**[1. NAME OF PROPERTY]{.underline}**

Historic Name: **ROKEBY**

Other Name/Site Number: ROBINSON, ROWLAND T., HOUSE

**[2. LOCATION]{.underline}**

Street & Number: US Route 7 Not for publication: [NA]{.underline}

City/Town: Ferrisburgh Vicinity: [NA]{.underline}

State: Vermont County: Addison Code: 001 Zip Code: 05456

**[3. CLASSIFICATION]{.underline}**

Ownership of Property Category of Property

Private: [X]{.underline} Building(s):

Public-Local: District: [X]{.underline}

Public-State: Site:

Public-Federal: Structure:

Object:

Number of Resources within Property

Contributing Noncontributing

[6]{.underline} [4]{.underline} buildings

[1]{.underline} sites

[1]{.underline} structures

objects

[8]{.underline} [4]{.underline} Total

Number of Contributing Resources Previously Listed in the National
Register: [8]{.underline}

Name of Related Multiple Property Listing: N/A

**[4. STATE/FEDERAL AGENCY CERTIFICATION]{.underline}**

As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act
of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this \_\_\_\_ nomination
\_\_\_\_ request for determination of eligibility meets the
documentation standards for registering properties in the National
Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional
requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property
\_\_\_\_ meets \_\_\_\_ does not meet the National Register Criteria.

Signature of Certifying Official Date

State or Federal Agency and Bureau

In my opinion, the property \_\_\_\_ meets \_\_\_\_ does not meet the
National Register criteria.

Signature of Commenting or Other Official Date

State or Federal Agency and Bureau

**[5. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CERTIFICATION]{.underline}**

I hereby certify that this property is:

\_\_\_ Entered in the National Register

\_\_\_ Determined eligible for the National Register

\_\_\_ Determined not eligible for the National Register

\_\_\_ Removed from the National Register

\_\_\_ Other (explain):

Signature of Keeper Date of Action

**[6. FUNCTION OR USE]{.underline}**

Historic: Sub:

Domestic Single Dwelling

Agriculture Processing

Agriculture Storage

Agriculture Agricultural Field

Agriculture Animal Facility

Agriculture Agricultural Outbuilding

Education School

Current: Sub:

Recreation/ Culture Museum

Domestic Single Dwelling

Agriculture Agricultural Field

**[7. DESCRIPTION]{.underline}**

ARCHITECTURAL CLASSIFICATION: Federal

> Other

MATERIALS:

Foundation: Field stone

Walls: Weatherboard

Roof: Steel

Slate

Other: Wood

**Describe Present and Historic Physical Appearance.**

Rokeby, the historic home and farmstead of four generations of the
Robinson family, is located in the rural town of Ferrisburgh on US Route
7, the major north-south artery on the west side of Vermont\'s Green
Mountains. Perched on a gentle rise well back from the road, the
imposing Federal style house looks over the Champlain Valley to the
Adirondacks beyond. Behind the house and sheltered by it is an intact
19th-century farmyard with eight agricultural outbuildings and
associated features. The site includes a tourist cabin (ca 1930), the
ell of a now-demolished house (ca 1800), a smokehouse (ca 1850), hen
house (ca 1900), creamery/ice house (ca 1850, 1940s), privy (ca 1850),
toolshed/slaughterhouse (ca 1850), and granary (ca 1850), all of which
relate to the agricultural history of the site, as well as a 1940s
garage. Numerous black locust and black walnut trees, both species
planted by the Robinsons, dot the farmyard. A path through the woods to
the south of the main farmyard leads past the sheep barn foundation and
to the sheep dip (ca 1810); to the north of the house is the foundation
of the dairy barn. An open field still in production and acres of former
orchard and pasture, now returning to forest, stretch east to the hills.
An interpretive trail through this land highlights evidence of its
previous active life as a farm\--a farm lane, stone walls, an old well,
a pond, the foundation of a field barn, and a second field still in
production. To the north of the farmstead is more abandoned orchard and
within it, the foundation of a school once operated by the family.

1\. Farmhouse, (ca 1780s, 1814, 1893)\--Contributing building

The Rokeby farmhouse consists of the original one-and-a-half-story Cape
Cod style house at the back (ca 1780s) and a large, two-story Federal
style addition (1814) up front. The 1814 main block was built as a
five-bay by two-bay I house with a shallow-pitched gable roof and a
simple, gable-roofed porch sheltering the front doorway. In 1893, a
one-bay, two-story extension was added to the south end. The entire
house is sheathed in clapboards and rests on a stone foundation, field
stone in the rear wing and cut stone on front. The 1780s and 1814
sections have a standing seam metal roof (ca 1988); the 1893 addition
has slate. All three doorways have ca 1990 storm/screen doors and all
windows have ca 1990 storms.

The porch sheltering the doorway is original and the predominant feature
on the front facade. Although in the style of a Federal portico, it is
much deeper\--enough to be used as sitting space. Square posts with
beaded corners support the gable roof, which forms a pediment facing
west. A simple railing with a rounded cap and square balusters extends
from the house to the posts on either side and then turns inward a short
distance on the front to create an entryway. Simple wooden benches run
inside the areas created by the railings on either side. The porch apron
is of solid wood with cut outs. The door is a Federal style \"cross and
Bible\" pattern with flat, flush panels; it has its original, wrought
iron latch and a delicate, Federal style swag and urn brass door
knocker. The three-quarter sidelights have six-over-six double-hung
sash. The fenestration is regular, with one opening per bay, per floor
in the 1814 section; windows in the 1893 addition are paired. All
windows but the two in the fourth and fifth bays, first floor are
one-over-one double hung sash; these are twelve over twelve. All windows
and the door are topped by a simple cornice.

The south gable end has a round window at the attic, one-over-one,
double-hung windows in each bay of the second floor, and the same,
paired and centered, in the first floor. A hooded, round-topped window
with a fanlight in the upper sash in the north gable end is flanked by
rectangular vents at the attic; one-over-one double-hung windows are
centered in each bay on the first and second floors. The 1780s section
obscures most of the rear facade of the main block. The portion that is
visible has a one-over-one double-hung window in the second story of the
fourth bay and a pair of twelve-over-twelve double-hung windows below
it. Narrow one-over-one double-hung windows step up the rear facade of
the 1893 section to light the staircase.

The original, 1780s house is a story-and-a-half, five- by two-bay Cape
with irregular fenestration. A lean-to porch along the north side, a
massive central chimney, and gable-roofed dormers with one-over-one
double-hung windows are prominent features. The south side\--the
original front facade of the house\--has a central doorway and a trio of
twelve-over-twelve double-hung windows ganged together to the left and a
single twelve-over-twelve double-hung window to the right. A single roof
dormer is centered above the three windows on the left, and a window
made up of two six-light sliding sash is set just below the eaves above
the single window to the right.

The north facade is dominated by the roof, which sweeps down to enclose
the lean-to porch, and is pierced by the dormers in the second and
fourth bays. The porch roof is supported by three simple, square posts.
Fenestration on the first floor of this facade is quite irregular; the
first bay has no openings, the second has two windows spaced about 20\"
apart, the third has two windows paired, the fourth holds the doorway,
and the fifth another window. All windows have six-over-six double hung
sash, but the last; it is one over one. The wide door has six panels,
three over three, and four small lights along the top. The east facade
has a twelve-over-twelve double-hung window just below a triangular vent
set into the gable and a ganged pair of twelve-over-twelve double hung
windows in the south bay.

[Interior]{.underline}. Both the 1780s and 1814 sections of the house
have simple plans. The older section is entered through a door on the
south facade that leads into a small vestibule with access to the right
and left. On either side of the central, massive chimney are two rooms,
one large and one small. To the left is the original kitchen, with
cooking hearth intact. The small room on this side was remodeled into a
modern kitchen by the family. To the right is the original parlor, which
has a smaller fireplace with mantle, and behind it is a small bedroom.
The second floor has an open, large chamber over the kitchen and a
smaller one over the parlor. The Federal style addition has a central
hallway leading straight back to the old part of the house, with one
room on either side, both up and down. This part of the house was built
to be heated with woodstoves and so, has no fireplaces. It is lacking
the interior detailing and ornament found in other Federal houses of
this era in Vermont. It does have chair rail at the height of the
sidelights that starts at the front door and runs around both
first-floor parlors and the hallway. The 1893 addition consists of one
room down and one up.

[Alterations]{.underline}. Several changes were made in 1893 when the
final addition was made to the house. In addition to clapboard repair
and painting, most of the windows were replaced with one-over-one
double-hung sash. The twelve-over-twelve windows currently in the house
were salvaged from other old buildings and added by museum volunteers in
the early 1970s. The ganging together of three sash on the south facade
and two sash on the east facade of the 1780s section represents another
deviation. Several phases of work, including a new roof, numerous
structural repairs, basement drainage, window repair, and painting, were
completed between 1988 and 1992.

2\. Tourist Cabin (ca 1930)\--Noncontributing building, outside period
of significance

South of the farmhouse sits Rokeby\'s tourist cabin, a one-room,
one-story, gable-roofed building that once housed summer visitors. The
9.5\' x 12\' one-bay by one-bay wood frame cabin is of plank
construction covered with wood shingles. It rests on concrete blocks at
the four corners and the roof is sheathed in asphalt shingles. The
west-facing, gable front entrance has a central, four-panel door with
small screened vents cut out at the top and simple trim. A large,
roughly cut stone serves as the entrance step. Centered in the south
facade is a nine-light awning window set just below the eaves. A small
vent, opened from the inside, nestles in the peak of the roof gable on
the east facade. The north facade has no openings. The sills and some
lower sheathing/shingles were repaired/replaced and the roof was
replaced in 1996.

3\. Old House (ca 1800)\--Noncontributing building, lack of integrity

The \"old house,\" as it was called by family members, is now only the
kitchen and woodshed ell of what was once a complete structure. (The
main block of the original house stretched to the west and was
demolished around 1905.) The timber-framed, two-room ell is a
one-and-a-half story structure resting on a dry-laid limestone
foundation. Although they probably once sheathed the entire building,
wooden shingles now cover the exterior of the kitchen only (the western
ends of the north and south facades and the western facade). The
remainder is sheathed in horizontal planks, with a small area of
clapboards at loft level on the east facade. The gable roof is also
covered in wooden shingles. Entrance to the kitchen (west room) is
through a four-paneled, Federal style door with a cast iron latch in the
north facade. A six-over-four, double-hung window is to the left of the
doorway and to the left of that, in the woodshed section, is a pair of
5\' wide barn doors. The eastern gable end has a one-over-one
double-hung window centered at loft level. The southern facade has a
second, single barn door, approximately opposite those on the north, and
a single one-over-one, double-hung window to their left. There are
six-over-six, double hung windows centered in each story of the western
facade. The interior of the tiny kitchen has a cooking hearth with iron
crane and bake oven intact and a Federal style mantel; they are on the
interior wall to the left of the door as you enter. The split lath above
the mantle is completely devoid of plaster and the remaining walls have
lost their lath as well as plaster. Around the side of the chimney wall
to the left is a small upper cupboard with door, and straight ahead a
heavy, double battened door to the woodshed. This door is of beaded
tongue-and-groove planks placed horizontally on the kitchen side and
vertically on the woodshed side; it has wrought iron strap hinges held
with pins and a cast iron thumb latch. The woodshed has a dirt floor and
loft space above in the east and west ends. The back of the beehive
chimney is visible through an opening in the west wall of the woodshed.
This building was demolished and rebuilt in 1990.

4\. Smokehouse (ca 1850)\--Contributing building

A rather large, (10\' x 10\') stone smokehouse lies north of the old
house. It is of Monkton quartzite with a brick chimney in the north wall
and a gable roof clad in gray slate. Wooden batten doors with wrought
iron strap hinges held with pins in the west and south facades provide
access to the lower and upper chambers respectively. The door to the
upper chamber has a wrought iron latch and a crude lock. The fire was
kindled in the lower and the meat hung in the upper chamber. A cast iron
clean out door is located at about waist height in the chimney and a
post extending up from the peak of the roof on the north facade holds a
birdhouse.

5\. Hen House (ca 1900)\--Noncontributing building, outside the period
of significance

Northeast of the smokehouse and southeast of the house is a
south-facing, 18\' x 12\' shed-roofed hen house. It is sheathed in
clapboards, has asphalt roll roofing, and a concrete and field stone
foundation and a concrete floor. Three large, evenly spaced windows on
the south side are minus sash or any historic glazing. Small square
openings under the first and third windows once provided access for
fowl. Entrance is via a four-paneled, Federal style door with a cast
iron latch on the extreme left of the west facade. A two-seater privy in
the northeast corner is entered by another four-paneled, Federal style
door. The north and east facades have no openings.

6\. Out House (ca 1850)\--Contributing building

Straight north of the hen house is a 6\'x 5\' wood frame out house with
a gable roof; the walls are sheathed in clapboards and the roof in gray
slate. The small building rests on a roughly laid stone foundation, and
there is no pit under it. The vertical plank batten door is on the south
gable end and has one small window cut in at the top and large iron hook
and eye latches inside and out. There is also an iron box lock on the
inside. Three seats, one set lower for a child, run along the right side
from front to back, two of which retain their bread-board-end wooden
seat covers. The entire seat structure retains its original gray/blue
paint. The interior was papered over in many layers, some of newsprint,
but many of scrap 19th-century wallpaper. Hinges attached to the bottom
trim boards on the east side once secured a catch box, which could be
removed for emptying.

7\. Creamery/Ice House (ca 1850, 1940s)\--Contributing building

A combination ice house and creamery is located west and within a foot
of the privy. Apparently built from salvaged materials, the 12.5\' x
22.5\' two-bay by one-bay building rests on a cut stone foundation, is
sheathed in clapboards, and has a gable roof covered in gray slate. The
wide plank batten door is slightly off center in the north (eaves) side
and has a cast iron thumb latch; there is a single four-light sash to
the right of the door. A large stone marked \"RTR 1824,\" a cornerstone
from one of the Robinson\'s demolished mills, now serves as entrance
step. On entering, the ice house is to the left; an opening gives access
to a pit where blocks of ice were once stored. On the right, a ca 1940s
refrigerated room fills the back half of the space. It has a heavy,
insulated door and is built as a room within a room sheathed in
tongue-and-groove bead board. A metal plate on the door says \"Equipped
with Kelvinator Electric Refrigeration.\" The only other window is a
four-light sash in the far right of the west facade; it is hooded with a
small wooden awning supported by wide curved brackets, perhaps intended
to keep sun out of the refrigerated room.

8\. Toolshed/Slaughterhouse (ca 1850)\--Contributing building

To the east of both the out house and hen house is a long, multipurpose
outbuilding. The three-bay by one-bay timber frame structure rests on a
field stone foundation, is sheathed in clapboards, and has a gable roof
of standing seam terned steel. This building is in three parts;
relatively large toolshed and slaughterhouse spaces in the south and
north ends respectively, are separated by a small room entered from the
slaughterhouse. The entrances are on the west (eaves) side, with double
barn doors set into an opening and up a step from the ground in the
toolshed (south) end and somewhat larger double barn doors set flush
with the wall in the slaughterhouse (north) end. A twelve-light sash is
set into the wall between them. The north gable end has a single
twelve-light sash set off center to the right and the south gable end
two evenly spaced twelve-light sashes. The east facade has a relatively
large, double-door opening near the ground giving access to the small
central room, suggesting it once housed turkeys. A pair of twelve-light
sashes are evenly spaced in the northern bay. The interior of the
slaughterhouse has a concrete floor with a drain and a pulley and hoist
for bleeding carcasses. The toolshed has a wood floor and is a
completely open space. This building was substantially repaired in 1989.

9\. Granary (ca 1850)\--Contributing building

The granary is located east of the toolshed/slaughterhouse and somewhat
away from the rest of the \"contained\" farmstead. This simple, timber
frame 16\' x 24\' one-and-a-half story building rests on stone piers
(three on each long side) and has a gable roof sheathed in red and gray
slate. The north, west, and south facades are sheathed with vertical
board and batten, while the east facade has clapboards shimmed to allow
air circulation. Sheathing reflects function; a corn crib runs the
length of the east side with the remainder open for work or grain
storage. Entrance is through a vertical plank batten door with wrought
iron strap hinges held with pins and centered in the north facade. A
second, smaller door provides access at loft level and above it a small
hood projects from the gable, sheltering a hook used to hoist sacks of
grain. A first-floor, batten hatch door is centered in the south facade.
On the interior, a central staircase gives access to the loft, and the
movable slat walls of the corn crib, grain bins, and cloth chutes for
grain removal are all intact. Repairs to the floor and foundation of the
granary were made in 1993.

10\. Garage (ca 1940)\--Noncontributing building, outside the period of
significance

Built on the foundation of a larger carriage barn that burned, the
garage is north of the house and separated from it by a small parking
area. The wood frame, one-and-a-half story, 30\' x 23\' building is
three bays wide by two deep and has a gable roof sheathed in asphalt
shingles; rafter tails are exposed under the roof overhang. Access for
two vehicles is through a pair of sliding doors in the two eastmost bays
of the south facade; a one-over-one double-hung window is centered in
the third bay. On the east (gable) end is a four-paneled door at the
southern corner and a nine-light sash centered in the facade; a wooden
door directly above it provides access to the loft. The west facade has
a six-over-six double-hung window centered at loft level and a pair of
single-pane sliding sash directly below. The garage occupies only about
half the low, concrete foundation, the remainder stretches behind it to
the north; this facade has a single, four-paneled door in the east bay.

Note: Resources 11, 12, 14, and 15 are included as part of the overall
site and are not counted individually.

11\. Dairy Barn Foundation (ca 1820, 1880)

To the north of the garage is the stone foundation that marks the
location of the dairy barn, which was demolished in 1995. The outline
shows smaller ells extending from the central block to both the east and
west. Still extant on the west end is a shallow pit and beyond it an
extensive, brick and stone lined, vaulted cistern.

12\. Sheep Barn Foundation (ca 1810)

Some of the stones that formed the foundation of the sheep barn can be
seen in an area to the south of the farmstead that has begun to grow up
in woods. The four corners are marked with stakes. The sheep barn burned
in the early 20th century.

13\. Sheep Dip (ca 1810)\--Contributing structure

A path from the head of the current visitor parking lot leads south away
from the farmyard to the sheep dip. Built by the Robinsons to take
advantage of a natural rock outcropping, the sheep dip formed a dam that
once held a pool of water to the east. When the sheep needed to be
cleaned, or \"dipped,\" prior to shearing, they were led down below the
dam and washed in water that flowed over it.

14\. Field Barn Foundation (ca 1850)

Off the hiking path that heads east from the house, several foundation
stones of a field barn are visible. The site is part of an interpretive
trail at the museum and is marked. An aerial photograph from ca 1940
shows a simple, wood frame, one-and-a-half story barn with a gable roof.
It would have been used to store hay.

15\. School Foundation (1839)

Rowland Thomas Robinson built a two-story, three-bay by four-bay, brick
school house on family property north of the farmstead in 1839. A bell
tower projected above the gable roof on the north, front entrance. He
operated the school, which counted black children and, possibly,
fugitive slaves among its students, from 1839 to 1846. It was later used
for storage of apples and other farm produce and implements. The
building was razed in the 1940s and the brick sold to be reused. The
stone foundation is still partly intact and can be seen from another
trail that loops through an abandoned orchard.

**[8. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE]{.underline}**

Certifying official has considered the significance of this property in
relation to other properties:

Nationally: [X]{.underline} Statewide: Locally:

Applicable National

Register Criteria: A [X]{.underline} B C D

Criteria Considerations

(Exceptions): A B C D E F G

NHL Criteria: 1

NHL Theme(s): II. Creating Social Institutions and Movements

1\. reform movements

Areas of Significance: Social history

Ethnic heritage/Black

Religion

Period(s) of Significance: 1830-1865

Significant Dates: 1835, 1837, 1842, 1844, 1851

Significant Person(s): NA

Cultural Affiliation: NA

Architect/Builder: Unknown

Comparative Categories: XXXI. Social & Humanitarian Movements

D. Abolitionism

**State Significance of Property, and Justify Criteria, Criteria
Considerations, and Areas and Periods of Significance Noted Above.**

Rokeby is significant for its role in the national effort to aid
fugitive slaves commonly known as the Underground Railroad. The house,
farmstead (consisting of a cluster of outbuildings and other structures
surrounded by fields and abandoned orchard and pasture), and family
collections retain their historic integrity and contribute to our
understanding of abolition and the Underground Railroad in Vermont and
nationally from 1830 to 1865. Key to Rokeby\'s historic significance is
its extensive\--and rare\--contemporary documentation. Family letters
not only validate Rokeby as a stop, they actually add to our knowledge,
correcting and sharpening our understanding of the Underground Railroad
and providing insight into how \"the legend outgrew the reality.\" It is
unlikely that another site matches Rokeby for this combination of
documentation and completeness and historical integrity of site and
collections. Certainly there is not one like it in Vermont. Rokeby is
eligible under NHL criterion 1 and is being nominated as part of the
Underground Railroad theme study.

**Historical Background**

Rokeby, as the family called it, was home to four generations of
Robinsons from 1793 to 1961. Quaker emigres from Newport, Rhode Island,
Thomas (1761-1851) and Jemima Robinson (1761-1846) moved to the family
homestead just after Vermont became a state in 1791. Although Thomas was
an active member of the Vermont and Ferrisburgh Anti-Slavery Societies,
it was his son Rowland Thomas Robinson (1796-1879) who made abolition
the cause of his life and sheltered fugitives at Rokeby. Both Thomas and
Rowland T. Robinson managed the family\'s grist and saw mills and built
up one of Addison County\'s largest sheep farms during the early decades
of the 19th century. Rowland Thomas\'s son Rowland Evans Robinson
(1833-1900) was an artist and author; he wrote a series of folktales,
published by Houghton Mifflin, that were enormously popular in Vermont
at the turn of the century as well as several Underground Railroad
stories. Of his children, Rachel (1878-1919) became a successful
commercial artist, Mary (1884-1931) worked as a botanical artist before
becoming a wife and mother, and Rowland Thomas (1882-1951) tended the
family farm, now converted from sheep to dairy. \"Rowlie,\" as he was
known, and his wife Elizabeth did not have children, and when she died
in 1961, she left the site to be operated as a museum.

Rokeby is very fortunate to have incredibly rich paper documentation in
the form of 10,000+ family letters as well as account books, diaries,
newspapers and pamphlets, and other records dating from the late 18th
century to the mid-20th. Of the letters to Rowland T. Robinson,
approximately 300 date from 1830 to 1865, and from 1830 to 1850,
abolition was the most common theme. His regular abolitionist
correspondents during this period included Joseph H. Beale, Oliver
Johnson, Charles Marriott, Orson S. Murray, and Charles C. Burleigh; he
also received letters from such national figures as Lucretia Mott,
William Lloyd Garrison, and Isaac T. Hopper. Reading through this
correspondence shows how thoroughly Rowland Thomas Robinson\'s Quaker
and anti-slavery beliefs were entwined. The majority of his regular
correspondents were Quakers. Joseph H. Beale, Oliver Johnson, Charles
Marriott, Isaac T. Hopper, and Lucretia Mott along with Rowland Thomas
Robinson and others were part of an anti-slavery vanguard in the New
York Yearly Meeting, who were constantly pushing for action\--and
complaining to each other about the opposition. Quakers were universally
opposed to slavery, but much divided over what their course of
action\--if any\--should be.[^1] Oliver Johnson, a most regular and
frequent correspondent, wrote from his various postings as agent for the
American Anti-Slavery Society, reporting on the politics, progress, and
workings of the movement at large; asking for information on the cause
in Vermont; and agonizing about the state of the New York Yearly
Meeting. It is clear that Rowland Thomas Robinson\'s advice was valued
and that he was regarded as a dear friend; many letters close with
greetings to \"Rachel,\" his wife, as well as other members of the
household.

Several letters in the Rokeby Collection provide specific and detailed
information on fugitive slaves. It is primarily from them that we can
piece together a detailed picture of how one \"stop\" on the Underground
Railroad (UGRR) operated. For example, an 1835 letter from Oliver
Johnson,[^2] a fellow Vermonter (Peacham) and agent for the New England
and American Anti-Slavery Societies, mentioned \"the colored boy,
William.\" Rowland Thomas Robinson had evidently asked about Johnson\'s
success in placing William in Montpelier.

In 1837, Johnson wrote again, this time from Jenner Township,
Pennsylvania,[^3] located just 30 miles from \"the line.\" Being so near
Maryland, the area had \"at all times no small number of runaway slaves,
but they are generally caught unless they proceed farther north.\"
Johnson wrote to interest Rowland Thomas Robinson in hiring one of those
runaways, Simon, for whose capture a reward of \$200 had been posted.
\"He is 28 years old, and appeared to me to be an honest, likely man,\"
said Johnson. \"He is trustworthy, of a kind disposition, and knows how
to do almost all kinds of farm work. He is used to teaming, and is very
good to manage horses. He says that he could beat any man in the
neighborhood where he lived at mowing, cradling, or pitching.\" The farm
operation at Rokeby was at its height during these years, and the
Robinsons had quite small families, so the need for hired hands was
probably constant. Johnson\'s knowledge of that need\--and the relative
safety of Vermont\--no doubt brought Rokeby to mind as a likely place
for Simon. He went on to inform Rowland Thomas Robinson that Simon had
\"intended going to Canada, but says he would prefer to stay in the
U.S., if he could be safe. I have no doubt he will be perfectly safe
with you.\"

Johnson was concerned about more than Simon\'s safety, however. He
expressed his fear that if he were to go to Canada, he \"may fall into
bad company; but if he is under your guardianship, he may become a
useful man.\" It was his hope that \"everything will be done to promote
his happiness, and where the \'laborer\' will be considered \'worthy of
his hire,\' instead of being regarded as a mere [chattel]{.underline}
compelled to toil without hopes of reward.\"

Johnson proposed furnishing Simon with the names of abolitionists \"on
whom to call upon the way,\" and said that while \"it will be a great
way for him to walk,\" it would be no worse than going to Canada. He
asked Rowland Thomas Robinson for an immediate reply so that he could
make the necessary arrangements. Johnson\'s second letter, written four
months later in April,[^4] provided some detailed information on how
fugitives travelled. He had given Simon directions to Philadelphia,
\"where he will put himself under the direction of our friends, who will
give him all needful information concerning the route to New York.\"
From there, the members of the Vigilance Committee would take over. In a
long letter sent much later in the year, Johnson asked whether \"the
black man \[had\] arrived yet from Pennsylvania?\"[^5]

A similar, though less detailed, letter from Joseph H. Beale was sent
from White Plains, New York on July 12, 1844.[^6] Beale wrote about \"a
poor hunted fugitive\" named Jeremiah Snowden, who, he thought, would be
safer in Massachusetts or Vermont \"if work is to be had for him.\"
Although they \"had an abundance of work for him at this busy season,\"
the Beales were \"unwilling to risk his remaining.\" Beale offered by
way of reference that his \"Brother John Nickolson thinks Jeremiah can
be very useful to a farmer needing such a man.\" Beale announced his
plan to \"send a little Box by the Tow Boat . . . directed to care of H.
Bright, Vergennes . . . it contains his clothes.\"

Perhaps the most interesting of these letters are those between Rowland
Thomas Robinson and Ephram Elliott, a slave owner in Perquimans County,
North Carolina. Exchanged in the spring of 1837, they concern the former
slave Jesse. Rowland Thomas Robinson wrote Elliott on Jesse\'s behalf to
negotiate the cost of a freedom paper, \"the most anxious wish of his
\[Jesse\'s\] heart.\" In his reply,[^7] Elliott admitted that Jesse\'s
\"situation at this time places it in his power to give me what he
thinks proper,\" but went on to state that he did \"not feel disposed to
make any title for him for less than Three Hundred Dollars which is not
more than one third what I could have had for him before he absconded If
I had been disposed to sell him.\" Rowland Thomas Robinson wrote back
presenting a counteroffer:[^8] \"Since leaving thy service he has by his
industry and economy laid up 150\$ & he is willing to give the whole of
this sum for his freedom . . . If Jesse was in possession of a larger
sum he would freely offer it all for his freedom.\" Rowland Thomas
Robinson also made clear in this letter his own unwillingness to
contribute, since doing so \"would be recognizing a principle which God
forbids.\" Although he admitted that Jesse \"at this time is entirely
out of my reach,\" Elliott held firm on his price.[^9] Holding on to a
hope that Jesse would return voluntarily, he said, \"I don\'t know how
Jesse could with clear conscience wish me to take any less . . . If he
feels disposed to come back I will meet him at any place that he will
mention. And no sum of money or no Temptation shall Separate us.\"

A postscript to a March 1842 letter from Charles Marriott[^10] concerned
\"two who have escaped from the Southern prison house, a man and his
wife.\" They had been with Marriott\'s sister since the previous fall
and work could easily be found for them, \"but the recent decision of
the Supreme Court as to the unconstitutionality of jury trial laws for
them has decided us to send them further north either to you or to
Canada.\" Marriott\'s phrase, \"either to you or to Canada,\" suggests
that he saw little difference between the two. Like Oliver Johnson, he
was leery of sending them to Canada, where \"they \[fugitives\] are too
numerous to obtain profitable employment. If they could be taken in by
thee, we should think them safer.\" He described them as \"about 30
years of age. He is a good chopper & farmer & she is useful and well
conducted in the house. Their names are John and Martha Williams.\"

The case Marriott referred to was *Prigg v. Pennsylvania*. Pennsylvania,
like Vermont and many other northern states, had passed a personal
liberty law to circumvent the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law of
1793. These state laws required masters or slave catchers to seek
warrants before apprehending fugitives and guaranteed runaways a jury
trial before a certificate of removal would be granted. The *Prigg*
decision found Pennsylvania\'s law\--and all others by
extension\--unconstitutional because it conflicted with a master\'s
right under the federal act.[^11] Of course, *Prigg* would have had the
same effect on Vermont law as on New York\'s, so Marriott\'s desire to
move the Williamses indicated his belief that they would not be subject
to recapture in Vermont.

The final letter of this group was addressed to Rowland Thomas
Robinson\'s father Thomas and sent by a fugitive who had made his way to
Canada.[^12] James Temple wrote from Montreal in May 1851 to thank them
for their kindness, and reported, \"I am at work at my trade getting a
living looking through the glasses you gave me for which I never shall
forget to be thankful. I think that I shall soon be able to send for my
family if I conclude to stay here.\" The glasses Temple referred to had
belonged to Thomas Robinson\'s recently deceased wife, of whom Temple
said, \"I am happy to say that I \[am\] now looking through those
glasses that her happy eyes were once accustomed to look through\[.\] I
rejoice to think that you shall see her again after death where parting
will be no more.\" He was effusive in his gratitude to Robinson, \"I am
happy to testify the pleasure I feel in ever becoming acquainted with
you and of partaking of your benifits which was so liberally and
willingly \[tendered?\] to me by your beautiful hands.\"

One more letter\--not in the Rokeby collection\--documents another
fugitive aided by the Robinsons.[^13] The letter was written by Chauncy
L. Knapp, Vermont\'s Secretary of State and an active abolitionist, to
Mason Anthony of Saratoga, New York on August 20, 1838. It concerned
Charles, a young fugitive, whom Anthony had taken to Rokeby. Knapp wrote
\"to inform you that the lad who is indebted to you and your father\'s
great kindness for a safe arrival at my friend R. T. Robinson\'s, is now
sitting in my office in the State House.\" He went on, \"By my friend
Robinson\'s earnest request I have assumed the office of guardian to
Charles . . . if he should make such proficiency as I have reason to
hope, it is my purpose to place him in a good family, ere long, as an
apprentice to the art of printing.\" Also in the Rokeby Collection is an
undated clipping of a short article written by Knapp and published in
the *Gazette and Standard* that related the full story. Charles was
travelling as manservant to his master who was honeymooning in upstate
New York. Leery of bringing Charles too near Canada, Campbell, the
master, left him in the care of a hotel keeper in Schenectady while he
and his bride visited Niagara Falls. Local abolitionists offered to help
Charles make his escape, and he was transported that night all the way
to Rokeby. Although a search was made, Campbell was unable to locate his
missing slave and returned home to Vicksburg. Charles apparently lived
up to Knapp\'s hopes, for the article concluded, \"Charles continued to
reside in Vermont, much beloved by all who knew him. He is now doing a
flourishing business, in his line, not far from the forty-fifth degree
of north latitude\--a practical refutation of the pro-slavery fallacy
that \'the colored man can\'t take care of himself.\'\"

These letters decisively document Rokeby as a place where fugitive
slaves were sheltered, and place it firmly in the broad pattern of
abolition from 1830 to 1865. But they do more. This rare piece of
documentary history actually adds to our knowledge and sharpens our
interpretation of the UGRR, showing us where history gives way to
mythology. The popular conception of the UGRR in Vermont, as elsewhere,
is of brave, white abolitionists taking great risks to transport hotly
pursued fugitives in deepest secrecy. As \"agents\" moved the \"dusky
strangers\" along the \"route\" from \"station\" to \"station,\" they
were well concealed in secret hiding places.[^14] It is important not to
minimize in any way the danger that *fugitives* faced when they began
their escapes or the risks that *fugitives* took in seeking freedom in
this way. Yet, the oral tradition of the UGRR in New England\--and
certainly in Vermont\--is more melodrama than history. The key to the
popular conception is pursuit. All of the conventions of the popular
understanding\--the need to operate clandestinely, to communicate in
secret, to travel at night, and to create hiding places\--arise from the
assumption of hot pursuit by a determined, ruthless, and often armed
slave catcher. While many fugitives were in precisely such danger in the
first days and miles of their escapes, it diminished as they put more
and more distance between themselves and the slave south, as two
contemporary historians have shown. Larry Gara pointed out that most
fugitives had already completed the really perilous parts of their trips
*before* making contact with northern white abolitionists of the UGRR.
And in his book on blacks in Canada, Robin Winks said that \"in areas
further to the north the Railroad was seldom underground, being well
known to local newspapers and law officers alike.\"[^15]

The Robinson letters provide a wealth of detail that begins to separate
historical fact from fiction. Oliver Johnson and Joseph Beale both
stated flat out that Vermont was safe for fugitives, and Charles
Marriott regarded Rokeby as *safer* than Canada. And since all four
fugitives they wrote of were being sent to work on the farm, the issue
of hiding places or secrecy would seem to have been moot. Ephram Elliott
conceded quite frankly that Jesse was \"entirely out\" of his reach,
suggesting that slave owner and abolitionist *alike* agreed that Vermont
was a safe haven. More importantly, the correspondence with Elliott was
*initiated* by Robinson, who, by writing, revealed Jesse\'s precise
whereabouts\--something he would certainly not have undertaken if he
thought it would put Jesse at risk.

Were fugitive slaves pursued by slave catchers across the borders of
Vermont? There is no reliable evidence of it. Ephram Elliott is only one
slave owner, but he clearly considered attempting to recapture a
fugitive in Vermont to be out of the question. Vermont historian Ray
Zirblis recently completed a research report on Vermont\'s UGRR
activity, in which he stated flatly, \"There are no substantiated
incidents of organized slave catching in the state.\"[^16] He searched
Vermont\'s antislavery and other newspapers (among other sources) for
reports of those incidents passed on in the oral tradition and found
none. In the one case he did find reported in *The Green Mountain
Freeman*, the slave who attempted escape was, like Charles, travelling
with her master, Colonel S. T. Bailey. She absconded to the home of an
abolitionist when Bailey left for a few days. He easily found her on his
return and was allowed to reclaim her.[^17] He, of course, was already
in Vermont. The question is: Would he have sent someone from Georgia to
recapture her? Zirblis noted that Vermont newspapers often reported on
slaves recaptured in other states. It is unlikely that they would have
been silent on similar incidents in Vermont, and the attempt to
recapture a fugitive slave would certainly have been news.

The Robinson letters also shed light on the paths the fugitives took.
Influenced by the railroad analogy, the UGRR has been seen as a series
of established stations along which a runaway travelled, in what Zirblis
has called the \"connect the dots approach.\"[^18] And while there
clearly were known friends and helpers along the way, each fugitive
probably took a slightly, if not wholly, different route influenced more
by his own needs and the ties of family, religion, and friendship of his
helpers than by prescription. Oliver Johnson and Joseph Beale were both
Quakers, and therefore connected to Rowland Thomas Robinson by strong
religious ties.[^19] Johnson was a fellow Vermonter and worker with
Rowland Thomas Robinson in both the Vermont and Addison County
Anti-Slavery Societies, and Beale and Rowland Thomas Robinson were
co-founders of a black aid society organized through the New York Yearly
Meeting. Far from sending the fugitives in their care along a
predetermined route, they both thought of Rokeby as a possible
destination because of the match of work experience and need.[^20] If
somewhat paternalistically, Oliver Johnson and Charles Marriott both
expressed a broader concern for the long-term welfare of the fugitives
in their care. Johnson wanted to send Simon to someone whose moral
influence he approved of, and Marriott feared for the Williams\'s
ability to find work.

It would be more accurate to envision the UGRR as a web or network of
safe homes based on family, religious, and friendship ties than as a
linear railroad of anonymous stations. Another letter, though not to
Rowland Thomas Robinson nor in the Rokeby collection, supports this
notion. In compiling his major tome on the UGRR, Wilbur H. Siebert[^21]
surveyed any living abolitionists he could locate as well as their
descendants\--the Robinsons among them. In 1896, Rowland Thomas
Robinson\'s son Rowland Evans Robinson wrote a long letter to Siebert
reporting what he could remember of UGRR activity at Rokeby. He noted
among those to whom fugitives were passed, Joseph Rogers, who was also a
Quaker and a close friend, and Nathan Hoag and Stephen F. Stevens, who
were both Quakers and Robinson relatives. He also indicated that at the
Hoag and Stevens farms, in East Charlotte and Montpelier, respectively,
fugitives sometimes stayed for months working as farm hands, as they did
at Rokeby.[^22]

Although Rokeby has been well documented by primary sources, it has not
been immune to the mythology of the oral tradition. Rowland Evans
Robinson (RER) made his living as an author, and in the late 19th
century, he wrote several stories with UGRR themes. \"Out of Bondage,\"
\"An Underground Railroad Passenger,\" and \"The Mole\'s Path\" all
feature Southern slave catchers. In the latter two, the clever Yankees
outwit their foes just in time to effect a narrow escape; in the former,
the desperately sick runaway dies just as his hiding place is
discovered.[^23] Given RER\'s family background, these stories were
taken at face value. Wilbur Siebert actually cited the stories as fact
in his book on the Vermont UGRR, stating that RER \"had actually heard
most of the anecdotes which he wrote and published, although he made use
of fictitious names for his characters.\"[^24] Much as he may have
wanted to believe this, Siebert cited no evidence of it, and there is
none in the collection at Rokeby. Most tellingly, Robinson related none
of these stories in his long, detailed letter to Siebert.

The Robinson stories no doubt provided the basis for the mythologizing
of the UGRR at Rokeby. RER\'s son and daughter-in-law took in summer
tourists as boarders from the late 1920s to about 1940 and used the
house\'s UGRR history as a draw. As the site evolved into a museum, this
oral tradition informed and was integrated into house tours and
programs. From the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, visitors were told that
fugitives were hidden in the east chamber or \"Rokeby Slave Room.\"
Another letter in the Siebert Papers at Harvard provides an interesting
clue to the origin of this myth. In preparation for his book on Vermont,
Siebert evidently embarked on a second round of surveying. The letter in
question is from Mary R. Allen, of the Maclure Library in Pittsford,
Vermont, who stated that \"The walled off room, where the negroes were
sheltered, is still to be seen.\"[^25] The upstairs of the 1780s part of
the house consists of one large, open chamber, and a second, smaller one
reached through a doorway in the wall separating them. Historic
photographs of the house indicate that two walls, at right angles to
each other, were erected in the larger chamber, creating an enclosed
room and a hallway along the south side of the house. This was most
likely done in the early 20th century to create spaces more usable for
tourist rental. The east chamber, now at the end of a long, narrow
hallway, was the \"walled off\" room cited by Ms. Allen. Visitors are no
longer told that the east chamber is the \"Slave Room\" where fugitives
were hidden, but Simon, Jesse, Jeremiah Snowden, John and Martha
Williams, and others whose names are not known probably did sleep in
either or both chambers, which we know were used by hired hands and
remain unchanged today.[^26]

UGRR activity seems to have dropped off at Rokeby after 1850\--the year
the second Fugitive Slave Law was passed. The only letter relating to
fugitives dated after 1850 is the thank you letter from James Temple
sent in 1851. RER also verified this in his 1896 letter to Siebert: \"I
cannot remember seeing a \[illegible\] fugitive here after 1850, though
now and then an imposter called on us.\"[^27] The index to the Robinson
letters also shows that abolition dropped off sharply as the subject of
correspondence after 1850. While some retreat from activity is clear,
the reason for it is not. An explanation may be found in the changes
taking place in the abolition movement nationwide and in Vermont and in
the New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.

Rowland Thomas Robinson was a staunch and lifelong Garrisonian. Among
the items in the collections at Rokeby is a nearly complete run of *The
Liberator*, to which he subscribed from the first issue to the last. A
founder of both the Vermont\--the first such state auxiliary to be
formed\--and Ferrisburgh Anti-Slavery Societies,[^28] he never abandoned
the goal of immediate emancipation or his commitment to moral suasion.
This meant that he was left out of the majority when activists began to
employ political means after 1840. At the 1839 annual meeting of the
American Anti-Slavery Society, for example, Rowland Thomas Robinson was
the lone member of the Vermont delegation to vote against both the
majority and the use of the ballot to further the cause.[^29] He and a
small group of \"pseudo-anarchists\" resorted to disrupting meetings of
the Vermont Anti-Slavery Society as their views became more and more
marginal. Finally, in 1843, the majority resigned in disgust. The
Liberty Party began organizing political clubs that same year and
eventually usurped the place formerly held by the abolition
societies.[^30] Opposing the use of political means to further what he
saw as a moral cause became almost as important to Rowland Thomas
Robinson as opposing slavery itself. At least he was willing to let it
destroy the anti-slavery societies he had helped found.

Dissatisfaction with the New York Yearly Meeting also seemed to come to
a head during this period.[^31] Charles Marriott, Rowland Thomas
Robinson, and others had been trying for years to send an anti-slavery
memorial to Congress, for example, but could not overcome the
opposition.[^32] Oliver Johnson wrote to Rowland Thomas Robinson in 1839
that \"duty will require me before long to renounce as an evil thing my
connection with the sect to which I now belong.\"[^33] The New York
Monthly Meeting disciplined and then disowned Isaac T. Hopper and
Marriott in 1842 for their abolitionist activities \"calculated to
excite discord and disunity among friends.\"[^34] The loss of these
comrades, and the possibility of his own disownment no doubt led to
Rowland Thomas Robinson\'s decision to resign from meeting sometime in
the 1840s. This break may explain the lack of abolition-related
correspondence after 1850, since most of Rowland Thomas Robinson\'s
correspondents had been other Quakers.

Despite these conflicts, Rowland Thomas Robinson continued to work on a
variety of projects during this period. In 1843, he hosted one of the
one hundred conventions the New England Anti-Slavery Society resolved to
hold that year. The NEASS drafted a group of orators, Frederick Douglass
among them, and sent them on the road. In his autobiography, Douglass
said of his travels in Vermont, \"In the neighboring town of Ferrisburgh
the case was different and far more favorable. The way had been prepared
for us by such stalwart antislavery workers as Orson S. Murray, Charles
C. Burleigh, Rowland T. Robinson, and others.\"[^35] A small broadside
announcing the \"Great Convention\" and signed by Rowland Thomas
Robinson remains in the Rokeby Collection and is on display in the
house.

Rowland Thomas Robinson was clearly committed to more than just an end
to slavery. He worked for education both before the Civil War for former
slaves and after it, for free blacks. In 1839 he started his own school,
building an impressive, two-story brick building with a bell tower on
Rokeby land just north of the house and farmstead. Although not a
boarding school, it attracted pupils, many of them Quakers, from out of
state. Joseph Beale wrote in 1840 about placing his son Caleb, if a
place for him to stay could be found.[^36] Another New York Quaker, S.
Bowne, wrote from New Rochelle to ask how \"Joseph & Eliza get along\"
and to say that \"James & Lucretia\" had left their old school and
wished to try it for a quarter. The Brick Academy, as it was called, was
also an experiment in integration. The two youngest children of a freed
slave, a boy and a girl, were the wards of a New York Friend and
abolitionist, and he placed them there from 1838 to 1841.[^37] An
algebra book signed by Henry Turpin, the boy, remains in the collection
at Rokeby.[^38] Little more is known of this venture, except that it
closed in 1846, and the building was subsequently used for agricultural
storage.

Also in 1839, Rowland Thomas Robinson worked with Joseph H. Beale and
Charles Marriott among others to found the New York Association of
Friends for the Relief of Those Held in Slavery and the Improvement of
the Free People of Color; he was appointed first clerk of the group.
Among various activities, they supported schools for black children and
adults in New York City and urged boycotting of slave-produced
goods.[^39] In an 1835 letter, William Lloyd Garrison said of Rowland
Thomas Robinson\'s wife Rachel Gilpin Robinson, \"Not a particle of the
productions of slave labor, whether it be rice, sugar, coffee, cotton,
molasses, tobacco or flour, is used in her family, and thus her practice
corresponds admirably with her doctrine.\"[^40] This, no doubt, was the
sort of anti-slavery activity that kept Rowland Thomas Robinson and
friends in trouble with the New York Yearly Meeting.

Rowland Thomas Robinson\'s efforts continued in the postwar period.
Immediately after the war, he wrote to the Quartermaster General in
Washington, DC, offering shelter and jobs for freedmen.[^41] Apparently
he was not alone in his desire to help; Barker informed him they had
more offers of work than they could supply laborers. He noted, however,
that the Freedmen\'s Bureau might know of \"such persons,\" and he asked
Rowland Thomas Robinson to send information about the wages offered.

Rowland Thomas Robinson was still at work more than a decade later. He
used his position as executor of the estate of Joseph Rogers, a fellow
Quaker and abolitionist, to contribute to freedmen\'s education, seeking
William Lloyd Garrison\'s advice on which of the several black colleges
was most worthy. Garrison replied on July 11, 1878,[^42] and suggested
Howard, Wilberforce, Hampton, Fiske, and Berea as possibilities. He made
a special plea for Berea, which had \"triumphantly solved the problem
whether whites and blacks can be amicably and advantageously educated
together.\"

A dilemma for many abolitionists was how to end slavery without risking
white supremacy.[^43] Not so for Rowland Thomas Robinson. He was that
rare abolitionist whose commitment went beyond the need to destroy a
sinful institution to fully embracing black men and women as brothers
and sisters entitled to all the rights and advantages of whites. He knew
that there would be no freedom without education and work. This story of
the UGRR at Rokeby is not always popular. For many, the romance of the
railroad is inextricably tied to notions of danger and secrecy. But
taking a new look at the story of fugitives at Rokeby puts Robinson\'s
contributions in a new light as well. Rather than mere shelter for a
night, Rowland and Rachel Robinson took former slaves into their home,
gave them employment on the farm, taught them to read and write, and
gave them the space and time needed to start life anew. Fugitive slaves
escaped with little more than their own courage and determination; at
some point they had to leave their old lives behind them and begin new
lives as free men and women. This was the opportunity offered by the
Robinsons and Rokeby.

Rowland Thomas Robinson was among the first to translate his beliefs
into action\--helping to found the first state auxiliary of the American
Anti-Slavery Society in 1834\--and continued his efforts on behalf of
black men and women after they had been freed. His belief in full
equality and civil rights for blacks, from which he never wavered, put
him in the vanguard of the movement. A radical even among Quakers\--who
were well known for their abolitionist stance\--he left the Friends over
the issue of direct action in the 1840s. He participated in and
influenced anti-slavery debate and action at the state and national
levels. He worked and corresponded with several national figures.
Indeed, reflecting on \"days of auld lang syne,\" William Lloyd Garrison
said of Rowland Thomas Robinson in an 1878 letter, \"I always placed you
high on my list of friends and co-laborers the most esteemed and the
truest; and it affords me the greatest satisfaction to know that you
have been preserved to hear the ringing of the jubilee bell, and to
witness all those marvelous changes which have taken place in our land
within less than a score of years.\"[^44]

Rokeby is distinguished among UGRR sites nationwide for its rare and
complete documentation. It is also distinguished for its high level of
historic integrity. Frugal Yankees, the Robinsons saved anything and
everything of value. Thus the house is fully furnished with family
belongings, including furniture, clothing, dishes, books, art, and other
artifacts dating from the 1790s to 1961. Rowland Thomas Robinson\'s
desk, papers, books, furniture, and clothing are all on view. The
chambers where fugitives might have slept while at Rokeby, the kitchen
where they took their meals, and other rooms are unchanged and open to
the public, as are the outbuildings and fields where they worked. Rokeby
may not have a \"secret chamber,\" but it offers an authentic glimpse
into everyday life as it was lived by a remarkable family and the
fugitives they aided.

**[9. MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES]{.underline}**

**Manuscript Sources**

Robinson Family Letters, Rokeby Collection, Sheldon Museum, Middlebury,
Vermont.

Rokeby Archives, Rokeby Museum, Ferrisburgh Vermont.

Wilbur H. Siebert Papers, Volume 41, Houghton Library, Harvard
University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Antislavery Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts.

**Secondary Sources**

\"Anti-Slavery Action in 1838: A Letter from Vermont\'s Secretary of
State.\" *Vermont History* 41 (Winter 1973):7-8.

Barbour, Hugh, et al. *Quaker Crosscurrents: Three Hundred Years of
Friends in the New York Yearly Meeting*. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse
University Press, 1995.

Douglass, Frederick. *Life and Times of Frederick Douglass*. New York:
Collier Books, 1962.

Filler, Louis. *The Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860*. New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1960.

Gara, Larry. *The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad*.
Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1961.

Ludlum, David. *Social Ferment in Vermont, 1791-1850*. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1939.

*Lydia Maria Child: Selected Letters, 1817-1880*. Amherst: University of
Massachusetts Press, 1982.

Merrill, Walter M., ed. *The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison*, Volume
I. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

Myers, John. \"The Beginning of Antislavery Agencies in Vermont,
1832-1836.\" *Vermont History* 36 (Summer 1968):126-141.

Robinson, Rowland E. *Out of Bondage and Other Stories*. Rutland,
Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 1936.

Siebert, Wilbur H. *The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom*.
New York: Macmillan, 1898.

Siebert, Wilbur H. *Vermont\'s Anti-Slavery and Underground Railroad
Record*. New York: Negro University Press, 1969.

Wiecek, William M. \"Slavery and Abolition Before the United States
Supreme Court, 1820- 1860.\" *Journal of American History* 65
(1978):34-59.

Winks, Robin W. *The Blacks in Canada: A History*. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1971.

Zirblis, Raymond Paul. *Friends of Freedom: The Vermont Underground
Railroad Survey Report*. Montpelier: Vermont Department of State
Buildings, Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, 1996.

Previous documentation on file (NPS):

Preliminary Determination of Individual Listing (36 CFR 67) has been
requested.

[X]{.underline} Previously Listed in the National Register.

Previously Determined Eligible by the National Register.

Designated a National Historic Landmark.

Recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey: \#

Recorded by Historic American Engineering Record: \#

Primary Location of Additional Data:

[X]{.underline} State Historic Preservation Office

Other State Agency

Federal Agency

Local Government

University

[X]{.underline} Other (Specify Repository): Rokeby Museum, Ferrisburgh,
Vermont

Sheldon Museum, Middlebury, Vermont

**[10. GEOGRAPHICAL DATA]{.underline}**

Acreage of Property: approximately 85 acres

UTM References: Zone Easting Northing

A: 18 640700 4898130

B: 18 641610 4898180

C: 18 641600 4897840

D: 18 640610 4897790

Verbal Boundary Description:

> Beginning at the southeast corner of Town Highway 22 (Robinson Road)
> and US Route 7, proceed east along the southerly right of way of Town
> Highway 22 3,075 feet to the intersection with former Town Highway 23
> (Buckwheat Street), now abandoned, then proceed south 1,030 feet to a
> pin, then proceed west 3,170 feet to a pin, then proceed north 186
> feet to a pin, then proceed west 122 feet to a pin at Route 7, then
> proceed along the easterly right of way of Route 7 1,262 feet north to
> the place of starting.

Boundary Justification:

> The boundary includes all land owned by Rokeby Museum, all of which
> was historically part of Rokeby, the Robinson family farm. The
> farmhouse, outbuildings, features, fields, former orchards and
> pasture, and forest that are included in the nominated property were
> all part of the farm as it developed from 1793 to 1961. It is
> sufficient to convey the historic significance of the property.

**[11. FORM PREPARED BY]{.underline}**

Name/Title: Jane Williamson, Director, Rokeby Museum

> RR #1
>
> Ferrisburgh, Vermont 05456

Telephone: 802-877-3406

Date: 1/13/97

\* A photograph of Rokeby is available on the National Register of
Historic Places' Web site at: www.cr.nps.gov/nr/underground/vt1.htm

NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS SURVEY

January 6, 1998

[^1]: See chapter 11 in Hugh Barbour, et al, *Quaker Crosscurrents:
    Three Hundred Years of Friends in the New York Yearly Meeting*
    (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995), 183-197.

[^2]: Oliver Johnson to Rowland T. Robinson, March 27, 1835, Montpelier,
    Vermont, Rokeby Collection, Sheldon Museum Archive and Research
    Center, Middlebury Vermont.

[^3]: Oliver Johnson to Rowland T. Robinson, January 27, 1837, Jenner
    Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, Rokeby Collection.

[^4]: Oliver Johnson to Rowland T. Robinson, April 3, 1837, South
    Weymouth, Massachusetts, Rokeby Collection.

[^5]: Oliver Johnson to Rowland T. Robinson, Woonsocket, Rhode Island,
    October 16, 1837, Rokeby Collection.

[^6]: Joseph H. Beale to Rowland T. Robinson, July 12, 1844, New York,
    Rokeby Collection.

[^7]: Ephram Elliott to Rowland T. Robinson, April 19, 1837, Perquimans
    County, North Carolina, Rokeby Collection.

[^8]: Rowland Thomas Robinson kept a copy of his reply to Elliott; it is
    written in Rowland Thomas Robinson\'s hand on the back of Elliott\'s
    April letter.

[^9]: Ephram Elliott to Rowland T. Robinson, June 7, 1837, Perquimans
    County, North Carolina, Rokeby Collection.

[^10]: Charles Marriott to Rowland T. Robinson, New York, March 3, and
    17, 1842, Rokeby Collection.

[^11]: William M. Wiecek, \"Slavery and Abolition Before the United
    States Supreme Court, 1820-1860\" *Journal of American History* 65
    (1978):34-59.

[^12]: James Temple to Thomas R. Robinson, May 11, 1851, Montreal,
    Canada, Rokeby Collection.

[^13]: \"Anti-Slavery Action in 1838: A Letter from Vermont\'s Secretary
    of State,\" *Vermont History* 41 (Winter 1973):7-8.

[^14]: Although the term \"underground railroad\" was coined sometime in
    the 1840s, Ray Zirblis points out in his report on the UGRR in
    Vermont that the terminology we use today was *not* used by
    contemporary activists. Rather, it was \"codified\" by Wilbur H.
    Siebert around the turn of the century. The railroad metaphor and
    this pervasive language both appear to have had strong impacts on
    the popular conception of the UGRR. Raymond Paul Zirblis, *Friends
    of Freedom: The Vermont Underground Railroad Survey Report*.
    Montpelier: Vermont Department of State Buildings, Vermont Division
    for Historic Preservation, 1996, p. 4.

[^15]: Larry Gara, *The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground
    Railroad* (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1961), 61.
    Although written more than thirty years ago, Gara\'s book is the
    most recent revisionist treatment of the UGRR and is essential
    reading. Robin W. Winks, *The Blacks in Canada: A History* (New
    Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1971), 233.

[^16]: Zirblis, *Friends of Freedom*, 35.

[^17]: Ibid.

[^18]: Ibid, 18.

[^19]: The Quakers were the first organized body of any kind to speak
    out against slavery as a group, and certainly the first religious
    denomination to do so. They also lived, worked, and married in
    close-knit communities, by both preference and rule.

[^20]: The fugitive\'s need to find work and support him or herself,
    seen so clearly in the Robinson letters, is completely ignored in
    the UGRR legend. It was a motivating factor for Simon, Jeremiah
    Snowden, and John and Martha Williams, as it was for the famous
    fugitive Frederick Douglass. This issue deserves scholarly
    attention.

[^21]: Wilbur H. Siebert, *The Underground Railroad from Slavery to
    Freedom* (New York: Macmillan Company, 1898).

[^22]: Rowland E. Robinson to Wilbur H. Siebert, August 19, 1896.
    Siebert Papers, Volume 41, Houghton Library, Harvard University,
    Cambridge, Massachusetts.

[^23]: Rowland E. Robinson, *Out of Bondage and Other Stories* (Rutland,
    Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 1936). Another story, \"Our Own
    Runaway,\" was published in *The Youth\'s Companion* on August 31,
    1911. This story features a pair of Quaker children, who, in their
    enthusiasm to contribute to the \"cause,\" harbor and feed a black
    man who lets them believe he is a fugitive. Their enthusiasm, not
    the man\'s dishonesty, was the source of the mix-up. These
    melodramatic stories are distinctly unlike RER\'s several books of
    Vermont folktales and may well have been written because he realized
    there was a market for them. He was, after all, a working author. It
    is even possible that Siebert\'s request for information on Rokeby
    and the UGRR gave him the idea. Siebert contacted the Robinsons in
    1896, also the year RER sent his long reply, and \"Out of Bondage\"

    appeared in the *Atlantic Monthly* in 1897.

[^24]: Wilbur H. Siebert, *Vermont\'s Anti-Slavery and Underground
    Railroad Record* (1937; reprint, New York: Negro University Press,
    1969), 75.

[^25]: Mary R. Allen to Wilbur H. Siebert, May 24, 1935. Siebert Papers,
    Volume 41, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge,
    Massachusetts.

[^26]: Once again RER\'s writing provides evidence. In \"Danvis Farm
    Life,\" an essay describing the farm year at Rokeby, he said, \"Of
    all the rooms in our farmhouse, the kitchen chamber is probably the
    least changed. \[He goes on to describe it in great detail as it
    looks today.\] To this dormitory the hired man betakes himself when
    his last pipe is smoked, and soon, in nasal trumpet-blasts,
    announces his arrival in the Land of Nod.\" RER\'s career as a
    writer did not begin until after the Civil War. The walls erected in
    the early 20th century were removed in the 1960s by museum
    personnel.

[^27]: Robinson to Siebert, August 19, 1896, Harvard.

[^28]: John Myers, \"The Beginning of Antislavery Agencies in Vermont,
    1832-1836,\" *Vermont History* 36 (Summer 1968):126-141.

[^29]: David Ludlum, *Social Ferment in Vermont, 1791-1850*, (New York:
    Columbia University Press, 1939), 173.

[^30]: Ludlum, *Social Ferment*, 180-181.

[^31]: Rowland Thomas Robinson corresponded from 1839 to 1843 with many
    abolitionist members of the New York Yearly Meeting who shared his
    dissatisfaction with official inaction, see, for example, Charles
    Marriott to Rowland T. Robinson, July 27, 1836; January 29, 1839;
    March 14, 1842; October 15, 1842. John Orvis to Rowland T. Robinson,
    January 7, 1842; February 5, 1843. George C. Macy to Rowland T.
    Robinson, September 12, 1843. Samuel Keese to Rowland T. Robinson,
    June 3, 1843. All Rokeby Collection.

[^32]: See, for example, Charles Marriott to Rowland T. Robinson,
    September 9, 1835, Rokeby Collection. Marriott wrote frequently
    about problems with the New York Yearly Meeting.

[^33]: Oliver Johnson to Rowland T. Robinson, Boston, January 5, 1839,
    Rokeby Collection.

[^34]: Barbour, *Quaker Crosscurrents*, 186. Also see: Isaac T. Hopper
    to Rowland T. Robinson, New York, January 29, 1842, Rokeby
    Collection.

[^35]: Frederick Douglass, *Life and Times of Frederick Douglass* (1892;
    reprint, New York: Collier Books, 1962), 227.

[^36]: Joseph H. Beale to Rowland T. Robinson, New York, May 9, 1840,
    Rokeby Collection.

[^37]: Details on the Turpin children come from the letters of Lydia
    Maria Child. See *Lydia Maria Child: Selected Letters, 1817-1880*
    (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1982), 47 and Lydia
    Maria Child to Deborah Weston, New York City, August 25, 1841,
    Antislavery Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston,
    Massachusetts.

[^38]: An explanatory note written by George Robinson, one of Rowland
    Thomas Robinson\'s sons, says \"Henry J. Turpin / A colored
    boy\--ward of Joseph Beale\--went to the \'Academy\' a short time,
    about 1839 or so, I think. G. G. R.\" Actually, the Turpin children
    were the wards of Joseph Carpenter of New Rochelle, New York.

[^39]: See Charles Marriott to Rowland T. Robinson, New York, January
    29, 1839; March 14, 1842; June 2, 1843 and Joseph H. Beale to
    Rowland T. Robinson, New York, July 16, 1839.

[^40]: Walter M. Merrill, ed, *The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison*,
    volume I. (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
    1971), 566.

[^41]: S. Barker to Rowland T. Robinson, Washington, DC, October 31,
    1866, Rokeby Collection

[^42]: William Lloyd Garrison to Rowland T. Robinson, Boston,
    Massachusetts, July 11, 1878, Rokeby Collection.

[^43]: Louis Filler, *The Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860* (New York:
    Harper & Brothers, 1960), 264.

[^44]: William Lloyd Garrison, July 11, 1878, Rokeby Collection.