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July 1817: Thomas Ayres has a pass and may be working in Pennsylvania
150 DOLLARS REWARD
WILL be given for the apprehension of Negro
Thomas Ayres,
who absconded from the city of Washington on the 3d of April last. He is about 5 feet 6 or 8 inches high, not very dark complexioned; no particular marks to distinguish him is known, excepting his features are large; his clothing cannot be described particularly. The said negro was sold to me by John Okely, on the 10th day of March, whose possession he was in at the time of his elopement, and who, it appears, gave the said negro Thomas a pass to hire himself, of which I have received a copy as follows:
Baltimore, 16th April, 1817.
I do hereby grant my negro man Thomas Ayres the privilege of hiring himself as he pleases, and the wages to be paid to him.
JOHN OKELY.
I think it probable the above Negro is now in town, as he has a wife here; if not in town, it is probable he has gone to Pennsylvania; he was seen about 40 miles up the Susquehanna about 3 weeks past, at work under cover of the pass from Okely. It will be well to state that Tom was sold to John Okely by Mr. Jas Armstrong, grocer, of Baltimore, who owned him for several years. The above reward will be given to any person who will deliver the said Thomas Ayres to me, or in Baltimore goal; or a proportion for any correct knowledge where he may be found.
John A. Webster.
July 28.
Notes
John Adams Webster (1789-1876) earned distinction as the commander of a battery that aided in the defense of Fort McHenry during the British seige of Baltimore Harbor in September 1814. He was born and grew up on a farm in Harford County, Maryland and joined the navy at an early age. Following the War of 1812 he was commissioned an officer in the United States Revenue Cutter Service and commanded a fleet of eight cutters in the War with Mexico. He retired from active service in 1865. In 1817 he built "Mount Adams," also called "the Mount," a farm mansion in Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland. It still stands today mostly unchanged from the time that he and his family lived there.
John Okely was a Baltimore merchant who owned a storefront on Smith's Wharf in that city circa 1814. His advertisements from the period list common household goods and comestibles recently imported and for sale. By 1816 he had moved his store to Bridge Street "opposite Crawford's Tavern" in Georgetown. In the summer of 1816 he was experiencing financial challenges, as his ads mention a need to reduce his stock on hand. Two days later he advertised a storefront to rent, with all stock on hand. This was shortly before his March 1817 sale of Thomas Ayres to Captain John A. Webster, and seems to have been a factor in his decision to sell Ayres. By the spring of 1817 Okely was in prison as an involvent debtor, possibly the reason that he released Ayres with a pass to seek work on his own.
The Baltimore Directory for 1814-1815 lists four persons named James Armstrong. Two of them are grocers: James Armstrong and Son had a stall in market space 43 and James Armstrong, Jr. had a storefront at 24 Cheapside. Either one could have been the person that sold Ayres to Okely.
The escape of Thomas Ayres from John A. Webster includes some unusual angles and a curious timeline of events. John Okely sold Thomas Ayres to Captain John A. Webster on March 10, 1817. Ayres made his escape about four weeks later, but not from Webster in Harford County, but from Okely in Washington. Why was Okely still in possession of the man? Furthermore, the pass given to Ayres by Okely, which according to Webster's advertisement was apparently legitimate, was dated April 16, 1817 in Baltimore, yet Ayres escaped two weeks prior to the date on the pass. Had Okely post-dated the pass? Why? And why did he give Baltimore as his location when he was still living and working in Georgetown?
One possible explanation for these inconsistencies may have to do with Okely's impending financial troubles and Webster's occupation, as well as Webster's plans for his estate. Recently married, Webster was in the process of building his mansion, Mount Adams, in nearby Bel Air. If he purchased Ayres intending to employ him on the estate, it would clearly not be ready for a period of time. Also, as a navy man, he was subject to long periods away from home. Perhaps in March of 1817 he felt it would be simpler if Okely retained possession of Ayers for several months until Webster was ready to use him in his completed mansion. Okely, however, with finances dwindling, seemed to be liquidating his assest in Georgetown and may have been planning to return to Baltimore. Feeding and caring for a slave may have been an expense he could not longer afford, and turning the man loose, once he got to Baltimore, with permission to seek work seemed to be a short-term solution. It is possible he obtained Ayres promise to return to him in Baltimore after a set number of months in return for being allowed to work and earn money independently. This would not have been an unusual arrangement. But it seems Ayres had other plans, as he took the pass and "absconded" from Okely early.
Ayres did find work in Pennsylvania. Webster reported him working "40 miles up the Susquehanna" the first week of July 1817, which would place him somewhere in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, possibly in Columbia. It seems that Okely and Webster lost track of Ayres shortly after that, and it may have been at that point that both men surmised he was not planning to return, as Webster published his escape notice, with its rather convoluted story a few weeks later. Webster had the notice published in newspapers in both Washington DC and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, confirming that as Ayres likely location.
Webster paid to have the escape notices published in the Lancaster newspapers until nearly the last day of December in 1819, a period of 17 months, with no updates or recent sightings. It seems Ayres, with the benefit of a pass, was able to secure his freedom permanently.
Sources
Lancaster Journal, 28 July 1817. This ad was published continuously through Dec 28, 1819.
US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, "Mount Adams, Bel Air, Harford County, MD, HA-1074," 22 September 1988, online at Maryland Historical Trust, National Register Properties, https://apps.mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?NRID=1022, accessed 08 November 2024.
American & Commercial Daily Advertiser (Baltimore), 09 March 1814.
Daily National Intelligencer (Washington DC), 06, 15 July 1816, 13 May 1817.
James Lakin, The Baltimore Directory and Register for1814-15, Baltimore, 1814, p. 29.
Covering the history of African Americans in central Pennsylvania from the colonial era through the Civil War.
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