October 31, 2022

Notes on Scituate, Norwell, Hanover, and Hingham, plus the Old North Church.

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New eleven-names.com Content

Cuffee Josselyn and the Aftermath of Slavery in Hanover, Massachusetts looks at why Cuffee appeared in Joseph Josselyn’s probate inventory in 1787, four years after Massachusetts ruled slavery unconstitutional. It also explores the existence of a slavery-to-pauper-auction pipeline.

Enslaving Minister of the Week: Rev. Nathaniel Eells

Rev. Nathaniel Eells of Scituate/Norwell enslaved Anthony/Tony Sisco, who he married in 1714. Below are the headstone of Eells in Norwell's First Parish Cemetery and the marriage of Anthony and Mariah recorded by Eells. (Church records, 1704-1759, Second Church in Scituate, Mass.)

Scituate Shipbuilder Walter Briggs purchased Mariah as a child in 1673. Briggs manumitted Mariah in his will but delayed it for 13 arduous years. After winning her freedom, she and Anthony were forced to sue for the freedom of her daughter, Molly. Mariah died before 1719.

Probate File of the Week: Francis Negro

Francis/Frank(e) Negro left a will in 1714. The probate file reveals a respectable estate for any local yeoman, let alone a man fighting a legacy of slavery and racial discrimination. Frank’s wife Margaret is mentioned in the file. The property listed in the probate inventory is likely the same property that appears in seventeenth-century Scituate deeds.

Massachusetts, Plymouth County, probate estate files. Case No.: 14537. online: FamilySearch.org.

From Plymouth County Court Records

In September 1686, “John Negro, Slave of Capt John Williams” of Scituate confessed to the burglary of “money, writings, and divers goods”. John was sentenced to stand on the gallows for one hour and be burnt in the hand with the letter B, as well as being required to pay for prosecution, imprisonment, and court fees.

SOURCE: Plymouth County, MA: Plymouth Court Records, 1686-1859. CD-ROM. Boston, MA.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2002. Copyright, 2002, Pilgrim Society. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.)

Podcast Reccomendation

Jake at HUB History has several podcasts examining slavery in Boston. This week’s recommendation is He Takes Faces at the Lowest Rates (episode 229) about painters Scipio Moorehead and Prince Demah. Be sure to rifle through the always excellent show notes, which include two articles from Hingham Historical Society president Paula Bagger. Read the ANTIQUES article Paula co-authored here.

Tidbits

135 South Scituate/Norwell men fought in the Civil War. The African American community comprised 5% of Norwell’s 1860 population, yet 9% of Norwell’s Civil War veterans were Black. The small but tight-knit African American community in Norwell sent 12 of its 48 Black men (25%) to the Civil War. Contrast this number with the fact that 15% of the white men of Norwell served. Several of these African American men were the descendants of enslaved and free Black Revolutionary War veterans.

Pvt. Henry T. Winslow in First Parish Cemetery, Norwell, Mass.

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The Old North Illuminating the Unseen YouTube series on the Black and indigenous people connected to the congregation in the time of slavery is criminally under-viewed.

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Essential Links

• Boston unearths remnants of possible slave quarters in Roxbury, WBUR

• New report on Transatlantic Slave Trade links Connecticut’s past to present, Connecticut Public Radio

• Film project at Massachusetts parish memorializes former slave buried under church, Episcopal News Serice

• Confronting Indigenous enslavement, one story at a time, Brown University

• ‘Witness Stone’ to share story of enslaved woman baptized at Connecticut church, Episcopal News Service.

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