I have been puzzling over two enslaved brothers, Stephen Bennett, born around 1849 and James Bennett, born about 1852, both enslaved at Belle Vue or Bellevue House, later known as Rittenhouse Place, and now (after relocation) know as the modern Dumbarton House in Upper Georgetown, located at 27th and Q streets, Both boys were owned by Lydia Newbold Whitall 1784-1862, the widow of Samuel Whitall (1775-1855), from whom she probably inherited the boys when her husband died (unless she acquired them in a different manner.) Lydia manumitted the two brothers on May 17, 1858 (filing the papers on June 3, 1858), through the following document, (no 5 of 172 and 1873, Manumission records of Washington County in the District of Columbia):
“Know all men by these present that I Lydia N Whitall of Georgetown in the District of Columbia for consideration of five dollars current money to me hand paid by Stephen Bennett and of the like sum to me in hand paid by James Bennett…have manumitted, liberated, set free from slavery and every kind of servitude, and do by these presents manumit my servants and slave boys Stephen Bennett age nine years and James Bennett, aged six years, the children of the free woman named Minnie or Mina who is able and willing to maintain keep and support the said two boys Stephen and James until they are able to work, labor, maintain and support themselves and I do hereby declare that these two negro boys Stephen and James to be henceforth during the residue of their lives manumitted liberated set free and discharged from all and every species of servitude and slavery. In testimony wherefore I have herewith set my hand and seal this 17th day of May in the year 1858, Lydia N Whitall. (Signed sealed and delivered in the presence of Henry Reaves, John [Marbury, Jr.?)
The younger brother James Bennett, appears two years later, in the 1860 census, residing with his mother “Jemima Bennett,” born 1830 in Virginia who is employed as a maid in the household of Major Daniel James Sutherland in Washington Ward 4. Sutherland was the US Marine’s Quartermaster, and during this period was responsible for the design of the Marine Corps uniforms.
Major Sutherland soon after this was cashiered from the military, evidently on charges of dereliction of duty, and died a little more than a year later, following a late night fall in the Metropolitan Hotel in New York City on November 29, 1861. In 1863, his widow Anna Nicholson Sutherland (1830-1906) resided at 409 NY avenue in D.C. I am not sure what happened to the household staff, including Jemima and James Bennett, after the Major’s death. By 1870, the Major’s widow Anna had remarried and moved to New Hampshire, where she resided without servants. The 1900 census records her as living again in the District of Columbia, without live in servants.
Since Stephen and James were enslaved as of 1858, and since slavery followed the state of the mother, their mother Jemima (Mina or Minnie) Bennett must have herself been enslaved at least up until 1852, when her youn ger son James was born. As of this writing I am unsure if Jemima was previously freed by Lydia N Whitall, or attained freedom in some other fashion. The 1850 slave schedule for Captain Samuel Whitall in Georgetown records six slaves, including a 19 year old female, born around 1831, who seems likely to have been Jemima. The youngest male in the household is 16, so Stephen either had not been yet born in 1850 or was being held elsewhere. (It may be significant that one free man of color, R.F. Beall, is listed as farm hand in the 1850 census in the Whitall household.)
Captain Samuel Whitall (b, 15 May 1775) died on May 14, 1855 in Georgetown. His will designates his wife Lydia as his principal heir, but makes no reference to any slaves. I have not yet located his estate’s probate records, which might contain an inventory naming the specific bondspeople in his estate.
Bellevue, the property within which Lydia Whitall and her slaves resided, had earlier been owned by Joseph Nourse, registrar of the Treasury (( have written on enslaved people in the Nourse family, including the Brooks family). Captain Samuel Whitall for some time rented Belle Vue, before it was purchased by his son and then passed on to Captain Whitall’s daughter Sarah Whitall, who married the banker Charles Edwin Rittenhouse on September 10, 1841. Neither the Rittenhouse nor Lydia N Whitall are listed as slaveowners in 1860.
Gracy Duckett
Four years after manumitting the boys Stephen and James Bennett, Lydia Whitall died in Georgetown, on April 2, 1862 (two weeks before all enslaved people in the District of Columbia were emancipated.). Her will stipulates that her enslaved woman “Grace” was to be freed, and paid an annual sum of thirty dollars. This was clearly the same person as the woman “Gracy Duckett” listed two years earlier as a free woman of color, age 71, in the 1860 census, living as a servant within the Whitall-Rittenhouse household. Grace’s status in 1860 thus appears to have been somewhat ambiguous; she appeared as free to the census enumerator yet still was legally enslaved.
By 1864, “Mrs Gracy Ducket, colored,” is listed in the Georgetown Directory, living at 31 West Street, which I believe is now the present 2620 P Street, the home of her daughter Julia Ann Duckett Cartwright, wife of Lewis Cartwright (Julia and Lewis had married May 19, 1841). This was close by the home of the white banker Charles Edwin Rittenhouse, at Montgomery and Stoddart, that is to say present day 27th-28th and Q, the modern Dumbarton House location, where Grace, the Bennett children, and perhaps Jemima had previously been enslaved. Gracie Duckett may have been married to Augustus Duckett (c. 1800-1879), who appears in Georgetown as a free man of color from at least 1840 onward, but I am not entirely clear on this.
Gracie Ducket died in 1874 and was buried in the Female Union Band Society cemetery, adjacent to her daughter and son in law’s home. Her headstone, still extant. reads, “In memory of Gracy Duckett the mother of Julia Cartwright, died July 28, 1874 Aged 83 years.”
What might Gracie Duckett’s relationship have been to Jemima Bennett and her sons Stephen and James? Might they have been kin of some sort?
What became of the Bennett’s?
After the 1858 manumission record, I can see no trace of Jemima Bennett’s son Stephen Bennett. Stephen’s brother James Bennett, who as noted above is in the 1860 census residing with his mother in the Sutherland household, might appear in the 1870 city directory as “James E Bennett”, waiter, colored, residing at 217 Seventh Street (A Black James Bennett however, does not appear in the 1870 census) Charles Edwin Rittenhouse and his wife Sarah Whitall Ritenhouse are listed in the 1870 census without any live in Black servants.
James and Stephen’s mother Jemima Bennett might appear in the 1864 Georgetown city directory as “Mrs Jemima Thomas, colored,” resideing at Stoddert near Mill, (27th and Q street) , that is to say a block away from Rittenhouse Place. The 1870 census in Georgetown records a “Jemima Thomas,” born 1830 in Maryland, who seems to be living at Rock near Gay, that is to say near the present day 27th and N streets, several blocks south of Rittenhouse Place. She might also appear in the 1875 DC City Directory as “Jemima Burrs” servant, living at 1143 23rd street NW, and in the 1880 census as the married woman “Jermima Burrows,” a 50 year old Black servant residing at 615 Seventh Street in downtown DC, born in Virginia in 1830, living in the household of the white man, the Tennessee-born Sumner S Kirk (1854-1884), an attorney a “dealer in patent rights,” who died four years later. I have not found a further trace of Jemima in District records.
I would be grateful for any suggestions in tracing Jemima Bennett and her sons Stephen and James.
Other Black Bennett’s in the District of Columbia
Note: The 1850 census records one free Black couple with the surname Bennett in the District of Columbia: Eli Bennett, born 1826, a cartman, and his wife Catherine, in Washington Ward 4.
The 1860 census records a free Black woman, Hannah Bennett, born 1810 in Virginia, with her evident children Eliza Bennett, b 1839 in Kentucky, George Bennett, b. 1852 in D.C. and Joseph Bennett, born 1853 in DC. Hannah appears in the 1862 and 1864 DC city directory, as the widow of Henry Bennett, residing at M street and 23rd streets. In the 1870 census she is listed as “laundress,” still residing with her son Joseph Bennett, in the household headed by Charles Hall, a mulatto plasterer. Joseph Bennett died, unmarried, July 25, 1875 and was buried in Mount Zion Cemetery. At the time ofhis death he resided on Potomac near Chain Bridge, and was a member of Mount Zion Methodist Church (Mt Zion Cemetery Information System).
On May 6, 1862, Louisa Kearney of 108 Prospect Street, Georgetown, filed for compensated emancipation for her two slaves, Agnes Bennett and her daughter Anne Bennett, noting her late husband [Lt Colonel James Kearney] had acquired Agnes from Richard Mason in 1843 or 1844. (This most likely was the prominent physician, planter and enslaver Dr. Richard Chichester Mason of Alexandria, Virginia) Lt General James Kearney, retired from the US Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, 10 had died four months earlier in Georgetown
Louisa Kearney’s 1862 petition states, “Agnes Bennett was of the age of Twenty Two, and of the personal description following: A dark mulatto woman, about Five feet in height, two front teeth ou; said Anne Bennett, was of the age of Five years, A bright mulatto child about Four feet high… the woman Agnes Bennett, has been in my family for the past sixteen years, she is a faithful servant I have always found her honest and correct; said Anne Bennett, is a smart child to whom the family is very much attached.”
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Mark Auslander 