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General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: gilroy1790 on Monday 19 September 11 13:44 BST (UK)
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Does anyone know how to go about finding out if a Napoleonic soldier's wife, would receive a widow's pension or a fund for her children after the death of the husband?
My Napoleonic ancestor was Andrew Patton who served in the Royal Artillery, Roger's Company, 3rd Battalion from 1795-1818.
His military record no longer exists, but a condensed version does exist in the Ordnance records. I know he received a pension, but he died in 1834. I found his wife Mary and children on the 1851 census, living in the New Lanark wool mills just outside the town of Lanark in Scotland. Where it shows the occupation of the person, it says next to Mary's name, "annuitant". I know this means a pension or fund, but I can't believe that someone would be getting a pension from the wool industry back in 1851, so can only assume it's something to do with Andrew's military pension.
Do such records exist? Any help much appreciated.
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Personally I would go back to where you found the pension record, and ask the staff at the archive concerned if they know of any further information.
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Hi, Thank's for response. I've actually done that, but got conflicting information. I was told that only Officer's widow's received pensions, but was then told by another person that sometimes there was a Widow's Orphans's fund. Children were sometimes classed as Orphan's even if they still had one parent.
Was hoping someone on here could clarify this.
Russ
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Yes, it can be very annoying to get conflicting information from two people in the same department. You would think they never had a script and made it up as they go along, Maybe some do? I think though that your surmise is probably correct in that she got a payout from a Widows' fund. Proving it though I think is likely to be tricky.