Dr. Nathaniel Worden of Dutchess County is recognized as a DAR Patriot, per application number 247332. The application claim was of two parts, that he had served as a Private in the 3rd New York Continental Regiment, and that he had "also served as a surgeon and cared for sick in Old Quaker Church on Quaker Hill, which was used as a hospital during the Revolution, Pawling, Dutchess County, NY."

On page 797 of the newsletter Wordens Past these claims were considered, and it was concluded that they were mutually exclusive; further, that the service as a physician appeared to be based upon some traditional account related to the subject, whereas the service record was merely for a name picked out of an official record.

The DAR accepted the service record as applicable, and certified Dr. Nathaniel as a Patriot, not knowing that he had been imprisoned as a Tory in 1777 and forced to take an oath of allegiance to the United States in order to be released.

As stated on the DAR application, the service record is found on page 47 of volume 1 of "New York in the Revolution as Colony and State" [NYR], simply as one member of the 3rd New York Continental Regiment. It is extended by this item reprinted on page 308 of Wordens Past: "Worden, Nathaniel. Conspiracy to desert to the enemy: 100 lashes-remitted. Gregg, James, Capt. Third New York Continental Regiment, 24 April 1779-14 October 1779. (Source: "Summer Soldiers, A Survey & Index of Revolutionary War Courts-Martial", by James C. Neagles, Ancestry, Inc., 1986)."

Whether this man was the same man who died as a Loyalist soldier on 10 January 1781 is a nice open question. This reference had not been noted when it was suggested on page 798 of Wordens Past that Nathan Worden and Nathaniel Worden on NYR page 47 were the same man. This reference and the record of the said Nathan Worden prove that they were different persons.