Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XIX: John Bell Tilden Journal extracts.

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XIX.
Philadelphia Publication of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1895.

Extracts from the Journal of Lieutenant John Bell Tilden, Second
Pennsylvania Line, 1781-1782. By John Bell Tilden Phelps.
{Portrait.) 61, 208


EXTRACTS PROM THE JOURNAL OF LIEUTENANT
JOHN BELL TILDEN, SECOND PENNSYLVANIA
LINE, 1781-1782.
CONTRIBUTED BY JOHN BELL TILDEN PHELPS.
[John Bell Tilden, whose ancestors were the Tyldens, of Kent, England, was born in Philadelphia, December 9,1761. In his eighteenth year he left Princeton College and joined the Continental army, being
commissioned, May 28,1779, ensign in the Second Eegiment Pennsylvania Line, commanded by Colonel Walter Stewart. He was subsequently promoted to second lieutenant, his commission to date from July
25, 1780. At the close of the war he was honorably mustered out of the service, and became a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. In 1784 he married Jane, daughter of Joseph and Martha
Chambers, of York, Pennsylvania, and settled in Frederick County, Virginia, where he practised medicine until the close of his life. Some time prior to 1824 he was ordained to the ministry of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and during the agitation of the question of lay representation, he advocated the equal rights of the laity with the clergy in the legislative department of the Church, for which he and other
prominent members were expelled for so-called heresy. In 1872 the Church admitted its error by adopting lay representation into its polity.

Long before the subject of African slavery took a political shape, Dr. Tilden manumitted his slaves and sent them to Liberia with one year's outfit. He died July 31, 1838, at New Town (now Stephen City),
Virginia.] August 1,1781.—Remained in camp all day. The country adjoining the most fertile I have seen in Virginia, and the county famed for its patriotic ladies. August 2.—This day we marched to.........................