It was a pleasure to meet Jonathan Miller and Arthur Torrington at the American International Church on Tottenham Court Road recently. This is where we now know Gustavus Vassa (Olaudah Equiano)[1] was buried in 1797. Jonathan is archivist at the church and is as excited as we are about the discovery.
We discussed how we can work together to bring Equiano’s links with the church to greater public attention. This fits well with the church’s own desire to make the history of the church more visible to the local community and the many visitors who pass along Tottenham Court Road every day.
The church already has an impressive outreach programme, running a regular soup kitchen and also an overnight shelter for some of London’s homeless people, as well as hosting a multiplicity of food stalls that were doing a roaring trade when we visited. A visible commemoration of Equiano would add another dimension to the church’s appeal.
Jonathan produced some fascinating material from the archive. There has been some uncertainty about the physical appearance of the church in Equiano’s day as it has been through a number of incarnations over the past two and a half centuries. Jonathan was able to clear this up, producing this image:
Jonathan also showed us an image of the Minister, Torial Joss, at the time of Equiano’s attendance:
Whether Joss was able to officiate at Equiano’s funeral on 6th April 1797 must be in some doubt as he himself was buried on 22nd April, just sixteen days later.
We had a discussion of how Equiano might have been buried. The burial register shows that a handful of people (Joss was one of them) were buried in a ‘family grave in chapel’ . One person, David West Esq, had recently been buried in a ‘vault in chapel’, a few others were buried in a family grave outside the church but the vast majority appear, because there is no other entry in the register, to have been buried in a ‘common grave in grounds’. As Jonathan pointed out, ideas about how people were buried were rather different from today and it seems that burial in a common grave was very much the norm.
We discussed the possibility of obtaining funding for a number of events next year and the hope is that a major event can be hosted at the church itself next April – very much something to look forward to!
[1] Gustavus Vassa was the name given to Equiano by one of his owners, it was the name that Equiano himself used during his time in London, sometimes adding the soubriquet ‘the African’. On this site we are more inclined to use his African name, Olaudah Equiano.