Titus Hayward (Tuttle)

Quick Facts

Significance:

Patriot of Color at the Battle of Bunker Hill

Place of Birth:

Acton, Massachusetts(?)

Place of Death:

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania(?)

Date of Death:

December 14, 1777(?)

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

Titus Hayward was a ‘colored’ soldier from Acton (MA) ‘hired by Simon Tuttle,’^I and was also called Titus Tuttle.

He enlisted from Acton in the eight month’s service on 29 April 1775, in Capt. Abel Wilder’s company in Col. Ephraim Doolittle’s regiment. He is listed on a 26 June 1775 receipt for advanced pay, on the 1 August 1775 muster roll,^II and on a 6 October 1775 company return.^III

On a list dated July 1776 ‘of men hired to perform turns of service on Crown Point expedition,’ he is named only as ‘Titus,’ ‘a negro.’ By September 1776, he was in Capt. Adam Wheeler’s company in Col. Thomas Nixon’s regiment.^IV Pay receipts continue for October and November 1776.^V A 9 November 1776 regimental return places him at North Castle (NY). It is highly likely that he was engaged in the Battle of White Plains (NY). He was discharged on 20 November 1776.^VI By 14 December 1776, he was back home and enlisted from Concord in Capt. John Hartwell’s company in Col. Nicholas Dike’s Massachusetts militia regiment.^VII

On February 1777 he was ‘reported sick in hospital.’^VIII With Gen. Burgoyne preparing to advance on northern New York, the call once again went out for soldiers to meet this serious threat. From his militia unit, he joined the Continental Army on 14 March 1777 for a term of three years or during the war, in the company of Capt. Edmund Munroe in Col. Timothy Bigelow’s 15^th Massachusetts regiment. This unit served at Saratoga and at Valley Forge. On a 14 December 1777 pay account he is ‘reported deceased,’ most probably at Valley Forge.^IX

It is probably his son Titus who filed intentions to marry Phillis Lawrence at Littleton on 13 December 1794. They eventually were married on 6 January 1797.^X

Footnotes:

1. Phalen, Harold R. History of the Town of Acton [MA] (1954), 385.
2. Secretary of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908) 16:209, listed as ‘Tuttle, Titus.’ Also 2-CD Family Tree Maker^TM set “Military Records: Revolutionary War.”
3. Ibid 16:201, listed as ‘Tuttel, Titus.’
4. Ibid 15:792, listed only as ‘Titus.’
5. Ibid 16:209.
6. Ibid 15:792.
7. Ibid 7:641, listed as ‘Haywood, Titus.’
8. Ibid 7:809, listed as ‘Heywood, Titus.’
9. Ibid 6:641; also, 7:809, which lists his residence as Acton.
10. Vital Records to 1850. Births, Marriages and Deaths. Vols for most Massachusetts Towns, Littleton, Marriages, 237; both are listed as ‘of Littleton’ and lists the surname of Titus as ‘Tuttle.’

Learn more about Quintal's study.