An African Boy in 1800s Marlow.

Updated December 2023

Some of you may be surprised to know that there are several examples of black residents or visitors to Marlow in the 1800s.

Edward Mazongoo's stay was brief but his story interesting.

Born according to his 1871 census entry in Zanzibar Africa I first find him working as a 14 year old garden boy in Hampshire for a rich widow. He was one of multiple servants in the household. Being a garden boy could lead to a good job if the boy could get enough experience and expertise to become a head gardener. These were senior servants, in charge of other employees and often qualifying for a house along with the job. In its apprentice stages however the job of gardener was very low paid. Though live-in garden boys like Edward would get a bed but an actual bedroom was very unlikely. Most often the position involved sleeping in the kitchen or kitchen passage in an employer's house on a pull up bed or in the potting shed or stables outside, like the stable lads. I have come across no other obvious records of a black boy taking on a gardening role. Most African or Caribbean servants were valets or footmen. Better paid jobs, though with long hours of expected service. To be honest you were never really not on call. As black servants were scarce, managing to find and employ one became a sign of social cachet as well as a talking point. To be a footman you would in addition need to be tall and considered good looking.

Three years after Edward Mazoongoo was entered into the census as a garden boy, he too had become a valet. Now he was living in Marlow and said to be 19, which means his age is out somewhere. His employer was a Mr John Marsham whose main home was in Palace Gardens, Kensington London, but who also stayed at Marlow, presumably as a "country" or weekend retreat. Edward perhaps was unhappy as he stole Marsham's chequebook and filled out two cheques. His enquiries as to the cashing out process and his incorrect rendering of his employer's name sparked suspicion at both the London bank branches he attempted to get to pay him money. A warrant was soon put out for his arrest on the charge of forgery.

Edward got all the way to Lichfield before being caught. The jail there could not hold him- he escaped- and a national alert was put out for police to be on the lookout for him. London Police suspected that he would try to get to Liverpool Docks so police were waiting there for him. To Liverpool Edward did indeed go, on foot all the way it was reported. An awaiting Superintendent soon spotted him and a local detective constable successfully gave chase and seized him. He still had the stolen cheque book on him at the time. Edward was sent back via Lichfield to London for trial.

At the trial, the charge of forgery was dropped in favour of one of stealing the cheque book only. Edward had wrote the name of Marsham on the cheque he tried to cash but had not tried to copy the signature and had not spelt the name correctly on at least one cheque. His uncertainty about the banking process as a whole suggests he did not understand a signature was required, only the provision of the name of the account holder. So on a technicality, the fact that no one could possibly be fooled into cashing a cheque without a signature on it in the right place, Edward was free of the charge of forgery. For the theft of the cheques however he received 6 months in jail with hard labour.

It is possible to tease out a few facts about Edward from the case. He must have been at least partially literate in order to write his employer's name. That the police suspected he would go to Liverpool docks possibly implies they knew that he had a previous connection to the place. Perhaps he had arrived into the country as a very young sailor. His going to Lichfield is puzzling but may just be the result of hitching a ride to wherever he could get as fast as he could.

How he covered large swathes of the country in a short period of time is not obvious. To take 2 (or 3, reports vary) days only to walk to Liverpool seems improbable if he did indeed only travel on his own two legs. He does not seem to have been sighted between Lichfield and Liverpool which is something of an achievement for a man who would stand out from the crowd more than the average man.

He appears on no further censuses, nor do any obvious family members for him.

More about Marlow's any 1800s black residents in the future and about Edward too if anything more can be discovered about either.

 Note added October 2021: see this post about George Alexander Grafton a black child buried in Marlow churchyard in the 1800s.

To find every mention of any person on this blog choose the Person Index option on the drop down menu. See also Biographies Of Individuals here.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog. 

Sources:

My transcription of microfilm photographic images of 1871 census pages provided by the LDS at their Family History Centre. You can now easily find census images and transcriptions of them online.

Staffordshire Advertiser 13th September 1873, Huddersfield Daily Chronicle 20th September 1873 via the BNA accessed June 2019.

London Evening Standard, 19th September 1873, Burton Chronicle 18th September 1873 via the BNA accessed August 2020.

The Hour, 23rd September 1873. Accessed 2021. British Library Archives.