Behind the scenes the Historycal Roots team have been doing work recently on behalf of the Equiano Society. Over the next few weeks we will bring you some of the fruits of our labour.
As part of our work Bill Hern visited the National Portrait Gallery in London where he had arranged to see the engraving used as the frontispiece for Equiano’s ‘Interesting Narrative’. Parts of his story make uncomfortable reading.
The print isn’t on display but is stored in the archives at the gallery, anyone can make an appointment to see it.
The first thing one notices is how small the picture is – 156mm x 95mm.
The original artist is W Denton. Denton is little known, but the man who carried out the stipple engraving of Denton’s print, Daniel Orme, was more celebrated.
Orme was born in Manchester on 25 August 1766. His mother, Margaret Walmsley was the third wife of his father, Aaron Orme. Orme lived in London from 1785 to 1814 and studied at the Royal Academy before becoming a painter and engraver. The Dictionary of National Biography records him as portrait painter and engraver to George III. As late as August 1861 Orme (deceased) is described on his son Frederick’s wedding certificate as ‘engraver to George III’. He was clearly a talented and high profile artist.
While the National Biography cites several of Orme’s works, there is no mention of the Equiano engraving. This suggests it was not one of his major pieces.
Orme returned to Manchester in October 1814 before dying of ‘paralysis’ in Liverpool on 8 February 1837.
The Equiano engraving is one of Orme’s earliest works. He tended to focus on naval characters such as Admirals Duncan and Nelson and the lesser known Jack Crawford, the ‘Hero of Camperdown,’ a naval battle of 1797.
One significant and perhaps relevant exception, was his painting of George Alexander Gratton – The Spotted Boy:
George Alexander (Gratton), a black boy with white markings. Engraving by P.R. Cooper, 1809, after D. Orme. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY
George was born on the Caribbean island of St Vincent. He had a skin condition, almost certainly, Vitiligo, which meant his black skin had white markings. In approximately September 1809, when he was 15 months old he was purchased for the sum of £1,000 by a travelling showman called John Richardson and transported to Bristol. It is said that Richardson treated George like a son. Certainly George proved a lucrative source of income for his ‘owner’.
Orme painted George ‘from life’ and the painting was published on 11 November 1809. This means Orme must have met George shortly after his arrival in England. He would also have spent considerable time with the young child who no doubt would prove a restless model.
The painting was later engraved under Orme’s direction by his then pupil, P R Cooper. The writing beneath the painting shows that it was published by Richard Gratton Esquire, London. Gratton was the name of the overseer or owner on the plantation where George’s parents were enslaved, it is likely Richard Gratton Esquire is the same person. The painting was sold by Orme from his address at 368, Oxford Street, London.
Copies of the engraving were later sold as souvenirs to those who visited the exhibitions to stare at poor George.
Sadly George was to die on 3 February 1813 aged only four years old.
Evidence that Richardson did care for George can be found in the fact that he had him baptised in Newington, Surrey shortly after his arrival in England. In death, he kept his body safe from thieves by having him buried in a brick vault in Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
Richardson later donated a portrait of George to All Saints Church, Great Marlow and erected a monument to him, also in Great Marlow.
The monument reads:
TO THE MEMORY
OF
GEORGE ALEXANDER GRATTON,
THE SPOTTED NEGRO BOY,
From the Caribbee Islands, in the West Indies, died February 3d, 1813, aged four years and three-quarters.
This tomb, erected by his only Friend and Guardian, Mr John Richardson, of London.
Should this plain simple tomb attract thine eyes,
Stranger, as thoughtfully thou passest by,
Know that there lies beneath this humble stone,
A child of colour, haply not thine own.
His parents born of Afric’s sun-burnt race,
Tho’ black and white were blended in his face,
To Britain brought, which made his parents free,
And shew’d the world great Natur’s prodigy.
Depriv’d of kindred that to him were dear,
He found a friendly Guardian’s fost’ring care,
But, scarce had bloom’d, the fragrant flower fades,
And the lov’d infant finds an early grave,
To bury him his lov’d companions came,
And drop’t choice flowers, and lis’d his early fame;
And some that lov’d him most, as if unblest,
Bedwe’d with tears the whice wreath on his breast.
But he is gone, and dwells in the abode,
Where some of every clime must joy in God!
The good news in this message is that George’s parents gained their freedom because of George, although they would have seen nothing of the £1,000 which Richardson paid for the child. The other good news is that George was clearly cared for by Richardson no matter how repulsive and cruel his treatment was.
Students of Equiano will recognise many of the words in the epitaph. If you are trying to recall where you have seen them before let us remind ourselves of the words on the plaque at St Andrew’s Church, Chesterton in Cambridgeshire commemorating Anna Maria Vassa the daughter of Equiano:
Should simple village rhymes attract thine eye,
Stranger, as thoughtfully thou passest by,
Know that there lies beside this humblest stone,
A child of colour haply not thine own.
Her father born of Afric’s sun-burnt race,
Torn from his native field, ah foul disgrace:
Through various toils, at length to Britain came
Espoused, so Heaven ordain’d, an English dame,
And follow’d Christ; their hope two infants dear,
But one, a hapless orphan, slumbers here.
To bury her the village children came.
And dropp’d choice flowers, and lisp’d her early fame;
And some that lov’d her most, as if unblest,
Bedew’d with tears the white wreath on their breast;
But she is gone and dwells in that abode,
Where some of every clime shall joy in God.
Apart from some customisation to reflect different individual circumstances the words commemorating Anna Maria and George are remarkably similar. Yet Anna Maria died in July 1797 almost 15 years before George.
It had been thought that Anna Maria’s poem had been written by Martha Ferrar Peckard the wife of the Peter Peckard the Dean of Peterborough and a friend of Equiano. That may still be the case of course as Martha was known to be a poet. Indeed one of her poems ‘Ode to Spring. By a Lady’ can still be found on the poetical scavenger website
http://poeticalscavenger.sfsuenglishdh.net/poems/anonymous-ode-to-spring-by-a-lady/
But would her words have spread almost 100 miles from Cambridgeshire to Great Marlow and still be used so long after Anna Maria’s death? Someone must have written these words and Martha remains the most likely author.
However, let us return to Equiano’s print. The small writing at the foot of the print tells us that W Denton was responsible for the print and D Orme was the ‘sculptor’ – in other words the engraver. We are also told that the print is of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African and it was published on March 1 1789 by G Vassa, some 3 weeks before the first edition of The Interesting Narrative was published.
The Bible that Equiano is holding is open at Acts Chapter 4 Verse 12 which reads:
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
It is likely that, like the engraving of George, Equiano would have run off many copies of the print to distribute during his tours around Great Britain.
The original engraving is in very safe hands at the National Portrait Gallery and can be viewed by appointment at the Gallery’s archives.