Joseph Fergus: An Antiguan Bandsman in the Coldstream Guards and later a publican in Westminster, 1793-1851

By John D Ellis

Joseph Fergus was born at St Kitts c.1793. Nothing is known of his origins other than that at some point in his childhood he had moved to London where, in June 1812, he enlisted in the 2^nd Foot Guards (The Coldstream Guards). The regiment employed Black men as enlisted musicians in the percussion section of the Band (usually playing the cymbals or tambourine) from 1788 to 1833. In addition to Joseph Fergus, nine individuals described as Black or “of colour” have been identified.^[1]Referred to in J.Gleeson. Pomp and Circumstance: A History on the Band of HM Coldstream Guards. 1685-2015. (RHQ. Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk, London. 2015). Pages 38-106. Individual references … Continue reading They would have all served in London on ceremonial duties.

Adam Douglas. Serving in 1810 when he was sentenced to 25 lashes for disobeying orders and losing the silver crescent to his turban.

James Frazer (Fraser or Frazier). Served 1788 to 1800. An African American Freemason whose funeral in London was paid for and well attended by fellow masons.

John Johnson. Served 1788 on. Still serving in 1797. Born in America.

Thomas Rackett. Served 1811 to 1821. Previously served as a rating in the Royal Navy. Born Demerara. A married man, he was discharged on a pension and died in London in 1837.

Joseph Rapier. Served 1792 to 1816. Born Boston, USA (Charleston and New York were also given as places of birth). A married man with a family, and a Freemason, he was discharged on a pension and settled in London.

George Smith (‘Hannibal’). Served 1788 to 1791. Discharged after being convicted of theft. Transported to New South Wales, Australia.

John Smith (‘Caesar’). Served 1818 to 1825. Previously served in the Life Guards 1814 to 1815, and later in the 1^st Foot Guards (The Grenadier Guards) 1825 to 1840. Born in Antigua and escaped enslavement. A married man with a family, after being discharged on a pension he settled in Antigua where he died c.1858.

William Smith. Served 1811 to 1818. Born in Kingston, Jamaica. Discharged on a pension.

John Stewart (Stuart). Served 1800 to 1814. Born in Virginia, USA. Discharged on a pension.

London, The Coldstream Guards and Newgate Gaol

In October 1813, Joseph Fergus was admitted to Newgate Gaol charged with Highway Robbery. He stood trial at the Old Bailey the following month. From the Bury and Norwich Post:

At the Old Bailey, on Thursday, Joseph Fergus (a black) was indicted for highway robbery—Mrs. Trevitt, the prosecutrix, said that on the evening of the robbery, as she was walking down Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, a man passed by her, and snatched a small muslin bag from her hand; she could not see of what colour he was; the man ran away, and within five minutes, a man was brought to her by a watchman, with the bag containing the same articles which were in her bag, but she could not identify the prisoner. The watchman hearing the cry of “stop thief” and saw a man running and afterwards taken; he was sure the prisoner was the same man. Several respectable witnesses who had known the prisoner from childhood, gave him an excellent character: he was equally well spoken of by two serjeants, and the fife-major of the Coldstream Guards, in which regiment he had been one of the band for the last 18 months. Mr Baron Thompson directed the Jury to acquit the prisoner of the capital part of the offence, as there was no proof of violence. The Jury brought in a verdict of stealing from the person only.^[2]Bury and Norwich Post, 3rd November 1813. findmypast.co.uk I am grateful to Eamonn O’Keeffe for this reference.

The offence of ‘stealing from the person’ was not a capital one, (unlike highway robbery), and Joseph Fergus was sentenced to six months in gaol.^[3]The National Archives (TNA) HO 77/20. The fact that Joseph Fergus was given “an excellent character” both by people who had known him from childhood and senior non-commissioned officers of his regiment may well have been enough to ensure he was given the benefit of the doubt and saved from the gallows or transportation. Interestingly, his military records contain no break in service (during which time he was serving his sentence) or reference to any negative mark against his character. In effect, his time in custody appears to have been counted towards his service and later his pension.^[4]TNA WO 23/4 and WO 97/169-170.

Whilst Gleeson suggests that following the Waterloo Campaign in the summer of 1815, all three regiments of Foot Guards sent their bands to serve with the ‘Allied Army of Occupation in France’ for six months, the records of Joseph Fergus note that he spent all of his service “in the United Kingdom”.^[5]Gleeson, J. “Pomp and Circumstance: A History on the Band of H.M. Coldstream Guards, 1685-2015”. (Privately Published. RHQ, Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk, London. 2015). In the ‘Turkish … Continue reading

Joseph Fergus married Ann Bullock in February 1828, at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Middlesex.^[6]City of Westminster Archives Centre. Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records. 1828. Page 348. © brightsolid online publishing findmypast.co.uk Joseph Fergus may have been married previously: In … Continue reading

Service with the Guards regiments in the capital allowed Black soldiers to, with the permission of their Commanding Officer, work as civilian musicians whilst wearing their ceremonial uniforms. In October 1829, Joseph Fergus was dismissed from his position as a tambourine player in the band at Vauxhall Gardens and sought compensation. From the Globe:

LAW INTELLIGENCE. COURT OF KING’S Bench. Oct. 30. (Adjourned Sittings after Trinity Term, before Lord TENTERDEN and Common Juries). Fergus v. Gye and Hughes.

Mr Kelly stated that this was an action of assumpsit. The plaintiff was a tambourine player and had been sixteen years as such in the Coldstream regiment of guards. The defendants were the proprietors of Vauxhall Gardens and engaged the plaintiff as tambourine player through their agent, the master of the band, at the rate of one guinea per week. The plaintiff attended and played for one night, after which he was dismissed without notice or just cause. As the season lasted thirteen weeks, he was a loser of so many guineas, and it was for that amount he brought the present action.

Mr Hopkins examined – I am employed by the defendants, proprietors of Vauxhall, as leader of the military band, and as such it is my duty to engage and dismiss the different performers. The plaintiff has been with us six or seven seasons, and was engaged by me for the season 1828, at one guinea per week, as a tambourine player. He attended only one night, after which I dismissed him.

Cross-examined – He is an attested soldier, and I could not engage him by the year. He was engaged by the week. He came one morning after his dismissal with a letter to Mr Henry Hughes, the manager, who had directed me to dismiss him. The band have a sort of uniform in which they appear in the orchestra. It often happens that the band and other servants of the establishment pick up property belonging to visitors that they have dropped. I had directed the whole band, including the plaintiff, to bring immediately anything they might pick up to me, or take it to the bar.

Re-examined – I do not make a new engagement with them every week, but for the season.

The Attorney-General said that his defence would be very short. It had been proved to be the plaintiff’s duty, as a servant of the establishment, to give up anything he might find immediately to his leader, or the persons appointed for that purpose at the bar. He had on the very first night of the season neglected this matter of duty, and the defendants were not only justified, but bound, to discharge the plaintiff; and when he came to detail the circumstances under which they had done it, he had no doubt the jury would think they had done no more than their duty to the public. The plaintiff, before he had changed his common dress for the purpose of going into the orchestra, was observed by another servant of the establishment to pick up a bracelet, and, instead of going with it to the bar, to go and look at the amusements that were going forward. The owner of the bracelet having discovered her loss, caused a notice concerning it to be stuck up in the bar. The servant then communicated what he had seen, and that it was one of the band but could not identify him in his uniform. He was placed at the doorway, and towards the end of the evening the plaintiff having resumed his common clothes had passed the bar and approached the entrance of the garden for the purposes of going out, when he was stopped by the servant. He was taken to a lodge and questioned by Hall, the officer, as to the bracelet, and denied having it. After some threats, however, he produced it, and it was immediately claimed by the lady that owned it, who had been introduced for the purpose with two friends. The plaintiff, however, refused to give it up without some reward; but having behaved so badly, the gentleman who accompanied the lady refused to give him any. The plaintiff still insisted upon retaining the bracelet, but he ultimately gave it up. It was for this improper conduct that the proprietors, desirous of preventing their visitors being pillaged, had dismissed the plaintiff. These facts being clearly proved the plaintiff was nonsuited (the case was dismissed).^[7]Globe, 31st October 1829. I am grateful to Eamonn O’Keeffe for this reference. Also: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18131027-15-defend181&div=t18131027-15#highlight

Whether Joseph Fergis was dismissed for indulging in ‘finder’s keepers’ or for spurious reasons, it is worth noting that his pay of one guinea per week for what was in effect part-time work, amounted to 20 shillings, which was approximately twenty days’ pay for an agricultural labourer.

Private Joseph Fergus was discharged to a pension of 1s per day in September 1833 having completed his period of service. His conduct was that of a good and efficient soldier, seldom in hospital, trustworthy and sober, and judged to have been “very good”. On discharge he was 40 years old, 5 feet 9 and 1/2″ tall, had black hair, black eyes a black complexion and was a labourer by trade.^[8]TNA WO 23/4 and WO 97/169-170. He signed his discharge papers, suggesting that he was literate.

On discharge he indicated that he intended to reside at ‘Colnbrook’ (formerly Middlesex, now Surrey), subsequently identified as the birthplace of Ann Fergus (nee’ Bullock).^[9]TNA WO 23/4.

Civilian life as a publican and bankruptcy

The link between serving and former members of the British Army and public houses is a long and somewhat varied one. Historically, and in the absence of barracks, soldiers would be billeted in pubs. Alcohol was part of the daily ration of a soldier (as it was in the Royal Navy), and frequently safer to drink than water. Old soldiers who became publicans named their establishments after military commanders: Hence the plethora of pubs named ‘The Marquis of Granby’, ‘The Marlborough’ and the ‘Duke of Wellington’. However, the Napoleonic British Army was plagued by drunken-ness, and Black soldiers appear as likely as their White peers to have succumbed. In Ipswich in 1790, the drink fuelled escapades of Othello and Carter, two Black trumpeters of the 4^th Dragoons, so enraged both local citizens and their regiment that they were court-martialled, flogged and then exiled “on board a man of war”.^[10]Ipswich Journal, 14th August 1790. I am grateful to Marika Sherwood for this reference.

John Davidson, a Jamaican whose twenty-two years of service over three regiments commenced when he attested at Edinburgh in 1799, had the following note in his pension records: “Conduct indifferent in consequence of his propensity to drink – when sober he can be a very good man ^[11]www.academia.edu/105683738/Black_Soldiers_and_Edinburgh_from_1792_to_1848

In contrast, George Rose, the former enslaved Jamaican and later Waterloo veteran and Band Sergeant of the Highland ‘Black Watch’, was a firm supporter of temperance and gave sermons on it when he became a Methodist minister in civilian life.^[12]www.historycalroots.com/george-rose-an-exemplary-soldier/ Whilst James ‘Jimmy’ Durham, the Sudanese boy who served in the Durham Light Infantry between 1899 and 1910 ran the regimental branch of the Army Temperance Association.^[13]durhammuseum.co.uk/jimmy.html

By 1837 Joseph Fergus had found civilian employment as the publican of The Three Elms public-house, Westminster. The Morning Gazette revealed details of the racist abuse he received from two customers:

William Buckly and John Carey were charged by Joseph Fergus, a negro innkeeper, Three Elms, with personally injuring him and annoying his house. Mr Fergus stated that these boys were in the habit of calling at his house before he came to it; that their behaviour was disgusting, and their language intolerable. They were continually calling him “black eye”, and other names he could not with decency mention. On Friday last, Buckly hit him right in the face because he refused to serve them. The other said, “kick him and we’ll do for him”.

William Meadows, Bloomsbury, examined: Went to complainant’s house on the 18^th of September; saw prisoners there; Mr Fergus refused to serve them, saying he would not have them in his house, and told them to go; they refused, and pushed against him; Buckly kicked complainant once, but attempted several times; the other only used threatening language. Another witness confirmed the foregoing statement.

The prisoners, have got permission to speak, said, they were always in the habit of calling in that house, and that Mr Fergus did not wish them, lest they should see his actions, playing cards with soldiers; they were tipsy on that day, and went upstairs, there being a Free and Easy there; always took good care of the house; were sorry they had ever gone into it, and would not in future.

Mr White: Mr Fergus has a right to prevent any person he thinks proper entering his house.

They were ordered to find security to keep the peace ^[14]Morning Gazette, 4^th October 1837. findmypast.co.uk

The reference to Joseph Fergus “playing cards with soldiers” might seem to have been a simple observation of the fact that an ex-Guardsman publican would attract servicemen to his establishment and be at ease in their company. However, it is more likely that the reference was an attempt to suggest that Joseph Fergus was involved in illegal gambling. Similarly, the reference to a “Free and Easy” upstairs, inferred that he was running some kind of ‘bawdy house’ in which music, revelry and female companionship were available – for a price.

William Buckly and John Carey were fined for their conduct, with the latter quickly back in the dock charged and convicted of assaulting a police constable whilst under the influence of alcohol.^[15]Ibid. The subsequent fine of 10s does not appear to have delivered much justice to the police constable (who “received several knocks on the head”), although it wasn’t to be until 1965 when the racism Joseph Fergus was subjected to, became a criminal offence.

Joseph Fergus was not the only Black former soldier to find civilian employment in a London public house. In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, a Black veteran who had lost a leg at Waterloo and proudly wore the medal of the same, worked as a ‘pot-boy’ at the Black Lion, Kilburn.^[16]”Reminiscences of Old Kilburn” by G.A.S. In Kilburn Times, 20th June 1879. findmypast.co.uk Although the intent of the reminiscences was to fondly remember, they are ‘of the time’ in … Continue reading

Between 1836 and 1838 Joseph Fergus was a rate-paying resident of Great Saint Anne’s Street, St Margaret, Westminster.^[17]Westminster Rate Books 1634-1900. Folios 50, 51 and 100. Brightsolid online publishing ltd. findmypast.co.uk In April 1840, Joseph Ferguson was identified by the Morning Herald as the licensee of a beer-shop at 70 West Street, Smithfield.^[18]Morning Herald, 27^th April 1840. findmypast.co.uk In mid-1843 Joseph Fergus was a rate-paying resident of No.37 Dartmouth Street, St Margaret, Westminster – where he was employed as an assistant to the publican of the Two Fighting Cocks.^[19]Westminster Rate Books 1634-1900. Folios 4 and 14. Brightsolid online publishing ltd. findmypast.co.uk Formerly a cock-fighting theatre and next-door to ‘The Two Chairman’, still standing and now the oldest public house in Westminster.

However, he was experiencing financial difficulties; being imprisoned for debt. As reported by the London Gazette:

The Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors.

Joseph Fergus, formerly of the Three Elms public-house, Saint Ann Street, Westminster, Middlesex, publican, next of Dean Street, and next of Rochester Row, both in Westminster aforesaid, out of business and employ, but dealing for a short time in old rags, next of West Street, Smithfield, London, Beer Shopkeeper at the sign of the Old George, West Street, aforesaid next of Tower Street, Lambeth, Surrey, out of business and employ, next of Cadogan Place, Chelsea, Middlesex, next of Doyley Street, Chelsea aforesaid, out of business, next of Prince Albert public-house, Blackfriars Road, Surrey, Assistant to a publican, and next and late of the sign of Two Fighting Cocks, No. 37 Dartmouth Street, Westminster, Licensed Victualler.^[20]London Gazette 1665-2018. 1843. Issues 20231 and 20236. findmypast.co.uk

This comprehensive record of the changing occupations (albeit primarily in the licensing trade) and places of residence of Joseph Fergus reveal both his descent into bankruptcy, and his determination to avoid it. Despite this, he ended up in the debtor’s prison.

Retirement

By 1851 Joseph Fergus appears to have cleared his debts, and he and Ann were residing at 65 Drury Lane, St Martin in the Fields, Middlesex. He was a 58-year-old Chelsea Pensioner born in St Kitts, and she was 50 years old and born in Colnbrook, Middlesex.^[21]1851 England, Wales & Scotland Census. HO 107/1482/317/19. findmypast.co.uk

Joseph Fergus, aged 57 years of Russell Court, died in October 1851 and was buried at St George the Martyr Church, Southwark.^[22]City of London Burials, 1754-1855. © John Hanson and Monnica Stevens. findmpast.co.uk

Ann Fergus, (a 60 year old widow), was still alive in 1861 and working as a House Servant to a Provisions Merchant in Devonshire Street, St George the Martyr, Finsbury.^[23]1861 England, Wales & Scotland Census. RG 09/182/67/42. findmypast.co.uk Ann Fergus died in 1881.