Robinson Mumford (1718)

Ancestors

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Biography

m. Feb. 1, 1761 Sarah Coit. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Mather Byles, New London.

Research

Research is in progress to substantiate the belief that Robinson was the individual who brought Venture Broteer (Furro) Smith (1729-1805) (also known as Venture Smith) to America on a slave ship.

Venture Smith wrote his autobiography, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself. In it he tells how he was named Venture by a "Robertson" Mumford, a steward of the vessel, who purchased him for four gallons of rum and a piece of calico. He was then sold to George Mumford, the father of Robertson, and worked for him on Fisher's Island and faced a pitchfork wielding son of Mumford. George was a tenant farming on the island.^[1]

There are no records of a son of George named Robertson. According to the article for Venture Smith on Wikipedia, Robinson was the steward on the ship that first enslaved Venture.

According to Mumford Memoirs, family records show that this son died at sea (date unknown).^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ The full text of the Fisher's Island Land lease of George Mumford, between him and Anne Winthrop, wife of John Winthrop of New London (witnessed by J Hempsted; G. Saltonstall); 1741 was purchased by the Ferguson Museum on Fisher's Island.
2. ↑ Mumford, James Gregory. Mumford Memoirs, Being the Story of the New England Mumfords (Merrymount Press, Boston, 1900) Page 68