Jude (Judas) Hall was an African-American soldier in the American Revolutionary War. He served from 1775 to 1783, thus earning his freedom from slavery. After the war, he married and settled in Exeter, New Hampshire, where his homestead is still known as Jude's Pond. Three of his children were kidnapped and sold into slavery, and two of his grandsons fought in the American Civil War.
Jude Hall, of Exeter, New Hampshire, enlisted in May 1775 in the 3rd New Hampshire militia regiment under General Enoch Poor , he later re-enlisted in the 2nd NH. Jude was one of the longest serving soldiers and fought in the Revolutionary War for eight years, earning his freedom from slavery. [1] He was profiled in William C. Nell's book Colored Patriots of New Hampshire, with Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons in 1855, which states: "He was a great soldier and was known in NH to the day of his death by the name Old Rock." [2] [3] Hall was possibly the most famous New Hampshire African-American patriot. [4] He was one of the longest serving soldiers, either Black or white. [5]
After his eight years of service, he received compensation in October 1786.
Hall lived his entire life in the Exeter area. "Jude's Pond", located on 70 Drinkwater Road in Exeter, New Hampshire, was his homestead as a free man and still bears his name. [9] [10] The location is quite near to the Blake farm (now Yorkfield Stables), where he was possibly born, and was once enslaved with others. The area where Jude raised his family is still quite wooded and lonely, and the two room home no longer stands.
Jude married Rhoda (Paul), sister of Reverend Thomas Paul, in 1785 and they had a large family on Drinkwater Road. [11] Three of their sons (James, Aaron, and William) were stolen into slavery. [12] His eldest daughter Dorothy married Robert Roberts, butler to Massachusetts Senator Christopher Gore and author of House Servants Directory (published in 1827). Roberts gave affidavit testimony regarding 18-year-old James' abduction in 1819 from his home on Drinkwater Road by an Exeter citizen, (as described in the House Servant's Directory's 2015 edition "introduction xi" by Graham Russell Hodges). Conflicting stories show that Rhoda Hall also sent an affidavit into The Liberator Newspaper, which was printed on March 8, 1834, saying James sailed on the ship "Wallace" out of Newburyport, MA., under command of Capt. Isaac Stone. and was sold into slavery at the port of Alexandria, VA. [13] Ship manifests show him on the "Ship Superb" sailing from Baltimore to New Orleans on April 6, 1819, to be sold by Hector McClean & Co to Dr. John Towle of Kentucky. Of their sons, only George remained to carry on the family name.
Three of Jude and Rhoda's grandsons, Moses, Aaron and Luke Hall served in the Civil War. [14] Jude and Rhoda's nephew was the Exeter-born abolitionist poet James Monroe Whitfield, via Rhoda's sister, Nancy Paul.
In his history of the town of Exeter, published in 1888, Charles Henry Bell penned a memorable description of Jude Hall as "a man of powerful physique...it is said that the parts of his ribs which are usually cartilaginous were of solid bone, so that his vital organs were enclosed in a sort of osseous case." and also "a powerful man who could lift a barrel of cider and drink from it." [15] According to Bell, Hall was the chief witness of the government in the trial of John Blaisdell for the 1822 homicide of another Exeter resident, John Wadleigh. Both were neighbors of Hall.
Hall died in 1827, and his actual gravesite is unknown although old articles describe his grave as being in the Winter Street Cemetery "near to the old crypt." In 2000, Ed Wall, a descendant of Hall's enslaver erected a memorial stone in his honor in the Winter Street Cemetery in Exeter, in the section where other Black patriots still have stones. [16] [17] Widow Rhoda moved to Belfast, Maine, to live with her daughters Rhoda Ann and Mary Jane Cook. Rhoda died February 21, 1844, in Belfast, her obelisk is in the Grove Cemetery. [18]
In 2021, the "Jude & Rhoda Hall Society" Facebook page was created, with a downloadable tree. [19] Descendants and researchers have the ability to interact. Updates to the tree are housed at the Exeter Historical Society.
On October 31, 2023, the Daughters of the American Revolution assigned Jude Hall an official Patriot Ancestor number (217131), through his only remaining son, George Washington Hall (b.1789). A woman in California was the first to claim Jude in her line.
Major-General John Stark was an American military officer who served during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. He became known as the "Hero of Bennington" for his exemplary service at the Battle of Bennington in 1777.
Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. Its population was 16,049 at the 2020 census, up from 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood. Home to Phillips Exeter Academy, a private university-preparatory school, Exeter is situated where the Exeter River becomes the tidal Squamscott River.
William Prescott was an American colonel in the Revolutionary War who commanded the patriot forces in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Prescott is known for his order to his soldiers, "Do not fire until you see the whites of their eyes", such that the rebel troops may shoot at the enemy at shorter ranges, and therefore more accurately and lethally, and so conserve their limited stocks of ammunition. It is debated whether Prescott or someone earlier coined this memorable saying.
Nicholas Gilman Jr. was an American Founding Father, a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and a signer of the U.S. Constitution, representing New Hampshire. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives during the first four Congresses and served in the U.S. Senate from 1805 until his death in 1814. His brother John Taylor Gilman was also very active in New Hampshire politics, serving as Governor of New Hampshire for 14 years, as well as a principal benefactor of Phillips Exeter Academy. Their childhood home in Exeter is now the American Independence Museum.
Salem Poor (1747–1802) was an enslaved African-American man who purchased his freedom in 1769, became a soldier in 1775, and rose to fame as a war hero during the American Revolutionary War, particularly in the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Praying Indian is a 17th-century term referring to Native Americans of New England, New York, Ontario, and Quebec who converted to Christianity either voluntarily or involuntarily. Many groups are referred to by the term, but it is more commonly used for tribes that were organized into villages. The villages were known as praying towns and were established by missionaries such as the Puritan leader John Eliot and Jesuit missionaries who established the St. Regis and Kahnawake and the missions among the Huron in western Ontario.
Titus Cornelius, also known as Titus, Tye, and famously as Colonel Tye, was a slave of African descent in the Province of New Jersey who escaped from his master and fought as a Black Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War; he was known for his leadership and fighting skills. He fought with a volunteer corps of escaped Virginia Colony slaves in the Ethiopian Regiment, and he led the Black Brigade associators. Tye died from tetanus from a musket wound in the wrist following a short siege in September 1780 against Captain Joshua Huddy. He was one of the most feared and effective guerrilla leaders opposing the American patriot forces in central New Jersey.
Brigadier General Jonathan Moulton played an important role in the early history of New Hampshire and many tales of his adventures would become legendary. He is the namesake of the town of Moultonborough in Carroll County, New Hampshire.
The New Hampshire Militia was first organized in 1631 and lasted until 1641, when the area came under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. After New Hampshire became an separate colony again in 1679, New Hampshire Colonial Governor John Cutt reorganized the militia on March 16, 1680, with one foot company apiece for the four major settlements in Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter and Hampton, and an artillery and cavalry company in Portsmouth. The King of England authorized the Provincial Governor to give commissions to persons who shall be best qualified for regulating and discipline of the militia. President Cutt placed Major Richard Waldron of Dover in command of the Militia. In 1879, the Militia was designated by the state as the New Hampshire National Guard.
Amos Tuck was an American attorney and politician in New Hampshire and a founder of the Republican Party in New Hampshire.
Barzillai Lew was an African-American soldier who served with distinction during the American Revolutionary War.
In the American Revolution, gaining freedom was the strongest motive for Black enslaved people who joined the Patriot or British armies. It is estimated that 20,000 African Americans joined the British cause, which promised freedom to enslaved people, as Black Loyalists. Around 9,000 African Americans became Black Patriots.
The Bucks of America was a Patriot Massachusetts Militia company, during the American Revolutionary War, that was composed of African-American soldiers. Few records survive about the unit; most of its history is constructed from eyewitness accounts. No official military records pertaining to the Bucks of America exist or have survived.
Black Patriots were African Americans who sided with the colonists who opposed British rule during the American Revolution. The term Black Patriots includes, but is not limited to, the 5,000 or more African Americans who served in the Continental Army and Patriot militias during the American Revolutionary War.
The Ethiopian Regiment, better known as Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, was a British colonial military unit organized during the American Revolution by the Earl of Dunmore, last Royal Governor of Virginia. Composed of former slaves who had escaped from Patriot masters, it was led by British officers and sergeants. The regiment was disbanded in 1776, though many of its soldiers probably went on to serve in other Black Loyalist units.
Primus Hall was born into slavery. He is believed to be the son of Prince Hall, an abolitionist, American Revolutionary War soldier and founder of the Prince Hall Freemasonry.
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James Monroe Whitfield was an African-American poet, abolitionist, and political activist. He was a notable writer and activist in abolitionism and African emigration during the antebellum era. He published the book America and other Poems in 1853.
Caesar Nero Paul, patriarch of a prominent New England family of writers, clergymen, and abolitionists. A victim of the Atlantic slave trade as a young child, he became a free man after the French and Indian War; married a white woman and founded a family in Exeter, New Hampshire; and lived to see his children attain important positions in the free Black community of the early United States.
jude hall osseous.Boston: J.E. Farwell & Co., 1888