From A History of Hatfield, Massachusetts: "On the other side of the Williamsburg road were two small houses, little better than huts, one inhabited by Jabez Newbury, a colored man, and his family." (Daniel White Wells & Ruben Field Wells, 1910, p. 285)
Jabez was born about 1777 and on December 29, 1803, he married Sylvia Harden. They appear in the 1810 Hatfield, Massachusetts census with four "Free Colored" people in their household. This includes Jabez, Sylvia, Laura, born in 1803, and an unnamed daughter born circa 1806. Ira, born in 1805, had died of typhoid fever in 1808. By the 1820 census the family had grown to include Julia, born in 1811, an unnmaed daughter born in 1812, and a son, Windsor, born in 1815. Another daughter was born in 1820, after the census was taken. By 1830, Jabez was a homeowner and the family had moved to Pelham, Massachusetts, where the census for that year noted Jabez and Sylvia with Julia and the daughters born in 1812 and 1820. Jabez died in nearby Amherst.
Sources Consulted
History of the Black Population of Amherst, Massachusetts, James Avery Smith, 1999, p. 100