Collect Day #24, ESTHER WHIPPLE MULLINAUX
O God of Wisdom, today we remember Esther, daughter of a slave, faithful church member and laborer. Despite losing her husband and being shamed by the church, Esther persisted. Her tenacity and hard work enabled her to thrive, and even after her death she had the means to support the education of newly freed slaves. We ask that we may have her strength, when we feel ashamed, to keep working. We ask that we find the means to thrive, and that our hearts will be as dedicated to generous mission work as was Esther’s. We give thanks for this woman of great strength, and we rejoice that she made a difference to others in life and in death. We offer these prayers in the name of Jesus, who also suffered shame, who lived his life for others, and whose death brings us all new life. Amen.
DAY #24, March 13, 2018
Portsmouth
ESTHER WHIPPLE MULLINAUX
(1785–1868)
Angela Matthews
In 1827 Esther Mulllinaux, the daughter of Prince and Dinah Whipple, was living on the street where she had grown up and where her widowed mother still conducted the local school for Black children. By the 1830’s their High Street home was deemed unsafe for the two women alone. In consideration of Dinah wanting to continue to live within walking distance of her church, the women moved into a house on Pleasant Street that was generously provided by the family that formerly enslaved Prince. Like her parents and siblings, Esther also was a member of North Church in Portsmouth. The church baptized the Black family’s children, officiated at their marriages, even assisted with cash gifts during Dinah’s final two winters, then provided for her burial in 1846.
Esther married a mariner, William Mullinaux, in 1801. Their children were William Prince, Anna, Elizabeth, Richard and Horace William. In 1815, Esther’s husband disappeared, thought to be lost at sea, and she remarried. This, however, created a controversy which led to the marriage being declared unlawful by the church. Esther was admonished and in 1817, according to customary practices of that time; her public confession of “shame and confusion of face” was transcribed into the North Church record book.
Her persistence and tenacity over the years allowed Esther, like other Blacks in in an often-hostile world, to survive and even thrive. Supplementing steady work as a laundress with housekeeping, sewing and childcare, by 1851 Esther was able to purchase a house at auction.
Upon her death in 1868, Esther’s will stipulated that North Church was to receive the proceeds of her estate for the purpose of foreign and home missionary work. In particular, she asked that her bequest be used for the home mission projects sponsored by both North and South churches in support of schools and other services for newly freed African Americans. Her estate was valued at just over $300, the house having appreciated over 14 years from a value of $200. Esther Mullinaux is buried in a marked grave near her parents in North Cemetery.
