I dedicate this post to all my Blanchard cousins..To those whom I have already met and to those whom I will hopefully meet in the future. I want to especially single out my 98 year old 2nd cousin 2XR, Helen Blanchard Hamilton, who is still shining brightly for all to see.
My third great grandparents, Cato Thompson and Susan Pickett Thompson had three daughters (Laura, my 2nd great-grandmother, Catherine and Mary) and three sons (Richard, Thomas and Jacob). My family affiliation with the Blanchards is via their daughters, Catherine (1842-1891) and Mary (1849-?), who married two Blanchard brothers, George (1844-?) and William (1845-?). Catherine and George were the parents of 5 sons: Edward , George, William, James and Frederic. Mary and William were the parents of 11 children: William, Thomas George, Katie, Sarah Elizabeth, Susan, Daisy, Walter, Christina, Eugene, Carrie, and John Franklin. Some of the surnames linked to the Blanchards include Hamilton, Hammond, Remson, Baldwin, Hicks, Dorsey, Van Duyne, Roberts, Mickson, Smith, Lynn, DeGroat, Thompson, Green/e, among others
Over a year ago, I started to research the Blanchard line in earnest. I wanted to know where they came from and how two sisters ended up marrying two brothers. We know from census records that the Blanchard brothers were from Orange, NJ and worked as teamsters. What more could I find out? A lot more it turned out….a whole lot more.
George and William were two of 5 children— in addition to Charles, Jr., Elizabeth, and Louisa– born to Charles Blanchard, Sr. (about 1792-1872) and Sarah Berry (1794-1879). Charles was born a slave in NJ sometime around 1792 and it can be assumed that Sarah was born a slave as well.
Charles was born before NJ’s 1804 Gradual Emancipation law which meant he was a slave for life. If he had been born after 7/4/1804, he would have had to serve his master for a term of only 25 years as stipulated in this new law. I didn’t know how long he was a slave until I came across his manumission record at the Newark Public Library. He was manumitted on April 1, 1824. He spent 32 years a slave which qualifies as a lifetime for many. His last slave owner was a John Harrison, of Orange, NJ who was a descendant of the Harrison Family who founded the Oranges in New Jersey.
Three years after Charles was manumitted, he married Sarah Berry in the First Presbyterian Church in Orange, NJ and they went on to have five children and live their lives as free Blacks.
Charles became a paid laborer and worked in various stables in and around Orange, NJ. He was also a property owner. On Ancestry.com, Charles’s NJ Death Record occupation states that “He was Born a Slave”. But, we all know that he was so much more than the circumstances of his birth. Regarding Sarah, we have no idea when she became free or who her parents were.
Going further back, we find out that Charles’s father was Robert Blanchard (1765-1865?). In the 1860 census , we see Robert, age 95, living with his son Charles, age 68, and his family. None of the prior census records indicate who Charles’ mother was.
Regarding lost names due to slavery, if I find out the names of our unknown ancestors, I will call their names out loud and clear. You can bet they will be nameless no more. We owe it to our ancestors to remember there names whenever possible.
I was able to find a lot of information about our Robert Blanchard. For the most part, what I learned about Robert and his wife Dinah was due to the fact that their slave owners were from quite prominent families in both NJ and in NYC. At the NY Historical Society Library, I was able to find five critical documents that mentioned Robert and Dinah. These documents provide us with a view of slavery as it affected The Blanchard family.
The first document is a bill of sale for Dinah when she was 13 years old. She was sold for 20 pounds and 10 shillings. Her slave owner was Robert Whiting whose family was one of the founding families of Hartford, CT. Whiting sold her to John Ramage (1748-1802), an Irish Loyalist, who become the first artist to paint a portrait of President George Washington in 1786.
In 1793, Dinah was sold again at the age of 15 years old for 30 pounds. Ramage sold her to Catherine Bradford (1742-1822).
Catherine was the widow of Cornelius Bradford (1729-1787). The Bradfords were the proprietors of the Merchant Coffee House, a very interesting, intriguing place to say the least. In addition to serving coffee, the Merchant Coffee House was the meeting place for merchants, shipbuilders, captains of vessels as well as various organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, Bank of New York, Free and Accepted Masons, Knights of Corsica, Whig Society, Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, Society of New York Hospital , etc. On the eve of the Revolutionary War, it was a gathering place for Patriot sympathizers in NYC and during the British occupation of the city, the British auctioned off captured American vessels. The coffee house was the place to be until 1804 when it was destroyed by a fire.
In 1794, Catherine Bradford retired from the Merchant Coffee House and moved to Cortland, NY. We are not certain what happened exactly, but Dinah ended up back with Catherine Ramage as her slave. Was Dinah’s sale to Catherine Bradford a conditional one with a set term? We have no idea.
In 1801, there is a document that mentions Robert Blanchard being the slave of John Blanchard of Morris County, NJ. John Blanchard was writing to Catherine Ramage giving permission for his “boy” Robert to marry Dinah. By the way, his “boy” Robert was 36 years old and Dinah was 22 years old.
This would be the first “legal” marriage for Robert. However, we do know he had other children, like Charles, prior to his marriage to Dinah. In addition, we now know that Robert and Dinah re-wed in 1819 as their marriage was officially recorded in the Essex County, NJ Marriage Records.
The years between 1801-1814 are somewhat of a mystery regarding Robert. At some point, he became free. His slave owner, John Blanchard died in 1811 in Chatham, NJ, however, Robert is not listed as being freed in John Blanchard’s will.
All we know is that, by 1814, Robert is already paying taxes in Orange, NJ as a free Black. We don’t know how he became free, but he he did and he made enough money to be able to pay taxes.
Sometime during this period, Robert also became a stagecoach man. He was a contemporary of my own 4th great-grandfather, Thomas Thompson, another Black stagecoach man. It is more than likely this is how The Blanchards met The Thompsons and ultimately how their grandchildren ended up marrying each other. The world of free Blacks in NJ was a very small one indeed.
The 4th document that was found pertained to the conditional sale of Dinah and Robert’s son, Robert, Jr. In 1813, Robert, Jr. was sold to an Ephraim Sayre by Catherine Ramage for a term of up to 18 years. In the bill of sale, she indicates that one quarter of Robert, Jr.’s day be spent on his education as well as him learning a trade.
This document doesn’t mention how old Robert, Jr. was, but if he was born after 7/4/1804, he had to serve 25 years as a slave before being granted his freedom. While Robert was free, it is clear that Dinah was still a slave, as were their children. We don’t know what ever happened to Robert, Jr.
Reading these four documents made my heart heavy. Sometimes when I do family research, I can’t help but to put myself in the shoes of my ancestors so to speak. What was it like being sold as a human being, to see your children taken from you, to have no control of your body, to have no control over your personal freedom, etc. Sometimes I wonder how they got over… Just when my heart was at it’s heaviest, I read the 5th document.
The 5th document was another bill of sale dated 1815 written by Catherine Ramage to ROBERT BLANCHARD! Robert ended up purchasing his wife Dinah’s freedom along with their three youngest children Cyrus, Jep and Hannah for $125 dollars (i.e., $31.25/person)!
You cannot imagine the sheer joy I felt when I read this document. I can’t lie. I was doing my happy dance all over the NY Historical Society Library. Many tears of JOY were released just knowing that, in spite of the degradation of slavery, Robert Blanchard found a way to buy his family out of slavery. Not only that, but years later he was able to reunite with his other children who had either been gradually emancipated or manumitted at some point. Robert did what he had to do to keep his family together to survive slavery, freedom and beyond.