Author: roots1937

Three fragments of history

It’s nice when you can tell the whole story but sometimes it isn’t possible and all you have is a fragment, insignificant in its own right but, combined with other fragments, they can contribute in a small way to a bigger picture. We know next to nothing about William Heywood, George Dony or Johnson Freeman other than that two were servants and one was a former seaman – but research by John Ellis has identified all three as black men who were living in England at the time of their deaths in the 18th/19th century. In the case of Freeman Johnson our knowledge of him comes mainly from a rather graphic description of his sad death.

Fragments are frustrating but can sometimes develop into something more significant – John has written the fascinating story of a black nurse in Victorian England and we will be bringing that to you shortly.

William Heywood

From the Leeds Intelligencer, 7th March 1780:

Saturday died at Liverpool, in the 79th years of his age, Thomas Crowder, Esq; formerly a Jamaica merchant, where he acquired a large fortune; and on Tuesday last died, his faithful Black Servant, who had served him upwards of twenty years.

William Heywood “a black servant to Thomas Crowder, Esq. deceased, (of) Water Street” died on the 29th of February and was buried at St Nicholas Church, Liverpool on the 2nd of March 1790. (‘Our Lady and St Nicholas’ in the parish of Liverpool). The church is one in which a number of baptismal, marriage and burial records belonging to the Black population of Liverpool have been identified, including George Wise a Nova Scotian veteran of the Peninsula Campaign.

Thomas Crowder of Liverpool (1701-1780) was one of the founder members of the ‘African Company of Merchants’ in 1752. As such he was involved in the trade in enslaved people. He died on the 26th of February and was buried at the Church of St Nicholas, Liverpool on the 1st of March 1780.[1]Sources: For William Heywood see: Leeds Intelligencer, 7th March 1780. findmypast.co.uk Bishop’s Transcripts. Dr/2/59. Liverpool, Lancashire. Lancashire Archives. ancestry.co.uk For Thomas … Continue reading

George Edward Doney of Cassiobury House
Cassiobury House[2]https://victoriaalexander.com/notes-extras-and-fun-stuff/cassiobury-house/

From the Sun (London), 7th September 1809:

On Monday, at Cashiobury-House (Cassiobury House, Watford), the seat of the Earl of Essex, George Donney, a black servant belonging to his Lordship, who had lived in the family upward of 4 years.

George Edward Doney was buried at St Mary’s Church, Watford on the 8th of September 1809. He was described as a “Widower, Negro Servant to the Earl of Essex”. A search of both ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk has failed to find further reference to George Edward Doney or any relatives.

St Mary’s church, Watford[3]

George Capel-Coningsbury (1757-1839) was the 5th Earl of Essex (1799-1839). His first wife, Sarah Thompson (nee’ Bazett, 1759-1838), had been born on St Helena, which may provide some clue as to the origins of George Edward Doney but his gravestone tells a different story.

George Edward Doney c1758 – 1809 worked as a servant for 44 years at Cassiobury House. The inscription on his gravestone reveals that he was captured from Gambia as a child and sold into slavery

Poor Edward blest the pirate bark that bore His captive infancy from Gambia’s shore To where in willing servitude he won Those blest rewards for every duty done.

Kindness and praise, the wages of the heart, none else to him could joy or pride impart, And gave him, born a pagan and a slave, a freeman’s charter, and a Christian’s grave.

Photo by Bill Hern of Historycal Roots

The Earl and his wife resided in the ancestral home of the Earls of Essex at Cassiobury House, Cassiobury Park.[3]Sources: Sun (London), 7th September 1809. findmypast.co.uk Family Transcriptions © Hertfordshire & Population History Society. Hertfordshire Burials. findmypast.co.uk

Freeman Johnson, a Black Merchant Seaman, 1825-1848

From the South Eastern Gazette, 25th April 1848:

CORONER’S INQUEST.- On Saturday last an inquest was held at the Lunatic Asylum, Barming-heath, before F.F. Dally, Esq., on the body of Freeman Johnson, a man of colour, aged 23, who had been an inmate of the Asylum since the 11th inst., having been sent from the Greenwich union house. It appeared that the deceased was in a very weak state, when admitted, and was found by Robert Jones, a keeper, at about nine o’clock on the evening on the 13 th , quite dead, with his face hanging over the side of the bedstead, and blood oozing from the mouth and nose. He was last seen alive by George Baker, a keeper, at about half-past six on the same evening, when he refused his supper, but said he was in no pain. Dr Huxley, who had made a post-mortem examination, deposed that the deceased was suffocated by the flow of blood arising from a rupture of one (of) the vessels of the lungs, which were much diseased. Verdict accordingly.

Freeman Johnson was born at Nassau in the Bahamas in 1825. He
registered as a British Merchant Seaman either in 1845 or sometime
shortly after. Freeman Johnson was interred at All Saints Church,
Maidstone on the 18th of April 1848.[4]Sources: TNA BT114/12. findmypast.co.uk South Eastern Gazette, 25th April 1848. findmypast.co.uk Burial: Maidstone All Saints burials, 1838-1907. Kent Burials. findmypast.co.uk

References

References
↑1 Sources: For William Heywood see: Leeds Intelligencer, 7th March 1780. findmypast.co.uk Bishop’s Transcripts. Dr/2/59. Liverpool, Lancashire. Lancashire Archives. ancestry.co.uk For Thomas Crowder see: England Deaths & Burials, 1538-1991. Index © IRI. Used by permission of FamilySearch Intl. findmypast.co.uk Bishop’s Transcripts. Dr/2/59. Liverpool, Lancashire. Lancashire Archives. ancestry.co.uk For George Wise see: www.historycalroots.com/george-wise-from-nova-scotia-to-liverpool-via-the-battlefields-of-the-napoleonic-wars/
↑2 https://victoriaalexander.com/notes-extras-and-fun-stuff/cassiobury-house/
↑3 Sources: Sun (London), 7th September 1809. findmypast.co.uk Family Transcriptions © Hertfordshire & Population History Society. Hertfordshire Burials. findmypast.co.uk
↑4 Sources: TNA BT114/12. findmypast.co.uk South Eastern Gazette, 25th April 1848. findmypast.co.uk Burial: Maidstone All Saints burials, 1838-1907. Kent Burials. findmypast.co.uk

International Women’s Day 2023

There are too few stories about women on the Historycal Roots website. We correct the balance slightly with our latest article by John Ellis which is about Charlotte Gardiner, a black woman who was hanged in 1780 for her part in the Gordon riots. Charlotte did not speak in her own defence when she appeared at the Old Bailey and so we have only the prosecution’s side of the story and this inevitably shows her in a less than favourable light.

Nevertheless, the black presence at major events in British history, which is so often overlooked, is worth recording even where that presence was at inglorious events like the Gordon riots.

As this is International Women’s Day it is appropriate to celebrate some of the stories on our site that feature women. There are links below to a small selection of stories that we have featured over the years, if you missed them when they were published (and even if you didn’t) they are well worth exploring!

First, the new article:

https://www.historycalroots.com/charlotte-gardiner-a…/

And now some articles you may have seen before:

Amanda Aldridge

What to make of Amelia Francis?

John Ellis is back with a fascinating piece about Amelia Francis, a black woman living in Georgian London. If you have never heard of her, fear not, no one else has either!

All that is known about her comes from a series of newspaper reports, the first from 22nd March 1819 and the last from 1st June 1829. Two further reports from 1833 may very well also refer to her but we cannot be absolutely certain that they do.

Several of the reports mention her ‘curious’ history but they all detail her increasingly fractious brushes with the criminal justice system. The reports variously refer to her as ‘deranged’, ‘vicious’ and ‘violent’. Her ‘victim’, the Earl of Powis was the son of Robert Clive (‘Clive of India’). As the first born son, he had inherited, what most would now regard as, his father’s ill-gotten gains and lived in splendour at one of London’s smartest addresses, Berkeley Square. Amelia had been employed there as a servant.

Let’s start by examining the slightly different versions of how she came to be in the household of the Earl. The accounts agree that Amelia was a native of distant St Helena (best known as the remote island where Napoleon Bonaparte was incarcerated and died). The story starts when the Earl’s ship stopped at St Helena as he was returning to England from India. In one account he had ‘found her on the island, then an infant, deserted by her parents’ and ‘desired her to be taken on board his ship.’ In another version he plays a more passive role, ‘some person’ took her onto the ship and, once on board, ‘his Lordship was pleased with the child’. A third version says more bluntly that ‘he purchased this female’. She would have been about five years’ old when this transpired, whatever ‘this’ was.

Whatever the circumstances, the newspaper reports all paint the Earl as an honourable man entirely undeserving of the campaign that Amelia waged against him after she emerged from her teens. He had ‘sent her to a boarding school, where she received a genteel education’ with a view to her being employed as ‘a servant in a respectable family’ and subsequently ‘had several situations provided for her.’ One report mentions that she ‘served in his household as an attendant on his children.’ When she started to cause trouble for him (quite a lot of trouble!) his Lordship ‘provided a passage for her to St Helena having ‘given her a considerable sum of money, with ample equipment of wearing apparel of every description and everything else she might want’. She didn’t stay on St Helena long it seems and, when she managed to get back to London by stowing away, ‘his Lordship … very humanely offered to pay the parish officers for her support.’  He also offered to return her to St Helena ‘at his own expense’ but she refused to go.

We will turn now to how Amelia repaid this paragon of virtue for his kindness.

The first report (from 22nd March 1819, by which time she would have been about twenty) tells us that ‘her behaviour was such as to prevent his Lordship’s keeping her in his establishment.’ In July 1827 she was ‘charged with collecting a mob and creating a riot’ outside his house (‘a crowd of 100 persons at least’) and ‘indulging herself in the most gross and obscene  language’ and that she had ‘frequently before been committed to prison for similar conduct.’ She was still at it in July 1828 when she was once again in front of the Magistrate ‘charged with a riot and breaking the windows at the house of Earl Powis.’ Having ‘collected a heap of stones in the street, she very deliberately set about smashing all his Lordship’s windows.’  On more than one occasion she resisted arrest (and that’s putting it mildly if the accounts are to be believed).

Clearly there had been a major rupture in the relationship between the Lord and servant / purchase. What caused the schism? We cannot know although Amelia obviously felt grievously wronged and wanted the world to know about it. Nor was it a fleeting thing, she carried on her campaign against him for a full decade during which she repeatedly kicked over the traces.

Was the timing significant? Reports of Amelia’s campaign span the period March 1819 to June 1829 and this was a decade that featured much social unrest. The Peterloo massacre, when the local militia in Manchester savagely set about unarmed and peaceful protesters, eighteen of whom died, took place in August 1819; the Cato Street conspiracy, a plot to assassinate the entire Cabinet, was planned for February 1820 (the plot failed and six conspirators were executed); and the Spa Fields riots of 1816 were still a recent memory, a black woman had been one of those hanged for her part in the disturbances. It is intriguing, therefore, that Amelia was not altogether alone in her campaign against the Earl, one report refers to her ‘collecting a mob and creating a riot’ outside his house in Berkeley Square. The ‘mob’ was perhaps easily roused but the fact that a black woman was able to enlist the support of a hundred or more perhaps suggests that, whatever Amelia’s grievance was, others shared her sentiments.

Amelia was poor, black and a woman; her opponent was an immensely wealthy white man with the weight of the establishment behind him. There was only ever going to be one winner and it is no surprise that by 1833, Amelia, if the last two reports do refer to her, was ‘destitute’ and ‘half-starved’. Was she, as one report said ‘deranged’, or had she been sorely wronged by the Earl? Clearly, understandably, he was keen to be shot of her and paid once to send her back to St Helena and offered to do so a second time. Was this because he had genuinely liberal feelings and felt it was the least he should do or was he assuaging a guilty conscience and trying to keep her quiet?

We can never know the answers because what is missing in all of this is Amelia’s own voice, she is just another black women whose story is only told through the, unforgiving, eyes of others.

John’s article is here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/with-fury-and-violence-amelia-francis-a-black-woman-in-regency-england/

John Camden’s long journey to Chelsea

John Camden was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India in about 1750. He was a ‘man of colour’ although we don’t know precisely what his ethnicity was. He travelled the world with the British Army and served in seven Regiments over a period of 43 years. He saw action and sustained wounds ‘in the head and both arms’ fighting against the Spanish in Menorca and was discharged on a pension in 1803 as he was ‘worn out’. He spent his retirement years in Chelsea, living near to the Royal Hospital. You can read this and more in John Ellis’s article:

https://www.historycalroots.com/john-camden-of-chelsea-c-1750-1824/

John identified John Camden’s last resting place as plot 63, row 51 in the North-east quarter of the churchyard at St Luke’s church, Chelsea. John and I agreed that, although it was unlikely I would find a stone marking his grave, the plot should at least be there.

It wasn’t.

It is evident that the North-east quarter of the churchyard has been redeveloped and is now a public park with a 5-a-side football court and kiddies playground. The stones have been moved and preserved but do not appear to be in any particular order and are illegible anyway. Of course, John Camden may not have had a stone as it is unlikely he would have been able to afford one but, as a parishioner, there must be a reasonable chance that he attended services in the magnificent interior and that people who knew him prayed for his recovery after the unfortunate accident that John reports in his article.

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A fine start to 2023

In case you think John Ellis has been resting on his laurels since the start of 2023 I am here to disabuse you of that notion, the apparent hiatus in activity stems from my delays in uploading the material he has sent to me. There are three new pages from him that, between them, illustrate the diversity that has long existed in the British Armed forces.

Perhaps the saddest story of the three is that of Charles Girling who was born in St.Domingo in about 1781. Originally colonised by the Spanish in 1496, the island that came to be known as Hispaniola was to be heavily contested by competing colonial powers, with the English and French vying with the Spanish for influence and control of the area before Toussaint L’Ouverture came on the scene.

Charles Girling enlisted in a British regiment, the 20th Light Dragoons, in 1798 when the regiment was in Jamaica. In 1802 the regiment returned to England and Charles Girling went with them. But by 1805 Charles had been admitted to the notorious Bethlem Royal hospital (‘Bedlam’) afflicted by ‘lunacy’ (a diagnosis that could cover a wide variety of issues) and, having been declared ‘incurable’ in May 1806,  he spent his remaining time in institutions until he died in 1807. His story is not a happy one but John has done a remarkable job in tracking Charles’ progress through the several institutions responsible for his care.

https://www.historycalroots.com/from-st-domingo-to-bedlam-trumpeter-charles-girling-of-the-20th-light-dragoons/

The stories of William Perera and the Jacotine brothers, Harold and Eric, date from World War One. All three were born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and served in the British Army. Harold Jacotine was killed in action in April 1918 but his brother and William Perera both survived the war and returned to Ceylon. Eric Jacotine would later return to England, settle in London, become a taxi driver and raise a large family.

https://www.historycalroots.com/faugh-a-bella-private-william-perera-a-sri-lankan-in-the-royal-irish-fusiliers-during-the-first-world-war/

https://www.historycalroots.com/an-admirable-spirit-private-harold-jacotine-of-the-coldstream-guards/

Harold Jacotine

Cheryl Butler – A new contributor to Historycal Roots

It is a pleasure to welcome Cheryl Butler as a new contributor to Historycal Roots. Cheryl is particularly knowledgeable about the history of Southampton and this is how she was introduced when she gave a TED talk in 2019:

She is a historian, writer, and former Head of Culture at Eastleigh where she worked on projects including Vital Villages, Legible Cities and the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire Culture and Quality Place group. Honorary Fellow of the University of Winchester and Fellow of the Royal Historical Association and has written extensively on the history of Southampton and is an editor for the Southampton Records and member of the Southampton Tourist Guides Association.

Her talk was about Southampton’s history in general (not specifically its black history) and you can see it here:

https://www.ted.com/talks/cheryl_butler_a_city_s_history_and_memory

But she has also written about Southampton’s black history:

Telling other histories: Early Black History in Southampton c1500-1900

Currently unavailable on Amazon, you should be able to order a copy from your favourite local book shop, using isbn 978-0-9557488-6-8 or by e-mailing a_sannah(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)hotmail.co.uk.

Although we have not featured Southampton on Historycal Roots before it makes sense that it would have long had a black community of note. As a port, there were seamen, and where there were seamen there were black seamen. It was also home to wealthy individuals with extensive interests in the East Indies and the Caribbean, individuals some of whom most likely employed black servants.

Cheryl’s article for us focuses on one individual who makes a fleeting appearance in Southampton’s history. Very little is known of John Jackson before he was taken prisoner as a deserter and nothing is known of what became of him although we can be pretty sure his punishment would have been gruesome.

Cheryl’s article is here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/john-jackson-of-the-31st-regiment-of-foot/

A remarkable find: Cyril Mellonius on Pathé News

Welcome to our first post of 2023 and, almost inevitably, it features a ‘find’ by John Ellis.

In November 2019 we published an article by John that featured Cyril Mellonius, you can read it here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/a-sri-lankan-in-the-die-hards-private-cyril-lorenz-mellonius-a-somme-veteran-of-the-middlesex-regiment/

Now he has stumbled across some remarkable Pathé News footage on You Tube which shows a group of Ceylonese men (Cyril must surely be among them) marching to enlist in London in January 1916. It is black and white (obviously), silent and grainy (and you have to get past the irritating adverts at the beginning) but it gives us a fascinating glimpse of the men John wrote about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7JHDAuy94M

A good start to the year!

A black soldier in Edgeware (London) in 1919

John Ellis’s latest post features a soldier who was born in Mauritius, was conscripted into the British Army in February 1918 whilst working in Paris, saw active service with a Dorset regiment in Flanders and was attacked by a racist mob on the streets of London in April 1919. That shorthand introduction to the story of Robert Bissessur raises an intriguing series of questions but I want to focus here on the last part of the story.

The fact that there were ‘race riots’ (i.e. attacks on black people by racist white mobs) in Britain in 1919 is well documented. David Olusoga[1]Black and British – A Forgotten History  is just one of many historians to write about the issue. Olusoga identifies nine cities where violence occurred. The first of the ‘riots’ took place in Glasgow in January, riots followed in South Shields, London (Docklands), Hull, Barry, Newport and Cardiff in south Wales and Liverpool. The riots in Cardiff were arguably the most ferocious (three men died) and those in Liverpool are possibly the best known – a Bermudan sailor, Charles Wootton (or Wootten), was hounded to his death in what Olusoga describes as a lynching.  I have never previously seen Edgeware in London mentioned in this context and yet this is where Robert Bissessur and some fellow black soldiers were attacked by a mob.

The incident actually took place in Praed Street which certainly wouldn’t be considered ‘Docklands’ but is quite close to Paddington station  and to the Paddington canal basin. Praed Street is little more than a stone’s throw from Cato Street, scene of the 1820 Cato Street conspiracy, on the other side of the Edgeware Road, and only a little north of the site of the infamous Tyburn gallows, so the area is steeped in history. By the 1830s Cato Street was said to be ‘full of the lowest class of Irish’ and when Charles Booth did his poverty survey in the 1890s they were still there.[2]Conspiracy on Cato Street – A tale of liberty and revolution in Regency London by Vic Catrell It is unlikely much had changed by 1919.  So, we can safely assume the area would have been rough and ready by the time Charles and his fellow black soldiers visited.

The story of the riot featured in a number of newspapers, one going so far as to describe what transpired as having the hallmarks of an attempted lynching. John’s article includes an extensive quote from the African Telegraph and Gold Coast Mirror‘s 1st April 1919 edition but several other newspapers also carried the story.

John has also sent me newspaper cuttings that refer to an incident in Winchester near to the Army camp where white and black soldiers (like Robert Bissessur) were waiting to be demobbed. Clearly racial tension was widespread in 1919, just how widespread probably merits further discussion, for now, we will leave that for another day.

You can read John’s article about Robert Bissessur here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/robert-bissessur-a-man-of-colour-in-the-dorset-regiment-in-the-first-world-war/

References

References
↑1 Black and British – A Forgotten History
↑2 Conspiracy on Cato Street – A tale of liberty and revolution in Regency London by Vic Catrell

A newly discovered image of Cyril Adolphus Stuart

In 2021 we published an article by John Ellis about Cyril Adolphus Stuart. Recently, John  stumbled across a photo of Cyril and we have added it to the original article.  Published in the Daily Mirror in its 8th March 1915 edition, the photo includes the King in the background (mounted, second right) and, in a separate picture,  the Queen presenting Cyril with his prize.

The caption under the photo reads “King George, always at home with his soldiers, acted on Saturday as starter in the big military race run at Aldershot, when over 500 soldiers competed. The Queen very graciously presented the prizes. The race was won by Private Stewart [sic], a coloured soldier from Jamaica.”

Within six months Cyril was dead, he died of his wounds on 11th August 1915.

You can view the amended article here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/admired-very-much-cyril-stuart-1895-1915-an-old-salopian/

Black sailors in the Royal Navy in World War One

John Ellis has struck a rich vein recently and several new pages have been added to the site. In each case the men were identified as being ‘of colour’ on their official records and John has been able to identify the ships they served on. The men have in common their Caribbean (or Bermudan) heritage and that they served during the War, in some cases almost nothing more is known about them (always frustrating). But, in the past, we have been contacted by descendants of people discussed on this site, it is always gratifying and rewarding when this happens.

John’s recent articles are about:

  • Samuel Adolphus Clarke;
  • Edgar Jesse Forbes;
  • George Alexander Bartholomew Green;
  • William Edmund Smith; and
  • Cyril Waite.

Their experiences varied considerably – one died at sea when his ship was sunk, another survived when he was rescued after his ship hit a German mine,  he and the three other men survived the War. You can read about them via the index page of this site:

https://www.historycalroots.com/a-z-index/

If you recognise any of the names and can add to their stories do please use this site’s contact form to get in touch and share your knowledge:

https://www.historycalroots.com/contact/