Cuff Chambers (Blanchard)

Quick Facts

Significance:

Patriot of Color at the Battle of Bunker Hill

Place of Birth:

Andover, Massachusetts(?)

Date of Birth:

Circa 1738

Place of Death:

Leeds, Maine

Date of Death:

June 8, 1818

Place of Burial:

Leeds, Maine

Cemetery Name:

Dead River Cemetery

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

Cuff, of African descent, was born to parents named Chambers. The date of his birth is unknown but is placed at circa 1738.^I The place of his birth is also unknown but was undoubtedly Massachusetts. While Cuff died before the general pension act of 1818 and while his widow never claimed his pension during her lifetime, much of what we know about him is due to statements in the pension application^II of his only-surviving daughter made after the death of her mother.

Nothing is known of Cuff’s early life. The first record we have is of his marriage in Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts on 16 September 1762 to Bette ____, wherein both are listed as ‘Negro Servants.’^III Before the war, Cuff was owned by Samuel Blanchard of Andover and took on his last name. He was known as Cuff Blanchard until the end of the war, when obtaining the freedom promised to him by Blanchard if he served, he changed his last name to Chambers in honor of his mother.^IV

Six weeks after the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord, Cuff enlisted into the Andover company of Capt. Charles Furbush in the 27^th Massachusetts regiment of Col. Ebenezer Bridge.^V This unit of what was called ‘eight month’s men’ (due to the term of their enlistment) marched to Cambridge and became part of the army encircling Boston. Cuff was one of at least five men of color who served in Bridge’s regiment.

No primary record exists to detail his battle service. It is certain though that elements of Bridge’s regiment went on to Breed’s Hill on the night of 16 June 1775 in order to build the redoubt that became the tomb of so many Americans the next day. It is also certain that a large portion of Furbush’s company was on the hill during the battle of 17 June 1775. Capt. Furbush himself was severely wounded early in the action and had to be carried off the field.^VI Based on this knowledge and on the statement by Cuff’s daughter in 1849 that her father ‘was in the Battle at Bunker Hill,’^VII the presence of Cuff Blanchard at the battle is accepted as proven.

True to his promise, Samuel Blanchard set Cuff free, though no instrument of manumission has yet been found. The progression of events is best described by Cuff’s daughter Elizabeth in 1849:

She also states that she has heard her late said Father say that his name was originally Chambers, but enlisted intro the service by the name of Cuff Blanchard because he went by that name because his master was Blanchard, & that all other colored servants went by the sir name of their Masters, and also that after he obtained his freedom he again went by his original name Cuff Chambers.^VIII

At some point the family moved from Andover to Amherst, New Hampshire and then to Leeds, Maine.^IX They were in Leeds by at least 1808 as evidenced from this extract from the records of the Leeds Baptist Church:

Lords day August 7^th 1808 … Sister Elizabeth Chambers a black woman made a public declaration of her faith in our dear Saviour & love to his precious cause: to the satisfaction of the church, & was baptized^X

In 1814, one of the Overseers of the Poor in Leeds contacted his counterparts in Andover to ask for support for Cuff, ‘a pauper … claiming settlement in the town of Andover.’ An overseer from Andover made the trek to Maine to prove that that the Cuff Chambers requesting support was indeed the same Cuff Blanchard who had lived in Andover. Proof made, and choosing not to require the family to remove the almshouse in Andover, the overseers of Andover granted over $100 in assistance during the three years between 1814 and 1816.^XI

Cuff Chambers died in Leeds on 8 June 1818, at the probable age of 80, and his wife also died there nearly twenty-one years later at the age of 94:

Cuff Chambers a black man died June 8^th 1818
Betty wife of Cuff Chambers died Jan^y 26^th 1839^XII

He is buried in the Dead River Cemetery in Leeds on a bluff overlooking the river. His grave, marked by a government stone, is honored by the Sons of the American Revolution.^XIII The inscription reads:

PVT. FORBUSH’S MASS. CO.
REV. WAR
JUNE 8, 1818

Cuff and Bette Chambers had at least five children:^XIV

• _______
  • b. before 19 April 1775
• _______
  • b. before 19 April 1775
• Thaddeus
  • b. circa 1782
  • d. before 19 March 1849
  • m. Huldah Wood
  • children
    • Rhoda Benson
      • b. 29 Oct 1804
    • Phillip
      • b. 19 Mar 1806
• Mary
  • b. circa 1785
  • d. before 19 March 1849
  • m. ____ _____
  • children:
    • Lucy Wood
      • b. 1 Dec 1805
• Elizabeth
  • b. circa 1787
  • d. after 19 March 1849
  • m. ____ Roberts
  • children:
    • Lydia
      • b. _______
      • m. ____ Gannon

Footnotes:

1. Birth date backwardly-computed, based on average age of marriage of 26 (per study of compiler).
2. United States Revolutionary War Pensions, NARA, Record Group 15, Series M804. 2670 rolls, Roll 509, Pension# W23810.
3. Vital Records to 1850. Births, Marriages and Deaths. Vols for most Massachusetts towns, Andover, Marriages, 357; referencing the records of the South Parish Congregational Church.
4. United States Revolutionary War Pensions, NARA, Record Group 15, Series M804. 2670 rolls, Frame 185, affidavit of granddaughter Lydia Gannon, 17 April 1849.
5. Secretary of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908) 1:144, listed as ‘Blanchard, Cuff.’ Also 2-CD Family Tree Maker^TM set “Military Records: Revolutionary War.”
6. Sons of the American Revolution. Lineage Book. Books available for most northeastern states, Iowa (1910):49. As a side note, it was also stated that Captain Furbush was ‘murdered by a negro slave named Pomp’ in Andover in February 1795.
7. United States Revolutionary War Pensions, NARA, Record Group 15, Series M804. 2670 rolls, Frame 180, affidavit of daughter Elizabeth Roberts, 22 February 1849.
8. Ibid.
9. United States Revolutionary War Pensions, NARA, Record Group 15, Series M804. 2670 rolls, Frame 162, affidavit of daughter Elizabeth Roberts, 19 March 1849.
10. Maine Historical Society, Portland, ME, Collection#1956, “Records of the Leeds [Maine] Baptist Church,” Volume 1.
11. United States Revolutionary War Pensions, NARA, Record Group 15, Series M804. 2670 rolls, Frames 175-176, affidavit of William Johnson Jr. of Andover, 5 March 1849.
12. Maine Historical Society, Portland, ME, Vital Records of Leeds [ME].
13. Maine State Archives, Augusta, ME, Lot 84/Plot 1 per Revolutionary War Graves Registration card. Gravestone observed by this compiler and photographed by my daughter Sarah Quintal, March 2000.
14. Data on children Thaddeus and Mary from: Albert S. Bryant, “Leeds, Maine, Genealogy,” Box 1/Folder 2 (Maine Historical Society, Portland, ME: Collection# 232). Data on child Elizabeth, and deaths of Thaddeus and Mary, from U.S. Pension. At the time of Elizabeth’s 19 March 1849 pension application on her father’s service, she was the only surviving child. She also stated that ‘several’ children were born prior to the Revolution – their names are unknown.

Learn more about Quintal's study.