Jesse Ruffin

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →

1. June 1842 William Norwood's estate lists Rebecca Ruffin and her daughters When William Norwood died, the inventory of his estate named Rebecca, wife of Judge Ruffin's coachman Jesse, and two of their daughters, Nancy and Julia, among 57 enslaved people. People: William Norwood, Jesse Ruffin Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Rebecca RuffinBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 31
2. May 1865 Paul Cameron complains that Jesse Ruffin is raising freedpeople's hopes of land In May 1865, weeks after the Confederate surrender near Durham, Paul Cameron wrote to his father-in-law Thomas Ruffin that the judge's longtime coachman Jesse had stirred the freedpeople on his place to hope for a freehold in the land they worked, and asked that his name not be linked with Jesse's. People: Paul C. Cameron, Thomas Ruffin, Jesse Ruffin Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Paul CameronBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 32
3. Inscribed December 5, 1865 Bricks at the Coachman's Quarters carry the date Dec 5, '65 Two bricks in a small outbuilding near the Burnside stable in Hillsborough carry the hand-cut inscription 'Dec 5, '65', found during the building's restoration after 2003. The owners and descendants connect it to Jesse Ruffin, a coachman once enslaved by Thomas Ruffin. According to family tradition he cut the date to mark the day after the General Assembly ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which formally ended slavery. People: Thomas Ruffin, Jesse Ruffin Place: Coachman's Quarters, South Cameron Street, HillsboroughNews of Orange County: 13th amendment commemorated through local coachman's story
4. May 1, 1866 Jesse and Rebecca Ruffin register the marriage they made in 1828 Jesse Ruffin, coachman to Judge Thomas Ruffin, and Rebecca, who had kept the keys of the Norwood household across the Eno, had married in 1828 while enslaved to different families. They recorded the marriage with the Freedmen's Bureau and later bought a farm. People: Jesse Ruffin, Thomas Ruffin Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Rebecca RuffinBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 29
5. March 6, 1901 Jesse Ruffin, coachman and stagecoach driver, dies Jesse Ruffin died in his nineties at his grandson Lindsey Faucette's house, out between Hillsborough and Durham. The Durham Sun remembered him as Judge Ruffin's servant and later Paul Cameron's, and a stagecoach driver before the railroad came; he was carried to Hillsborough by train for burial. People: Jesse Ruffin Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Lindsey Faucette, Paul CameronBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 29