Freeman, Dinah & her family
Dinah Freeman (about 1768- 1834) and her Family - Peterborough
Dinah Freeman was born about 1768 and died in Peterborough on December 1, 1834. Her parents and place of birth are unknown. How she came to live in Peterborough remains a mystery, but compelling evidence suggests that she was brought there as an enslaved woman named Dinah Alld.
In April of 1811 Samuel Templeton sold land in Peterborough to Samuel Miller, excepting “one acre on which Dinah Allds house stands.” Other records suggest that this same dwelling was also associated with Dinah Freeman and other members of her family. A 1910 description of the occupants of an early Peterborough school lot states:
Adams Miller [the son of Samuel Miller] lived there in 1819 with a family of five, and a few rods west of his house, on the north side of the same highway, is a cellar hole where once stood a house owned by the widow Dina Alld, then Caleb F. Wilder owned it, and it was occupied by a colored family, consisting of Peggy Freeman and others.
A manuscript history of Peterborough’s land ownership, written about 1830, included an entry entitled, “Dinah Freeman (colored)”:
This is on the old Templeton farm. Dinah built here and lives there—no land but what the house stands on—to go to the Templetons when she is dead.
None of the women in the Alld family in Peterborough at this time were named Dinah. Dinah was, however, a common name given to enslaved women in the 18th and 19th centuries. Samuel Alld (1766–1841), one of five townsmen identified as slave owners, enslaved two people in 18th century Peterborough. The 1790 US census for Peterborough, which could confirm Black occupants in Samuel Alld’s household, is alphabetized. Unfortunately, the first page, which would have recorded the Alld household, is missing. However, many formerly enslaved people adopted the surname Freeman rather than retain the name of their enslaver. The evidence strongly suggests that Dinah Alld and Dinah Freeman were the same person.
The remains of a stone foundation where the
Dinah Alld/ Freeman house was located.
Dinah Freeman’s close association with the Peterborough church has preserved glimpses of her family members’ lives. In 1803, Rev. Dunbar conducted the funeral of Phila Freeman, Dinah’s seven-year-old daughter, and in 1810 he officiated at the funeral of Oliver, her 15-month-old son. Dunbar was called to the Freeman household to baptize daughter Peggy “on a sick bed” in 1812. Although Dinah and her family were clearly living in Peterborough in 1810, they are not recorded in the census.
In 1819, Peterborough, New Hampshire, minister Elijah Dunbar made this entry in his church records: “Nov 5—Admitted Dinah Freeman to full com[munion].” “She was a colored woman” was scribbled in the margins in a different hand.
By 1820 Dinah Freeman, a free female of color over 45 years of age, was head of a household that also included a free male of color aged 14–25, a free female of color aged 26–44, and one uncategorized individual. Ten years later, Dinah’s household included the same female, now aged 36–54, but the male had apparently established his own household. Lourin Freeman, age 24–35, headed a household that included a free female of color age 10–23—undoubtedly Lourin’s wife, Polly (Robinson) Freeman. The couple had married in Springfield, Windsor County, Vermont, on February 1, 1830. Polly Robinson, whose parentage remains uncertain, was born August 2, 1808 in Springfield. The couple had a daughter, Saphira, born around 1834. Lourin Freeman, aged 38, died in Peterborough on November 15, 1835 of “intemperance.”
Lourin (also spelled Lauren and Loring in the records) and Polly’s marriage record, 1830.
After Dinah’s death in 1834, daughter Margaret “Peggy” Freeman, identified as a free woman of color aged 36–54, appears in the 1840 census as the head of a household that included a free female of color aged 0–9. This is probably Peggy’s niece Saphira Freeman, age 6, who attended the district school in Peterborough in the summer term of 1841 and again in 1842.
Lourin’s widow, “Mrs. Polly Freeman of Peterboro (colored),” married John White of Manchester, Bennington County, Vermont, in Peterborough in 1842. John White was born into slavery in Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, and given the name Cyrus Branch. He escaped his enslavement in 1836, eventually making his way to Manchester, where he assumed the name John White. A skilled carpenter, White owned property and was a respected member of the community, where he served as sexton for the Congregational church.
John and Polly settled in Manchester. In 1850 their household included two daughters, 16-year-old Sophia and six-year-old Mary. Sophia was probably Saphira and was almost certainly Lourin Freeman’s child born shortly before his death in 1835. By 1860, Sophia had left the White household and Mary remained at home with her parents. Polly died of “consumption” in Manchester on October 3, 1860 at the age of 52.
Research into vital records for both Vermont and New Hampshire has not yielded any further information for Sophia/Saphira. Mary White last appears in the 1870 census for Manchester, keeping house for her elderly father.
Dinah’s daughter Margaret “Peggy” Freeman disappears from the records until 1860, when she is identified as a 67-year-old Black female pauper, born in New Hampshire, residing at the Peterborough poor farm. Six years later she died at the age of 73 and was buried in the Village Cemetery in Peterborough. A simple marble stone marks her resting place.
A version of this article appeared in The New Hampshire Genealogical Record, Vol. 34 No. 2 Spring 2022.
GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY
Generation One
1. DINAH FREEMAN was born about 1768 and died in Peterborough on 1 December 1834. Her parents and place of birth are unknown. Her partners’ and/or spouses’ names are also unknown. Dinah may have been at one time enslaved by the Samuel Alld family of Peterborough, and was at some point described as a widow. She was enumerated in her own household in 1820, as a free female of color.
Children of Dinah Freeman, probably all born in Peterborough:
i. MARGARET “PEGGY” fREEMAN, b. ca. 1793, bp. 1812; d. Peterborough 1 Dec. 1866.
ii. PHILA FREEMAN, b. ca. 1796; d. Peterborough 3 July 1803.
2 iii. Lourin/Loring/Lauran FREEMAN, b. ca. 1797; m. POLLY ROBINSON.
iv. OLIVER FREEMAN, b. July 1809; d. Peterborough 1 Oct. 1810.
Generation Two
2. Lourin/Loring/Lauran FREEMAN was born ca. 1797 and died in Peterborough 15 November 1835. He married, in Springfield, Vermont, 1 February 1830, POLLY ROBINSON, who was born there 2 August 1808 and died in Manchester, Vermont, 3 October 1860.
Widow Polly (Robinson) Freeman married second, in Peterborough, 7 Sept. 1842, John White (also known as Cyrus Branch), who was b. in Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, ca. 1795. Their daughter, Mary White, was probably b. Manchester, Vermont, in 1844. John and Mary were alive in 1870.
Child of Lourin and Polly (Robinson) Freeman:
i. SAPHIRA/SOPHIA FREEMAN, b. probably Peterborough ca. 1834; alive in Manchester, VT, in 1850.
SOURCE MATERIALS
Brennan, James F.,compiler, “Copy of Church Records kept by Rev. Elijah Dunbar during his Ministry, 1799–1829” (typescript, n.d.) MSS 48, Vol. II; Monadnock Center for History and Culture, Peterborough, NH.
“Cyrus Branch and His Family: An Authentic Narrative,” Manchester [VT] Journal, 12 Jan. 1869, p. 1.
Find a Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133229581/peggy-freeman), memorial page for Peggy Freeman (unknown–16 Dec 1866), Find a Grave Memorial ID 133229581, citing Village Cemetery, Peterborough, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire; maintained by Cheshire (contributor 47921031).
Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Registry of Deeds, Vol. 99 P. 414, Samuel Templeton to Samuel Miller, signed 18 Apr. 1811, recorded 7 Feb. 1814.
Hubbard, C. Horace. History of the Town of Springfield, Vermont (Boston: G. H. Walker, 1895), 546.
Morison, John Hopkins. An Address Delivered at the Centennial Celebration in Peterborough, N.H. October 24, 1839 (Boston: Printed by Isaac R. Butts, 1839), 36.
“Records of the Congregational Church Society in Peterboro begun by Rev. Abiel Abbot in 1827,” 78; MSS 42, Box 2, Vol. 1; Monadnock Center for History and Culture, Peterborough, NH.
“School District No. 5 School Registers 1833–1847” (unpaginated lists); MSS 2, Series XE, Box 10; Monadnock Center for History and Culture, Peterborough, NH.
Smith, Albert. History of the Town of Peterborough: Genealogy and History of the Peterborough Families, Vol. 2 (Boston: Press of George H. Ellis, 1876).
Smith, Ezra M. “Address at No. 5 Aug 22, 1910,” Peterborough [NH] Transcript, 23 Mar. 1911, p. 1.
Smith, Samuel. Untitled Manuscript (n.d.), vol. 1, p. 129; MSS 103, Box 3; Monadnock Center for History and Culture, Peterborough, NH.
“Vermont, U.S., Vital Records, 1720-1908,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/249376:4661), marriage, Lauren Freeman and Polly Robinson, 1 Feb. 1830; imaging State of Vermont, Vermont Vital Records through 1870.
“Vermont, U.S., Vital Records, 1720–1908,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/386022:4661), death, Polly White, 3 Oct. 1860; imaging State of Vermont, Vermont Vital Records through 1870.
Wickham, Emma Merwin, A Lost Family Found: An Authentic Narrative of Cyrus Branch and his Family, Alias John White of Manchester, Vermont (privately printed, 1869).
1790 US Census, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, population schedule, Peterborough.
1810 US Census, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, population schedule, Peterborough.
1820 US Census, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, pop. sch., Peterborough, p. 896 (written), line 19, Dinah Freeman household; NARA microfilm M33, roll 61.
1830 US Census, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, pop. sch., Peterborough, p. 413 (written), line 17, Diner Freeman household; NARA microfilm M19, roll 76.
1840 US Census, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, pop. sch., Peterborough, p. 266A, line 8, Margaret Freeman household, NARA microfilm M704, roll 239.
1850 US Census, Bennington County, Vermont, pop. sch., Manchester, p. 132A (stamped), dwelling 1076, family 1100, John White household, NARA microfilm M432, roll 921.
1860 US Census, Bennington County, Vermont, pop. sch., Manchester, p. 116 (written), dwelling 902, family 926, John White household, NARA microfilm M653, roll 1316.
1870 US Census, Bennington County, Vermont, pop. sch., Manchester, p. 469A (stamped), dwelling 353, family 337, John White household; NARA microfilm M593, roll 1615.