Author: roots1937

Mary Ann Aguirra – a London ‘woman of colour’

Introducing the latest article for Historycal Roots by John Ellis.

This is such an interesting one and something of a departure from John’s usual field. As he himself says, this is ‘the first time in over twenty years of researching, writing and educating’ he has written a historical article about a female, let alone a ‘woman of colour’. Let us hope it is the first of many!

This is an important subject because, again, as he comments, the voices of women of mixed heritage like Mary Ann Aguirra are rarely heard. They are marginalised by virtue of class, gender and race.  I enjoyed history at school but it was very much white history, dominated by white men and men of a particular class at that. It was only many years later that I came to understand how much more varied (and interesting!) British history is.

There are many ways of viewing the story that unfolds of Mary Ann Aguirra and her daughter, Isabella. I choose to see it as a case of a tightly knit working class community coming together and resisting threats to their way of life and livelihood, more about class than race (though that might also have played a part). But I freely acknowledge that there are other ways of reading the incidents played out at the Old Bailey in September 1866. However you read the story it is hard to dispute that Mary Ann Aguirra was a determined and formidable woman. Although we don’t have an image of Mary Ann herself there is a photo of one of her grand daughters and I like to think that we can see something of her grandmother’s character in it.

Isabella Howell, 1880-1960 (reproduced courtesy of Paul Mady)

History isn’t just about ‘facts’, it’s about interpretations too. You can read John’s article here and make up your own mind about the events, but the story of Mary Ann’s appearance at the Old Bailey is only one aspect of a thought provoking article:

https://www.historycalroots.com/mary-ann-aguirra-a-londoner-of-colour-1814-1878/

John is in more familiar territory with a second recent article. In this one  he identifies John Charles as ‘the last Black drummer’ in the British Army to have served at the time of the campaign against Napoleon. Charles left the Army in 1845 and died in 1862:

https://www.historycalroots.com/the-last-black-drummer-john-charles-of-the-32nd-foot-1808-1845/

Families on the Windrush

You might expect ‘The Oxford Companion to Black British History’ to be an authoritative source. You might… However, it’s entry for the Empire Windrush has this to say:

‘when the Empire Windrush sailed on 24 May, there were 492 passengers (and six stowaways) on board.’

The only correct part of that is the date she sailed – but only if you ignore the departure from Trinidad on 20th (24th was the date she left Jamaica).

A common myth is that the ‘492’ were all men and all Jamaican. The ‘Companion’ doesn’t fall into that trap, it says that ‘most of the passengers were young adult men’ which is true, ‘most’ were. But it does gloss over the presence of many women (over 250, almost 25% of the passengers), a fair number of children (80) and some family groups.

Let’s be charitable and point out that the ‘Companion’ was first published in 2007, things move on (even history!) and we learn more. We know a lot more now than we did fifteen years ago.

Our latest contribution on the subject talks about some of the families on the Windrush, you can read about them here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/families-on-the-windrush/

[Published August 2022]

Mona Baptiste

Apologies, we got so carried away with the lovely new photo of Mona Baptiste that this morning’s post contained the wrong link for the separate website about her. This is the correct link: https://mona-baptiste.com/. 

Still, it gives an excuse to send you a cropped version of the photo with the full original (incorrect) caption – she was 22!

A passenger on the HMT Empire Windrush is 21-year-old Miss Mona Baptiste from Trinidad. She arrives to sing blue’s numbers on the radio and in night clubs. Tilbury, 22 June 1948

Mona Baptiste on board the Empire Windrush

Mona on board the Empire Windrush at Tilbury, 22nd June 1948 ((c) topfoto.co.[1]https://www.topfoto.co.uk/groupitem/68/)

We recently came across this photo of Mona Baptiste on board the Empire Windrush. Mona had celebrated her 22nd birthday the day before this was taken and was getting ready to disembark and start her new life in England. We have no particular excuse for posting it today, but we make no apologies for doing so, it’s a lovely picture that captures the hope and optimism that many Windrush passengers would have felt.

You can read about Mona’s life in our book ‘What about the Princess? The life and times of Mona Baptiste’. Since publishing the book we continue to find fresh snippets of information and we publish these on our sister site https://mona-baptiste.com/, if you are interested in Mona why not take a look there?

References

References
↑1 https://www.topfoto.co.uk/groupitem/68/

Meet Evelyn Wauchope!

We have long been intrigued by the story of Evelyn Wauchope, the female stowaway on the Empire Windrush. We were able to find out quite a lot about her and in July 2019 published what we knew (we have now updated the article):

What became of the Windrush stowaway, Evelyn Wauchope?

But we were left with two big frustrations.

  • firstly, although we reached out (admittedly in a slightly random way) to various organisations in White Plains, New York, in an effort to find out more about her time living in the community there we, essentially, drew a blank;
  • secondly, we had no idea what she looked like.

Until now!

Evelyn Wauchope, photographed on arrival at Tilbury Docks, June 22 1948 ((c) topfoto.co.uk)

We are grateful to Audrey Dewjee for drawing out attention to a fantastic trove of photos on this site: https://www.topfoto.co.uk/groupitem/68/ and also to Ioan and Flora for licensing the photo to us at a reduced rate. 

I think we can safely say that Evelyn looks ‘pensive’ but who can blame her?! Having used her initiative to get to England she now faced the daunting prospect of making a new life for herself in a strange and, very probably, hostile environment.

Pensive, maybe, but Evelyn was a determined woman who repeatedly overcame the challenges life threw at her. She absolutely deserves to be regarded as a ‘Windrush Pioneer’ and we are so glad that we can finally see what she looked like on 22nd June 1948 as she arrived to start the next chapter in her life.

William Buckland of Guadeloupe, Limerick and Liverpool

I expect you know where Guadeloupe is, I mean, exactly where it is, beyond ‘in the Caribbean somewhere’? I’m going to confess that I didn’t – sometimes I learn more than history from articles by John Ellis!

John’s latest contribution features William Buckland. Born on Guadeloupe in about 1786, he went on to serve in the British Army from 1810 until he retired on a small pension in 1823. His medical records show that he was ‘worn out and unable to march’ and had ‘imperfect vision of both eyes’  – not exactly conducive to life as a soldier!

The Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin, where William Buckland went for his medical examination

After leaving the Army he registered as a British Merchant Seaman from 1835 and obtained work as a cook and steward. Having retired in Limerick he moved to Liverpool, possibly driven out of Ireland (along with many others) by the Great Famine of 1845 to 1849. He spent the last years of his life working as a merchant seaman, based in Liverpool, as so many seamen were.

John’s exploration of the historic  black presence in the British Army continues apace and you can read about William Buckland here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/william-buckland-1786-1856-from-guadeloupe-to-the-fighting-fifth-limerick-and-liverpool/

An unexpected discovery in the Chatsworth House archives

The article in the link below isn’t written by regular contributor John Ellis but he has clearly made a big contribution to the research that informs it.

The story starts with the birth of Henry Tite in Waterford, Ireland, in around 1804. When Henry enlisted in the British Army in 1825 the records identify him as a black man. This raises the intriguing question of how a black man came to be born in that place at that time.

A letter recently discovered in the archives at Chatsworth House raises the possibility that Henry was descended from a young crew member of a ship that docked at Waterford in 1756. It was a French ship and, as Britain was at war with France at the time, the ship and its cargo were impounded by the British. The letter recently discovered in the archives at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire is from Lord Frederick Cavendish, stationed in Ireland at the time with troops of the 29th Worcestershire Foot Regiment, to his brother. In it he mentions ‘three little Black boys’. The boys are mentioned in the same sentence as the cargo which implies that whether they were technically ‘free’ or enslaved was a moot point as far as Lord Cavendish was concerned. In the letter he makes it clear he regards them as ‘his’ to dispose of as he chooses.

John Ellis has identified a soldier with the 29th Worcestershire Foot Regiment, Joseph Provance, who could very possibly have been one of the ‘black boys’ mentioned in the letter, the speculation is that Henry Tite may have been descended from another.

You can find out more by following the link. Before you do I would add the point that if we take literally the description of Henry Tite as ‘black’  then that suggests he had a black mother as well as a black father. That raises the even more interesting question – who was she? In fact, the balance of probability is that Henry’s mother was white and he was of mixed heritage but, as nothing is known about either of Henry’s parents that question is likely to remain unanswered.

https://www.chatsworth.org/news-media/news-blogs-press-releases/blogs-from-the-archives/who-do-you-think-they-are/

Stephen Pappin c.1788 to 1845

What amazing lives some people lead!

In his latest article for Historycal Roots John Ellis follows the extraordinary life of Stephen Pappin.

He was born in about 1788 in the French colony of St Domingue on the island of Hispaniola (as it was then known) in the Caribbean. This was a tumultuous period in the history of the island. The French, Spanish and British were all vying for a piece of the action but the enslaved black population had their own ideas. Their inspirational leader, Toussaint Louverture, led the efforts that eventually led to the creation of the first black independent nation state outside of Africa in 1804 (although Toussaint Louverture had died at the hands of the French the previous year).[1]The book ‘Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture’ by Sudhir Hazareesingh  tells the full, complex story Stephen Pappin, a ‘man of colour’ may have been just old enough to play a part in the fighting.

What we do know is that by 1807 he was serving in the French Army of Napoleon Bonaparte. I won’t ‘spoil’ John’s story here but suffice to say it includes time spent as a Prisoner of War, 24 years of service in the British Army (including front line service during the Peninsular War), marriage to a French woman, the birth of ten children in three different countries, retirement from the Army on a pension,  a move to New South Wales where he became a farmer (of 100 acres of land) and time spent playing the bugle and drums at the Royal Victorian Theatre, Sydney.

Phew!

You can read the full story of Stephen Pappin’s remarkable life here: https://www.historycalroots.com/a-well-conducted-man-corporal-stephen-estiphania-pappin-of-st-domingo-and-the-39th-dorsetshire-foot-1788-1845/

References

References
↑1 The book ‘Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture’ by Sudhir Hazareesingh  tells the full, complex story

Visibly invisible: more GEMS in art

If you read the article by Roxanne Gleave and Audrey Dewjee about GEMS in art you will be familiar with a number of images of black people in paintings. Roxanne and Audrey focussed in particular on the paintings as evidence of the black presence in Britain at various times (16th to 19th centuries), various locations (town/country) and in various roles (servant/groom/sailor/worker). They sought to answer the questions ‘who/what/where/when?’ If you missed their article you can see it here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/gems-in-art/

We must thank Liz Millman for drawing our attention to a recent article with a similar theme. Liz runs Black History Conversations[1]Series 5 of Black History Conversations has just concluded but series 6 will start shortly http://www.blackhistoryconversations.com/index.asp?pageid=717246 and is very good at finding material that we would otherwise have missed. During a recent conversation she mentioned an article she had seen ‘The visible invisibility of black people in aristocratic portraiture.’ Naturally we were intrigued. It contains more examples of GEMS in art.  The article by Marjorie H Morgan, cites paintings found in stately homes across the country, including a number of National Trust properties. You can read it here:

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-visible-invisibility-of-black-people-in-aristocratic-portraiture

Roxanne and Audrey concluded their article by saying ‘We hope that you will seek out such representations when you next visit a museum or gallery and would love to hear about your ‘discoveries’.’ Marjorie’s article has introduced some more examples, there are many more out there, feel free to tell us about them.

References

References
↑1 Series 5 of Black History Conversations has just concluded but series 6 will start shortly http://www.blackhistoryconversations.com/index.asp?pageid=717246

George Wise – From Nova Scotia to Liverpool

Perhaps we take our ability to travel long distances in a short space of time for granted?

The distance from New York to London can now be traversed in less than six hours.

The flight time from Halifax in Nova Scotia to London is very similar.

An ocean going liner can cross the Atlantic in four days.

Taking things in more leisurely style, a ship like the Queen Mary will stroll across in seven days.

Going back a little further in time, the Empire Windrush took over two weeks to bring the Windrush pioneers from the Caribbean to England in 1948, but only a little over.

The troop ships bringing men from the Caribbean to England in 1915 also took about two weeks. The RMS Danube landed an initial contingent of recruits from British Guiana (as it then was) at Plymouth, their journey started on 21st August 1915 and they disembarked on 5th September.

But if we aren’t careful we may forget that it was not always like that.

We don’t know how long it took George Wise to get from Nova Scotia to Liverpool, certainly many years as his journey was a circuitous one. His Army record shows that with the 29th Worcestershire Regiment of Foot he  “served four years and six months in the Peninsula [Spain], seven months in Gibraltar, two years and one month in North America, and eight years seven months in the Mauritius. Was present at the battles of Rolica, Vimiera, Talavera and Albuera, and also at the capture of the Ponotscot Territory, United States, North America, in the expedition under the command of Lt.Gen. Sir John Sherbroke in 1814.” His first recorded presence in Liverpool was in 1837 (where he was part of a burgeoning black community), thirty two years after he first enlisted in Nova Scotia.

There are so many things about today’s world that George would find incredible, among them our ability to cross the Atlantic in hours rather than weeks, but, if you read the latest article for Historycal Roots by John Ellis, there are many aspects of the story of George Wise that we might find incredible. You can judge for yourself here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/george-wise-from-nova-scotia-to-liverpool-via-the-battlefields-of-the-napoleonic-wars/