Private John Ferrit*
John Ferrit was born in Natick in 1753. On April 19, 1775 Private John Ferrit responded to the Lexington Alarm as a member of Captain Joseph Morse’s Company Colonel Samuel Bullard’s Regiment.
John Ferrit and his father Caesar fired upon the British regulars as they marched back towards Boston after the battle at the North Bridge in Concord. They are the only Black and Indigenous soldiers known to have fired on the British regulars on April 19, 1775. According to witness accounts recorded in 1830:
“Caesar Ferrit and his son John arrived at a house near Lexington meeting house, but a short time before the British soldiers reached that place, on their retreat from Concord. These two discharged their muskets upon the regulars from the entry, and secreted themselves under the cellar stairs, till the enemy had passed by, though a considerable number of them entered the house and made a diligent search for their annoyers.”
Private John Ferrit was one of three Black and Indigenous soldiers known to have fought on April 19, 1775. The others two are his father, Caesar and his brother Thomas. His mother Naomi Isaac is believed to have been an enslaved Indian from Cohasset, MA who was baptized on September 19, 1736. His father, Caesar Ferrit, was likely born enslaved on a Caribbean island in 1720. Later in his late Ferrit was recorded as having said that he had the "blood of four nations in his veins” from his African and Indigenous Caribbean grandmothers and his Dutch and French grandfathers. Caesar and Naomi Ferrit were free when they were married. Therefore, John and his six siblings were born free.
Private John Ferrit continued to fight with colonial forces on an intermittent basis from 1775 to 1781. He married Mary Graves in Natick on May 6, 1779. His name is memorialized on a tablet at the Indian Burial Ground on Pond Street in Natick.
John Ferritwas born in Natick in 1753. He was a veteran of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. On April 19, 1775, Natick resident, Private John Ferrit responded to the Lexington Alarm as a member of Captain Joseph Morse’s Company.
John Ferrit and his father Caesar fired upon the British regulars as they marched back towards Boston after the battle at the North Bridge in Concord. They are the only Afro-Indigenous soldiers known to have fired on the British regulars on April 19, 1775. According to witness accounts recorded in 1830:
Caesar Ferrit and his son John arrived at a house near Lexington meeting house, but a short time before the British soldiers reached that place, on their retreat from Concord. These two discharged their muskets upon the regulars from the entry, and secreted themselves under the cellar stairs, till the enemy had passed by, though a considerable number of them entered the house and made a diligent search for their annoyers.
Private John Ferrit was one of three Afro-Indigenous soldiers known to have fought on April 19, 1775. The other two Afro-Indigenous soldiers are his father Caesar and his brother Thomas. His mother Naomi Isaac was likely an enslaved Indian from Cohasset, MA who was baptized into the church on September 19, 1736. His father Caesar Ferrit was likely born enslaved on a Caribbean island in 1720 and had the "blood of four nations in his veins” from his African and Indigenous Caribbean grandmothers and his Dutch and French grandfathers. Caesar and Naomi Ferrit were free when they were married. Therefore, John and his six siblings were born free.
Private John Ferrit continued to fight with colonial forces on an intermittent basis from 1775 to 1781. He married Mary Graves in Natick on May 6, 1779. His name is memorialized on a tablet at the Indian Burial Ground on Pond Street in Natick.
Note: More often than not, service, vital, and/or other historical records were created and kept by men of English and European backgrounds. They employed a wide range of descriptive terms, such as "mulatto," negro," and "dark complexion." These terms cannot fully capture any soldier's identity, but they do offer clues. In some cases, the surname of a soldier of color connects him to a Natick family that is well documented. Often, these soldiers are Indigenous men. The biographies in this project make it possible to say more not only about a soldier's identity or background, but also about the life he led in Natick and beyond.