Rokeby Museum
4334 Route 7
Ferrisburgh, VT
A Quaker family's sheep farm that is one of the best-documented Underground Railroad sites in the country, with the letters to prove it.
Rokeby was the home of the Robinsons, a Quaker family of farmers, abolitionists, artists, and writers who lived on this Ferrisburgh hillside for four generations beginning in the late 1700s. Rowland Thomas Robinson and his wife Rachel were active, outspoken abolitionists, and their farm became a haven for people escaping slavery in the decades before the Civil War.
What sets Rokeby apart from the many places that claim an Underground Railroad connection is the evidence. The Robinsons saved their letters, and among them are documents that name specific freedom seekers who stayed and worked here, including a man named Simon and another named Jesse Robinson. That paper trail makes Rokeby one of the most thoroughly documented Underground Railroad sites in the United States, and it earned the farm National Historic Landmark status.
What Guests Love
- Standing in a place where freedom seekers were sheltered by a family who left a written record of it
- The original Robinson farmhouse, kept much as the family lived in it across four generations
- An education center that tells the story with real documents rather than legend
- Walking trails and historic farm buildings across a quiet hillside above Lake Champlain
Worth Knowing
- The house is shown by guided tour; the grounds, trails, and exhibits can be explored on your own
- This is a place of serious history, and the story of the people sheltered here is told with honesty and care
- The site is seasonal, with the fullest access in the warmer months
- Allow time for the education center, which anchors the whole visit
Details
Ferrisburgh, VT
Learn about Rokeby Museum
The Robinsons and their farm
The Robinsons were Quakers, part of a faith community that opposed slavery on moral grounds, and they lived their convictions openly. Rowland T. Robinson corresponded with leading abolitionists of the day and refused to use goods produced by enslaved labor, part of the free-produce movement that tried to boycott slavery economically.
Rokeby was also a working farm, and for much of the 1800s it was devoted to Merino sheep, part of the wool boom that reshaped Vermont's hills. The family were people of culture as well, producing artists and writers across the generations, and the house is full of their books, paintings, furniture, and letters.
Because four generations lived here and saved so much, the farmhouse survives as an unusually complete record of one family's long life on the land, not a restoration guessing at the past but the real thing largely intact.
The Underground Railroad story
In the 1830s and 1840s, the Robinsons sheltered people who had escaped slavery in the South, giving them a safe place to live and work in the North. Vermont was far along the route toward Canada, and a documented, openly abolitionist household like Rokeby offered real refuge.
The family's surviving correspondence names individuals directly. Letters concerning a freedom seeker named Simon, and the story of Jesse, who took the Robinson name, put faces and lives to a history that at most sites survives only as oral tradition. Rather than a hidden tunnel or a secret room, the truth here is the harder and more human one: a family who took people in and wrote about it.
The museum's exhibits center these documented lives and are careful to separate what the record proves from the myths that have grown up around the Underground Railroad, an approach that has made Rokeby a model for how such places tell their stories.
Visiting the site
A modern education center introduces the history and the evidence before you visit the house, using the family's own words and objects. Guided tours then take you through the farmhouse itself, room by room, with the family's belongings still in place.
Outside, the grounds hold historic farm buildings, gardens, and walking trails that wind across the hillside with views toward Lake Champlain. It is a peaceful setting that makes the weight of the history all the more striking.
The pace here rewards attention. This is a site to move through slowly, reading and listening, rather than a quick photo stop.
Season by season
Summer and early fall are the heart of the season, when the house tours run most reliably and the trails and gardens are at their best. Fall adds the color of the surrounding farm country to the visit.
Spring is quiet and green, a good time for the grounds as the farm wakes up. Programs and special events cluster in the warmer months, so it is worth checking what is on offer during your visit.
In the colder months access narrows, and the site keeps a lower profile, though the story it holds is a year-round one worth planning a trip around.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Ferrisburgh
Vergennes
About 3 miles, an 8 minute drive
One of the smallest cities in the country, with a compact historic downtown, a falls in the middle of town, and access to the lower Otter Creek.
Lake Champlain
About 6 miles, a 15 minute drive
The long lake between Vermont and New York, with public access points, boat launches, and wide water-and-mountain views.
Middlebury
About 12 miles, a 20 minute drive
A college town on Otter Creek with a walkable downtown, a falls at its center, and the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont history.