From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family

9. Aquilla Yarrow

9 Aquilla Yarrow Aquilla Yarrow was Yarrow Mamout’s only known offspring. He was born to a slave mother around 1788. He was quite a bit younger than his cousin, Nancy Hillman, and about Josiah Henson’s age. Although Yarrow called himself Yarrow Mamout, he treated Yarrow as his last name and so referred to his son as Aquilla Yarrow. Yarrow probably chose the name Aquilla because it was the name of one of Brooke Beall’s sons. Ann Chambers of Montgomery County owned Aquilla and his mother. She and her late father, William, also owned four properties in Montgomery County totaling 433 acres. The properties were called ‘‘Montross,’’ ‘‘I want thinking about it,’’ ‘‘Beggar’s Bennison,’’ and ‘‘Discovery Boardstones’’ (also called ‘‘Boylstones Discovery’’).1 The planters ’ sense of humor obviously came into play in giving tracts names like ‘‘I want thinking about it.’’ The humor in Beggar’s Bennison is less apparent. It literally means ‘‘beggar’s prayer’’ and has another, bawdy meaning.2 Montross had a dwelling house. This is where Chambers probably lived. Beggar’s Bennison had a log house, two small log houses, and a barn. The small log houses were slave quarters and presumably where Aquilla’s mother lived. Chambers’s land was about fourteen miles northwest of Georgetown and close to the Potomac River. The four parcels were not contiguous and were scattered around the edges of Brooke Beall’s 1,900acre Beallmount estate like keys on a key ring. Beggar’s Bennison, where the slave quarters were, was next to the mill at Beallmount.3 A water treatment plant for Washington marks the edge of the property today. aquilla yarrow | 123 Yarrow surely met Aquilla’s mother while he was living at Beallmount and perhaps while working at the mill. The two must have had a solid, continuing relationship, for Yarrow stayed in touch with her and, when Aquilla was seven or eight years old, bought his freedom. Buying Aquilla’s Freedom Yarrow’s own freedom had come as the result of Brooke Beall’s promise to him that if he made bricks for Beall’s new house in Georgetown, Beall would free him. Aquilla’s freedom may have been part of the same deal. Beall’s account ledger had an entry under Ann Chambers’s name on May 19, 1795, ‘‘to cash for Negro boy’’ in the amount of £37.4 Beall might well have been buying Aquilla or advancing money from Yarrow for that purpose. However, Aquilla’s freedom did not come at this time, for the plan was disrupted by Beall’s death later that summer. While his widow, Margaret, told Yarrow she would still keep her husband’s promise, she did not get around to completing the paperwork for another year. The delay spelled trouble for Yarrow because he had already arranged with Chambers for her to free Aquilla. On February 4, 1796, Chambers signed the boy’s manumission paper. Since she was illiterate, she marked her signature with an ‘‘X.’’ A month later, on March 16, the paper was taken to the clerk of the court in Montgomery County for filing. The manumission paper recited that Aquilla was seven or eight years old and that his freedom had been purchased for £20. This amount differed from the £37 entry for the ‘‘Negro boy’’ in Brooke Beall’s ledger, and so that boy might not have been Aquilla. More likely, however, Chambers had simply forgotten how much she had been paid. Ten months had passed, and since she could not read, she only had her memory to guide her. Whether she received £37 or £20 was of no legal significance. Chambers took the unusual step of going herself to the courthouse in Rockville to file the manumission. It was five miles from where she lived. Normally, the freed slave would have done this, but of course Aquilla was but a child. 124 | aquilla yarrow Once there, Chambers had a change of mind. As the clerk copied the manumission into the deed book, she directed him to add the provision : ‘‘Above named Boy shall not be taken out of his family till he is able to get his living by any person unless by his Father Yarrow nor even him provided he don’t obtain his freedom.’’5 A county justice recorded the manumission that day. He duly copied by hand the manumission paper, which Chambers had...