“Runaway from the Bell Tavern.”

March 1, 2026 | By S. Richter | 8 minute read

 

In 1776, a Black man by the first name of Pomp enlisted in Col. Nixon’s 6t Massachusetts regiment. This regiment is known for being where Peter Salem, a formerly enslaved Black man, who fought at the Battle of Lexington and Concord, famously served between April 1775 and December 1779. What is intriguing about this document is that when Pomp’s name was recorded on a receipt for payment in 1776, it was made out directly to “the estate of Francis Symonds, Sr., late of Danvers, deceased.”

 

 

Francis Symonds Sr. was born around 1723 in Boxford, Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1757, he bought land in, what is now down town Peabody, from the Daniel Goldthwaite to build a tavern. This tavern is famously the Bell Tavern of Peabody. Soon after, Francis married his second wife, Elizabeth Green of Beverly, on May 26, 1759. In 1771, Francis, following a growing industrial trend in Peabody, built a water-powered chocolate mill on his property. Francis remained the proprietor of the Bell Tavern until late 1775.

 

 

On April 19, 1775, Francis served under Capt. Samuel Epes’ militia as a 2nd Lieutenant at the Battle of Lexington. He again served at Watertown in June 1775 as Captain. Due to injuries, Francis would die in September 22, 1775, leaving his wife and six children.

 

Within three months of Francis’ death, Elizabeth Symonds published an ad in the Essex Gazette for a “run away from the Bell Tavern”. This ad announced that a young man, of 28 years old, by the name of Pomp had run away from his enslavers. The ad describes is stature, the clothing he was wearing and what he took with him. We also learn that he was born in Boston, spoke “good English” and could read.

Four months after the ad was published, on April 2, 1776, Benjamin and Sylvester Proctor of Danvers and Jonathan Bancroft of Salem were appointed the appraisers of Francis Symonds estate. This was because he did not write up a will before his death. This appraisal resulted in an inventory of the estate left by Francis Symonds. Among the lists of acreage, machinery and household items, were the names of two people, Pomp and Chester.

“PERSONAL ESTATE.

to one Negro Boy in the Army named Pomp

to 1 ditto named Chester at Home”

 

It appears that Pomp was recaptured by the date of this appraisal and was in the military. So many questions arise from these records. Where did Pomp go when he ran? What was it like to be recaptured? Did he end up becoming a soldier of his own choice or was he forced into it as punishment for trying to escape? What was his legal status in light of the fact that Francis left behind no will?

 

In March 1777, another soldier surfaces in the Danvers military record by the name of Pomp Symonds. Descriptive lists, collected over the course of the war, provided demographic information such as age, height, skin complexion, and hair. From this data collected about Pomp, it is possible that the 1776 and 1777 records are of the same person.

 

 

Pomp Symonds enlisted on March 1, 1777. At the time, he stated that he was 28 years old. The demographic information suggests that he was a man of African descent. Symonds would serve in the Continental Army from 1777 through 1781. He fought in the 1st and 2nd Danvers Co., sworn in by Capt. Asa Prince and Capt. Caleb Lowe. He continued on to serve under Col. Putnam’s 5th Massachusetts Regiment throughout the entire year of 1780 and 1781. To this point, we have not found record of Symonds’ discharge, or a record of his death.

 

If these two men were one and the same, did Pomp end up gaining his freedom while in military service or was he enslaved the entire time?

 

In Massachusetts, thousands of men of color joined the Patriot cause of the Revolutionary War. Pomp’s story reminds us that soldiers’ reasons for joining the war were complicated and by no means monolithic.