Surname Saturday ~ MAVERICK of Dorchester, Massachusetts

A Map of Boston Harbor
Please note the locations of Noddle's Island,
Thompson's Island and Dorchester 

MAVERICK / MADERICKE / MATHERICKE / MAUERRICKE

John Maverick, my 11^th great grandfather, graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Exeter College at Oxford University on 8 July 1599, and with a Master’s degree on 7 July 1603.  At the time of his second degree he was already an ordained minister at the town of Exeter. He was also called to be the rector at Beaworthy, in Devon, until he resigned just before coming to New England with the Winthrop fleet.  He arrived on the ship Mary and John on 30 May 1630.  John Maverick became a freeman in Dorchester on 18 May 1631, and he was the minister there until he died in 1636.

John Maverick married Mary Gye at Islington in 1600.  She had a long royal ancestry stretching back to the Plantagenets sketched out in the New England Historic Genealogical Register Volume 115, pages 248 – 253.  They had a son, Samuel, who married the widow Amias (Cole) Thompson, who was the wife of David Thompson (1592 – 1628), my 9^th great grandfather, who lived on Thompson’s Island in Boston Harbor.  Another son, Moses, was my 10^th great grandfather.

Moses Maverick’s first wife was my 10^th great grandmother.  Her name was Remember Allerton, and she was a five year old passenger on the Mayflower, along with her parents and siblings. Moses owned land in Dorchester, which he sold and removed to Salem in 1634.  He lived in Marblehead, contiguous to Salem, in 1635.  He rented Noddle’s Island in Boston Harbor, now known as East Boston near the airport. There is still a Maverick subway station in East Boston, and a Maverick Square. It’s interesting that two of my ancestors owned islands in Boston Harbor.

Samuel and Moses Maverick were notorious slave owners, both Indians and Africans.  The first colonial slave ship was built in Marblehead in 1636, and Moses Maverick was probably an investor.  Moses was part of the effort to split the peninsula of Marblehead off from Salem, and he was one of the first Marblehead selectmen.   There are many stories and books about Samuel and Moses Maverick so I won’t repeat them here.  They are some of my most notorious “black sheep” ancestors. You can read more about Samuel and Moses Maverick and their slaves at Bill West’s blog post here:  http://westinnewengland.blogspot.com/2012/01/thomas-slave.html

Moses and Remember had seven children. Their daughter, Abigail Maverick (1645 – 1686) is my 9^th great grandmother.  She was the first wife of Samuel Ward of Salem, and they had seven children.  Major Samuel Ward died on the Expedition to Quebec, Canada led by Sir William Phips.  This was a fleet of 30 ships from Boston, and about two thousand men, which suffered a great loss.  Four ships sank and many men died.  Some of the surviving men brought back smallpox, which spread throughout Boston and Dorchester, killing another 57 people.

Some MAVERICK resources:

The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620 - 1633, by Robert Charles Anderson, 1995, Volume II, pages 1241 – 1243 for a sketch of John Maverick and his children.

Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Volume Seventeen: Isaac Allerton [one of the Silver books series], 1998, pages 4 – 6 for Moses Maverick and Remember Allerton, and pages 9 – 10 for Abigail Maverick and Samuel Ward.  Martha Ward and John Tuttle are outlined on pages 26 – 27, and Martha Tuttle and Mark Haskell are on pages 65 – 66. 

Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies of the United States, by Gary Boyd Roberts, 2008, page 377.

Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, by Douglas Richardson and Kimball G. Everingham, 1990, page 370.

There is an entire blog about Samuel Maverick at this link [unknown author]:  http://samuelmaverick.blogspot.com/

My MAVERICK genealogy:

Generation 1:  John Maverick, son of Peter Maverick and Dorothy Tucke, baptized 28 October 1578 in Awliscombe, Devonshire, England, died 3 February 1636 at Dorchester, Massachusetts;  married on 28 October 1600 to Mary Gye, daughter of Robert Gye and Drace Dowrish.  She died after 9 October 1666 in Massachusetts. Nine children.

Generation 2:  Moses Maverick, baptized 3 November 1611 in Huish, Devonshire, England and died 28 January 1686 in Marblehead, Massachusetts; married before 6 May 1635 in Marblehead to Remember Allerton, daughter of Isaac Allerton and Mary Norris (Mayflower passengers).  She was born about 1614 in Leyden, Holland and died before 22 October 1656.  Six children.

Generation 3: Abigail Maverick, baptized 12 January 1645 in Salem, Massachusetts, died before January 1686; married about 1662 in Ipswich to Samuel Ward, son of Samuel Ward and Mary Hilliard.  He was baptized 18 November 1638 in Hingham, Massachusetts and died between 30 July 1689 and 12 March 1691 during the Expedition to Quebec, Canada.

Generation 4:  Martha Ward m. John Tuthill

Generation 5:  Martha Tuthill m. Mark Haskell

Generation 6: Lucy Haskell m. Jabez Treadwell

Generation 7: Nathaniel Treadwell m. Mary Hovey

Generation 8: Jabez Treadwell m. Betsey Jillings Homan

Generation 9: Eliza Ann Treadwell m. Abijah Hitchings

Generation 10: Abijah Franklin Hitchings m. Hannah Eliza Lewis

Generation 11: Arthur Treadwell Hitchings m. Florence Etta Hoogerzeil

Generation 12:  Gertrude Matilda Hitchings m. Stanley Elmer Allen (my grandparents)

--------------------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “ Surname Saturday ~ MAVERICK of Dorchester, Massachusetts“, Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 22, 2017, (https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/07/surname-saturday-maverick-of-dorchester.html: accessed [access date]). 

Tombstone Tuesday ~ African Burial Ground, Wethersfield, Connecticut

These photographs were taken at the Ancient Burying Ground in Wethersfield, Connecticut.

In front of the cemetery is a small, segregated area where the Africans were buried in colonial times.  You can almost imagine a fence around these graves to separated them from the white settlers.  In other New England towns like Portsmouth, New Hampshire or Boston the slaves were buried in a completely separate cemetery. 

In memory of

Quash Gomer: a

Native of Angola in

Africa, brought from

there in 1748 &

died June 6th 1799

Aged 68 years. 

Do the math.  Quash was only a teenager about 17 years old when he was sold into slavery.  According to one history, Quash Gomer bought his freedom from John Smith for 25 pounds. 

This stone and the others show evidence of being lovingly restored.  The original sandstone is quite prone to wear and weathering. 

In Memory of

FRANCOIS

who was born in Africa

and died July 11

1816 aged about 

55 years

Here lyeth

What was

mortal of Pri-

mus.  Free Negro Dec.

Novembr 17  1731

Aged about 70 Years.

For more information on the Wethersfield Ancient Burying Ground and Village Cemetery, see this website for photos, transcriptions and GPS coordinates of each stone:
http://wethersfieldhistory.org/burying-ground

-------------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ African Burial Ground, Wethersfield, Connecticut",  Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 14, 2016,  (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/06/tombstone-tuesday-african-burial-ground.html: accessed [access date]).

The American Anti-Slavery Society

1893 Reunion of the
Danvers Anti Slavery Society
Danvers, Massachusetts

The majority of my ancestors lived in or near Salem, Massachusetts at the time of the Underground Railroad. There were three major secret Underground Railroad routes through Salem, heading north to New Hampshire. The first went through Danvers, to Andover and South Lawrence; the next from Danvers to Georgetown to Haverhill; and the last through Beverly, Ipswich to Newburyport (and water routes to Nova Scotia). This was a secret route, so many places are still unknown, but 33 stops have been identified in Essex County.

On April 26, 1893 there was a reunion of the abolitionists of Danvers, Massachusetts. It was a celebration of the men of the town, Isaac Winslow, Joseph Southwick* and others, who had helped to form the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 in Philadelphia. By 1837 the women of Danvers had formed “The Female Anti-Slavery Society", made up of sixty members from just the town of Danvers, some of whom had survived until the reunion in 1893. Famous abolitionists, as well as regular townspeople united for the celebration at the old town hall. At the meeting Dr. Andrew Nichols remembered how as a young man he was stoned in the streets for subscribing members to the anti-slavery newspapers. I was surprised to find the name of Isaac Munroe on the list of original subscribers to the “Liberator” newspaper- he was the brother to my ancestor Luther Simonds Munroe. A letter was read to the guests from Frederick Douglass, who was still alive, but elderly, retired and living near Washington DC.  

A large number of the Danvers members of the Anti-Slavery Society were part of the Underground Railroad. Their homes in Essex County were “stations” on the path north to New Hampshire and Canada. As I perused the photographs of some of the homes on the National Park Website, I recognized most of them that are still standing today. One, on 7 Central Street in Manchester-by-the-Sea, is located right across the street from my Aunt Shirley’s house! Another home was the subject of a term paper on the Underground Railroad that my father wrote as an undergraduate at Boston University in the 1950s.

Sons of these Massachusetts Abolitionists were recruited as officers for the Massachusetts 54th Regiment in the Civil War. This is the regiment made famous by the Hollywood movie “Glory.” I am a distant cousin to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw through the Perkins family, but more interesting to me was my family relationship to his fellow officer, Captain Lieutenant Luis Fenollosa Emilio, son of Spanish immigrants. My own great grandfather was Professor Caleb Rand Bill, a Salem Music professor, and Luis F. Emilio’s father was Manuel Emilo, a Salem music teacher from Spain. This story charmed my husband, who is also the son of Spaniards. Luis F. Emilio gave his age as 18, when he was really only 16, to enlist in the 23rd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted to be one of the original officers of the famous 54th all black regiment (except for the officers!). He died in New York in 1918, but he is buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, his place of birth. I am a distant cousin to Captain Emilio through the Kinsman family. Luis F. Emilio wrote the book A Brave Black Regiment: The History of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in 1894.

-------------

By contrast, as I write this story from Manchester, New Hampshire, I was surprised to learn that although the runaways from slavery were passing through New Hampshire, they were not very welcome in this state. Of course, rural New Hampshire was much more conservative than liberal Massachusetts, even though we are only about 45 miles from Danvers. The Anti-Slavery Societies were not well supported in New Hampshire before the Civil War.

The Reverend Parker Pillsbury in his Anti Slavery Apostles wrote about a visit made to West Chester, New Hampshire (now Auburn, bordering Manchester) by the Anti-Slavery orators Mr. Stephen S. Foster and the famous Lucy Stone. Lucy Stone is well known for making bloomers popular, and for keeping her maiden name after marriage (women known by their maiden names in the 19th century were known as “Lucy Stoners”). Mr. Foster said of West Chester that “No town ever more sternly or successfully resisted the anti-slavery, or other unpopular reforms.” They were locked out of the meeting house, and a mob covered their carriage with cow dung. They fled to Derry, where they were again locked out of a meeting house and another mob threatened them to leave on foot, through the snow. Lucy Stone said to Mr. Foster that her “bloomer dress and calf skin boots, like mine, would carry her safely…”

For a previous blog post about how the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society sent Frederick Douglass to the small town of Pittsfield, New Hampshire in 1842, where he was at first very unwelcome, please click this link:

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-month-frederick-douglass.html  

For a previous blog post on Captain Luis Emilio, please click here:

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/03/captain-luis-emilio-and-brave-black.html

Click here to read about the paper my father wrote for Boston University about the underground railroad house in Andover, Massachusetts (this story is in 4 parts/posts, and the link will bring you to part one):
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-dads-college-paper-on-underground.html

*This link is a blog post about the abolitionist Joseph Southwick (a distant cousin):
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/02/joseph-southwick-abolitionist.html


-----------------

For More Information:

Anti-Slavery Apostles,  by Rev. Parker Pillsbury, Concord, NH, 1883

A Brave Black Regiment: The History of the 54th Massachusetts,  by Captain Luis Fenollosa Emilio, Boston, 1891.

Old Anti-Slavery Days, by The Danvers Historical Society and Alfred Porter Putnam, pages vii- xi.

----------------------------

To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The American Anti-Slavery Society", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 8, 2016, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-american-anti-slavery-society.html: accessed [access date]). 

Our Juneteenth visit to Portsmouth’s African Burial Ground

Yes, New Hampshire has a long history of African American heritage. Believe it or not.  You can even take a walking tour on the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail, which will open your eyes to history that has been all around you all along, but you never noticed.  Just like Black people are all around us in New Hampshire and New England, but mostly go un-noticed or ignored, their history has been swept under the rug.

Don’t assume that the Black people in New Hampshire were all slaves. Yes, there were slaves here, but there were also freemen who were craftspeople, landowners, business owners, and middle class members of society.  It is time to throw aside assumptions about what we think of Black history in New England, and to learn what really happened.  This is a story of segregation, and of a systematic forgetting the disenfranchised members of society.

In 2003, during a roadwork project on Chestnut Street in Portsmouth, the construction workers unearthed several very old coffins.  Construction halted as an investigation researched the burial spot.  It was determined that this was the “Negro Burying Ground” seen in early documents but eventually paved over and forgotten. In 2008 eight coffins and bodies were removed, and many more coffins were seen in the sides of the dig.   It was estimated that 200 bodies were located in the area.

DNA testing showed that the eight individuals who were temporarily removed were African.  The city council approved an African Burial Ground Committee in 2004, and this committee was charged with reburying and honoring those buried under and near Chestnut Street.  Over the following years, it was decided to close the street and erect a memorial park.  The dedication and reburials took place May 20 – 23^rd, 2015.  We visited on June 19^th, which seemed appropriate.

Someone left this anonymous, but touching note on the gravesite

"Mourning the

lives lost in

Charleston SC

&

these lives here

in Portsmouth

Rest in Peace"

This image will forever date our visit to this memorial, so close to the Charleston tragedy

"I stand for the Ancestors Here and Beyond

I stand for those who feel anger

I stand for those who were treated unjustly

I stand for those who were taken from their loved ones

I stand for those who suffered the middle passage

I stand for those who survived upon these shores

I stand for those who pay homage to this ground

I stand for those who find dignity in these bones

- Jerome Meadows, artist and sculptor"

These words are also engraved on the figures standing near the gravesite,

and on the plaques mounted on nearby buildings fronting the memorial park. 

The two figures, one of each side of the granite slab, are reaching towards each other with their hands. The male figure represents the first slave brought to Portsmouth in bondage, and the female figure represents Mother Africa.

The African Burying Ground is located on Chestnut Street, between Court and State Streets in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  There is street parking with meters nearby on both Court and State.  It is a short walk from Market Square.  Although this is now downtown Portsmouth, remember that in the early 1700s this area was the outskirts of the settlement- the fringes of regular society. 

The Portsmouth African Burying Ground website   “In Honor of Those Forgotten”

http://www.africanburyinggroundnh.org/

The Portsmouth African Burying Ground Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/pages/African-Burying-Ground-Portsmouth/149987181750395

The Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail

http://portsmouthhistory.org/portsmouth-black-heritage-trail/

My 2010 blog post about the Portsmouth African Burial Memorial

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/12/portsmouth-african-burial-memorial.html

-----------------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo,  "Our Juneteenth visit to Portsmouth's African Burial Ground", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 25, 2015 ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/06/our-juneteenth-visit-to-portsmouths.html :  accessed [access date]). 

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Mr. and Mrs. Wallis of Rye, New Hampshire, and their African servant

This tombstone was photographed at the Odiorne Family Cemetery 

on Brackett Road, Rye, New Hampshire

SAMUEL WALLIS

Died February 25, 1832

Aged 85 years

ELIZABETH

Wife of Samuel Wallis

and daughter of Rev. Samuel Parsons

Died June 9, 1827

Aged 73 years

----------------------------------

PHILLIS

their faithful servant

Died March 17, 1821

Aged 80 years

I found this far fetched story in a history book.  Phillis was the "negro slave owned by Lieut. Samuel Wallis.... after the liberation of the slaves, went to Salem, Mass., but finding the delights of freedom fewer than its cares and burdens the pair returned to Rye and passed the remainder of their lives on the Wallis place, now owned by the heirs of Prof. James Parsons, dying there at a great age and being buried on the farm.  Caesar and Phyllis Wallis were the last slaves held in Rye." [ History of the Town of Rye, by Langdon Brown Parsons,  1905, pages 268 - 269].   She is listed as Phillis Wallis (colored), died March 17, 1821, aged 80 years.  There must be more to this story, but it has been lost to the cobwebs of time.

The sad story of how Phillis arrived in New Hampshire can be found in another book.  On page 212 of History of the Town of Rye  "Receipt of Alexander Raitt New Castle Jan.  11, 1750 for 87 pounds 10 New tenor for Negro Girl Phillis now at house of Joseph Newmarch, New Castle.  Condition upon delivery of said Phillis to Mr. Samuel Parsons of Rye.  Geo. Frost, John Blunt, Witness."  Samuel Parsons was the father of Elizabeth (Parsons) Wallis above.

UPDATE (12:30pm 10 March 2015) by reader T.J. Rand, who read the blog and quotes research by Martin Hollick and a Boston Transcript article, corrected the lineage in the original book by Parsons).

Samuel Wallis4 (Samuel, Samuel, William, George) son of Samuel Wallis, was born in 1747, died 25 February 1832; married on 16 November 1773 to Elizabeth Parsons, who died 9 June, 1827.  He was a veteran of the Revolutionary War in Captain Parson's company (hence the DAR marker and flag on his tombstone), and he inherited his father's farm know known as "Wallis Sands".   Samuel's father, Samuel Wallis (about 1717 - 1793) willed Phillis to his son Samuel in 1793.

I love that Mr. and Mrs. Wallis and Phillis are buried together, and memorialized together on one tombstone.  However, it is sad that she obviously died a slave, although the stone says "servant". 

------------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Mr. and Mrs. Wallis of Rye, New Hampshire, and their African servant", Nutfield Genealogy, posted March 10, 2019, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/03/tombstone-tuesday-mr-and-mrs-wallis-of.html: accessed [access date]). 

Joseph Southwick – Abolitionist

The Southwick family members were Quaker in early Salem, even when that meant persecution from the Puritan authorities. Their children and descendants married prominent Quakers from all over New England.  In the compiled genealogy book about the Southwick family, Joseph Southwick (1791 – 1866) is described as a tanner, with three daughters. Period. With a little digging I was able to learn that Joseph Southwick was much more than a tradesman.   I was also able to find out the many ways I am related to this family (I have a few relationships described below at the end of this blog post).

Joseph Southwick founded the American Anti-Slavery Movement in 1833 and was a signer of the Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  He was president of the society 1835 -1836, and vice president for many years.  He was one of the original subscribers to William Lloyd Garrison’s journal The Liberator.  He is considered one of the original abolitionists in America.  His work inspired his wife and daughters to be involved in abolitionism, at a time when women were usually not allowed to campaign for progressive causes. 

Joseph Southwick married Thankful Hussey, daughter of Quaker abolitionist Samuel Hussey.  She was a member of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and of the New England Non-Resistance Society.  William Lloyd Garrison delivered the eulogy at her funeral, and Lydia Maria Child wrote her obituary.  She lived longer than her husband and was able to become even more famous as an abolitionist in New England.

The compiled Southwick genealogy book (see below) has Thankful’s obituary on pages 261 – 264

OBITUARY

Thankful Southwick, widow of Joseph Southwick, died on the 29^th of April, at her residence in Grantville [a part of the town of Wellesley], Mass., in the 75^th year of her age.

                All survivors of the old abolition band will remember her as one of the very earliest, the noblest, and the most faithful of that small army of moral combatants who fought so bravely and perseveringly for the deliverance of the downtrodden.  Mrs. Southwick was born and educated in the Society of Friends, and to their calmness of demeanor she added indomitable persistence in the path of duty.

                One of the most exciting affairs that ever occurred in Boston was known as the Baltimore Slave Case.  Two girls had escaped in a Boston vessel, and when about to be carried back, were brought out by a writ of habeas corpus.  All Boston was in a ferment for and against the fugitives.  The commercial world were determined that this Southern property should be restored to the white claimants, and the abolitionists were determined that it should remain in the possession of the original owner owners until a “bill of sale from the Almighty” could be produced.  The well-known Father Snowdon was then alive, and by his vigilance and ingenious arrangements, efficiently aided by Mrs. Southwick, the slaves were, at a given signal, spirited away from the crowded court-room, and conveyed out of the city.  The agent of the slaveholders happened to be standing near Mrs. Southwick, and while he was gazing in astonishment at the empty space where the fugitives had been an instant before,  she turned her large gray eyes upon him, and said very calmly, “Thy prey hath escaped thee.”

                Wherever working or thinking was to be done for the advancement of our righteous cause, there was Thankful Southwick, ever ready with wise counsel and energetic action.  She and her excellent husband were among the very first to sustain Garrison in his unequal contest with the strong Goliath of slavery.  At that time they were in affluent circumstances, and their money was poured freely for the unpopular cause, which had as yet found no adherents among the rich.  Their commodious and every-way comfortable house was a caravansary for fugitive slaves and for anti-slavery pilgrims from all parts of the country. At the anniversary meetings, when most of the city abolitionists were anxious to have for their guests Friend Whittier, or Angelina Grimke, or Theodore Weld, or Hon. Mr. Birney, or George Thompson, or some other lions of the cause, Joseph and Thankful Southwick were quietly looking about for such anti-slavery brothers and sisters as were too little known to be likely to receive invitations.  And through all their long and honorable lives this worthy couple retained the same characteristics. Always kindly and unpretending, clear sighted to perceive the right, and faithful in following it, wheresoever it might lead. They were upright in all their dealings with the world, tender and true in the relations of private life, and the memory they have left is a benediction. – Lydia Maria Child, in Anti-Slavery Standard [repeated in other newspapers across New England and the United States]

The Southwicks lived originally in North Vassalboro, Maine, but removed to South Danvers (now Peabody, Massachusetts) in 1834.  They were very active with the Anti-Slavery movement and eventually removed again, in 1835 to High Street in Boston for the next two years.

Abigail Southwick (1819 – 1904), their eldest daughter, attended the convention of antislavery women in 1838 and was a delegate to the London convention in 1840.  She married John Hubbard Stephenson.

Their middle daughter, Sarah Hussey Southwick (1821 – 1896) was the treasurer of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1842, when her mother was president. She was only thirteen years old in 1834 when she moved to South Danvers and attended the first Anti-Slavery event in Boston with her father and sisters.  You can read a very interesting chapter about Sarah's life in the book Old Anti-Slavery Days: Proceedings of the Commemorative Meeting held by the Danvers Historical Society at the Town Hall, Danvers, April 26, 1893 , pages 134 – 140 (available to read online at Google Books).

The Southwick Genealogy:

Generation 1: Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra Burnell. Immigrant ancestors to Salem, Massachusetts, arrested for being Quaker and exiled to Shelter Island in 1659 where they died of exposure.  My 9^th great grandparents.

Generation 2: Daniel Southwick, son of immigrants Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra Burnell,  born 1637 in Salem, died about 1718; married about 1663 to Esther Boyce.  He was the brother to my 8^th great grandfather, John Southwick (1625 – 1672).

Generation 3: Lawrence Southwick, (my first cousin 7 generations removed)  son of Daniel Southwick and Esther Boyce, born 1664 and died 1718 in Northampton, New Jersey; married on 24 June 1704 in Salem to Tamosen Buffum.  She was also my first cousin 8 generations removed, since I descend from her grandparents, Robert Buffum (1590 – 1669) and Tamosen Ward (1606 – 1688). 

Generation 4:  Joseph Southwick, son of Lawrence Southwick and Tamosen Buffum, born in 1716 in Salem, Massachusetts; died 1791 in Peabody, Massachusetts; married Bethia Callum, who died 1803 in Peabody, Massachusetts.

Generation 5: Edward Southwick, son of Joseph Southwick and Bethia Callum, born on 1 March 1757, died 23 January 1836; married Abigail Rowell.   She was the daughter of Jacob Rowell and Anna Buxton, born on 14 June 1764 in Amesbury, Massachusetts, and died 10 February 1856.

Generation 6: Joseph Southwick, son of Edward Southwick and Abigail Rowell, born on 11 September 1791, died on 10 May 1866; married to Thankful Hussey, the daughter of Samuel Fothergill Hussey and Thankful Purington.   Joseph Southwick is my 4^th cousin, 5 generations removed.   Three children:

1. Abigail , born 17 September, 1819

2. Sarah Hussey, born 3 March 1821

3. Anna R., born 6 April 1823

For the truly curious:

The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison:  Let the oppressed go free, 1861 – 1867, by William Lloyd Garrison, 1979,  (available to read online at Google Books)

https://archive.org/details/lettertomydearga00john_60  The1867 Letter from Oliver Johnson to William Lloyd Garrison, wishing Garrison a “happy and prosperous journey” to Europe, and expresses his shock at the sudden death of Thankful Southwick.

The Genealogy of the Descendants of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick of Salem, by James Moore Caller and Maria A. Ober,  (available to read online at Google Books)

My relationship to Thankful Hussey, wife of Joseph Southwick:

Generation 1.  Rev. Stephen Batchelder  (1561 – 1656)  (my 11^th great grandfather)

Generation  2.  Theodate Batchelder m. Christopher Hussey (I descend from two of her siblings – Nathananiel Batchelder (1590 – 1630) and Ann Batchelder Sanborn (b. 1601)       

Generation 3.  Stephen Hussey m. Martha Bunker

Generation 4.  Batchelder Hussey m. Abigail Hall

Generation 5.  Sylvanus Hussey m. Elisabeth Varney (daughter of Joseph Varney and Abigail Robinson, and granddaughter of William Varney (1599 – 1654) and Bridge Deverell, my 10^th great grandparents)

Generation 6.  Samuel Fothergill Hussey m. Thankful Purington

Generation 7.  Thankful Hussey m. Joseph Southwick  (She is my 4^th cousin, 5 generations removed three different ways! )

-----------------------------------

The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/02/joseph-southwick-abolitionist.html

Copyright © 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Abolitionists and Doctors, Husband and Wife, Esther and John Hawks of Manchester, New Hampshire

This tombstone was photographed at Pine Grove Cemetery, Manchester, New Hampshire

ESTHER HILL HAWKS, M.D.

1833 - 1906

ARMY NURSE, ASST. SURGEON, TEACHER

OF FREEDMEN, PHYSICIAN.

HER FAVORITE MOTTO

"ON THE PROPER TRAINING OF THE CHILDREN

RESTS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD."

JOHN M. HAWKS, M.D.

1826 - 1910

ASST. SURGEON 22ND AND SURGEON

21ST U.S. COLORED TROOPS

HAWKS

Esther Hill, the daughter of Permenas Hill and Jane Kimball,  married Dr. John Milton Hawks, son of Colburn Hawks and Clarissa Brown,  5 October 1854 in Manchester, New Hampshire.  During their honeymoon in Florida, they were both abolitionists, she wanted to become a doctor to help the black people in the south.  Esther began to study her husband's medical books in order to attend medical school at the New England Medical College for Women.  In 1857 she was one of the first woman doctors in the U.S.

During the Civil War Hilton Head Island off South Carolina was occupied by the North it became a haven for freed black slaves.  NH native and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase sent a envoys to oversee the construction of new towns and services for the freedmen.  Plans were set in place for education, housing, employment and hospitals.  Dr. John Hawks joined the U.S. Colored Troops to care for the freed slaves at Hospital #10 and his wife, wanted to come as a nurse, since female doctors were not allowed.  Her application as a nurse was also rejected so she came as a teacher. 

Esther did serve as director of the hospital in her husband's absence during the war because replacement surgeons were not sent.  When the valiant men of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry lost their attempt to take Fort Wagner (as seen in the 1989 movie Glory), the wounded were sent to hospital #10 and healed by the Drs. Hawks.  From her diary "The only thing that sustained us was the patient endurance of those stricken heroes lying before us, with their ghastly wounds, cheerful and courageous."

Esther Hawks spent the rest of the war educating Black soldiers and their wives and children. After the war the freedmen and the Hawks settled in Port Orange, Florida as homesteaders in their own right.  Dr. Esther Hawks was a teacher in the first integrated school at Port Orange until it was burned by protesters in January 1869.  They removed back North to Lynn, Massachusetts and she took up a medical practice again. She died in Lynn and was buried here at Pine Grove in Manchester, New Hampshire, her birthplace. Dr. John Hawks died in Hawks Park, now Edgewater, Florida and was buried there.  His name is on his wife's tombstone, as a cenotaph memorial. 

For more information:

Civil War Women website http://civilwarwomenblog.com/esther-hill-hawks-3/ 

Wikipedia John Milton Hawkes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton_Hawks  

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Abolitionists and Doctors, Husband and Wife, Esther and John Hawks of Manchester, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 17, 2014,  ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/06/tombstone-tuesday-abolitionists-and.html: accessed [access date]). 

Martin Luther King in Boston

Boston University's Marsh Chapel
and the sculpture "Free at Last" dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Boston in 1951 to attend Boston University graduate school, earning a Ph. D. in theology in 1955.   Howard Thurman’s sermon’s at the Marsh Chapel, including his accounts of visiting Gandi taught King about nonviolent protest.  Dr. Thurman was the first black dean of a predominantly white American university.   Today the BU library houses King’s personal papers.

My Dad was at Boston University at the same time as Dr. King.  He matriculated in 1952 and graduated in 1957.  Dad took many classes in theology, but he was a Government major.  I don’t know if he ever crossed paths with Dr. King, or if he would have even known him in those years before he was famous.  But Dad always liked to mention the fact that they went to the same school at the same time.

Dr. King loved Boston after choosing to study here because of the diversity in the community.  It was in Boston that he met his wife, Coretta Scott, who was a student at the New England Conservatory.  He returned to Boston in 1965 to address a joint session of the Massachusetts legislature, and on the following day he led a freedom march from the South End to the Boston Common where he spoke to 22,000 people in the rain.

Although we tend to think of Dr. King fighting for justice in the South, he returned to Boston and the North many times to address injustices all over the United States.  On 11 September 1964, while donating his papers to BU, he said:

“This struggle, while we are based in the South, is a national struggle and it requires concern of people all over the nation… Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.  The problem is very serious in the North.  Racial injustice does exist in the North in a very serious way.”

The night of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, there was violent unrest in the city.  But the following night, although many US cities had continuing violence and riots, the rock star James Brown kept the peace in Boston.  He had been scheduled to appear in the Boston Garden, but agreed with Mayor Kevin White to have his concert broadcast live on WGBH TV.  It was hoped that this would keep Bostonians in front of their TVs at home instead of protesting on the streets- and it worked.

Today, there are lasting signs of Dr. King’s legacy in Boston - Martin Luther King Boulevard in Roxbury, The MLK Towers housing project, the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast, scholarships, schools, sculptures and community programs all bear his name and continue his memory.

Click at this link to read a fragment of Martin Luther King’s essay on his application to the Boston University Graduate School

 http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_500000_013/

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Archive at the Boston University Gotlieb Archival Research Center http://www.bu.edu/dbin/mlkjr/

The 44^th Annual Boston MLK Memorial Breakfast http://www.mlkbreakfastboston.org/2014/

Boston’s MLK Day of Service and Learning  “Make it a day on, not a day off!”

http://www.cmsboston.org/Martin-Luther-King-Day-2014.html

http://www.bostoncares.org/mlk_day

“The Night James Brown Saved Boston”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1MXrl_9AlY  and also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsHZakDPDvo, etc.

James Brown Live at Boston Garden 1968 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ-8P-mMyFg (at about 1:29:30 you can see where James Brown and the police clash, and he calms the crowd)

Video of citizens gathering at a peaceful rally in Boston following Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1968 assassination http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/bln12.soc.civil.mlkresponse/reaction-to-the-assassination-of-martin-luther-king-jr-1968/

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Martin Luther King in Boston", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 20, 2014, (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/01/martin-luther-king-in-boston.html: accessed [access date]). 

A 1779 Slave Petition finally passes in the New Hampshire Legislature, 233 years late

Prince Whipple, an enslaved officer in the Continental Army, and 19 other enslaved men from New Hampshire drew up a petition in 1779.  They wanted to be emancipated.  The New Hampshire legislature tabled the petition, saying that it wasn't a good time to vote (it was the middle of the Revolutionary War).  They effectively ignored the black men’s document.   Five of the men and Prince Whipple were eventually freed, and the other 14 died as slaves.

Thirty years ago historian Valerie Cunningham found the petition on the front page of the New Hampshire Gazette and wrote about it in her book Black Portsmouth.   To raise awareness for the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail and the fundraising effort to erect a memorial on the site of the African Burying Ground, the committee asked Senator Martha Fuller Clark to revive the petition.  She introduced it to the Senate in January 2013. 

Now 233 years later, New Hampshire is changing history.  In March 2013 the New Hampshire Senate unanimously passed the bill.  Today, on 24 April 2013 the New Hampshire House voted on the bill to free the 14 slaves.  The vote passed (344 yeas and 2 nays, then after a revote it was unanimous).

Although only about 1% of New Hampshire’s population is of African American descent, this action rights a wrong that has been long overdue.  The small number of blacks in New Hampshire makes them less likely to be heard in political matters.  This vote freed those 14 enslaved men posthumously. Their fate had languished in limbo for 233 years.

To go along with the celebration, just yesterday, the National Endowment for the Arts gave a $20,000 grant to the African Burying Ground Memorial Park.  This brings the total raised to $720,000.  The African Burying Ground Committee is looking to raise $1.2 million.  This recognition from the NEA helps to bring the project into the national spotlight.

Judy G. Russell, the “Legal Genealogist” asked me to photograph this petition at the New Hampshire State Archives, for one of her lectures at the National Genealogy Society conference.  If you are attending the conference in Las Vegas, Nevada 8 – 11 May 2013, you can hear all the details from Judy, an expert lawyer and genealogist (a terrific combination).  My photographs were donated to the State Archives, and are on file at the State Archives office for anyone who would like to see a copy of the petition.  Here is page one above.

These are the names of the enslaved men who signed the petition. Do you recognize any of these surnames from your New Hampshire family tree?

Nero Brewster

Will Clarkson

Garrett Colton

Peter Frost

Zebulon Gardner

Cesar Gerrish

Seneca Hall

Cipio Hubbard

Winsor Moffat

Cato Newmarch

Jack Odiorne

Romeo Rindge

Pharaoh Rogers

Quam Sherburne

Pharaoh Shores

Kittindge Tuckerman

Cato Warner

Peter Warner

Samuel Wentworth

Prince Whipple (owned by William Whipple, signer of the Declaration of Independence)

For the truly curious:

Click this link to see the 1779 Freedom Petition as published in the New Hampshire Gazette, 15 July 1780:  http://www.trinityhistory.org/AmH/SlavesNH1779.pdf

Black Portsmouth by Mark J. Sammons and Valerie Cunningham, University of New Hampshire Prss, Published by University Press of New England, Lebanon, NH, 2004

Seacoastonline announces the vote today at this link:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20130424-NEWS-130429868

The Portsmouth African Burying Ground http://www.africanburyinggroundnh.org/

The Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail http://pbhtrail.org/web/

The New Hampshire State Archives  http://sos.nh.gov/arch_rec_mgmt.aspx

A lesson plan from the New Hampshire Historical Society about the 1779 Slave Petition:

http://www.nhhistory.org/edu/support/nhsources/slavepetitionlesson.pdf

The NGS 2013 Family History Conference http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/conference_info

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "A 1779 Slave Petition finally passes in the New Hampshire Legislature, 233 years late", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 24, 2013, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-1779-slave-petition-finally-passes-in.html: accessed [access date]). 

Black History Month ~ Frederick Douglass in New Hampshire, 1842

The historic Old Meeting House in Pittsfield,
now the town Senior Center

In the 1840s not all of New England espoused Abolitionist beliefs, or embraced the idea that the African slaves were their brothers.  Most of New Hampshire did not follow the liberal beliefs found in Salem or Boston.  It was rural.  Most residents had never seen a black person. Remember, at this time the only president from New Hampshire was in office, and Franklin Pierce was infamous for signing the Fugitive Slave Act, and for being a copperhead.

In 1842 Frederick Douglass was sent by the Massachusetts Anti Slavery Society to speak at the church in tiny Pittsfield, New Hampshire. He was only 25 years old, recently freed from slavery.  He had to ride on the roof of the stage coach because “no colored person could be allowed inside” as he stated in his autobiography.  He was not met with open arms.  The Hilles family, who was asked to board him, subscribed to the Liberator.  They felt obliged to put him up but not to treat him well.  Douglass wrote that Mr. Hilles suffered from “colorphobia”.

One year earlier in Northfield, New Hampshire a pastor named George Storrs prayed at his pulpit for abolition.  He was arrested on a complaint of disturbing the peace!  This made national headlines.  He was arrested a second time in Pittsfield by the authority of a writ signed by the Democratic US Representative who lived in town.  The Reverend Storrs was sentenced to three months hard labor. Frederick Douglass knew he was facing a tough audience.

During Frederick Douglass’s lecture, the audience was polite, but did not applaud. During the lunch break no one invited him home, and the only tavern in town asked him to leave.  Douglass sat on a stone wall by the church in the rain to wait until the evening session of his lecture.  Finally, a gentleman passing by took pity and invited him to his home.  This was the US Representative Moses Norris, well known pro-slavery advocate who had signed the writ for Reverend George Storrs arrest!

Frederick Douglas sat on the wall or on one
of the tombstones here at the Meeting House cemetery

At the Norris home, the children ran screaming from the house when they saw a black man enter the door.  Mrs. Norris first acted cold, but then opened her heart when she saw Douglass was shivering and hungry.  By the end of the meal, Douglass quoted “from that moment I could see that her prejudices were more than half gone, and that I more than half welcome at the fireside of this Democratic Senator.  I spoke again in the evening and at the close of the meeting there was quite a contest between Mrs. Norris and Mrs. Hilles, as to which I should go home with.”

Hearts were turned in little Pittsfield, New Hampshire.  His evening lecture was a huge success and Douglass went on to become a famous speaker all over the north.  Moses Norris went on to become a US senator, succeeding Franklin Pierce. In this part of New England there are still few black residents, and few black tourists.  But Pittsfield has honored the stone wall, where a discouraged Frederick Douglas sat shivering, as part of their heritage trail with this a marker:

Transcription of the historical marker at Pittsfield, New Hampshire

1842 - Frederick Douglass' Visit
On one of these gravestones sat the black abolitionist Frederick Douglass in a cold, drizzling rain after giving an anti-slavery speech in the Old Meeting House. Having been refused service at a nearby hotel, he was hungry and without shelter. Pro-slavery Senator Moses Norris, Jr., in an act of humanitarian kindness, invited the disconsolate stranger into his house for the evening. Thereafter, Mr. Douglass was treated with great respect.

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From The Nation’s Problem by Frederick Douglass, 1889

“There is still a great deal of prejudice, even in the North, against colored people; but he has found out that the only way to cure it, is to treat them kindly. This he proved by the fact that at Pittsfield, New Hampshire, forty-eight years before, Mrs. Norris had been helped, by doing him a kindness, to shake off her prejudice against his color and his views so thoroughly as to be the first to shake hands with him after his lecture.”

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At Hampton, New Hampshire John Greenleaf Whittier wrote this tongue-in-cheek poem in honor of the election of 1846, as a coded letter from Franklin Pierce to Moses Norris.  It mentions the anti-slavery Free Will Baptists of New Hampshire, and abolitionist John P. Hale, who was elected senator as a dissident Democrat.

“ ‘Tis over, Moses!  All is lost!

I hear the bells-a-ringing;

Of Pharoah and his Red Sea host

I hear the Free Wills singing.

We’re routed, Moses, horse and foot,

If there be truth in figures,

With Federal Whigs in hot pursuit,

And Hale and all the ‘niggers’…

The ides of June! Woe the day

When, turning all things over,

The traitor Hale shall make his hay

From Democratic clover!

Let Hale exult and Wilson scoff,

To see us southward scamper;

The slave, we know, are “better off

Than laborers in New Hampshire!”

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For more information:

The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass, Kessinger Publishing, 2004,  see pages 530 – 534 for the description of his days in Pittsfield, New Hampshire.

A post at SeacoastNH.com by historian J. Dennis Robinson, his primary source was the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail Resource Book by Valerie Cunningham and Mark Sammons, http://seacoastnh.com/arts/please021001.html

The Pittsfield, New Hampshire Heritage Trail website, and this link takes you to the page describing Douglass’s lecture at the Old Meeting House

 http://www.pittsfield-nh.com/publicinfo/parkstrails/historical_walking_trail_2.htm

The map and trail brochure can be printed out for visitors.

Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Freedom, by Jonathan H. Earle,  University of North Carolina Press, 2003, pages 98 -99 for Whittier’s poem about Norris and Storrs.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Black History Month ~ Frederick Douglass in New Hampshire, 1842", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 9, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-month-frederick-douglass.html: accessed [access date]).