John L. Phillips (b. circa 1825 - d. 1901)
MSA SC 5496-050607
Slaveholder and Property Owner in Martinsburg, Montgomery County,
Maryland
Biography:
John L. Phillips was born around 1825 to Philip L. Phillips, a shoemaker, and Matilda Phillips.1 In 1850, John was working as a slave driver on his father's 118-acre farm between Martinsburg and Poolesville.2 The slaves on the Phillips' farm produced Indian corn, oats, Irish potatoes, and butter.3 John's eight siblings also lived on the farm: Mary E. (b. 1822), Sarah R. (b. 1832), Arthur A. (b. 1833), Arthalinda J. (b. 1836), Thomas J. (b. 1840), Julietta (b. 1844), William L. (b. 1846), and James E. (b. 1849).
Neither John Phillips nor his father appeared as slaveholders in the 1850 or 1860 slave schedules for Montgomery County. However, John Phillips sold three slaves in 1852. As a result of these sales, a fourth slave, Adam Brooks, ran away in 1854. Phillips pursued Brooks to Pennsylvania, but failed to catch him.4
His location in 1860 is uncertain. Maryland's census for that year recorded
two single, white men named John Phillips who were born in Maryland around
1825: a ship's carpenter and a salesman, both living in Baltimore City.
Wherever Phillips was in 1860, he had returned to Montgomery County by
1870.5 In 1880, he was working as a store clerk near Poolesille.6
He died on January 2, 1901 while visiting the Germantown home of Frank
Duvall.7
1. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for 1850, John L. Phillips, Montgomery County, Medleys District, Page 17, Line 30 [MSA SM61-142, M 1499-1].
2. William Still. The
Underground Rail Road (Philadelphia, PA: Porter & Coales, 1872)
312.
Montgomery
County District 3, Simon J. Martenet, Martenet and Bond's Map of Montgomery
County, 1865, Library of Congress, MSA SC 1213-1-464.
3. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU,
(Census Record, MD), 1850, Agriculture, [MSA S1184-2]. Phillip L. Phillips,
Montgomery County, Medleys District.
John D. Bowman.
Guide
to Selections from the Montgomery County Sentinel, Maryland: January 1,
1897 to December 31, 1901 (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2007)
166.
G.M. Hopkins.
Atlas
of Fifteen Miles Around Washington Including the County of Montgomery,
Maryland (Baltimore, MD: Garamond/Pridemark Press, Inc.: 1975) 30.
4. Still 312.
5. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for John Phillips, 1870, Montgomery County, District 3, Page 59, Line 29 [MSA SM61-275, M 7256].
6. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for John Phillips, 1880, Montgomery County, Medleys, District 111, Page 1, Line 14 [MSA SM61-324, M 4748-2].
7. Bowman 166.
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