Phillis Smith Way

first name
Phillis
last name
Smith Way
gender
female
birth, death year
-- , --
first, last year in records
1765, --
confidence level
indeterminate
freed status (year freed)
enslaved, then free
enslaver(s)
location(s)
Hadley, MA  
place of origin

Bio

Phillis might have been enslaved by the Rev. Chester Williams of Hadley, Massachusetts. When he died in 1753, his will granted freedom to a woman by that name. In October of 1765, Phillis Smith married Ralph Way, Jr. Both were from Hadley, Massachusetts. They had two children- Phillip, born in 1766 and died in 1768, and Nancy, born in 1768. Phillis might have died birthing Nancy, or soon after, as Ralph remarried in 1769.

Sources Consulted

History of Hadley, Massachusetts, Sylvester Judd, 1905, p. 150

Slavery in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts, Robert H. Romer, 2009, pp. 174-175