Charles Phelps (1743 - 1814)

Born 14 Aug 1743 in Hadley, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Porter) Phelps — married Jun 1770 in Hadley, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 4 Dec 1814 at age 71 in Hadley, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States

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Biography

Deacon Charles Phelps - parents of Charles, Moses & Elizabeth

Charles was a graduate of Harvard and a lawyer. He assisted his father and brothers in their New Hampshire Grants controversies. ^[1]

"In 1807, a lucky shipment of Havana Sugar was a “god send” for Charles Porter Phelps, struggling to support his young family in Boston. After his marriage in 1799, Phelps stayed in Boston to enter the mercantile trade and try to make his fortune. He did so moving a variety of goods through the Boston port, including sugar. In the early 19th century, sugar was one of several cash crops produced through enslaved labor. Using business records and receipts, Russell explores the extent to which sugar shipments connect the Porter-Phelps family with the Atlantic economy and the system of slavery that undergirded it."

"Elizabeth Porter Phelps, one of the homeowners who became widely known for her successful dairy farm, kept a diary of her experiences, including stories many haven’t heard before.

“There were other families living here,” Karen Sanchez-Eppler, the museum’s board president, said. “There were families of enslaved people in the eighteenth century who were living in this house.”

According to Sanchez-Eppler, while the museum was closed, they received multiple grants from the state to further their research into the history of the home and the colonization of Hadley and the history of Black labor and agriculture.

Joshua Boston, a slave who was emancipated from the Porter family, became a widely known laborer throughout the valley for his building and linen threshing skills before eventually buying land to call his own.

“In the late 18th century, early century, there was a Black man who owned a farm in Hadley,” Sanchez-Eppler. “That’s a story nobody has been telling. And one of his day labor jobs was to help build a new kitchen space into this house to make its dairy business expand.”

Boston was entrusted with many roles during his time in the valley, including caring for others through a tax called “The Overseers Of The Poor.”

“There was this fund that belonged to the town and then you would pay individuals to take care of other people,” Sanchez-Eppler said. “And so Joshua Boston was being paid by the Overseers of the Poor frequently to take care of other members of the Black community.”

Sources

1. ↑ Vermont Historical Society "Charles Phelps Collection" vermonthistory.org/documents/findaid/PhelpsCharles.pdf, p2

• "The Diary of Elizabeth (Porter) Phelps" edited by Thomas Eliot Andrews in NEHGR vol 118, p 3-

• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=128518705

• "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCHN-4HQ : 4 December 2014), Charles Phelps and Elizabeth Porter, 14 Jun 1770; citing reference ; FHL microfilm 14,766, 186,152, 363,889.

• Porter Phelps Huntington Museum Website

• Porter Phelps Huntington Museum Website