Cremona Satterthwaite was a former slave, a landowner, and mother of the five bi-racial grandchildren of the first mayor of Philadelphia. Her family tree grew to include some of the city’s most prominent African American families, including the Montiers and Bustills, as well as the legendary singer, athlete, actor, and activist, Paul Robeson. A new book by Donald Scott Sr., The Montiers: From Enslavement to Paul Robeson and Beyond, takes a deep and wide look into their place in Philadelphia history from Colonial times to the present.
“Cremona’s story is significant because she had the strength, vision, fortitude, and intellect to navigate a controversial inter-racial relationship, intense racism, and entrenched sexism, leading to generations of trendsetting and illustrious African American families who survive into the 21st century,” Scott explained.
Although sources differ on the subject of Cremona’s ancestry, they generally agree that she was born in 1710 and was enslaved in the household of Humphrey Morrey. Maps, documents, and histories of the time variously spelled his last name as Murrey, Morry, and even Merry. He was a successful merchant, appointed by William Penn as the first mayor of Philadelphia, and one of the founders of Cheltenham Township, then part of Philadelphia County. Like many fellow Quakers of the time, Morrey was a slaveholder before The Society of Friends embraced abolition. After his death, his son Richard freed the family’s enslaved, but kept young Cremona on as a maid.
While Richard was married to his first wife, he and Cremona had a relationship that produced five children between 1735 and 1745. “Despite enduring questions about the exceptionally complicated dynamics of Cremona and Richard’s bond that may have been arguably or partially predicated on a slave–master and/or employee–employer relationship, (one of her descendants) the late Dr. William Pickens III postulated that they likely had a deeply loving and reciprocal relationship,” Scott wrote in his book. On the other hand, he acknowledges, “we likely will never know the exact nature or depth of Cremona’s relationship with Richard,” and wonders if it was consensual and whether Morrey simply felt morally obligated to provide for Cremona and their children.
Either way, in 1745, Richard ended the relationship and moved to Philadelphia. The next year, at a time when it was unheard-of for a Black woman to own land, he transferred 198 acres in northwest Cheltenham Township to Cremona. Around the time of Richard’s death, Cremona married John Fry, a former slave. “When Richard died, there were very few liberated Black Northern women who were able to gaze across their own land,” wrote Scott. Named after the African homeland of many of its residents, the community of Guineatown grew on part of Cremona’s property that was centered near Limekiln Pike and Waverly Road, currently known as the neighborhood of Edge Hill, in Glenside, Montgomery County.
Cremona’s older daughter, Elizabeth, married Cyrus Bustill, “a prosperous black businessman.” Her younger daughter, known as Cremona Jr., married John Montier, also formerly enslaved. Two years after Cremona’s death in 1770, the Montiers built a house adjacent to Limekiln Pike that still stands.
Rich in detail, Scott’s book paints a vivid picture of the African American experience in Philadelphia over the past 350 years. He goes into great detail about the past and lingering dynamics of slavery, sexism, and racism in the City of Brotherly Love, while celebrating Cremona’s legacy through the lives of her descendants and their spouses. These include the original member of the Free African Society and baker who made bread for the Continental Army, successful business owners, educators, artists, activists, a co-founder of the NAACP, and the great Paul Robeson.
“One thing appears to be certain,” Scott concluded. “Despite questions about the degree to which Richard was in love with or dedicated to Cremona and their children, the couple gave birth to an exceptionally important African American family legacy.”
Scott is no stranger to researching and writing about African American history. His previous works include Camp William Penn 1863-1865, a detailed history of the first and largest federal training facility for Northern-based Black soldiers, located in Cheltenham, Remembering Cheltenham, and scores of articles for newspapers, magazines, and websites. He has taught writing, history, and literature at Community College of Philadelphia, Cheyney University, Peirce College, and Temple University.
Scott recently completed the first draft of a book about people of color and others on the RMS Titanic and is currently working on a project focused on his own maternal and paternal family histories dating back to his mother’s Gullah Geechee ancestors on 18th century coastal plantations in South Carolina and Georgia.
“African American history is particularly relevant today considering the adverse political movements attempting to cover up our mighty accomplishments and the often very painful past,” said Scott. “That makes it all the more imperative to keep the illuminating flames of truth glowing so that we as a nation—and frankly the world—can heal by not repeating the horrors and gross mistakes of the past.”
