the Virginia Continental Line and was a sergeant in Captain Joseph Mitchell's Virginia Company. He was selected from that unit to serve under Major Caleb Gibbs in General Washington's Life Guards. He was honorably discharged January 22, 1780 in Morristown, New Jersey. Most of this info is available from the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Pensions, dated April 15, 1930. This John Bodine is listed in the DAR Patriots Index, page 69.

John Hale Stutesman's address is 305 Spruce St, San Francisco CA 94118.

Here is some info about a William Marts that could apply to this John Bodine. It shows that veterans from the Revolutionary War were migrating to the Warren County, Ohio area. Warren County is not too far from Ross County.

RW Pension Application (S-2724) Warren Co., OH, 3 Oct 1832

William MARTS of Hamilton Twp., Warren Co., OH, aged 68 years, 10 months, entered the service in (Amwall) (sic) Twp., Hunterdon Co., NJ in May 1780, being about 16 years old, under Capt. Philip SNOOK; he served 18 days.

He re-entered the service about 20 Jun 1780, under Ensign Peter ROCKAFELLOW. Abner HICKSON, Peter SNOOK, William HERDER, John RUDMAN, John BORDINE/BODINE, Samuel CORWIN, Amos SUTTON, Samuel DANBURY and William BELL/BULL, a foreigner, were all engaged at the same time.

In Jan., 1781, he enlisted in Capt. David SMALLEY's company. In Sep., 1780, he was under Capt. RANDOLPH of the VA Line. Abner HICKSON hired a substitute named George REED. He was discharged 1 Jan 1781.

On 15 Jul 1781, he was attached to Capt. Ralph GUILD's company, and was discharged at the end of Oct., 1781; he lost his discharge on 4 Nov 1791 at St. CLAIR's defeat where he lost everything in the world.

By the 1830 census, William was living in Warren Co., OH. He was enumerated in the Hamilton Twp. census as William MARTZ and in his household were one male 60-70 yrs.; one female 30-40 yrs.; and one female 60-70 yrs.

The will of William Marts, of Hamilton Twp., Warren Co., OH, signed 10 Sep 1842, & pro. 4 Nov 1844, named executor Peter W. SNOOK. The widow was Elizabeth Marts and the heir was son-in-law James HIXSON. A notation to the will abstract states Wm. was a Col. late of Montgomery Co., IN.

James HIXSON and Abigail MARTS married in Hunterdon Co., NJ, 9 Sep 1807. Peter W. SNOOK was the grandson of John (3) SNOOK, Jr.

End of info about William Marts.

In the book Ohio Wills and Estates to 1850: An Index, by Carol Willsey Bell, C.G., there is a reference to the will or estate papers for a John Bodine in Ross County. The date of the papers is 1822. The reference "ac487" is given. This should be investigated to see if it has any genealogical info. Ronny Bodine may have already checked into all of these, but I'm not sure.

I wrote James Davis from the Ross County, Ohio web site on March 4, 2006 to see if he could find any info on this John Bodine in his records.

His marker at Grandview Cemetery seems to have been put there somewhat recently by someone probably interested in his Revolutionary War service. The info on that stone could be somewhat suspect, but I don't know of any mistakes.