William T. Raymond

Quick Facts

Significance:

Boston Vigilance Committee member

Place of Birth:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Date of Birth:

1827

Place of Death:

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

August 25, 1883

Place of Burial:

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Cambridge Cemetery

William T. Raymond served as a member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee. 

Born in 1827 in Philadelphia to John T. and Susan Raymond, William T. Raymond moved to Massachusetts at a young age with his family. They lived in Cambridge, next to Boston, where his father worked as a reverend. Raymond soon became involved with Boston’s Black community in Beacon Hill.¹

In the 1840s, Raymond served as the secretary of the Young Men’s Literary Society, a self-education organization for young Black men in Boston. Raymond’s worked closely with other members such as William Cooper Nell and Isaac H. Snowden, and as secretary, he organized and published notices of their meetings and lectures at the African Meeting House. Under the auspices of the Colored Citizens of Boston, Raymond served as an organizer for the welcome and farewell events for African American abolitionist William Wells Brown in 1849 and British abolitionist George Thompson in 1850. Like the Young Men’s Literary Society, the Colored Citizens of Boston hosted Brown and Thompson at the African Meeting House.²

Additionally, Raymond joined the third and final iteration of the Boston Vigilance Committee. Formed in 1850, following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, the organization aided freedom seekers coming to Boston on the Underground Railroad. Raymond’s specific contributions to the organization, however, remain unknown.³

In addition to beingan active member of his community, Raymond worked in Cambridge as a shoemaker, and later, as a clerk for manufacturers. On November 26, 1857, Raymond married Louisa Hilton, the daughter of abolitionist John T. Hilton. Together, the couple had a son and daughter.⁴

Ultimately, the City of Cambridge appointed Raymond as the inspector of Cambridge Water Works, where he “proved himself a trustworthy and competent official.”⁵ Raymond’s municipal work “took him into almost every residence,” in Cambridge, making him a familiar face to many.⁶ Raymond worked as a city official for six years, until his death on August 25, 1883. Many of his fellow city government workers honored Raymond’s life at his funeral. His remains are interred in the Cambridge Cemetery.⁷

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Footnotes

1. William T. Raymond,” Find A Grave, William T. Raymond (1827-1883) - Find a Grave Memorial.
2. “Presentation and Farewell Meeting,” The Liberator, July 27, 1849, 2; “Welcome Meeting to George Thompson, Esq., M.P.,” The Liberator, November 29, 1850, 1-2; “Notice,” The Liberator, November 7, 1845, 3; “Young Men’s Literary Society,” The Liberator, March 6, 1846, 3; William Wells Brown, Narrative of William W. Brown, an American Slave, 54, Narrative of William W. Brown, an American Slave : William W. Brown : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.
3. "Members of the Committee of Vigilance," broadside printed by John Wilson, 1850, Massachusetts Historical Society.
4. “Marriages,” Boston Evening Transcript, December 10, 1857, 2; Franklin A. Dorman, Twenty Families of Color in Massachusetts: 1742-1998, (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1998), 118. 
5. Cambridge Chronicle, September 1, 1883; Find A Grave, William T. Raymond (1827-1883) - Find a Grave Memorial; “Brieflets,” Boston Evening Transcript, August 28, 1883, 8; “Recent Deaths,” Boston Evening Transcript, August 27, 1883, 6. 
6. Cambridge Chronicle, September 1, 1883; Find A Grave, William T. Raymond (1827-1883) - Find a Grave Memorial. 
7. “Brieflets,” Boston Evening Transcript, August 28, 1883, 8; “Recent Deaths,” Boston Evening Transcript, August 27, 1883, 6; “William T. Raymond,” Find A Grave, William T. Raymond (1827-1883) - Find a Grave Memorial.