Richard Holmes

Businessman and abolitionist Richard Holmes

Boston Globe, December 9, 1908.

Quick Facts

Significance:

Businessman, 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee

Place of Birth:

Kingston, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

November 12, 1822

Place of Death:

Boston, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

December 8, 1908

Place of Burial:

Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Forest Hills Cemetery

Boston businessman Richard Holmes served on the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee.

Born in 1822, Richard Holmes grew up in Kingston, Massachusetts. He eventually moved to Boston where he became a shoe dealer. In 1843, he married Elisabeth Peasley and began a family with her.¹

In 1850, Holmes joined the Boston Vigilance Committee. Formed in response to the Fugitive Slave Law, this group aided freedom seekers coming to and through Boston on the Underground Railroad. Although his name and address appeared on the official broadside listing members of the organization, Holmes' contributions to the Vigilance Committee, or larger Underground Railroad network, remain unknown.²

Holmes continued to work as a shoe dealer before becoming a bank president for several years. He later became a successful manufacturer and seller of carriages.³

In addition to his family and professional pursuits, Holmes involved himself in political and civic activity. He participated in local Republican politics and ran for the Massachusetts General Court. He also served as captain of the Roxbury Horse Guards, a volunteer Boston-based calvary unit established in the early 1860s.⁴

Holmes passed away in 1908. His remains are interred at Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston.⁵

If you are a descendant or researcher of Richard Holmes and can provide any further details of his work in the Boston Vigilance Committee, or larger Underground Railroad network, please e-mail us.

Footnotes

1. "Richard Holmes Dead," Boston Globe, December 9, 1908, 5; George Adams, Boston City Directory, 1850-1851, 192; Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011., Original data: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook).
2. NPS Maps geolocate Richard Holmes at the approximate location of his work in 1850 (142 Hanover Street), as stated in the following broadside. "Members of the Committee of Vigilance," broadside printed by John Wilson, 1850, Massachusetts Historical Society.
3. Year: 1870; Census Place: Boston Ward 15, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: M593_649; Page: 414B, Boston City Directory - 1869, 318; "Richard Holmes Dead," Boston Globe, December 9, 1908, 5.
4. "Republican Ticket," Boston Evening Transcript, November 7, 1859, 2; "Richard Holmes," Boston Herald, December 9, 1908, 3.
5. "Capt. Richard Holmes," Find a Grave Memorial, accessed December 2024.