Bovina and the American Revolution - Jesse Purdy (1748-1840)

Jesse Purdy, also known as Justus Purdy, is believed to have been born in Westchester County in 1748. A year after the Declaration of Independence, he enlisted in Dutchess County in 1777, serving in the Second Regiment, Artillery, Capt. Samuel Lockwood/William Steven’s Company. He was discharged in 1780. Jesse was in at least one battle, but he could not remember the name of it when he applied for his pension in 1826. By 1800, he was living in Delaware County, likely in what later became Bovina. 

Most of the information we have about Jesse Purdy comes from his pension application He noted that he was old and infirm (he was 76) and so was his wife, Deborah. 

His personal property included a bed and bedding, 4 very old chairs, a table, and a pot and kettle. Jesse also had “two suits of clothes of woolen and cotton, cheap and coarse in quality and worn.” He also noted that he had about 40 acres of land but never had a title to it.  In an amended filing from 1827, he said that until just before he filed his claim, that he "had sufficient bodily ability to labor" and that through "the kindness of the widow of General Richard Montgomery" he was allowed to occupy "a small piece of land belonging to her."  For the past three years, however, he claimed that old age and a rupture had made it almost impossible for him to support himself and that he "has now no means of subsistence save the charity of his country."  Purdy was placed on the pension rolls in 1828, receiving $96 a year.  

A problem developed with the pension a few years later when he claimed that his daughter-in-law, Ann Purdy, who had power of attorney for her father-in-law, refused to pay the funds to him. She held a certificate or warrant from the war office which authorized the pension, but she threatened to burn it up. 

The total sum he received was $594.57.  Purdy was in his 90s at his death in 1840, Bovina’s oldest revolutionary war soldier.

We are not totally clear as to where Jesse is buried. His name appears on the Hogoboom family monument in the main Bovina cemetery. The stone was installed in the early 20th century. Along with Jesse, the stone includes Elizabeth Hogoboom, who was Jesse’s granddaughter (and likely the daughter of Ann Purdy, who was withholding pension funds from her father-in-law). Elizabeth’s husband was John Hogoboom. Also on the stone is their son Henry, who was a Civil War veteran.