Owners and Tenants, 1819-1956

• Decatur
• Hyde de Neuville
• de Tuyll
• Clay
• Van Buren
• Livingston
• Vaughn
• Gadsby
• Dallas
• Gales
• John & James King
• Appleton
• Orr
• Benjamin
• McBlair
• United States Army
• Edward Beale &
  Mary Beale
• Truxtun Beale
• Marie Beale

TIMELINE OF OWNERS AND TENANTS
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John and Providence Gadsby (owner, 1836-1842)
Daughters Julia and Augusta
At least ten enslaved residents, including the Kings and Williams families.

John Gadsby, an English-born tavern owner and hotelier and builder of the National Hotel in Washington, was among the richest men in the city. He purchased Decatur House in 1836 and moved in with his third wife, Providence, and their two daughters. As a specialist in the art of hosting, Gadsby proceeded to hold parties that were reportedly unsurpassed in their day. Thus Gadsby adhered to what had become the tradition at Decatur House: using as a center of Washington high society.

The Gadsbys’ residency is also notable for the number of enslaved members
of the household. Gadsby constructed the building’s wing as quarters for the
ten slaves he owned, who likely worked both in Decatur House and the
National Hotel. This building still stands as one of Washington’s oldest surviving slave quarters, and one of the few remaining urban slave quarters in the country.

The enslaved African Americans who lived and worked in the Gadsby slave quarters consisted primarily of two families, the Kings and the Williamses, who shared the second floor of the quarters. John Gadsby's 1844 will lists the names and ages of the people he enslaved, most of whom probably lived at Decatur House:

Nace (Ignatius Newton), 50
Henry King, 40
Maria King, 35
Celia King, 16
Charles King, 9
Sarah Jane King, 4
George King,18 months
Maria Williams, 30
Martha Ann Williams, 7
Mary Ellen Williams, 4
James Williams, 18 months
Kesiah Williams, 28
Mary Frances Williams, 7
William Williams, 5
Rosa Marks, 48
Nancy Syphax, 45
James Long, 24

As the eldest woman, Rosa Marks may have been designated the housekeeper at Decatur House. Evidence suggests she remained with the Gadsby family even after emancipation - she was buried in the Gadsby family vault in Congressional Cemetery in 1866.

Providence Gadsby began renting out Decatur House shortly after her husband’s death in 1844. Unlike Mrs. Decatur, Mrs. Gadsby did not move out of the house, but continued to live on the first floor while renting out the two upper levels, primarily to members of Congress. Upon his death, John Gadsby bequeathed his slaves to his wife, who retained possession of most of them until her death in 1858.

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