The Isaac Royall House and Slave Quarters is a historic houselocated in Medford, Massachusetts, near Tufts University. The historic estate was founded by Bay Colony native Isaac Royall and is recognized as giving a face and life to the history and existence of slave quarters and slavery in Massachusetts. It is a National Historic Landmark, operated as a non-profit museum, and open for public visits between June 1 and the last weekend in October.
SITE FEATURES
Surviving Structures
On this site...
The Royall House is notable for its excellent preservation, its possession of the only surviving slave quarters in Massachusetts, and its American Revolution associations with General John Stark, Molly Stark, and General George Washington. Among the historic objects on display is a tea box, said to be from the [4] same batch that was dumped into Boston Harbor on the night of December 16, 1773, and a very small painting by John Singleton Copley of Isaac Royall Jr. The Royalls were the largest slave-holding family in Massachusetts history.
HOME
EST. 1732
HEADQUARTERS
BATTLEFIELD
During the American Revolution, the Royall family were Loyalists, and after British soldiers skirmished with Patriot militiamen at the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, the Royalls left Medford and boarded a ship in Boston. They sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia and then to England. Isaac Royall never returned to Medford.
After the Royalls' flight, the Massachusetts General Court confiscated the estate. John Stark made the Royall House his headquarters before the British evacuation of Boston on March 17, 1776. The mansion was used during the early months of the Revolution by Generals Lee, Stark, and Sullivan. George Washington, according to legend, interrogated two British soldiers in the house's Marble Chamber. The story that Molly Starkwatched the movements of the British troops in their camp by the river from a lookout on the roof is undocumented.
HISTORIC PEOPLE
George Washington
Commander-in-Chief
John Stark
Brigadier General