Caesar Hammon

Quick Facts

Significance:

Patriot of Color at the Battle of Bunker Hill

Place of Birth:

Holliston, Massachusetts(?)

Date of Birth:

Circa 1748

Place of Death:

Lancaster, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

June 24, 1803

The following is from the 2004 National Park Service study Patriots of Color researched and prepared by George Quintal:

Caesar Hammon was born circa 1748.^I

He enlisted on 29 April 1775 from Holliston (MA) in the company of Capt. James Mellen, in Col. Jonathan Ward’s regiment and was still in service as of October 1775 from Hopkinton (MA).^II

The 1790 census of Harvard (MA) lists him as head in a household of six free people of color.^III

He died in Lancaster (MA) on 24 June 1803^IV of consumption, at the age of 55.^V

He was married but the name of his wife is unknown. He had a child who died January 1775.^VI

Footnotes:

1. A Birth date backwardly-computed, based on age in military descriptive roll.
2. Secretary of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908) 7:174. Also 2-CD Family Tree Maker^TM set “Military Records: Revolutionary War.”
3. United States Census, National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 29 (1790-1850). Index, 1790, Massachusetts, Harvard 223.
4. Vital Records to 1850. Births, Marriages, and Deaths. Vols for most Massachusetts towns, Lancaster, 182, listed as ‘a Negro.’
5. Ibid, 354.
6. Ibid, 327, referencing a Congregational Church record and describing Caesar as a ‘free Negro.’

Learn more about Quintal's study.