This address and reading were delivered by Christ Church, Shrewsbury historian Jamie Greene and parishioners Bill Cuff, Connie Goddard, and Robert Maber at the Stations of Reparations service of repentance on March 25, 2023 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Freehold.[1]
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| Figure 1: Christ Church, Shrewsbury parishioners at the Stations of Reparations Service, 2023. Screen capture of the St. Peter's, Freehold recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1x6bEZOmGU. |
“As you enter the narthex at Christ Church, Shrewsbury, on the left you’ll see a large plaque commemorating Lewis Morris at whose home in 1702 our first church service was held. On the right you’ll see another plaque with a list of rectors including Samuel Cooke, the sixth rector, who was the driving force behind our current 1769 church building. Both men were slaveholders. Lewis Morris owned scores to work his bog-iron works. Rev. Cooke and his family had multiple slaves. But as slaveholders in Shrewsbury and Christ Church, Shrewsbury they were not alone. Historian Rick Geffken who is with us here today found that there were fifty-seven Shrewsbury slaveholders in 1771. Twenty-five of those worshipped at Christ Church. Rather than focus on the enslavers though, we’d like to remember today some of the fifty-four “negroes” and “mulattos” who were baptized at Christ Church between 1733 and 1775 using the original language found in our parish registers for those years.”
August 5, 1746.
John: Negro servant of Thomas Clayton, resident, Freehold; under sentence of death.
September 18, 1748.
Henry: Negro servant (of Mr. Leonard) whose name was “Fortune.”
June 13, 1749.
Peter: A free negro living with Mrs. Deuill.
September 8, 1749.
Zebulon: Son of a mulatto woman commonly called “Black Robin.”
September 22, 1749.
Anthony: A negro child belonging to Mrs. Jane Forman.
October 28, 1749.
Edith: 8-month-old mulatto, infant daughter of Edith Finemore.
August 19, 1750.
William: A negro servant of Mr. Tunis Dennis, commonly called “Forturian.”
July 24, 1751.
Sarah West: Father (Robin West) is a mulatto.
October 4, 1751.
Elizabeth: A negro woman of Mrs. Morford.
March 30, 1752.
Oliver: A negro child belonging to Samuel Leonard.
August 23, 1752.
Elizabeth: A negro woman belonging to the widow Forman.
August 23, 1752.
Diego: A negro belonging to Mr. Joseph Throckmorton.
May 6, 1756.
Rachel: Adult negro servant of Ms. Isabella Kearny [sister in law of Rev. Samuel Cooke] and the children of Rachel (Mary, Margaret, Robert Johnson, Bella).
[1] Transcript created by Jolyon Pruszinski from the St. Peter’s, Freehold video broadcast of the service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1x6bEZOmGU. Additional documentation is available in the article “Remembering the Enslaved at Christ Church,” hosted on the Christ Church, Shrewsbury homepage: https://christchurchshrewsbury.org/?p=6658. Note: often at this time, a designation of “mulatto” suggests rape as a likely circumstance of conception.
