Uriah Ritchie

Quick Facts

Significance:

Boston Vigilance Committee member

Place of Birth:

Gortnessey, Ireland

Date of Birth:

May 22, 1799

Place of Death:

Boston, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

October 11, 1865

Place of Burial:

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Mount Auburn Cemetery

Irish immigrant Uriah Ritchie, “one of the earliest and most uncompromising friends of the Anti-Slavery cause in Boston,”¹ served as part of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee. 

Born in Ireland in 1799, Uriah Ritchie came to Boston in 1823 with his brother, John. Together, they worked in masonry and housebuilding. Ritchie found success in America; he became one of the wealthiest residents in Boston. He married Susan White Rand in 1830. The couple had two children, Elizabeth and John.²

While a successful businessman, Ritchie also committed to fighting against injustice in America. British abolitionist George Thompson remembered: 

As a citizen, he was loyal, peaceable, patriotic, and observant of law; but he had too much integrity and sense of justice, and too strong a love of the rights of humanity, to sanction acts on the part of his adopted country which were inimical to the happiness and freedom of any part of the population.³

Unlike many Irish immigrants, Ritchie supported the abolitionist cause in his “adopted country”—he contributed funds to and participated in national and local antislavery societies. Ritchie also graciously hosted British abolitionist George Thompson at his house during Thompson’s third visit to America in 1864.⁴

With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Ritchie joined the third and final iteration of the Boston Vigilance Committee. The organization aided freedom seekers coming to Boston on the Underground Railroad. While Ritchie appears on Austin Bearse’s doorman’s list, any of his direct contributions to the organization remain unknown.⁵

Ritchie passed on his devotion to the abolition cause to his son, John Ritchie. After Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation allowed for the raising of Black regiments, Massachusetts Governor John Andrew quickly created the Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Infantry, one of the first Black regiments to serve in the US Civil War. Ritchie’s son John volunteered and served as the Regiment’s quartermaster.⁶

Ritchie became ill in 1865. He passed away on October 11, 1865, in Boston. His remains are interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery.⁷ George Thompson gave remarks at Ritchie’s funeral, and remembered his life and noble efforts: 

Let us seek to make up for his loss by greater devotion on our part to the cause of human brotherhood, of universal liberty, and of impartial justice. He was a hater of tyranny, and a friend of the enslaved and oppressed. He was humane and beneficent to the poor and needy.⁸

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Footnotes

1. “Died,” The Liberator, October 20, 1865, 3.  
2. “Recent Deaths,” Boston Evening Transcript, December 8, 1883, 12; “Uriah Ritchie,” Find a Grave, Uriah Ritchie (1799-1865) - Find a Grave Memorial.
3. George Thompson, Uriah Ritchie, born in Gortnessey, Ireland May 22, 1779, died in Boston (U.S.) Oct. 11, 1865, #11 - Uriah Ritchie, born in Gortnessey, Ireland May 22, 1779, died ... - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library, 5.
4. The Liberator, February 28, 1845, 3; “Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts A.S. Society,” The Liberator, January 31, 1845, 3; “Account of money received…” The Liberator, October 6, 1837, 3; “Collections,” The Liberator, March 21, 1851, 3; George Thompson, Uriah Ritchie, born in Gortnessey, Ireland May 22, 1779, died in Boston (U.S.) Oct. 11, 1865, #11 - Uriah Ritchie, born in Gortnessey, Ireland May 22, 1779, died ... - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library, 6.  
5. Austin Bearse, Reminiscences of Fugitive Slave Law Days in Boston, (Boston: Warren Richardson, 1880), 5. 
6. Luis Emilio, History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865, (Boston: Boston Book Co., 1891), 34.  
7. “Uriah Ritchie,” Find a Grave, Uriah Ritchie (1799-1865) - Find a Grave Memorial. 
8. George Thompson, Uriah Ritchie, born in Gortnessey, Ireland May 22, 1779, died in Boston (U.S.) Oct. 11, 1865, #11 - Uriah Ritchie, born in Gortnessey, Ireland May 22, 1779, died ... - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library, 7-8.