Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church at 412 Pine Street was founded in 1768. | Photo: Michael Bixler
A weathered headstone has stood for more than two centuries in the northwest corner of the Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church’s cemetery. Upon it’s re-discovery in 2021, Kevin Williams, president of Old Pine Conservancy, remarked at how the headstone sparked his curiosity, especially due to its size, which suggests that it was made to remember “someone of high status.”
What he and the Conservancy soon discovered is that this headstone belongs to James Hamilton, a former Georgia plantation owner who once owned over 600 enslaved people and spent his last years in Philadelphia.
What makes this discovery even more interesting is that near Hamilton are the final resting places of members of the Second African Presbyterian Church, which include Pastor Stephen Gloucester, a former enslaved person who became a minister and an abolitionist, his wife, and fellow Pastor Benjamin Templeton
Their stories have become part of an ongoing work-study research project by both the Conservancy and Temple University students Mary Greenberg and Adrian Nuñez into Hamilton’s life, how his story led him to Philadelphia, and, most importantly, how this project will change the narrative of this old church.
Hamilton’s Circle of Friends
Slave quarters at Hamilton Plantation at Saint Simons Island, Georgia. | Photo courtesy of Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
Born in Strathaven, Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1767, Hamilton arrived in the Southern Colonies most likely in 1784 because this period coincides with the slow rebuilding of the South after the American Revolution and the emergence of many opportunities, especially in trade.
According to Duke University’s archives and manuscripts collections, on his arrival to Charleston, South Carolina, Hamilton established working relationships with Henry Bethune & Co. of London, a business that most likely dealt in the slave trade. At this time, he purchased a townhome at No. 13 Broad Street in Charleston.
When Hamilton met his wife, Nancy Isabella Steedman, is unknown, but records from the collections state that she was born in London. They had two children: Agnes Rebecca and George.
We also do not know when and how he met his business partner, John Couper, but they later formed Hamilton & Couper. By 1800, they had purchased land at Gascoigne Bluff on St. Simon’s Island in Georgia. The many properties that they purchased included three other coastal Georgia plantations.
A drawing by artist Donovan Nelson depicting the Igbo Landing Mass Suicide. | Image courtesy of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
At the Hamilton Plantation, the main product was cotton as well as ships for the transportation of both enslaved people and products. During this period, Hamilton eventually owned over 650 enslaved, ranging in ages from 1 to 67 years old, establishing him as one of the biggest enslavers in the region. The majority of his slaves are listed in his records.
Letters from friends, business associates, and slave owners Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. and George Gibbs provide some insight into Hamilton. In a letter dated August 1801, Gibbs reports that he is having difficulty procuring a ship captain to deliver “your negroes to St. Simons.” Another interaction, which involves Couper, implies that Hamilton had requested Igbo enslaved people captured in Nigeria, but they ultimately rebelled, massacred, and committed mass suicide by drowning after their arrival to Georgia in 1803. This incident was referred to as the Igbo Landing Mass Suicide and is believed to be the first Black slave resistance. What is especially noteworthy is that this incident occurred during a period when the capture and smuggling of enslaved Africans was largely illegal.
The University of Georgia’s collection of Hamilton’s papers gives us a peek at the goings on within his plantations and his business dealings with both Couper and another business named McCredie & Hamilton. These papers highlight the scope of his interactions with individuals from Liverpool, Stockholm, Paris, Rotterdam, the Mediterranean, India, the West Indies, as well as throughout the American South. The collection also has a complete list of enslaved, promissory notes, and bills of sale from his estate.
Although it is not clear why he came to Philadelphia and lived at 260 Walnut Street, it is well documented that many Southerners found respite from the region’s humid weather and found social circles to their liking in the North.
Detail of James Hamilton’s list of enslaved people. | Image courtesy of Old Pine Conservancy
As noted in An American Aristocracy by Daniel Kilbride, “The city also had a southern orientation. Sympathetic observers and critics alike detected a strong affinity between its fashionable society and the southern gentry.” Hamilton most probably enjoyed what Scotsman Thomas Hamilton (not related) noticed while traveling through Philadelphia in 1830, “There is no American city in which the system of exclusion is so rigidly observed as in Philadelphia.”
Hamilton passed away at the age of 66 in 1829. As a member of the First Presbyterian Church, his plot and an additional 899 plots were moved to Old Pine’s cemetery in the 1840s. After his passing, his estate was trusted to his sole living grandchild, Isabella Hamilton Corbin, and two legatees, Richard Washington and Elizabeth T. Corbin.
By 1848, his estate was valued at $1 million, which included 764 enslaved. The executors of his estate invested in U.S. Treasury bonds of the State of Pennsylvania during and after the Civil War.
John and Stephen Gloucester
An undated portrait of John Gloucester. | Image courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society
In 1810, John Gloucester paid $1,500 to manumission his wife and four sons. One son was the future preacher Stephen Gloucester, who was born in the territory south of the Ohio River (later to become Tennessee) in 1776.
Gloucester found his purpose in life through preaching Christianity to his fellow slaves. He was freed by Reverend Gideon Blackburn who purchased him in 1806.
Gloucester joined the First African Presbyterian Church and served as its minister until his passing in 1822. His son Stephen became a minister, an abolitionist, the publisher of the Colored American, a supporter of the Underground Railroad, and founder and pastor of the Second African Presbyterian Church.
An etching showing First African Presbyterian Church, which was built at 7th Street below Shipppen (Bainbridge) Street and dedicated in 1811. | Image courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society
Unfortunately, Stephen’s fortunes turned in 1842 when an Irish mob attacked a parade in honor of the abolition of slavery in Jamaica. This was later referred to as the Lombard Street Riot. Second African and Smith’s Hall, both on Lombard and 4th Street, where both burned down during the three-day riot.
After building Lombard Street Central Presbyterian in 1844, he passed away in 1850 due to pneumonia and was placed in a grave with wife Ann that was forgotten until rediscovered in 2008. The couple was moved to Old Pine that same year. Also discovered within the vault was Benjamin F. Templeton who served as a pastor at Lombard Street Central Presbyterian for two years before his the untimely passing in 1858 at the age of 40.
Mistaken Identity
James Hamilton’s headstone at Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church. | Photo: Keshler Thibert
Williams recounted how he originally thought Hamilton’s headstone belonged to Colonel Ralph Isaacs, the secretary to George Mathews who was working as a special agent for the federal government to try and take Florida from the Spanish. Williams said when he learned that Hamilton owned enslaved people, he was conflicted, “I think Old Pine is a great mosaic of Antebellum America, a story that can’t be told without slavery, but it is also a terrible disappointment that such a prolific slave owner was in our graveyard.”
When asked how the discovery Hamilton, along with Gloucester and Templeton, will change the narrative of the church, Williams remarked, “I view it as an opportunity to memorialize the enslaved.” He said Old Pine’s plans are to link the names of the enslaved to their signage and include this information during tours of the burial grounds. He hopes that the work will not only uncover more about Hamilton through research and put the stories of the enslaved at the forefront, but also that something good can come from having had such a large enslaver buried at Old Pine.
Although Hamilton was hidden in plain sight, there are still plenty of stories regarding Antebellum Philadelphia that have not been told—yet. Northern slavery and relations with the South are still taboo topics at many organizations. Not long ago, Philadelphia institution that found any mention of their connection to the “peculiar institution” would quickly distance themselves from real evidence no matter how verifiable it is. Fortunately, the city, and the country, is moving onward toward more discoveries like the Gloucesters, Templetons, and others. Researchers will eventually dig up new leads wherever they are found and eagerly follow them wherever they may go.
Very interesting article.
Great article. Excellent research and helpful context about the Philadelphia connections to this horror
How was the grave actually decoded or puzzled together as being Hamilton’s?
Respectfully, this was absolutely not a mystery. This was a case of several mentioned individuals who hadn’t conducted proper research to date. Hamilton’s death and burial details had long been known, with the evidence available anyone looking well before 2021.
For example, three years before, a 2018 listing for Hamilton’s grave and original inscription was posted on Findagrave. While conducting doctoral research a decade before the supposed 2021 discovery, I found much about Hamilton, including his death and burial details, terms of his will and subsequent court case, and a wealth of details found in several states (including Pennsylvania, as well as abroad). The Corbin Papers housed piecemeal in several institutions also feature a wealth of information.
There are a number of details stated as “unknown” in this article, which is simply incorrect. To cite one example, James and Nancy (called Isabella) married on March 19, 1796 at the First Scots Presbyterian Church in Charleston by Rev. George Buist. Additionally, Chestnut Street’s reputation for banking and its myriad connections to things like slavery at the time is so well documented that I am quite surprised to see in print a suggestion that “the weather” was the primary draw for southerners.
Of interest to this post might be the following details. Hamilton was buried on April 14, 1829. His estate was charged $76 for a “Black death coffin with Silver Plate, 2 rows of Mouldings & handles. Case,” and “A Lead Coffin” for another $50, which was paid.