Jittem, Reuben (Kendall)
Reuben (Kendall) Jittem (1730-1820)
Richmond, NH
Reuben Jittem, formerly Reuben Kendall, resided in Richmond, NH, following the American Revolution. Stories of his life in southwest New Hampshire have been recorded in the history Richmond written by William Bassett in 1884. Many details of his life were also recorded in primary sources related to his military service.
As outlined in his own pension paperwork, Reuben (nee Jittem) was born off the coast of Guinea, Africa in about 1730. As a child, he was enslaved and transferred to North America where he lived and worked within the home of his enslaver Ethan Kendall of Lancaster, Massachusetts.
At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Reuben (Kendall) served from September 1777 to the summer of 1783. In February 2024, Alan Rumrill, Historical Society of Cheshire County executive director, wrote an article in the Keene Sentinel on Reuben Kendall’s service in the war.
During the year 1818, Reuben Kendall of Richmond submitted a pension claim to the Cheshire County court of common pleas for Revolutionary War service he had performed many years earlier.
The claim began as follows: “I, Reuben Kendall, a black man born in Africa, not far from ninety years of age, now of Richmond, in the County of Cheshire and State of New Hampshire, testify and declare: that I served in the War of the Revolution in the Continental establishment.”
Kendall’s story is a fascinating tale of enslavement and military service at the founding of the United States. Kendall was captured in Africa and sold into slavery in Massachusetts. He was purchased by Ethan Kendall of Lancaster, Mass. Known as Jittem in his native Africa, he was given the name Reuben by Kendall and the surname Kendall was assigned to him when he served in the military.
During the Revolutionary War, Reuben was offered his freedom if he would serve in the Continental Army, perhaps as a substitute for the man who held him in slavery. He agreed, was given his freedom, and enlisted in the 15th Massachusetts Regiment in September of 1777. He later enlisted in the 5th Massachusetts Regiment and served throughout the war, a total of almost seven years.
Reuben participated in the battles of Stillwater, Saratoga, Monmouth, and was at Yorktown, when Gen. Cornwallis surrendered, effectively ending the military conflict.
Reuben Kendall was discharged in the summer of 1783. After a visit to Ethan Kendall’s family, he went his own way.
Around 1795 Kendall moved to Richmond with his family… Reuben used the surname Kendall on his pension claim as that was the name he used when he joined the army. He was granted a pension of $8 per month as a result of his 1818 application.
Stories passed down in the town of Richmond indicate that Reubem Jittem may have married in Salem, MA; and he is said to have fathered many children. A marriage record has not been recovered to date. However, by the time he moved to the town of Richmond, around the turn of the 19th century, his wife, Mrs. Jittem, and their young son Charles were living with him.
The Richmond Town history reveals that the Jittem family resided in a small house near Rice Brook on the road to Gaskill Hill. [This location was probably somewhat southerly from present Highway 119, nearly opposite from Fish Hatchery Road.]
During the 1810s, an aging Reuben and Mrs. Jittem moved into the home of a local Quaker named Peregrine Wheeler, whose house was located on the present Highway 32, near the intersection of Quaker Lane. Wheeler had moved to town with his wife Sarah from Berlin, MA, in 1802. When his wife died the following year, Wheeler purchased the local general store which was also a residence. He ran the general store for years, before dying in 1824.
In 1811, a new doctor moved to town and resided in the same Wheeler household. Accompanying Dr. Parkhurst was a child of color, referred to in the history book as “Daniel the Nig.” It is likely that the four Black residents in town lived within the same household during the 1810s.
Mrs. Jittem died around 1818 in Richmond, followed by her husband two years later. They were buried in the Friends Cemetery (Quaker) in the northwest corner. Their graves were unmarked for more than 160 years, until 1981, when a group of Richmond townspeople placed a veteran’s grave marker and American flag on the grave of Black Revolutionary veteran Reuben “Kendall” Jittem.
As a young man, son Charles Jittem continued to live in the Wheeler house during the early 1820s. After Wheeler’s death, Charles relocated to the home of Sylvester Aldrich of Richmond. Years later, in the 1860s, Aldrich would take in another child of color, Alonzo Pease of Winchester. In August 1841, Charles Jittem married Eliza Van Vactor of Worcester, MA. Six months later, he died of poisoning. He is buried in Worcester.
GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY
REUBEN (KENDALL) JITTEM was born in Guinea, Africa in 1730. He married after 1783 to Mrs. Jittem. They had: Charles Jittem (d.1841). Mrs. Jittem died in 1818 in Richmond, NH. Reuben Jittem died in 1820 in Richmond, NH, at the age of 90.
CHARLES JITTEM was born in the1780s-1790s. He married ELIZA VAN VACTOR in Worcester, MA, in 1841. Charles died in Worcester in 1841.
SOURCE MATERIALS
Find-a-Grave.com
Application for The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution Grave Registry
Historical Society of Cheshire County, Roger Hunt Papers, Record Group 43, Series I, Box 3, Folder 77, Kendall, Reuben (Jittem, Reuben) Massachusetts Pension # 44471
List of Massachusetts Troops. 1776-1780; Records of Military Operations and Service, p214- Ancestry.com
Massachusetts Soldiers & Sailors of the American Revolution, page 8098. -Fold3.com
New Hampshire Marriage Records, 1841- Ancestry.com
Rumrill, Alan. “A moment in local history: Reuben 'Kendall' Jittem, revolutionary soldier.” Keene Sentinel, February 10, 2024- sentinelsource.com
U.S. Revolutionary War Pension Records, 1819, 1820