Private Plato Lambert*

Plato Lambert was a Black veteran of the Revolutionary War who was born in Framingham on December 1, 1737, the child of an enslaved mother. As an infant he was taken from his family and given or sold to Martha Nichols of Framingham. This was a common practice in colonial Massachusetts.

Later, Plato Lambert was sold to Joseph and Hannay Taylor. The Taylors lived on a farm on Pond Street in Framingham. Before the Revolutionary War, Plato Lambert had been manumitted by the Taylors and had moved to Natick.

On May 1, 1775, Plato Lambert enlisted in Captain James Mellen’s Company, in Colonel Jonathan Ward’s Regiment. Ward's Regiment, also known as the 21st Continental Regiment, was raised April 23, 1775, as a Massachusetts militia regiment at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The regiment joined the Continental Army in June 1775. 

On December 26, 1775, Private Lambert was awarded a thigh-length, tobacco brown bounty coat. Private Lambert served with the Continental Army for 8 months.  

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 well-documented Natick family. 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.