Moidore

Moidore (also known as Midah, Moydor, and Midor) was enslaved by Caleb Strong. In The Northampton Book, Edwin C. Rozwenc wrote that he was an “accomplished fiddler who was taken along on picnics and parties.” James Russell Trumbull recorded a similar account of Moidore as a fiddler and said that he also worked in Strong’s tannery.
Judd wrote about Moidore, calling him Midah, “a likely negro who worked many years for Lt. Caleb Strong in his tannery, was the fidler [sic]…He settled in Worcester [?] + acquired property.”

There are two contemporary records that allude to Moidore. In 1749, the accounts of Ebenezer Hunt list Caleb Strong as purchasing a “castor hat” for “his negro Moidore.” This would refer to a hat that was either made of wool, or a mixture of wool and fur, such as rabbit fur (Judd manuscript, Northampton MA Prices and Account Books, p. 32). Northampton tax records for 1756 list Caleb Strong as enslaving one person, but do not list the name of the person. This may have been Moidore (Northampton Town Papers Whiting Street Fund, Tax Assessors 1703–1884, 1706–1791 Tax Valuations).

Records from Barre, Massachusetts (in Worcester County), have yielded potential records that could be tied to Moidore. These records refer to one Moidore Hillhouse, who married Rebekah Oliver in 1781 in Barre. The Barre record refers to Hillhouse’s previous residence as Templeton, Massachusetts, which does not preclude him living in Northampton prior to a residency in Templeton. Hillhouse purchased 30 acres of land in Barre, developed one section of it, and built a log house there. He died in the early19th century, with no known heirs. After his death, Rebekah remarried Samuel Jones, who moved onto the land and developed it more. However, since Moidore Hillhouse died with no will, two-thirds of the land (excepting Rebekah’s dower portion) would automatically have become the property of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Not wanting to lose the land, Jones made a petition to the state in 1808 to be allowed to assume ownership, which appears to have been granted. A similar petition was filed in 1837 by a man named Prince Morris. Samuel Jones had also died without an heir, and so Morris staked a claim to the land on behalf of his wife, Rebecca Morris, who was Rebekah Oliver Jones’ niece. However, without a will or a widow, the land would normally descend through the male line, so this petition does not seem to have been granted.