Westport’s Revolutionary War Veterans of Color by Richard Gifford

Local historian Richard Gifford, has focused his powers of deduction supported by an encyclopedic familiarity with this region’s history, to identify local African American and Native American individuals who served in the Revolutionary War. He has identified veterans not just by direct local residency, but by family connections (spouses, siblings, children) and ancestral ties to the Acoaxet tribal lands, capturing the fluid movement of marginalized communities across town lines of Westport, Dartmouth, Tiverton, and Little Compton. This project is ongoing.

Sources include:

• Colored Patriots of the American Revolution by William Cooper Nell (1851).
• Peleg Burroughs’s Journal (historical Quaker journal detailing local residents).
• If Jane Should Want to Be Sold by Marjory O’Toole.
• Wampanoag Families of Martha’s Vineyard by Jerome D. Segal and R. Andrew Pierce.
• Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War.                                                                                                       

Westport was connected to a number of Revolutionary War veterans of color. These fall into several categories who I will include: first, all who lived in Westport at any point in their lives; second, all veterans who had a wife, parent, sibling, child, grandchild, brother-in-law or sister-in-law who resided in Westport at any time; third, all Revolutionary War veterans whose Native-American ancestors, or those of their wives, likely lived in Acoaxet.

Category 1 (residence): Richard Amos, Exeter Dick, Solomon Dick?, Job Hart, London Hicks?, Peter Quaniwell, London Richmond, Moses Suckonash

Category 2 (residence of a relative): Benjamin Abel (sister), Cain Abel (sister), Jacob Amos (brother), Thomas Amos (son), Abraham Cook (grandson), Boston Durfee (brothers-in-law), James Easton (daughter, brother), Daniel Page (brother-in-law), James Page (brother-in-law). Pompey Peckham (wife), Pardon Robbins (wife), Aaron Suckonash (brother)

Category 3 (likely Acoaxet origins): Alderman Crank, Peleg Crank, Abram Demos, Simons Simon, Solomon Simon, Boston Wilbour (through wife).

Benjamin Abel (d.1777) was “of Dartmouth” when he was enlisted in the company of Capt. Amasa Soper in Col. Marshall’s regiment from 12/20/1776 to 2/10/1777, when they marched to Bennington (VT). He also served in the Major’s Company, same regiment and appears in Continental Army pay accounts from 1/1/1777  to 12/30/1777, when he is recorded as having died. It would seem reasonable, given their original destination, and span of service, that this unit participated in the battles of Bennington and/or Saratoga.

Benjamin Abel was likely the brother of Paul Cuffe’s wife Alice (Abel) (Pequit) Cuffe, as she is of an appropriate age and is the only Abel to appear in Dartmouth VR. The Abel family seems to have Sakonnet/Acoaxet tribal origins.       

Cain Abel (ca1743-1782). At the time of his enlistment on 6/15/1781 he was of Dartmouth, 38 years old, black complexion, conducted to Springfield by Prince Jenne to Col. Shepard’s regiment. He is listed in muster rolls in Capt. Jeremiah Miller’s company, Col. Edward Vose’s (1^st Massachusetts) Regiment, June until November 1781 at Philipsburg (i.e. Sleepy Hollow, Westchester Co., NY).

In a separate Mass SSAR entry under the name “Cain Able” he is listed in the same company in the muster rolls for January and February 1882, when he is recorded as having died on February 12, 1782. These last muster rolls were recorded at an encampment at “York Huts.” (probably referring to the heights along the Hudson River, where the soldiers were frequently housed in huts).

Probably the brother of Benjamin, Alice Cuffe who was about 10 years younger (her first marriage was in 1772). We know from other sources that Alice was the daughter of Nehemiah [Jr?] and Naomi (Quance) Abel; she would have grown up between Division and Horseneck Roads in Dartmouth. Given the complete absence, excepting the one mention of Alice, of any Abel in Dartmouth VR, it would seem likely that in the late 1700s it was down to one family,

with Cain and Benjamin being the brothers of Alice. 

Jacob Amos

Richard Amos

Thomas Amos

Abraham Cook served in the Tiverton company of Capt. Christopher Manchester which served in 1776 at Middletown and where he is listed in the company roster as on the “Black Men.” His occupation was mariner (the same occupation pursued by his son and grandson). He was the father of Benjamin Cook of Dartmouth, who apparently died while employed by Paul Cuffe. Benjamin’s son Capt. Pardon Cook lived on Drift Road in Westport and had several successful whaling voyages originating from Westport Point. He married Paul Cuffe’s daughter Alice, and their daughter Catherine (Cook) Nicholson was the last Cuffe descendant to own the site of Paul Cuffe’s house and boatyard. Catherine’s niece Carrie Taylor was the last Paul Cuffe descendant to live in Westport,  and her great-grandson Bob (“Wandering Buffalo”) Kelly is the reigning chief of the Pocasset tribe of the Wampanoag Nation, a position once occupied by Bob’s grandfather.

Alderman Crank

Peleg Crank

Abram Demos was one of the “Black Men” serving in the company of Capt. Christopher Manchester’s  Tiverton RI militia regiment at Middletown in 1776. Other people appearing in contemporary records under the name Demas, Demos or Demus (e.g. 1762 map of Watuppa Reservation showing lot assignments and Tiverton VR) are suggestive of a descent from Nicodemus, an Indian land owner in Acoaxet in the early 1700s.

Exeter Dick (d.ca1791?) was listed in 1790 census for Westport next to REVOLUTIONARY WAR veterans London Richmond and Job Hart. His wife was probably Susannah (David) (Robbins?) (Dick) Hull, who married Bristol Hull in Westport in 1792 and appears in the Westport census for 1800. Susannah lived next to her niece, Charlotte White, as Bristol Hull had puchased 2 acres of land from Thomas Tripp on the west side of the 10 acre farm owned by Zip White. Westport VR has Susannah (under the intentions) as  “Susannah David Dick, Indian woman” when she married Bristol Hull (“Negro man of Newport’).

In the 1810 census for Westport Zilpha Dick appears next to London Richmond, she perhaps being a daughter of Exeter Dick, who must have lived at or very near the same location.

Exeter Dick served in a predominantly Westport militia company commanded by Capt. William Hicks. Exeter was probably the brother of Solomon Dick (age 17, black complexion and “of Dartmouth” when enlisted in a MA regiment assigned for Continental Army service in 1780).

Exeter and Solomon were likely the brothers of Hester Dick, who married Solomon White in Dartmouth in 1799, the latter likely the brother of Charlotte White, whose uncle and maternal grandfather, who both appear in Tiverton records, were named Solomon David.

Solomon Dick (b.ca1763), see entry for Exeter Dick; no additional VR found.

Boston Durfee, a brother-in-law of Westport’s Capt. Paul Cuffe, served in the (Freetown) company of Capt. Henry Brightman, Col. Livingston’s regiment, for one month in in June/July 1779 at Freetown and Rhode Island. In July-September 1779 he served in Capt. Elsbree’s (Freetown) company, same regiment and assignment. He served for a further 15 days in September 1779, same company and mission. Boston Durfee appears in the 1777 Rhode Island military census for Tiverton. In 1788 he married at Freetown Sarah Slocum, who was the widow of Mingo Dice, the latter being perhaps the first Cape Verdean to live in this area (he was called “Partagee” in that record, and I suspect that his name is the town clerk’s mangling of the name Domingo Dias). Sarah’s second marriage is also recorded in Dartmouth, where she is listed as Sarah Slocum alias Dice, and in the intentions as Sarah Slocum alias Dick. Boston Durfee was the owner of land immediately abutting the south side of Watuppa Reservation. In the 1790s he would have lived in close proximity to his brother-in-law David Cuffe and Revolutionary War veterans of color Daniel Page, Peleg Crank, Thomas Amos and Jacob Amos, the first three likely living within the reservation itself and the last two being landowners on the north side of Watuppa Reservation, where the Amoses were neighbors of Revolutionary War veteran John Gifford, my 4^th great-grandfather.  Boston and Sarah Durfee were likely the parents of Charles Durfee, the first husband of New Bedford’s Polly Johnson, i.e. Mary (Mingo)(Durfee)(Page) Johnson.

James Easton was profiled extensively in William Cooper Nell’s Colored Patriots of the American Revolution (1851), a book which contains an introduction by Harriet Beecher Stowe. James was the son of Caesar & Mercy (Gunway) Easton, who were married in Little Compton. James Easton’s moment of fame came in the Patriot retreat from Ft. Ticonderoga during the early stages of the Saratoga campaign. Fearing being surrounded by the British, the American commander decided to retreat and join up with larger American forces which were gathering to the south. A force of six men, drawn by lot, were left behind with one cannon, directed to fire it when the British approached so that the Redcoats would think the fort still was occupied. For refreshment (or consolation) the unfortunate six, who faced almost certain capture or death, were left with a cask of Madeira wine. The six men partook of the wine while awaiting the British approach, so much so that they fell into deep slumber, only to awaken at the point of British bayonets, the cannon unfired. Easton disappears from the records for the next few years, during which time he was presumably held in British captivity. Easton ran a forge in Bridgewater and became quite successful, providing the iron work for the Boston Marine Railway and Boston’s Tremont Street Theater. His daughter Mary Easton married John Wainer, who are the ancestors of most of the area’s Wainer descendants of the modern day. James’s brother Moses Easton was a “forgeman, of Westport” when he purchased property in Dartmouth in the 1790s, likely employed at the newly opened Rotch forge on Forge Road (now Westport Factory #2, which contains within it the original granite-walled Rotch forge building). Moses’s grandson Rev. Peter Easton, who founded the Talcott Street Congregational Church, the first African-American church in Hartford, CT married Paul Cuffe’s daughter Rhoda and is buried at Beech Grove.

Job Hart, son-in-law of Revolutionary War veteran London Richmond, in 1790 census next to Revolutionary War veterans London Richmond and Exeter Dick. Job Hart was of Tiverton when he served in Col. Topham’s RI regiment.

London Hicks served as one of the “Black Men” in Capt. Christopher Manchester’s Tiverton company while stationed at Middletown in 1776. He was born in Tiverton, per that record, but given that “Barnibas” (Barney) Hicks, b. Dartmouth, mariner was in the same company it creates some inference that London Hicks may have been a former slave of the Hicks family of Westport.

Pompey Peckham

Peter Quoniwell likely lived in Westport, as he served in the predominantly Westport company of Capt. Benjamin Willcox under the name Peter “Quannamay” in the September 1777 “secret expedition to Rhode Island” in which many Westporters served.

Son Joseph Quoniwell (ca1763-1834), under the names Joseph Quanawing (Dartmouth VR) and Joseph Quanawin (intentions) married Hannah Peckham, daughter of Revolutionary War veteran London Richmond and widow of Revolutionary War veteran Pompey Peckham, in 1788.

Joseph’s son Peter Quoniwell II (ca1790-1814) was the husband of Hannah White, who was the daughter of Joseph White (brother of Charlotte) and Mary (Amos)(White) Wainer, the last wife of Michael Wainer. The younger Peter had land transactions with the freed slave Glasgow Cory, who lived on Adamsville Road, and Peter II died in Dartmoor Prison in England, where he was held captive during the War of 1812.

The Revolutionary War veteran Peter married Martha Job in Tiverton, she being an Indian from a Vineyard family. See Segal & Pierce, Wampanoag Families of MV which provides an extensive chronicle for this family .

London Richmond (d.1816) lived and died in Westport, in Westport census 1790-1810, of Westport when his will was made and probated. He owned a 2-acre farm located east of Main Rd close to the Route 88 corridor on the WLCT/Dunham’s Brook Preserve. His will left legacies to William and Paul Cuffe Jr., with the real estate devised to Paul Wainer.  London Richmond was the father-in-law of Revolutionary War veterans Job Hart and Pompey Peckham.  London’s daughter Deborah married the son of Revolutionary War veteran Aaron Suckanash. London served in 2^nd Bristol County Regiment but in a company from Dighton, where his likely owner or former owner was living at the time. London appears to have married the same woman twice in records decades apart in Dartmouth VR, suggesting that he was still enslaved at the time of his first marriage and that there was some question, either in his mind or that of others, as to the validity of the original.

Simons Simon served in Capt. Robert Earl’s (Dartmouth) company, Col. Josiah Whitney’s regiment, from 8/26/1778 to 9/10/1778 at Rhode Island. Although Capt. Earl was from Westport, I am not sure if this particular company was composed of mostly Westporters. In any event, given the Watuppa location of Simon Simons (his daughter, the wife of Peleg Crank above, sold land on the south side of the Reservation and in the deed claimed it had been purchased by her father, Simon Simons, though no such transaction appears in the earlier indices) it is likely he is descended from the Simon family of Acoaxet.

Solomon Simon served in Capt. Seth Talbot’s company, Col. John Hathaway’s (2^nd Bristol County) militia regiment from April to May 1779 for 30 days service at Rhode Island. 

Unknown relationship to Simon Simons, but it seems likely that both are descended from the Simon family of Acoaxet.

Aaron Suckonash, likely the brother of Revolutionary War veteran Moses Suckonash. Aside from widely variant spellings (Psuckquanush, Soconish, etc), the surname is also sometimes rendered as “Mouth” (see Peleg Burroughs’ Journal). He served in Capt. Christopher Manchester’s militia company at same time as Westport Revolutionary War veterans “Barnibas” [Barney] Hicks, William Earl, Thomas “Britman” [Thomas Brightman III] and “Umpty” [Humphrey] Potter, these noted to have been born in Dartmouth (designation of place of birth was an unusual but fortuitous feature of this particular roster), along with several Westport-connected veterans of color. 

Aaron Suckonash’s son Simon Suckonash (d. before 1797) married Deborah Richmond, daughter of Revolutionary War veteran London Richmond of Westport. Simon’s son Aaron Suckanash II was bound out (indentured)  by LC Town Council in 1797 to Revolutionary War veteran Lt. Robert Earl of Westport. (O’Toole), whose land abutted the London Richmond farm to the north. Aaron Suckanash II ran away in 1800, as Robert Earl posted an advertisement offering a $1 reward for his return. In the ad he is described as “an indented apprentice named Aaron Suconish, an Indian boy, aged about twenty years, about 5 feet 8 inches high. Had on when he went away a long blue pea jacket lined with green baize, an olive colored waistcoat, and striped Holland trowsers. All persons are forbid harbouring or employing said boy. . .” (O’Toole). 

Boston Wilbour (estate probated in LC  1797, probably died while in Continental Army service ca1782). Married at Dartmouth 1772, as “Boston, negro man of John Wilber of Little Compton” to Susannah Jeffrey, a woman with Acoaxet origins, the likely daughter of Joseph & Amy (Hinckley) Jeffrey, who were married at Acoaxet ca1750 by the Indian minister John Simon (Andrew Pierce materials; 1813 deposition testimony by “Eliza” White, mother of Charlotte). Amy’s father (or grandfather) Daniel Hinckley was a prior Indian minister at Acoaxet (Rawson & Danforth 1698).

It is unlikely that Boston Wilbour was the slave of Westport Revolutionary War veteran John Wilbour of Westport Point, as LC records indicate he was the slave of John Wilbor “Jr.”, which would not apply to the Westport John Wilbour, whose father was named Samuel. (See O’Toole, If Jane Should Want to Be Sold for a more extensive discussion of the life of Boston Wilbour).

Please note that this research is ongoing. Contact Westport Historical Society with corrections and  additional information.