Tale of the two West Crosses

Two West Crosses lived in South Kingstown, Rhode Island during the time of the American Revolution, according to the 1790 Rhode Island Census. 

One West Cross heads a family of four. The other heads a family of six. They’re both listed as free "negroes."

Eleanor Shelton, my mother, found them after she discovered then-toddler Abraham Cross in the 1777 Military Census – the census taken to determine who was eligible to serve in the Continental Army.  The question is, which West Cross is his father? And who’s the other guy.

“It is believable that they were father and son. If so, the elder West Cross, Sr. was born in 1750 … with his West cross, Jr. born in 1770. Scrutiny of census records and a comparison between West Cross, Sr. and West Cross, Jr. and Abraham Cross suggest Abraham and West Cross, Jr. are brothers and sons of West Cross, Sr.”

Slave or Free?

While she believes both West Crosses were freemen, she reports another theory by   historian Christian M. McBurney. In his book, A History of Kingstown, RI, 1700-1900, Heart of Rural South County, McBurney writes that one of the West Crosses was formerly a slave who was freed around 1783. 

 “There was one independent household of four free Black persons headed by a free Black Man, West Cross,” he wrote. Eleanor, however, argues “no evidence, to date, substantiates West Cross as a slave.”

Whether he was born free or later freed, we’re among those few African-American families who can trace free Black ancestors to their origins in New England before and during the American Revolution. That’s a big deal. 

You can read more in Eleanor’s upcoming book that chronicles the history and genealogy of the New England Crosses and Southern Marrows.

Sources:

• Cross-Marrow Family History, Eleanor Shelton
• Military Census of 1777
• Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States, Washington County, South Kingstown Town, Rhode Island, 1790, Bureau of the Census Library Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 1908
• A History of Kingston, R.I., 1700-1900, Heart of Rural South County, by Christian M. McBurney, Kingston, R.I.:  Pettaquamscutt Historical Society, 2004, pg. 82.