The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1891-12-28
4 SPECULATION ABoUr On BoxEs.
May be They belonged to FREQ Negroes
zoo Years Ago-May be to the Sperrys.

May be They belonged to FREQ Negroes
zoo Years ANo-May be to the Sperrys.
The six mouldered human skulls. the leg
| bones. arm bones, ribs and breast bones that
| were dug out on Saturday from under the
cellar Of Mr. Orlando b. Potter's fve-story
business building at 81 Lafayette place. op-
| posite the Aston Library. filled two barrels In
the Mercer street police station yesterday.
They had been in brick vault the top OF
which caved in when the laborers reached It
! Speculation as to whose bones they might he
was rife yesterday. Mrs. Martha j. Lamb. the
historian OF New York city. went down in the
| rccesses Of her memory last night to oblige
reporter OF THE Sun. and marshallod out n
| troop Of free negroes. headed by Anthony
Portuguese to whom that very plot Of ground
was given by Gov. Peter Stuyvesant in 1850.
before the British conquest OF New York. She
thought It likely that theao six skulls had
once belonged to tho free negroes. unless they
wero the remains OF some OF the family of
Jacob Sperry. who was born in Switzerland in
112S. and came to America and bought the
land in 1850.
Mrs. Lamb recited the history OF the plot OF
ground from tho time the free negroes got it
There were nine plots given to the negroes.
They extended from Art street now Aston
place. to Prince street There is no record Of
the burial of any OF these FREQ negroes but in
those days 1t was customary to bury ones
dead on ones own land. so that in all proba-
bility when ono OF the negroes died he was
buried in one OF these plots. II there were
many In tho colony. forthe purpose OF economy
in land they would be very likely to build
vault
Sperry. who got hold OF the property in 1850
was devoted to horticulture and made an i'm
menso garden OF it. Sporty was doctor. but
evidently there wasn't much sickness in those
times. and he found gardening on a large
scale moro profitable. He was married. ana
he built house and lived in the midst Of his
fers there; He called Ms garden ,vauxhal
City Directory, in 1850. In 1900 he began to |
5ssS jaisS asSs s s4s sold lis place
Is NJ S spsTryds family Put any them
garden and in a vault
The bones couldn't we'll have got there since
man named De La Croix. who turned it Unto into
c Il %ss nS
out with exquisite taste. There was a big
ayed s %s Se e nse s a
restaurant and drank wine and watched bal
aS9 too lss os
" Fortunes Frolic." In 1926 Lafayette place
was cut right through the centre OF tho gar
where the bodies were found on. Saturday
Seth Geer built row ,of houses and called IL
made Hotel. He. was called fool then for
building houses two miles, out Of town"
John Jacob Astor gave the plot where the
don. She buried no one there, She sold tho
property later to Matthew Wilkes. His dead
it to Mr. Potter. and Mr.. Potter has buried no
one there. No church ever stood on any part
Of the property.
SO it seems reasonable conjecture that the
bones are either homes OF the descendants OF
Or the bones OF the free negroes buried more
than 200 years ago.
The police do not cnre which. To-day they
will send for q dead wagon. The barrels will be
AIKEN to tho Morgue and thence to the Potter's
Field