The 1836 register of the Methodist Episcopal Church (later Mount Zion Church) in Georgetown, District of Columbia, lists as a member “Pattie Brooks”, recorded just below the name of Gracie Ducket, who was enslaved by Samuel Whitall, who leased the property known as Belle Vue (later known as Rittenhouse Place, and after that, Dumbarton House).
The 1860 census records Pattie Brooks, mulatto, servant, as a free woman of color, born 1810, residing in dwelling 531 in Georgetown Ward 2, within the household of the Black woman Charity Lemon, age 70, with Laura Bell, also Black, age 60. Pattie resides two households away from the free couple (Rev) Louis (Lewis) Cartwright and his wife Julia Cartwright, the daughter of Gracie Ducket who at that point was still enslaved by Lydia Whitall, the widow of Samuel Whitall. (Gracie would be freed two years later by the will of Lydia Whitall in early April 1862).
Four years later, in 1864, the Georgetown Directory records Patty Brooks residing at
23 West Street (later P Street) in Georgetown. She is the widow of “Harry Brooks.”
In her 4 January 1868 Freedman’s Bank application, Pattie Brooks indicates that she was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, residing at 22 West Street between (?) Montgomery Street (later 28th street). She is widowed, with no children. She opened her account with $130. She was, she reports, formerly enslaved by George Peter and his wife Sarah.
Major George Peter (1779-1861) was the son of Robert Peter (the first mayor of Georgetown) and Elizabeth Peter. George became the leading slaveowner in Montgomery County, owning about 100 persons in 1860. Sarah Norfleet Freeland) Peter, 1805-1846, was George’s third wife. George evidently owned property in Georgetown as well as Montgomery County. Both George and Sarah Peter are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, adjacent to Mount Zion Cemetery. George’s brother Thomas Peter famously married Martha Custis Peter, granddaughter of First Lady Martha Custis Washington, and resided in Tudor Place in Georgetown.
As of this writing, I am unsure how and when Pattie Brooks attained her freedom from George and Sarah Peter. Nor is it clear if her late husband Harry Brooks was ever free, or if he was enslaved throughout his life. Since Pattie is listed as a widow in the 1864 city directory, Harry must have died before that year.
The 1870 census records Pattie Brooks as head of household, in Georgetown, residing with Nellie Brown, 17, and Maria Johnson. 60. She lives next door to the Lemon family, including Charity Lemon, with who she resided a decade earlier in the 1860 census. Pattie lives three households away from Rev. Lewis and Julia Cartwright, a household which now includes Gracie Ducket, who, as noted above, had been listed just above Pattie Brooks in the 1836 Mount Zion Church register. Gracie Ducket and the Cartwrights are buried in Mount Zion.
The 1874 and 1875 Georgetown city directories record her as Patsy Brooks, living at 23 West Street (later P Street).
Pattie appears to be the same person as Margaret B Brooks, recorded in the death records of undertaker Joseph Birch, as residing at 23 West Street (later P street) in Georgetown, born 1892, died 8 August 1876, buried in Mount Zion Cemetery. In early American English, Pattie or Patty were hypocoristics (pet names) of Margaret and Martha, through a common transposition of the letter “P” and “M.”
If Pattie Brooks were still enslaved in 1850, she might have been the 40 year old enslaved woman in the estate of George Brooks in Medleys, Maryland in the 1850 slave schedule. Alternately, it is possible that Harry and Pattie/Margaret appear in the 1850 census as the free couple of color, Hary (b 1795) and Margaret Brooks (b 1805) in District 1, Dorchester County, on the eastern shore of Maryland, with evident children James Brooks. Wesly Brooks, Hester Brooks, and Sarah Jane Brooks. This seems unlikely, given that Pattie Brooks was worshipping in Georgetown in 1836 and residing in Georgetown in 1860, but cannot yet be ruled out.
I am unsure if Harry and Pattie (Margaret) Brooks were related to Sarah Brooks, who had been enslaved by Joseph Nourse, evidently at the time he owned Belle Vue. In slavery and freedom Sarah worked as the cook at the Highlands (later the Sidwell Friends campus). She died in 1875 and who is also buried in Mount Zion Cemetery.
Mark Auslander 