Silas Royal (Ryal Varnum)

Quick Facts

Significance:

Patriot of Color at the Battle of Bunker Hill

Place of Birth:

Dracut, Massachusetts(?)

Date of Death:

May 3, 1826

Place of Burial:

Dracut, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Varnum Burial Ground

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

Ryal, as he was called, ‘was purchased in Boston as an infant and brought to Dracut’ where he became a servant in the household of Joseph Bradley Varnum^I but was ‘early manumitted.’ ‘He was a man who possessed dignity of manner and was respected and trusted by the family with whom he lived.’^II

He enlisted on 29 April 1775 into the company of Capt. Jonas Richardson, in Col. James Frye’s regiment. He was listed on the October roll of the company.^III On 22 December 1775, he is recorded on an ‘order for bounty coat or its equivalent in money dated Camp at Cambridge.’^IV

On 1 January 1776, he enlisted in the company of Capt. Joshua Reed, in Col. James Mitchell Varnum’s 9^th Continental Infantry.^V By the time Col. James Mitchell Varnum was promoted to Brigadier-General in 1777, Silas Royal had become his body servant and ‘accompanied him in his military expeditions.’ At some point during the war, he served as a privateersman ‘on board the brig Franklin, … at Salem, and drew £30 as his share of prize money.’^VI

While home in 1778, he was seized and imprisoned in a conspiracy to sell him as a slave in the South. Nearly the entire Varnum family set out to rescue him. The story is best told by citing the Varnum diary verbatim:^VII

Jan 19 1778 – This morning while at breakfast heard that Joshua Wyman had sold Ryal Varnum, that ye News was brought from Westford by Jos. Varnum Jr. & that said Ryal was carried off in a covered waggon. Handcuffed – on hearing of which I immediately called for my horse, Galloped to Jos. Varnum’s to Know ye Certainty. He confirmed it, Sent him to Capt. Jo’s to come Immediately. Sent Jonas with my horse. Gave Jonas $20 to bare his expenses, with orders to pursue with all possible speed, overtake, Bring back and not suffer arbitrary voyalance to Escape with Impunity. They pursued, came to Woburn, found the News confirmed. That it was the Infamous Joner White, the Scurrilous Tinker of Haverhill, that Bought him (at ye same time knowing sd Ryal was a free man) sd White had Imprisoned him, Woburn people had liberated him. Sd White laid a false charge against him. Said he was an Inlisted soldier in ye Continental service: that he had received $20 Continental money & had Deserted, that he had stole from Sundry persons & was a thief & that if ye prison Could not hold him ye Guard should & profanely swore that he had brought him & would have him some way on that Complaint. Altho he knew it to be false he put him under guard. There is ye Infamous White that hath worked himself by some means as some way to be a quartermaster for ye Army at or near Boston, a fine post to get money when Truth Nor Honor is not regarded.

Jan 20. Capt. Joseph & Jonas Varnum went to Boston, Complained to General Heath against said White, had sd Ryal Liberated, and a promise from the Genl. that he would take Notice of said White. They gave sd White Just Character to ye General, he promised he would take Notice of it. They went to White, Informed him what they had done. He was extremely angry. Curst & swore very profanely. They delt with him very sharply for his Conduct to Ryal. He said he did not know that Ryal was free. They told him that he Did know that his Crime aledged against Ryal, for which he was put under gaol was true, but that he knew ye contrary. He said that all such Neagrows ought to be slaves. They told him that Ryal was as Good a man & of as much Honor as he, at which he was extremely angry & profain. Laid his hand on his Hanger by his side. They told him they had seen Hangers & men before they had seen him or his, that they were Ready to answer him any way he pleased, that they on sd Ryal Behalf, should Bring an action of Damage for false Imprisonment, that such men stealers should not go unpunished. They came to Wymans same Day. Gave him ye like Trimming.

The Varnum’s kept their promise to institute court proceedings. Silas Royal received a judgement in his favor of one hundred pounds, from the Middlesex County (MA) Court of Common Pleas, in September 1777.^VIII Gen. James Mitchell Varnum^IX of Rhode Island, the brother of Capt. Joseph Bradley Varnum, filed an action against Joshua Wyman before the October term of the Superior Court of Bristol County (RI) in 1779. John White, who had purchased Ryal from Wyman, published a deposition:^X

I, John White solemnly declare that I purchased a Negro named Royal of one Joshua Wyman of Woburn in the County of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts Bay, sometime the last of spring or beginning of summer 1778, for which I paid nine fifty six pounds lawful money, sd Wyman declaring to me on his word of honor that if I would sell the sd Royal to some other Southern Officer, so that he might never again return to New England, he would give me some consideration therefor (as he said on account of his infamous character as a thief &c) and that the said Wyman still retains the money from me that I gave him for said Negro, alledging that he is my slave for life and that it is my fault that I do not make him so. This I solemnly protest to be the truth.

John White

Newburyport Sept 28, 1779.

Silas Royal remained with the Varnum family after the war. This anecdote tells of his dignity in the manner:^XI

He was extremely punctilious as to respect he felt due him as Gen. Varnum’s servant. If any young men failed to take off their hats to him when they met him on the road, he would cry out, “Boys, where’s your manners?” and failing recognition, would send his cane after them in double quick time.

Gen. James Mitchell Varnum thought so highly of Silas Royal’s long and faithful service that he remembered him in his will:^XII

My will is that Silas Royal, a Black man, who had been for a long time supported by me, free from expense to himself or the Town, be comfortably supported through life, and honorable buried after death, at the expense of my Estate, provided, the small property which he has been indulged in the possession of shall not be transferred to any person but my residuary legatees.

He ‘was tenderly cared for and had a room in the family mansion. He died several years after Gen. Varnum on May 3 1826 and, at his own request, was buried beside an Indian in one corner of the Varnum burial ground at the Varnum homestead.’^XIII There is no record of marriage or children.

Footnotes:

1. Coburn, Silas R. History of Dracut Massachusetts … (1922), 334.
2. Ibid, 335.
3. Secretary of Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908), 13:639, listed as ‘Royal.’ Also 2-CD Family Tree Maker^TM set “Military Records: Revolutionary War.”
4. Ibid 13:638, listed as ‘Royall.’
5. Ibid 13:637, listed as ‘Royal.’
6. Coburn, Silas R. History of Dracut Massachusetts … (1922), 335.
7. Ibid, 335-6.
8. Coburn, Silas R. History of Dracut Massachusetts … (1922), 338.
9. This is the same man who ‘proposed raising a battalion of African Americans in Rhode Island’ per Moebs, Thomas Truxton. Black Soldiers – Black Sailors – Black Ink: Research Guide on African-Americans in U.S. Military History, 1526-1900:… (1994), 1126. The result was the 1^st Rhode Island Regiment commanded by Col. Christopher Greene which performed heroic service at the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778.
10. Ibid, 337-8. The Varnums of Dracut, in actions that resembled those of the founders of the Underground Railroad nearly a hundred years later, deserve to be known and honored for being true friends of the slaves.
11. Ibid, 335.
12. Ibid, 338.
13. Ibid, 335. The Varnum Burial round is on Parker Road in Dracut. This cemetery was visited in September 2000 but no gravestone could be found for Silas Royal. There is a section in the right rear that has no stones and it would seem logical that he is buried there. NOTE: Dracut VR’s list his name as ‘Riol’ and his death on 2 May 1826.

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