Person

Thomas Dority (Dorothy)

Quick Facts
Significance:
Patriot of Color at the Battle of Bunker Hill
Place of Birth:
Natick, Massachusetts(?)

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

Thomas Dority ‘lived on the land of Dea. Samuel Fiske.’I Temple describes him a ‘negro.’II

He joined the eight month’s service on 30 April 1775 in the company of Capt. James Mellen, in Col. Jonathan Ward’s regiment.III On 18 June 1775, one day after the Battle, he was listed on an order ‘for cartridge boxes dated, Camp at Cambridge.’IV This is a strong sign of participation in the Battle. He was also recorded on the October 1775 roll of the company.V

There is no record of 1776 service.

On 16 August 1777, he enlisted in Capt. Joseph Winch’s company, in Col. Samuel Bullard’s regiment of militia. This unit served in the Saratoga campaign. He was discharged on 7 October 1777, the date of the 2nd Battle of Saratoga.VI

‘After the war he traveled about the country with a violin strapped upon his back; and at musters and trainings, when well filled with cider, which was then a “legal” beverage, made much sport for the assembled multitude. The writer has heard two venerable persons of 80 years of age, relate a few years ago, with much gusto, the sport they had in smashing poor Tom’s fiddle by pelting it with apples.’VII

The 1790 census of Natick lists him as a head in a household of two free people of color.VIII

Footnotes:

  1. Natick Bulletin. “Local Centennial Events,” 18 June 1875, page 1. See ‘People File’ at Natick (MA) Historical Society, South Natick, MA.
  2. Temple, J.H. History of Framingham, Massachusetts … (1887), 307.
  3. Secretary of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908) 4:887, listed as ‘Dorthy.’ Also 2-CD Family Tree MakerTM set “Military Records: Revolutionary War.”
  4. Ibid 4:884, listed as ‘Dorothy.’
  5. Ibid 4:886, listed as ‘Dorrity.’
  6. Ibid 4:881, listed as ‘Dority.’
  7. Natick Bulletin. “Local Centennial Events,” 18 June 1875, page 1. See ‘People File’ at Natick (MA) Historical Society, South Natick, MA.
  8. United States Census, National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 29 (1790-1850), 1790, Massachusetts, Natick, 149.

Learn more about Quintal's study.

Boston National Historical Park, Saratoga National Historical Park

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Last updated: August 11, 2021