Ezra Harwood: Six Years in Washington’s Army and a Soldier’s Forgotten Name

In This Article

His Story

In June 1783, as the American Revolution approached its conclusion, a Massachusetts soldier named Ezra Herod received a military discharge issued under the authority of General George Washington. The document recorded that he had faithfully served the United States for six years and five months in the Third Massachusetts Regiment. It marked the approaching conclusion of a long military commitment that had begun while American independence was still uncertain.

But the soldier named Ezra Herod on the discharge was known to his family and neighbors as Ezra Harwood. That difference in spelling, apparently rooted in the way his surname was pronounced, would become a problem decades after his death. When his widow sought a Revolutionary War pension, she had to prove that the man named in the military discharge was the same man she had married in Danvers, Massachusetts.

Harwood’s surviving pension file tells an unusual story. It contains little personal testimony from the soldier himself. Instead, it preserves his military discharge, a certified marriage record, affidavits from people who knew him, and applications and letters written on behalf of his widow. Together, those documents connect an ordinary Continental Army private to the final months of the Revolution and to the challenges of securing recognition for his service many years later.

A Soldier with Two Names

Ezra Harwood’s early life is difficult to reconstruct from the surviving records. His date of birth, birthplace, parents, and circumstances before the Revolution have not been established from the pension documents examined for this article.

His military identity, however, is unusually well documented. The discharge preserved in his widow’s pension file names him as Ezra Herod. Later records identify him as Ezra Harwood, with additional spellings appearing in correspondence and sworn statements.

In September 1838, his widow Anne explained the discrepancy directly. She stated that her husband’s name had been commonly pronounced “Herod” throughout his life and continued to be pronounced that way after his death.

Another witness, Samuel Brown of Salem, confirmed that the Harwood surname was pronounced “Herod.” Brown stated that he had known Ezra Harwood of Danvers and had no doubt that the Ezra Herold named in the discharge was the same man.

Such variations were not unusual in eighteenth-century records. Clerks, military officers, and local officials frequently wrote names according to their understanding of the spoken pronunciation. Standardized spelling was not always maintained across different documents.

For Harwood’s family, however, this was not merely a matter of spelling. His widow’s right to a pension depended on establishing that the military document belonged to her deceased husband.

Six Years and Five Months

The strongest evidence for the length of Ezra Harwood’s military service is his surviving discharge certificate. It states that he served the United States for six years and five months in the Third Massachusetts Regiment.

That was a substantial portion of the Revolutionary War. A soldier whose service ended in June 1783 after six years and five months would have entered the army around the beginning of 1777, although the surviving discharge does not provide an exact enlistment date.

By that point, the Revolution had become a prolonged struggle. The Americans had declared independence, but British forces still occupied important territory, and the Continental Army faced recurring shortages of food, clothing, equipment, and pay.

Unlike short-term militia enlistments, service in the Continental Army could keep a soldier away from his community for years. Men enlisted for extended periods or for the duration of the war, and their responsibilities continued through changing campaigns, winter encampments, and periods of inactivity.

Harwood’s discharge identifies him as a soldier enlisted for the war. It does not provide a personal account of the battles he fought, the places he traveled, or the hardships he experienced. Those details must remain unknown unless additional muster rolls, pay records, or other documents can be connected securely to him.

In her 1838 pension declaration, Anne Harwood identified the Third Massachusetts Regiment as the unit in which her husband had served. She believed it had been commanded by Colonel John Greaton, although she did not know the name of his company captain. Her statement is consistent with the regiment named on the surviving discharge, while the exact company remains to be established.

The record does not justify placing Harwood at a particular battle simply because his regiment participated in a campaign. His own documented service is significant without assigning him actions that the surviving evidence does not establish.

Discharged by George Washington

One of the most remarkable documents in Harwood’s pension file is his original discharge, dated June 1783 and issued in the name of General George Washington.

The printed form identifies Washington as General and Commander in Chief of the forces of the United States. Harwood’s name, entered as Ezra Herod, appears within the certificate alongside his regiment and the length of his service.

The document states that he had “faithfully served the United States Six Years & five months” and was discharged from the American Army because he had enlisted for the war.

For a private soldier, the certificate represented official recognition of years spent in military service. It was also an important legal record, documenting the completion of his obligation to the Continental Army.

The surviving transcription shows George Washington’s name on the discharge and indicates that the certificate was issued by his command. It does not establish that Washington personally met Harwood or handed him the document. Such certificates were part of the army’s administrative process during demobilization.

Nevertheless, the document links Harwood directly to the closing chapter of the Revolutionary War. It records a soldier who remained in American service until the army began releasing men whose wartime enlistments were drawing to a close.

A Discharge That Was Not Yet Final

Harwood’s file contains another document, also issued from headquarters in June 1783, explaining that his discharge was subject to an important condition.

Although fighting between the United States and Great Britain had largely ended, the definitive peace treaty had not yet been ratified and formally proclaimed. Until that happened, soldiers receiving these certificates were to be regarded as being on furlough rather than completely separated from military service.

The distinction reflected the uncertainty of the moment. The Continental Army was beginning to demobilize, but the United States had not yet completed every formal step necessary to end the war.

For Harwood, the two documents capture a transitional moment in American history. He had completed the long service recorded on his discharge, but the nation for which he had fought was still moving from wartime independence toward an internationally recognized peace.

Marriage and Life in Danvers

After the Revolution, Ezra Harwood’s life became connected to Danvers, Massachusetts, in Essex County.

On April 13, 1786, he married Anne Moutton. The marriage is documented in a certified extract from the Danvers town records, prepared by Town Clerk Joseph Shed on July 24, 1838.

The extract identifies both Ezra Harwood and Anne Moutton as residents of Danvers. It also includes a record associated with Nathan Holt, pastor of the South Church in Danvers.

The marriage took place approximately three years after Harwood received his discharge from the Continental Army. This timing later became important because federal pension laws distinguished between widows according to when their marriages had occurred.

The surviving pension file does not provide a full account of the couple’s household, occupation, children, or property. It does establish that Harwood lived long enough to return to civilian life, marry, and become known in Danvers before his death in 1813.

A Widow’s Struggle for Recognition

Ezra Harwood died in 1813, before the major federal pension legislation of 1818 provided assistance to many surviving Revolutionary War veterans.

Years later, his widow Anne began seeking benefits based on his service. On September 3, 1838, she appeared before Judge Daniel A. White in Essex County and made a sworn declaration under the federal law of July 7, 1838, which provided pensions for qualifying Revolutionary War widows.

Anne identified herself as a resident of Danvers and stated that she was seventy-five years old. She explained that her husband had served six years and five months in the Third Massachusetts Regiment, and she presented his military discharge as evidence.

She also supplied the date of their marriage and confirmed that it had occurred after his military service but before January 1, 1794, a date relevant to eligibility under the pension law.

Anne’s application required more than her personal statement. The Danvers town clerk certified the marriage record, while Samuel Brown supplied a sworn affidavit identifying the soldier named on the discharge as Ezra Harwood of Danvers.

These documents illustrate how a widow’s pension application could preserve information about a soldier that might otherwise have disappeared. The government required proof, and that proof often came from surviving local records, family testimony, and witnesses who remembered the veteran.

Anne’s pension was approved at the rate of eighty dollars annually. A pension certificate issued in December 1838 recorded arrears and a semiannual allowance totaling 240 dollars at that stage of the claim.

She continued to seek benefits under later pension legislation. Additional declarations appear in the file in 1843 and 1848. In the latter application, Anne was recorded as a resident of Salem, Massachusetts, and stated that she remained a widow.

When a Name Stood in the Way

The pension file reveals that the spelling of Anne Harwood’s name continued to create administrative difficulties even after her eligibility had been recognized.

In September 1843, Benjamin Merrill of Salem wrote to the Commissioner of Pensions in Washington. He explained that the pension-paying agent in Boston had declined to pay Anne because the name returned to the agent was “Anne Howard,” rather than the correct surname appearing on her pension certificate.

Merrill asked the commissioner to issue the necessary instructions so that payment could proceed.

A notation in the pension file indicates that the error was corrected on September 8, 1843.

It was a second naming problem in a family already affected by the difference between Harwood and Herod. First, Anne had to establish that her husband’s military discharge belonged to Ezra Harwood. Later, a clerical error in her own name interfered with the payment of benefits she had been awarded.

By 1848, Anne was still appearing before local officials to confirm her status. Her July declaration states that she remained a widow and had previously received a pension based on her husband’s Revolutionary War service.

That same year, Congressman Daniel P. King wrote to the Commissioner of Pensions asking that Anne’s certificate be forwarded to him. A certificate dated August 19, 1848, continued her pension at eighty dollars per year.

Ezra Harwood had died decades earlier, but his military service continued to shape his widow’s life. The paperwork that survives from her applications provides the clearest documentary account of the soldier and the family he left behind.

From His Account

Military Service

Conflict	American Revolutionary War
Allegiance	United States
Name on Discharge	Ezra Herod
Recorded Rank	Private
Regiment	Third Massachusetts Regiment
Colonel	John Greaton, according to Anne Harwood’s declaration
Company Commander	Not established from the identified documents
Service Length	Six years and five months
Estimated Enlistment	Approximately early 1777, calculated from the recorded length of service
Enlistment Term	For the duration of the war
Discharge	June 1783
Discharge Authority	General George Washington, Commander in Chief
Discharge Condition	Considered on furlough until ratification and proclamation of the definitive peace treaty
Specific Battles	Not individually verified
Pension File	W.24414, widow Anne Harwood
National Archives ID	54815714

Later Life & Burial

Ezra Harwood survived the Revolutionary War and returned to civilian life in Massachusetts. On April 13, 1786, he married Anne Moutton of Danvers. The marriage was later verified through an extract of the town records.

Harwood died in 1813, according to Anne’s repeated pension declarations. The precise date and place of his death have not been established from the transcribed pension documents.

His widow continued living in Essex County for decades after his death. She was recorded in Danvers in 1838 and 1843, and in Salem in 1848.

The pension file contains differing statements of Anne’s age. She was described as seventy-five in 1838, sixty-nine in 1843, and eighty-one in 1848. These entries cannot all be correct. They should not be used to assign her a definite birth year without additional records.

Ezra Harwood’s burial location has not been verified. Although his documented residence in Danvers offers a starting point for cemetery research, no particular burial ground, grave marker, or memorial can yet be assigned to him with confidence.

Additional research in Danvers death records, church registers, early cemetery inventories, and Essex County probate materials may reveal more about his final years and family.

For now, the surviving discharge is the most direct memorial to his Revolutionary War service. It preserves the name of a soldier who remained with the American army for more than six years, long enough to see the Revolution approach its conclusion.

Family & Descendants

Parents and Early Family

The parents of Ezra Harwood have not been identified from the Revolutionary War pension documents examined for this biography. Neither his original discharge nor his widow’s pension declarations establish his father’s or mother’s name.

His birthplace and birth date also remain unverified. Although Harwood was associated with Danvers, Massachusetts, after the Revolution, that residence does not establish that he was born or raised there.

The variations in his surname present an additional challenge for genealogical research. Records may identify him or possible relatives under Harwood, Herod, Harrod, Herold, or Hardwood. Any proposed family connection must be supported by evidence linking the individuals, not simply by a similar surname.

Anne Moutton Harwood — His Wife

The best-documented member of Ezra Harwood’s family is his wife, Anne Moutton.

A certified extract from the Danvers town records establishes that Ezra Harwood and Anne Moutton were married on April 13, 1786. Both were identified as residents of Danvers. The record was certified on July 24, 1838, by Town Clerk Joseph Shed and preserved in Anne’s Revolutionary War widow’s pension file.

The marriage took place approximately three years after Ezra’s discharge from the Continental Army. By the time Anne sought a widow’s pension in 1838, her husband had been dead for about twenty-five years.

Anne’s pension declarations offer a rare glimpse into her later life. In September 1838, she was living in Danvers and described herself as seventy-five years old. She identified her deceased husband, his military service, and the date of their marriage.

Her subsequent pension papers establish that she was still living in 1848, when she appeared in Salem, Massachusetts, and declared that she had not remarried.

Her exact birth date remains uncertain because her recorded ages differ across the pension documents. The date and place of her death have not been established from the supplied transcriptions.

Children of Ezra and Anne Harwood

No children have been conclusively identified as belonging to Ezra Harwood and Anne Moutton in the pension documents examined for this article.

Anne’s applications establish her marriage and widowhood but do not provide a verified list of sons or daughters. The absence of named children in these documents does not establish that the couple had no children.

Because Ezra and Anne married in Danvers in 1786, the town’s late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century birth, baptismal, and family records would be a logical place to investigate possible children.

However, a child recorded with the surname Harwood or one of its spelling variations should not be assigned to this couple without a record identifying the parents or other evidence establishing the connection.

Possible Descendants

At present, no verified line of descendants has been established for Ezra Harwood, the Third Massachusetts Regiment soldier discharged under the name Ezra Herod in June 1783.

His marriage to Anne Moutton is firmly supported by the certified Danvers record, but that evidence alone cannot establish whether the couple had children or whether any family line continued into later generations.

Additional research in Essex County probate records, Danvers and Salem vital records, church registers, property transactions, and early census records may help determine whether Ezra and Anne had children and identify possible descendants.

Any genealogical reconstruction should also account for the name variations documented in the pension file. The pronunciation “Herod,” confirmed by Anne and Samuel Brown, may be particularly important when searching contemporary records.

What the Family Records Establish

Father	Not identified
Mother	Not identified
Wife	Anne Moutton Harwood — verified by Danvers marriage record
Marriage	April 13, 1786, Danvers, Massachusetts
Children	None conclusively identified in reviewed records
Grandchildren	Not established
Later Descendants	No verified line established
Widow’s Later Residence	Danvers; Salem by 1848
Widow Last Documented	1848

Ezra Harwood’s family history is therefore only partially recovered. His wife is known, and her determination to obtain a pension preserved the documentary evidence of his military service. The identities of his parents, any children, and possible descendants remain questions for further research.

Original Sources & Historical Note