Mark Anthony DeWolf

Mark Anthony DeWolf (also spelled D'Wolf or deWolfe; November 8, 1726 – November 9, 1793) was an American merchant and slave trader. He is known for his role in the Atlantic slave trade and was an early member of the DeWolf family of Bristol, Rhode Island, which became one of the most prominent slave-trading families in American history.

Biography

Born on November 8, 1726, in the French colony of Guadeloupe, Mark Anthony DeWolf was the second son of Charles DeWolf and Margaret DeWolf (née Potter).

DeWolf received formal education in a French school and was fluent in several languages. At the age of 17, he moved from Guadeloupe to the United States, having been hired as a deckhand on a slave-trading vessel owned by Simeon Potter. In 1744, shortly after arriving in the U.S., he married Potter's sister, Abigail. Soon after, he joined Potter on board the privateer Prince Charles of Lorraine to participate in King George's War in the West Indies. General George DeWolf, the builder of Linden Place, was Mark Anthony DeWolf's grandson through his son Major Charles DeWolf.