Caesar Porter

Quick Facts

Significance:

Patriot of Color at the Battle of Bunker Hill

Place of Birth:

Andover, Massachusetts(?)

Date of Birth:

Circa 1730

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

Caesar Porter was born circa 1730 and was early a servant to Moses Porter of Bradford (MA).^I

It is most probably the same Caesar who joined the eight month’s service on 30 May 1775 in the company of Capt. Charles Furbush, in Col. Ebenezer Bridge’s regiment. The last record of service for him is an ‘order for bounty coat or its equivalent in money dated Cambridge, Nov. 21, 1775.’^II

There was a Caesar Porter who was head of a household of five free persons of color in Dunbarton (NH) in 1790, who may be the soldier or possibly his son.^III

Caesar married Chloe, servant to Timothy Hardy of Bradford, on 11 January 1756 in Bradford.^IV

Footnotes:

1. Birth date backwardly-computed, based on average age of marriage of 26 (per study of compiler).
2. Secretary of Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908), 12:584, listed as 'Poor.’ 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, New Hampshire, Dunbarton, 43.
4. Vital Records to 1850. Births, Marriages and Deaths. Vols for most Massachusetts towns, Bradford, 289, listed as ‘NEGROES’ referencing a Congregational Church record.

Learn more about Quintal's study.