by Rich Remling, former board member CNYGS
Miscellaneous records are court records that are under
utilized by genealogists. Tree Talks has been abstracting court records for
years, but these records have mainly been probate and guardianship records. The
LDS has digitized deeds and probate records in New York State but have not done
much with miscellaneous court records. Sometimes you can find things in these
miscellaneous records that may be found in no other place.
In the basement archives of the Onondaga County Courthouse,
I had been leafing through the earliest Miscellaneous Records book “Onondaga
County Miscellaneous Records A-B-C-D. “ On page 189 of Volume D, I found the
following record that was recorded by D. Mosely, clerk on Apr 25, 1821:
Whereas Absalom Talbot of the Town of Salina in the County of
Onondaga a black man has appeared before me and whereas proof has been
exhibited before me that the said Absalom Talbot is a free man according to the
laws of this State by oath of Charles Fields. Now therefore I Nehemiah H. Earll
one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas in this the County of Onondaga
do certify that I am of the opinion that the said Absalom Talbot is free
according to the laws of this State and further that the age of the said
Absalom is of the age of twenty six years the description of whose person is as
follows about six feet one ¼ inches and was born free in the Town of
Bridgewater in Massachusetts. N. H. Earll Judge of Onon Com Pleas
The Preservation Association of Central New York (PACNY) has
researched Absalom and his family. The Absalom and Magdalena Talbot house on
Abbey Road in the Town of Onondaga is on PACNY’s Freedom Trail website[1]. The research states that Absalom was born
about 1800 in Massachusetts. This information probably was obtained from later
census records. Thanks to the Miscellaneous Records we now have a more accurate
birth date and origin for Absalom.
Spelling variations for the name Talbot include Tolbot,
Talbit, Talburt, Talbut, Talbert, Tarbit, Tarbot, Turbuit, Tarbet and Terbert.
The January 2013 article “Sampson Dunbar and His Family” in
the New England Historical and
Genealogical Register (Volume 167, page 61) gives Absalom’s parents as
Jacob and Susanna (Dunbar) Talbot. Jacob’s parents were Tobey and Dinah (Goold)
Tarbit.
Tobey’s emancipation was decided in a Plymouth County Court
of Common Pleas case in
October 1779 (vol. 15, pages 219 – 220). In the case Toby Tarbut, plaintiff,
alleged that Jesse Howard, defendant, took 2 cows, 1 hog and 25 bushels of
parsnips from him. The defendant contended that the plaintiff was his proper
servant for life and that on Jan 2, 1771 he and Elijah Snell bought the
plaintiff from David Jones and that on Apr 16, 1771 Snell released his claim of
Toby Tarbut to the plaintiff for twenty pounds. After deliberations the jury
found that Toby Tarbut was indeed a freeman and could recover costs against
Jesse Howard.
Shortly after this court case, the Massachusetts state
constitution was written. It is the oldest functioning written constitution in
the world. John Adams was the principal author. Article 1 of the Declaration of
Rights declared “all men are born free and equal.”[2]
After this constitution was finalized, several court cases in the early 1780s
concluded that slavery was inconsistent with the new constitution. This led to
slavery’s end in Massachusetts in 1783. In New York State, slavery gradually
ended, beginning with a state law in 1799 and ending in 1827 with the freeing
of all the remaining slaves in the state.[3]
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