The very important story of an interracial family that can be traced through multiple generations and into the 20th century.
The story of the African-American Montier family traces its roots to Philadelphia’s first mayor, the White Quaker Humphrey Morrey, appointed c. 1691. Richard, the son of the mayor, had a relationship with Cremona, a former slave of the wealthy Morrey family, and the couple had five children. One of their children, also named Cremona, married John Montier, a black man of Caribbean heritage, and the couple built a residence that still stands today on Limekiln Pike in Glenside, Pennsylvania. Although Richard Morrey had two other matrimonial relationships, he passed to Cremona 200 acres of land near where Arcadia University of Glenside is situated today. A small Black town known as Guineatown developed on Cremona Morrey’s land, with an associated cemetery.
Members and descendants of the family included Cyrus Bustill, a black activist and baker who made bread for George Washington’s Continental Army, and David Bustill Bowser, an activist during the nineteenth century and Civil War who designed and created the colors for eleven African American regiments at Camp William Penn. More recent descendants include the great Paul Robeson, a renowned African-American scholar, lawyer, diplomat, athlete, singer, and actor, and William Pickens, Sr., a co-founder of the NAACP, as well as his late grandson William Pickens, III, a highly respected corporate executive, entrepreneur and philanthropist who was founding president of the Paul Robeson Foundation. The book will also trace modern descendants of the family.
1. The Origins and Life of Cremona Morrey
2. The Powerful Slaveholding English, New York, and Philadelphia Quaker Backgrounds of Richard and Humphrey Morrey
3. A Forbidden Romance Develops during Racially Explosive Times
4. Richard Morrey: A Gentleman Player?
5. Richard and Cremona’s Visible, Child-Producing Relationship
6. Richard Passes to Cremona Nearly 200 Acres Before His Death
7. Was the Relationship True Love or Coerced?
8. Cremona, Jr. and Her Relationship with Husband John Montier during the Revolutionary War
9. The Development of Guineatown, Home to Descendant Cyrus Bustill and Other Early Residents
10. Early and Modern Descendants of the Family, including Paul Robeson and William Pickens, Sr., a Co-Founder of the NAACP and Philly’s Pioneering Black Lawyers
11. The Legacy of the Historic Interracial Relationship, including the Disappearance of 73 Guineatown Graves
Don “Ogbewii” Scott is a 1977 graduate of Cheyney University and 1990 graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and lives in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania. Scott has written two books about Camp William Penn, as well as many articles about the Montiers for publications like America’s Civil War Magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer, England’s National Archives Magazine, and more. He has contributed to major Black-history book projects for the Oxford University Press and Houghton Mifflin. His lectures have been televised statewide and he’s delivered live Black-history segments on WURD 900 AM, as well as appeared on television’s PBS-WHYY, WPVI-ABC and PCN.
