Private Thomas Ferrit*

Thomas Ferrit (1751 - unknown), of Indigenous, African, and European heritage, was born in Natick in 1751. On April 19, 1775, as a resident of the 4th Parish of Dedham, Private Thomas Ferrit responded to the Lexington Alarm as a member of Captain Ebenezer Battle’s Company.

Private Thomas Ferrit was one of three Black and Indigenous soldiers known to have fought on April 19, 1775.  The other two are his father, Caesar, and his brother, John. Thomas’s father was likely born enslaved on a Caribbean island in 1720 and is reported to have had the "blood of four nations in his veins,” from his African and Indigenous Caribbean grandmothers and his Dutch and French grandfathers.  Thomas’s mother, Naomi, is recorded to have been a white woman from New England, but she may also have been an Indigenous woman from Cohasset. Caesar and Naomi Ferrit were free when they were married. Therefore, Thomas and his six siblings were born free.

Private Thomas Ferrit is known to have served in the war for two days. He married Lydia Fagins of Natick on May 8, 1777.  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.