Searching for Margaret Cutt in Ancient Piscataquay, and Finding Shipwrights, Slave Holders and Plantation Owners across Four Generations

In this presentation, Judy Granger will discuss her research into the life of Margaret Cutt in the Kittery, Maine area during the late 1700 – early 1800s. Margaret married Pomp Russell, a citizen of Weld, Maine and Revolutionary War veteran who was born an enslaved black infant around 1761. For this historical time and place, black women can often be even more invisible than their husbands, but Judy argues that Margaret Cutt just might be the exception.

Judy will discuss Margaret’s beginnings and her meeting and marrying Pomp Russell. She will also dive into the possibility of Margaret’s surname and its connections to some of the oldest and wealthiest families of Kittery, Maine, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire—the Cutts, Pepperrells, Brays, Gerrishes, and Elliots—as well as connections to her own early ancestors.

Judy Granger is a New Englander through and through, both from birth in New Hampshire and living in Maine, as well as having all of her ancestors arrive in the mid-1600s to settle Topsfield and Newbury, Massachusetts, and the Kittery-Portsmouth-Dover-Oyster River areas of Maine and New Hampshire. Her PhD work was at Kent State in education and educational leadership, and her area of interest is in qualitative research. Telling the story of Pomp Russell and his wife, Margaret, in the context of their surroundings in the late 1700s, is right up her alley.

All are welcome! This event is in-person, with a Zoom option.

To receive the Zoom link or for more information, please email Sharon Pietryka at [email protected].