Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-8zxtt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T06:35:04.004Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Peter Hill, the First African American Clockmaker

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Get access

Extract

The annals of clockmaking appear to identify but a single instance of an African American clockmaker, although there may be others who escaped the attention of historians. The number of African Americans, either as slaves or freemen, who were enabled to work in the skilled crafts was limited, and of this small number even fewer succeeded in achieving a degree of independence that enabled them to establish their own shops and clienteles.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1. Pennsylvania Gazette, 09 1, 1778Google Scholar; Stavisky, Leonard F., “Negro Craftsmanship in Early America,” Journal of Negro History 54, no. 2 (01 1949): 315–25.Google Scholar

2. “Account of a Negro Astronomer: A Letter from Mr. James McHenry to the Editors of the Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack, containing particulars respecting Benjamin Banneker, a free Negro,” New York Magazine, or Literary Repository 2 (1791): 557–58Google Scholar; Tyson, Martha E., Banneker, the Afric-American Astronomer: From the Posthumous Papers of Martha E. Tyson, Edited by her Daughter (Philadelphia: Friends' Book Association, 1884)Google Scholar; and Bedini, Silvio A., The Life of Benjamin Banneker (New York: Scribner's, 1972; rept. Rancho Cordova, Calif.: Landmark Enterprises, 1985).Google Scholar

3. Wright, Marion M. Thompson, The Education of Negroes in New Jersey (New York: Columbia University Teachers College, 1941), pp. 16, 198201.Google Scholar

4. Woodward, William W., ed., Works of the Rev. John Witherspoon (Philadelphia: William W. Woodward, 1803), p. 306.Google Scholar

5. Wright, Thompson, Education of Negroes, pp. 98203.Google Scholar

6. Laws of New Jersey (1709), p. 8.Google Scholar

7. Brookes, George S., Friend Anthony Benezet (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1937), pp. 4647.Google Scholar

8. Society of Friends, Burlington County Meeting, Minutes, 27/VIII/1759.Google Scholar

9. Laws of New Jersey (1788), p. 488.Google Scholar

10. Haverford College Library, Manuscripts Division, The New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Burlington Branch, 1793–1809, Minutes of the Meeting of April 24, 1798.

11. United States Census, 1790, 1800 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1802), pp. 3840.Google Scholar

12. de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, François Alexander Frederic, Travels Through the United States of North America, the Country of the Iriquois and Upper Canada in the Years 1795, 1796 and 1797 (London: R. Phillips, 1799), vol. 2, pp. 418, 543–44.Google Scholar

13. de Warville, Jacques Pierre Brissot, New Travels in the United States of America Performed in 1788 (London: Printed for J.S. Jordan, 1794), pp. 238–39.Google Scholar

14. Brissot, , New Travels.Google Scholar

15. Philadelphia, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Manuscripts Division, Pennsylvania Abolition Society Papers, vol. 5, folder 13, pp. 127–29Google Scholar, Burlington County, New Jersey, 1796. Report prepared and signed by Robert Smith, junior clerk of the Acting Committee, dated April 23, 1798.

16. Mount Holly, N.J., County Court House, Records of the County of Burlington, Property Records (1795)Google Scholar, Book C, p. 33Google Scholar. The writer is indebted to Mrs. Betty Walker of The Burlington County Record for locating this item.

17. Trenton, N.J., Office of the Secretary of State, Probate Records, Book 4, p. 221Google Scholar, last will and testament of John Hollinshead, Jr., probated March 12, 1740.

18. Stackhouse, A. M., Some Genealogical Notes of the Hollinshead Family (n.p., privately printed, 1911), pp. 2122.Google Scholar

19. Mount Holly, N.J., Burlington County Court House, County Clerk's Records 1795–1840, Marriage Book A, p. 5Google Scholar. Also listed in Craig, H. Stanley, comp., Burlington County New Jersey Marriages (Merchantsville, N.J.: By the author, n.d.), p. 113.Google Scholar

20. Among these were marriages of Hill, Jeremiah to Davis, Lydia on 10 23, 1803Google Scholar, and of Hill, John to Riley, Sally on 06 9, 1833Google Scholar. Whether either of these were related to Peter Hill could not be established.

21. Philadelphia, Penn., Society of Friends, Department of Records. Papers Relating to a School for Adult Colored Persons deposited for Joseph W. Lippincott in the Department of Records, Society of Friends, correspondence addressed to the Society, nos. 2 and 4, letter dated March 3, 1792.

22. Philadelphia, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Abolition Society Manuscripts, vol. 5, pp. 127–29.Google Scholar

23. Trenton, New Jersey State Library, Burlington Township, Burlington County Tax Records June–August 1796, no. 177, pp. 1112Google Scholar. These and copies of subsequent tax records for Peter Hill were made available by Mrs. Rebecca B. Colesar, Reference Librarian.

24. Burlington County Tax Records June–August 1797, no. 178, pp. 1516.Google Scholar

25. Mount Holly, N.J., Burlington County Courthouse, Record of Deeds for Burlington Township, Book I, p. 545Google Scholar. Courtesy of Mrs. Betty Walker.

26. Mount Holly, N.J., Burlington County Courthouse, Burlington Township Tax Records, no. 179, 09 1802, p. 15.Google Scholar

27. Burlington Township Tax Records, no. 180, 09 1805, p. 17Google Scholar; and no. 181, 1806, p. 12.

28. Burlington Township Tax Records, no. 182, 1807, p. 25Google Scholar; and 1808, no. 183, Tax Ratables, p. 15.Google Scholar

29. Mount Holly, N.J., Burlington County Courthouse, Burlington County Land Records, Book S, pp. 393–95Google Scholar, indenture dated April 1, 1808, for the sale of land by heirs of Anna Rodman, deceased, to Peter Hill; and Burlington Township Land Records, no. 184, 1809Google Scholar, Tax Ratables, p. 21Google Scholar. This and other land records were made available by Miss Anna Hawthorne, office of the County Clerk.

30. Burlington Township Land Records no. 185, 1811, p. 20Google Scholar; and no. 187, 1813, pp. 22.

31. Burlington County Land Records, Book A–2, p. 2Google Scholar; and Burlington Township Tax Records, no. 188, 1814, p. 21.Google Scholar

32. Burlington County Land Records, Book I–2, 02 12, 1819, p. 253.Google Scholar

33. Mount Holly, N.J., Burlington County Historical Society, Manuscripts Divison, Zacharias Read, M.D., Annals of Mount Holly (1859)Google Scholar. Typewritten copy of unpaginated and unpublished manuscript.

34. MajorWoodward, E. M. and Hageman, John E., History of Burlington and Mercer Counties, New Jersey, With Biographical Sketches of Many of Their Pioneers and Prominent Men (Philadelphia: Everts and Peck, 1883), p. 182.Google Scholar

35. DeCou, George, “Colonial Clockmakers of Burlington County,” The Mount Holly Herald, 06 16, 1933, sec. 2, p. 4.Google Scholar

36. Mount Holly, N.J., Burlington County Courthouse, Burlington Township Tax Records, no. 286, 1820Google Scholar, n.p.

37. Mount Holly, N.J., Burlington County Courthouse, Office of the Surrogate, Records of Wills and Inventories, Northampton Township, Inventory of the property of Peter Hill, 01 6, 1821Google Scholar. Courtesy of the Clerk of the Surrogate Office.

38. Records of Wills and Inventories, Records of the property of Peter Hill, 1821, p. 197.Google Scholar

39. Records of Wills and Inventories, “Rule to shew cause on application for sale of real estate (Peter Hill, deceased),” p. 206.Google Scholar

40. Records of Wills and Inventories, p. 206.Google Scholar

41. Dutton, Rowland J., “Friends' Burial-Ground, Burlington, New Jersey,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 24, no. 2 (07 1900): 155.Google Scholar

42. Cadbury, Henry J., “Negro Membership in the Society of Friends,” Journal of Negro History 21 (1936): 161–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Communications concerning the Burlington burial ground from Mr. Corson Poley and Mr. Charles A. Doehlert, clerks of the Burlington County Meeting, Burlington Society of Friends, are gratefully acknowledged.

43. The writer is greatly indebted to Mr. Warren J. Danzenbaker of Annandale, Virginia, who not only made a grave-by-grave search of the Friends' Burial-Ground for Hill's burial plot, but also explored and photographed sites associated with Hill's career in Burlington and Mount Holly.

44. DeCou, George, The Historic Rancocas. Sketches of the Towns and Pioneer Settlers in Rancocas Valley (Moorestown, N.J.: News Chronicle, 1949), pp. 130–31Google Scholar; and Read, , AnnalsGoogle Scholar, unpaginated.

45. Document pasted inside the clock case. Through the efforts of Miss Sarah E. Mickle, the clock was donated to the School on September 25, 1919, by Miss Edith H. Dutton of Burlington, daughter of Rowland Dutton. The assistance of Mr. Donald H. Byerly and of Miss Mary O. Hogenauer of Westtown School is gratefully acknowledged.

46. DeCou, George, The Historic Rancocas: Sketches of the Towns and Pioneer Settlers in Rancocas Valley (Moorestown, N.J.: News Chronicle, 1949), pp. 130–31Google Scholar; DeCou, , “Colonial Clockmakers,” sec. 2, p. 4Google Scholar; Drepperd, Carl E., American Clocks and Clockmakers (New York: Doubleday, 1947), p. 235Google Scholar; Williams, Carl M., Silversmiths of New Jersey 1700–1825 (Philadelphia: MacManus, 1949), p. 72Google Scholar; Early Furniture Made in New Jersey 1690–1870, an Exhibition (Newark, N.J.: Newark Museum Association, 1958), p. 60Google Scholar; Shinn, Henry C., The History of Mount Holly, N.J. (Mount Holly, N.J.: Mount Holly Herald, 1957), pp. 15, 117Google Scholar; and Drost, William E., Clocks and Watches of New Jersey (Elizabeth, N.J.: Engineering Publishers, 1966), p. 123.Google Scholar

47. Minutes of the Proceedings of the Seventh Convention of Delegates from the Abolition Societies (Philadelphia, 1801), p. 12.Google Scholar