How time flies! We were reminded at the ceremony in central London to unveil a plaque commemorating Olaudah Equiano, that our research in 2018 contributed in a small way to identifying his final resting place. A ceremony at the American Church in Goodge Street, London, on 15th June 2024 was attended by many of the ‘great and good’ and somehow we snuck in too! Hosted by Reverend Jennifer Mills-Knutsen on behalf of the church and Arthur Torrington of the Equiano Society, there was poetry from Nairobi Thompson and readings from Equiano’s ‘Interesting Narrative’ by actor, Burt Caesar.
For us, the story began with a visit to the London Metropolitan Archives where we were able to examine the register of burials at the non-conformist chapel in Goodge Street for the years 1796-1808. The name Gustavus Vassa (as Equiano was known for most of his adult life) was there, showing his burial on 6th April 1797.
Ever since then, Arthur Torrington has been working with the church and Camden Local Authority to have a plaque put in place to commemorate the site of Equiano’s burial (the burial ground has long since been paved over and only a few traces of its original function survive).
Arthur Torrington speaking at the event
After the speeches we assembled outside for the blessing and unveiling.
‘Searcher of hearts, God of Providence, bless this memorial of your servant Olaudah Equiano, Gustavus Vassa, that this acknowledgement of his original resting place in death would inspire those who live today.’
The plaque is prominently placed, turn left out of Goodge Street station and you can’t miss it.
The plaque in Goodge Street
Six years is a long time but congratulations to Arthur and the Equiano Society for persevering and getting the job done!
Some who subscribe to this blog will be aware of Sean Creighton and also, sadly, that he died recently. For those who weren’t aware, Sean was a community activist and stalwart of the local history scene, particularly in London, where he lived latterly, and in the North-East.
We first met Sean when he hosted a local history walk around some of the local sites associated with our favourite composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The wealth of research that had gone into the walk was very evident and Sean was an engaging guide, happy to share his knowledge. We enjoyed a pint or two in a convenient hostelry afterwards.
After that, we met Sean many times at events where he regularly ran a book stall. He was a publisher too and several of his books and pamphlets jostle for space on our bookshelves. He was a great organiser (one comment at his funeral was that, thanks to his passion and commitment, ‘Sean was the secretary of every group going’) and he graciously invited us to speak at the Norbury Literary Festival (of which he was a driving force) last year on the topic of ‘Writing Black History.’ There are many who knew Sean better than us but it was a privilege to be invited to his house for a birthday gathering last year, his last as it turned out, and to have known him.
His funeral was a fitting tribute, there was standing room only at Lambeth crematorium, with others watching a livestream.
There were tributes from family and friends. One comment that would resonate with those who knew Sean was that, had he lived a few more weeks, he would doubtless have penned a paper on 5th July on how the Labour Government needed to do better!
Perhaps funerals shouldn’t have ‘highlights’ but Tayo Aluko gave a powerful and moving rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill, here is Paul Robeson’s version (without Tayo’s added verse about Sean):
This exhibition brings together several of our favourite paintings under one roof. As the mini guide says:
‘Entangled Pasts explores connections between art associated with the Royal Academy and Britain’s colonial histories.’
The mini guide handed to visitors and free audio guide draw out the associations and the full catalogue contains an excellent introductory essay. You can buy the catalogue from the RA shop, it is pricey (as these things always are) but it is beautifully illustrated and gives a real flavour of the exhibition:
To whet your appetite here are just a few of the paintings on display.
Ignatius Sancho is believed to have been the first Black man to vote in a British Parliamentary election and in 1768 Thomas Gainsborough painted this portrait of him.
Sancho was a man of letters, as was Ottobah Cugoano and a selection of his manuscripts was on display:
Better still, the exhibition also includes the only known image of Cugoano, an etching on paper (now attributed to Thomas Rowlandson) dating from c1784 or c1790. Cugoano was employed for a time as a servant by Richard and Maria Cosway and this depicts him in that role.
‘The Head of a Negro‘ by John Singleton Copley was painted in 1777/78 and the subject matter is extremely unusual, at this time biblical scenes or paintings of great battles were the general order of the day. Although Copley had been the owner of enslaved people, this man, whose name, regrettably, is not recorded, is painted with evident respect for his humanity:
These images were previously known to us but a lot of others were not, including this one, a detail taken from a painting by Zoffany, ‘Colonel Blair and his Family and an Indian Ayah’. The catalogue of the exhibition points out that the girl looks too young to be an Ayah (nanny) and is more likely to have been the daughter of an Ayah or an illegitimate daughter of Colonel Blair. We are grateful to Audrey Dewjee for pointing out that Zoffany was in India in 1786 when this was painted.
There are many, many more exhibits to enjoy but we will finish with, Dido Elizabeth Belle, who in many ways was the inspiration that led us to start this site in 2015/16. It was painted in 1779 by David Martin, the previous attribution to Zoffany is now believed to be wrong. To think we travelled to Scone Palace, Perth to see this painting! Our visit was in 2014, before its importance was fully recognised by its owners and we found it hung in a rather obscure corner of a guest bedroom.
The exhibition is on until 28th April and, if you are in London and can spare the time, we can thoroughly recommend it.
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!
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:
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.
My initial reason for visiting Harewood House was to see the exhibition about the life of Bertie Robinson that I have written about elsewhere, but I was lucky enough to get a ticket for a black history walk around the house and grounds.
My tour guides were none other than Pablo Fanque and his charming wife Susannah. This was quite something as Pablo died in 1871 and Susannah pre-deceased him in 1848. Pablo (actually Joe Williams, founder of Heritage Corner) and Susannah (Vanessa Mudd) took us on a whirlwind tour of black history that encompassed Egypt, the three west African trading empires of Ghana, Songhai and Mali and much more besides, before returning us to York and Harewood.
When I was working I used to feel that if I learnt one thing on any course I attended it had not been a complete waste of time. This walk certainly passed the ‘one thing’ test with plenty of room to spare.
I will focus here on one story that was new to me (apologies to those who are familiar with it). It concerns ‘ivory bangle lady‘. whose remains were discovered during an excavation in York in 1901. She gains her name from one of the bangles she was wearing. One of her bangles was made of jet, a stone that can be found in Yorkshire, but the bangle fashioned from ivory clearly had a more exotic origin.
It was evident that she was a wealthy woman from the jewelry and other items buried with her. It also seems likely that when she died (in her twenties) in the second half of the 4th century AD she was a Christian as a message carved in bone was found in her grave: “Hail, sister, may you live in God”.
A reconstruction of the face of ‘ivory bangle lady’
Scientific advances since 1901 mean that far more is now known about her. She has been identified as of mixed heritage with at least one parent from north Africa. Applying the same scientific techniques to the remains of others in the same burial ground suggests that maybe 10% of the population of Roman York were of similar heritage. Perhaps you were aware of that but, for me, it was a revelation.
Returning to Pablo Fanque (real name William Darby), I had heard his story before but it was good to hear again about his remarkable life. The fact that he was born in Norwich in 1810 surprised me when I first heard about it but since then I have become more and more aware that the black presence was not restricted to major cities like London, Liverpool and Bristol but could be found in the countryside too. The evidence for this wider black presence can be seen not just in references in newspapers but in paintings and illustrations that date at least as far back as 1658 and may feature in a future post.
Pablo Fanque was a circus impresario and the walk took its name from a great storm that engulfed Pablo’s circus during a show at Harewood. The dramatic description of the storm reminded me of an event I attended recently where we were caught in a flimsy gazebo during a downpour of epic proportions.
Sadly, Susannah died when she was hit by falling beams when a gallery collapsed in the building where the circus was performing but Pablo soldiered on.
My one disappointment?Anyone familiar with the Beatles song Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite might reasonably have expected to see a bear, sadly no bears were in evidence! Apart from that, top marks to Joe and Vanessa for an entertaining and informative walk.
If you are in the Leeds area it would be well worth going on a future Heritage Corner walk and you can find out more here: https://heritagecornerleeds.com/
The Equiano Society has been instrumental in getting a plaque placed at 37 Tottenham Street, London W1. Equiano lived here while working on his ‘Interesting Narrative’.
The Plaque at Tottenham Street
In normal times the Historycal Roots team would have been out in force for the unveiling but, due to Covid-19 restrictions we were unable to attend.
We have been aware of the story of Barclay and Trudy Patoir for some time but a recent BBC radio programme, featuring interviews with the couple and their children, is very moving. Barclay Patoir came to England in 1941 to work as an engineer. His story demonstrates that people from the colonies helped the War effort in many ways, not just by serving in the Forces. But above all this is story of love in the face of racial prejudice, a love that endured for over seventy years.
Not sure how long the programme will be available but, hopefully, you will be able to listen to it here:
