Phillis was nine years old when she was purchased by Timothy Childs from the estate of Rev. Nehemiah Bull of Westfield, MA. The purchase price was ￡100. The sellers, OV Partridge Gent & Elisabeth Bull of Hatfield, MA, were executors of the estate of Reverend Bull. In the bill of sale, the sellers wrote that they had “by these presents sold, set and delivered to him the sd. Timothy Childs a certain Negro Girl Named Phillis of about nine years of Age To have & hold … During the Term of her Natural Life.” Beyond the record of her purchase, there appear to be no additional documents for Phillis. The Childs family also enslaved Humphry, Caesar, and Titus.