Burdoo Family

The Burdoo Family

Keene, NH; Jaffrey, NH; Peterborough, NH

The Burdoo family of Lexington, MA and Reading, VT, have ties in southwest New Hampshire as early as the 1770s.  Silas Burdoo emigrated from Massachusetts first, purchasing land in Jaffrey, NH, in 1773.  Within a few years, his cousin Moses Burdoo arrived in Jaffrey to set up shop as a blacksmith.  

The cousins most likely grew up together in Lexington.  Their grandfather Philip Burdoo, an African, had married a woman of color named Ann Solomon.  They first appear in church records in 1709 in Lexington where they had their children baptized including: Philip (1709), Eunice (1709), Moses I (1710), Aaron (1712), Phineas (1715), and Lois (1721).  

At the outbreak of the American Revolution the Burdoo children were in their 40s, had married, and were raising families.  Two of the brothers, however, enlisted in the war, Moses and Aaron were present on the expedition to seize Quebec.  Evidence shows that the family was in debt due to their brother Phineas’s medical needs.  The bounties and payment they would require from serving in the American Revolution may have helped pay off some of the debt.  

Both Philip and Moses Burdoo had sons who participated in the American Revolution as well.  Philip’s son Silas was a private in Capt. John Wood’s 5th Company in 1775.  Moses Burdoo I’s two sons Moses II and Eli enlisted as privates in the war in 1775.  Following the war, first cousins Silas Burdoo, Moses Burdoo II, and Aaron Burdoo made their way north into NH and VT to begin new lives. 

Silas’s residency in New Hampshire was short-lived.  He purchased land in Jaffrey, NH, from Jonathan Parker Jr. in lot 13, range 10, in 1773.  Records indicate that he soon moved on to VT, settling in Reading with Aaron Burdoo in the 1780s.  Moses II and his wife Lois Burdoo, however, remained in Jaffrey.  They first purchased 70 acres of land from Ebenezer Stratton (near Squantum Village) but later relocated to a section of town where a cluster of small mills were in operation, known as Slab City.  

In 1784, Moses Burdoo II died leaving Lois struggling to make ends meet with four young children: Polly, Moses III, Sally, and Philip.  Lois was cared for as a pauper by the town of Jaffrey throughout the rest of her life.  She also received aid from another Black resident, Amos Fortune– a former enslaved man who had made a home and successful career for himself by the time the Burdoos arrived in town.  

Fortune offered work in his tannery to two of the Burdoo boys, Moses III and Philip.  Moses Burdoo III eventually moved on to live and work in the home of Joseph Stewart, possibly as an indentured servant until he turned 21 years old.  When daughter Polly was bid out as a ‘pauper in need’ to the lowest bidder by the town of Jaffrey, Amos Fortune took her in and cared for her.  Unfortunately, Polly was ill and died a year later, at the age of 15, in 1793.  

It is unclear what became of Moses II and Lois’ daughter Sally Burdoo following her father’s death.  The next record related to her life is Sally’s death record and probate records.  She died on December 14, 1827 in Peterborough, NH and was buried in the Old Street Cemetery.  When she died, nobody came forward to administer her estate.  Probate records show that Sally was a single woman at the time of her death, with one brother who was a pauper and deemed ‘unfit’ to administer her estate due to poor health.  The probate also mentions the fact that Sally had an illegitimate child who was about 12 years of age at the time of her death.  

Another Lois Burdoo was born in New Hampshire in about 1818 and would have been around the right age to have been Sally Burdoo’s daughter.  Documentation has not been discovered that could shed light on her childhood or to determine if Lois lived with her grandmother and namesake Lois Burdoo in Peterborough.  By 1835, teenager Lois Burdoo had moved to Keene and was baptized into the Congregational Church of Christ on July 5, 1835 by Rev. Zedekiah Barstow.  

Most likely, Lois Burdoo, the younger, lived in Keene and worked as a domestic servant in one of the wealthier homes.  The 1840 census for Keene lists two possible households where she  may have resided.  Thomas M. Edwards of Roxbury street had an unknown female of color residing in his home who was between 10 and 24 years old.  Joseph Barker also had a young woman of color, aged 24-36 in his home.   Lois Burdoo, the elder, continued to live in Peterborough, NH, until her death in 1847.  She passed away in the local poor house at the age of 92.  

By the close of the 1840s, the younger Lois Burdoo remained the last of her family to live in southwest New Hampshire after approximately 70 years of Burdoo residency in the region. In the 1850 census, she worked as a domestic servant, living in the household of her white employer Salma Hale, a prominent lawyer and NH senator from Keene. 

SOURCE MATERIALS

Association of Black Citizens of Lexington, MA Black history portrait banner- https://www.abclex.org/black-history-portrait-banners/

Cutter, Daniel B. History of the Town of Jaffrey, NH, from the date of Masonian chapter to the present time, 1749-1880. Concord, New Hampshire : Printed by the Republican Press Association (1881), p.183.- Archives.org

Find-a-Grave

 First Church of Christ register, book 1, p.101. Historical Society of Cheshire County archives, Keene, NH.

Jaffrey Historical Society. “Jaffrey Roads and Streets 1773 - 1980.” www.jaffreyhistory.org

MSS 2, Town of Peterborough Collection, Series V, Vol. E1, Box 4. Miscellaneous Record Book- Cemeteries, etc. Monadnock Center for History and Culture, p. 14.

New Hampshire Death Records, Jaffrey, 1784, 1790, 1793, 1801- Familysearch.org

Town of Jaffrey. History of Jaffrey (Middle Monadnock) New Hampshire: an average country town in the heart of New England, vol. 2. Jaffrey, NH : Published by the Town, 1934, p.115, 779. Historical Society of Cheshire County Library, Keene, NH.

U.S. Federal Census, 1850- Ancestry.com

Yates, Elizabeth. Amos Fortune, Free Man. New York, Dutton, 1950.

GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY

PHILLIP BORDOO, was born in Massachusetts in 1708. He married MARY or ANN in Lexington, MA. They had: Silas (1748-1837), Lois (1729-), Philip (1738-), and Mary (1740-).

• SILAS BURDOO was born in Lexington, MA in 1748. He married 1st BETSEY (1752-1816) and second ROSANNAH (1763-1836).

MOSES BURDOO I was born in 1710 in Massachusetts. He married PHEBA BANNISTER (d.1756). They had: Moses II (1755-1784) and Eli (b.1750s).

• MOSES BURDOO II was born in 1755. He married LOIS RALF (1755-1847) in Cambridge, MA in 1778. They had: Polly (d.1793), Moses III (d.1801), Philip, Sally (1784-1827).

  • POLLY BURDOO was born in about 1779. She died in 1793.

  • MOSES BURDOO III was born around 1800. He died in 1801.

  • PHILLIP BURDOO was born around 1801. He died after 1827.

  • SALLY BURDOO was born in 1784. She died in Peterborough, NH, in 1827. She may have had: Lois Burdoo (b.1818).

    • LOIS BURDOO was born in 1818 in New Hampshire.

AARON BURDOO (b.1712)