Tag: Black sailors

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 18^th/19^th 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, 7^th March 1780:

Saturday died at Liverpool, in the 79^th 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 29^th of February and was buried at St Nicholas Church, Liverpool on the 2^nd 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 26^th of February and was buried at the Church of St Nicholas, Liverpool on the 1^st 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

From the Sun (London), 7^th 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 Capel-Coningsbury (1757-1839) was the 5^th 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.

The Earl and his wife resided in the ancestral home of the Earls of Essex at Cassiobury House, Cassiobury Park.^[3]Sources: Sun (London), 7^th 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, 25^th 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 18^th of April 1848.^[4]Sources: TNA BT114/12. findmypast.co.uk South Eastern Gazette, 25^th April 1848. findmypast.co.uk Burial: Maidstone All Saints burials, 1838-1907. Kent Burials. findmypast.co.uk