Lynn, Rachel
Rachel Lynn (c.1766-1832)
Walpole, NH; Lancaster, NH
The life of Rachel Lynn of Walpole, NH, may have been anonymous if not for the incidental stories recorded in turn-of-the-20th century town histories and family genealogy books. In 1800, for instance, an unknown free person of color resided in the household of Josiah Bellows II, a tavernkeeper in Walpole, NH, according to the US Census.
The 1898 publication on the Bellows family genealogy by Thomas Bellows Peck reveals the identity of that unknown person. According to the book, Rachel Lynn was ‘given’ as a present to Walpole resident Josiah Bellows II on the occasion of his marriage to Lydia Preston of New Ipswich, NH, on November 3, 1799.
Slavery was not unknown to Bellows. His family, on both sides, had a history as enslavers within the town of Walpole. Josiah Bellows II’s maternal grandfather, Thomas Sparhawk, enslaved someone who was listed within his household in the 1790 census. In that same year, Bellows’ paternal uncle, Theodore Bellows, also recorded an enslaved person within his household in Walpole.
Peck’s family publication shares unverified and conflicting stories about Rachel Lynn worth investigating. For instance, he indicates that Rachel came to Walpole as a recently emancipated Black woman from Boston. Yet the same story reads that she was given to the Bellows family, indicating that she was enslaved. Peck asserts that Rachel was born in Liberia around 1766. Liberia was founded as a country by free people of color from the United States in 1820. It’s possible, however, that Rachel Lynn was indigenous to the region of West Africa.
Bellows genealogy page re: Rachel Lynn
Primary sources in New Hampshire provide more verified information about her life. Both the 1800 and 1820 census document a free person of color within the Bellows household in Walpole, NH. Further, Rachel Lynn’s death record places her in Lancaster, NH, where Josiah Bellows II had moved with his family in 1824. She died there on August 9, 1832 at the age of 60-65 years old.
The Bellows family genealogy presents a few more details of Rachel Lynn’s life. According to Peck, Rachel remained with the Bellows family in Walpole and Lancaster, “as a servant [and a nurse], until her death. . ." She was known to have owned property and willed it to the Bellows children. A final narrative mentioned Rachel coming back to Walpole years after she had moved to Lancaster. Two of the Bellows children drove her back to visit the house where she had lived for over two decades.
Rachel Lynn is buried in the Wilder Cemetery in Lancaster, NH.
SOURCE MATERIALS
Aldrich, George. Walpole, As It Is; As It Was. Claremont Manufacturing Co., Claremont, NH, 1878.
Find-a-Grave, Rachel Lynn
New Hampshire Vital Records, Deaths, Lancaster, 1832 — Ancestry.com
Peck, Thomas Bellows. The Bellows Genealogy, Or, John Bellows, the Boy Emigrant of 1635 and His Descendants. 1898. p.137.
US Federal Census, 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830