Re: Membo Tillinghast and Greenwich Navy
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In reply to:
Membo Tillinghast and Greenwich Navy
Deborah Burriss 4/23/06
Dear Deborah,
Your posting, in response to mine in 2006, is quite interesting as I am finally/currently writing an article on African American Tillinghasts, with various aspects from simple naming, inter-relationships, and presence in Providence, Carolinas, Fla., and NYC currently, to Camp Tillinghast in SC for Negro regiment training in the Civil War, to the slavery ownership and trading by various Tillinghasts.
Membo, or Mimbo, as you probably know, was a married A-A woman in Providence who was baptized in 1775 as Membo Tillinghast and 'allowed' to sit upstairs in the First Baptist Church.I am not sure why she was called Tillinghast, as she already had been purchased by Greenwich Navy, from Captain William Tillinghast's (Phillip, Pardon), estate.William died in 1753, only 39 years of age, at which point Greenwich bought her from the estate.It wasn't until 1762, nine years later, that Navy was ablemanumit her.In 1779, a church census, as I said in my previous reference, she was named Membo Navy, so maybe they had married or just taken the joint name at some point.She died in 1798.
I tried to access your citation of a landowners map in Providence but was unsuccessful.Perhaps you could email it to me at [email protected] is a record of Greenwich, who was a mariner, owning a small shop0, and his land is shown in Providence Land Evidence, Providence Archives.Yes, free blacks were able to own land.Yes, he was called a 'free Negro' in the records.He may well have been a slave at one time, but this is not confirmed.He may have always been a free man and just named after a former employer or perhaps a black-white 'relationship' took place at some point, either voluntarily (although even with Sally Hemmings and her mother, it is debated as to whether they had choices with regard to Jefferson and his wife's father.
If you have found out any more since your earlier posting or if I find something, let's share!
Kent Watkins
More Replies:
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Re: Membo Tillinghast and Greenwich Navy
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Re: Anne Tillinghast Weeden, African American lineage
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Re: Anne Tillinghast Weeden, African American lineage
carol warren 5/26/11
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Re: Anne Tillinghast Weeden, African American lineage
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Anne Tillinghast Weeden, African American lineage
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Re: Membo Tillinghast and Greenwich Navy
carol warren 5/26/11