Jeffrey Hartwell (Freeman)

Quick Facts

Significance:

Patriot of Color at the Battle of Bunker Hill

Place of Birth:

Bedford, Massachusetts(?)

Date of Birth:

Circa 1751

Place of Death:

Dracut, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

July 22, 1816

Place of Burial:

Lowell, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Hamblett Cemetery

The following is from the 2004 National Park Service study Patriots of Color researched and prepared by George Quintal:

Jeffrey, born circa 1751, was the slave of Joseph Fitch of Bedford (MA). A bill-of-sale, dated 6 July 1756, records the transfer of Fitch’s ownership to Joseph Hartwell, also of Bedford:

Know all men by these presents that I, Joseph Fitch of Bedford in the County of Middlesex, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, gentleman for and in consideration of the sum of £24 lawful money of New England, done, in hand paid at and before the sealing and delivery of these presents, by Joseph Hartwell of Bedford, above said yeoman, the receipt I do hereby acknowledge, have bargained and sold and by these presents do bargain and sell unto the said Joseph Hartwell a negro boy about 5 years old, called Jeffru, now living at the said Joseph Hartwells, to have and to hold the said negro boy by these presents bargained and sold unto the said Joseph Hartwell, his executors, administrators and assigns forever, and I the said Joseph Fitch for myself etc do warrant the above said Negro boy unto the said Joseph Hartwell, his heirs etc against me the said Joseph Fitch my heirs etc, all and every other person and persons whatsoever, shall and will warrant and defend by these presents of which negro boy I, the said Joseph Fitch have put the said Joseph Hartwell in full possession by delivering said negro at the sealing hereof unto the said Joseph Hartwell.¹

There is no record of 1775 service for Jeffrey Hartwell, as he came to be known, but the obituary of his daughter Frances gives us insight into that service:

...Her father, Jeffrey Hartwell, was in the battle of Bunker Hill, having gone on a three-months term as a substitute for his master, as he called him. Returning home, his master instead of allowing him his pay, took the money away and put it in his own pocket, upon which Jeffrey went off and enlisted until the close of the war...²

He did indeed enlist on 29 September 1777 in Capt. Edward Framer’s company, in Col. Jonathan Reed’s regiment. This unit marched to reinforce the Northern Army and is believed to have been at Saratoga. His discharge was dated 8 November 1777.

On 16 June 1778 he reenlisted, joining Lieut. John Flint’s company, in Col Thomas Poor’s regiment. This unit marched to White Plains to fortify the passes of the Hudson (then called North) River at the time that Gen. Washington was attacking the British at Monmouth (NJ). From June to August 1778, he was in Capt. Asa Lawrence’s company at Fort Clinton (NY). From September to December 1778, he was in the same company and regiment stationed at West Point (NY).³ By 1779, he was free and residing in Dracut as is evidenced by this journal entry:

4 March 1779 One Stephen Hartwell here to advise relating to a Neagro named Jeffrey Hartwell, Spent considerable time with him at his request relating to said Neagro’s freedom. He would have given me a fee. I refused to take one (in a Neagro cause).⁴

More information is obtained from a Dracut town record:

John Varnum notified the town that he had received a laborer, a negro, who calls himself Jeffrey Freeman about twenty eight years old from Joseph Hartwell in Bedford s^d Jeffery appears to be an able bodied laboring man and says he expects to earn his living at husbandry work.⁵

The only artifacts known to exist, of any one of the soldiers in this study, are three pewter plates once owned by Jeffrey Hartwell and now in the collection of The Bostonian Society.⁶

Jeffrey Hartwell died in Dracut on 22 July 1816, at the age of 75.⁷ He is buried in Hamblett (formerly called Garrison House) Cemetery on Jordan Avenue in Lowell. The family plot also contains the graves of his wife, two of his sons and his two daughters.⁸

He married Maria ___, once a slave,⁹ who ‘was born in the old Royal Exchange in Boston, and was sent when a child to Dracut. There she lived in the Varnum family, and on her marriage … received for her wedding present two acres of land on which the present homestead stands.’¹⁰ Maria ‘was employed for many years by Joseph Butterfield Varnum,’ the man who made her the bridal gift of land. This land, located at the corner of Breakneck Hill Road [now Donahue Road]¹¹ and Meadow Road [now Phineas Street],¹² was where they built a house and where [their daughters Violet and Frances] made their home in later years.¹³ Their house ‘was once burned down and rebuilt.’¹⁴ Maria died on 6 January 1839 at the age of 90.¹⁵

Jeffrey and Maria had four sons and two daughters:¹⁶

• Amaziah
  • b. ca. 1778
  • d. 30 Sep 1863
  • Bur. Hamblett Cemetery.
• son
• Violet
  • b. ca. 1784
  • Bur. Hamblett Cemetery.
• Jesse
  • b. ca. 1786
  • d. 23 Mar 1849
  • Bur. Hamblett Cemetery.
• son
• Frances
  • b. 13 Nov 1792 in Dracut
  • d. 12 Mar 1880 in Dracut, unmarried¹⁷
  • Bur. Hamblett Cemetery.

Footnotes:

1. Brown, Abram English. History of the Town of Bedford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, ...to...1891... (1891), 32.
2. Center for Lowell History, Lowell (MA); ‘Frances Hartwell’ file citing her obituary in the 27 March 1880 issue of “Vox Populi.” Many thanks to Martha Mayo for pointing this out to me. Hereinafter VOX2. NOTE: The Bedford company at the Battle of Bunker Hill was that of Capt. John Moore, in Col. John Nixon’s regiment. Jeffrey Hartwell was not listed on the August unit roll, nor was his master Joseph Hartwell. He may very well have been a waiter to one of the officers.
3. Secretary of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908) 7:393. Also 2-CD Family Tree Maker^TM set “Military Records: Revolutionary War.”
4. Coburn, Silas R. History of Dracut Massachusetts ... (1922), 332-3, referencing Varnum journal.
5. Coburn, Silas R. History of Dracut Massachusetts ... (1922), 333.
6. Object #1895.0039.001. Object file at the Bostonian Society states that the plates are each 9 1/8 inches in diameter and were the gift of George F. Smith in 1895. Thanks to Rainey Tisdale, Collections Manager, and Nancy Richard, Librarian of The Bostonian Society for their help with this research.
7. Vital Records to 1850. Births, Marriages and Deaths. Vols for most Massachusetts towns, Dracut, 281; gravestone record states d. 20 July 1816 and uses name ‘Jesse.’
8. Cemetery personally visited on 26 November 2001.
9. Center for Lowell History, Lowell (MA); ‘Frances Hartwell’ file, citing her obituary in the 20 March 1880 issue of “Vox Populi.” Many thanks to Mary Mayo for pointing this out to me. Hereinafter VOX1. VOX1 states service for Jeffrey Hartwell in the War of 1812, at which time he would have been 61 years old. This service is not supported by the evidence (name not recorded in the primary reference source: Records of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia Called out by the Governor of Massachusetts to suppress a Threatened Invasion during the War of 1812-14 (1913)). Center for Lowell History, Lowell (MA); ‘Frances Hartwell’ file citing her obituary in the 27 March 1880 issue of “Vox Populi.” was probably a correction of this error.
10. Ibid.
11. Current name of road courtesy: Arthur H. Paquin, Historian, Dracut Historical Society, per 19 November 2001 letter.
12. Ibid.
13. Coburn, Silas R. History of Dracut Massachusetts ... (1922), 333.
14. Center for Lowell History, Lowell (MA); ‘Frances Hartwell’ file, citing her obituary in the 20 March 1880 issue of “Vox Populi.”
15. Gravestone record, Hamblett Cemetery, Lowell.
16. Vital Records to 1850. Births, Marriages and Deaths. Vols for most Massachusetts Towns, Dracut, 64, 281, 282; also gravestone records.
17. Center for Lowell History, Lowell (MA); ‘Frances Hartwell’ file citing her obituary in the 27 March 1880 issue of “Vox Populi.” Frances ‘received what little education she had at the village school. She was an inveterate reader, even in her old age. Unlike her brothers and only one sister, she spent a good deal of her life in travelling. When quite young she came to Boston and lived with some of its first families. With some of them she went to St. Petersburg, Rio Janeiro, the East Indies, France and England … Her remains were placed in the cemetery, not far from her home, beside those of her father, mother, brothers, and sister. She was accustomed herself to read her Prayer Book daily, and her last words were a repetition of the evening prayer.’

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