Cato, Jonathan & Dinah

Jonathan Cato (c.1765-1840) and Dinah Fosbe

Fitzwilliam, NH

On March 9, 1824, the Reverend John Sabin of the Congregational Church in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, married Jonathan Cato and Dinah Phosbe, “People of Colour” and residents of Fitzwilliam.  Background information on Cato and Phosbe is largely unknown, to date.  Jonathan Cato’s death notice in a New Hampshire newspaper indicated that he was originally enslaved in Schenectady, NY, but had lived the bulk of his life as a free man.

Jonathan Cato became a clergyman, ordained in the Dutch Reform Church.  He became well known for traveling the Northeast to preach to people of color.  Scant newspaper accounts outline Cato’s position as a Reverend and his desire to create a a township for Black Americans.  A Universalist publication from Philadelphia printed a notice in 1835, mentions this.  The congregation was seeking information on a “Rev. Jonathan Cato, a man of color, who has been in town raising money to purchase a town in Maine in order to start a colony of Blacks. He is described as about 50 years old and of dark complexion. It has been suspected that he is pocketing the money for his own benefit.”

A short time later, Cato died in Newmarket, NH.  The Columbian Centinel newspaper noted on Feb. 11, 1840 that Rev. Jonathan Cato, a man of color, had died in Newmarket, NH. He was of the Dutch Reformer Church and was between 70 and 80 years old.

GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY

JONATHAN CATO was born around 1765, possibly in Schenectady, NY.  In 1824 he married DINAH FOSBE in Fitzwilliam, NH.  Jonathan died in Newmarket, NH, on Feb. 11, 1840.

SOURCE MATERIALS

Columbian Centinel newspaper, Feb. 11, 1840

Fitzwilliam Church Records, 1824 - Familysearch.org

The Liberator newspaper, Boston, Friday, March 6, 1840. p.39.

New Hampshire Vital Records, Marriages, Fitzwilliam, 1824

Southern Pioneer and Philadelphia Liberalist, Volume 5; The Convention, (1835) Universalism; page 127

The St. Johnsbury Caledonian, Tue, Feb 18, 1840 ·Page 3