Adams, Peter

Peter Adams

Surry, NH; Gilsum, NH

Peter Adams, male of color from Surry, NH, enlisted in the army on June 11, 1778 during the American Revolution.  He served under Col. Benjamin Bellows’ regiment for one month in Rhode Island during his first term of service. Upon his return, Adams married a woman of color named Dinah Porter in Gilsum, NH, on June 30, 1778.  According to the marriage record, both Adams and Porter were residents of Gilsum, NH.

Following his marriage, Peter reenlisted in the war and served in Capt. Peter Drown's Company, Col. Stephen Peabody's Regiment, for five months during his second term, July 17, 1778 - Dec 30, 1778.  

He is described in the Surry town history as a 5’10” free negro male.  The DAR publication dedicated to African-American soldiers of the American Revolution, in contrast, lists Adams as an enslaved person of color in 1780.  There’s no documentation, to date, to verify whether or not Adams was an enslaved or free person of color.

The married life of Peter and Dinah Adams is unknown. The couple may have remained in Cheshire County or moved away.  According to the Surry town history, written in 1925, "It may be well to state that some fifty years ago (perhaps later) there was not a "foreigner" in the town, and but one colored person, (the Indian woman, Dinah,)."  Could this be Peter’s wife, Dinah (Porter) Adams?

GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY

PETER ADAMS married DINAH PORTER of Gilsum, NH, in 1778.

SOURCE MATERIALS

Grundset, editor Forgotten Patriots - African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War: A Guide to Service, Sources, and Studies, (DAR, 2008)

Kingsbury, Frank Burnside. History of the Town of Surry, 1925, pp. 94

New Hampshire Vital Records, Marriages, Gilsum, 1778- Ancestry.com