Private James Anthony*

James Anthony, of Black and Indigenous heritage, is associated with Natick in some military records, but little is known of his life before the war.  His surname “Anthony” places him as a descendant of one of the first Indigenous families of Natick after it was established as a mission or Praying Town in 1651. James Anthony married a Native woman named Keziah, and both owned property in the town.

Anthony enlisted on May 2, 1775, after the Battle of Lexington and Concord, in Captain James Mellen’s Company in Colonel Jonathan Ward’s Regiment. Ward's Regiment, also known as the 21st Continental Regiment, was first raised April 23, 1775, as part of the Massachusetts Militia at Cambridge. The Regiment joined the Continental Army, and Private Anthony along with it, in June 1775. 

Anthony’s regiment was present during the Siege of Boston, an eleven-month period during which colonial milita contained British Troops within the city (April 1775 to March 1776). Anthony spent eight months in Cambridge/Boston and later returned home.

On March 14, 1777, Anthony enlisted for three years in the Continental Army. He began in Captain Reuben Slayton’s Company in Colonel William Shepard’s 4th Massachusetts Regiment. This Regiment fought at both Battles of Saratoga and then spent the winter at Valley Forge. In 1778, Private Anthony and the 4th Massachusetts Regiment also fought in the Battle of Rhode Island.  Having completed his enlistment, Private Anthony was honorably discharged on March 14, 1780.

Anthony filed for a pension that was awarded in 1818. At the time of his application, he was in “needy circumstances” living in Smithfield, Rhode Island. In his own writing, Anthony refers to himself as “an old Black man.” On the list of Massachusetts’ African American Soldiers, Marines, and Patriots of the Revolutionary War,  Natick is listed as Private Anthony’s hometown

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.