Updated June 2024- more to come
Involved With The Trade
Daniel Moore (born circa 1701)- was an American with British ancestry. He emigrated to his ancestral homeland of England about 1747 when he bought Widmere Manor in Marlow. He was M.P, though apparently a largely inactive one, for Marlow 1754 to 1761. He shortly after that moved back to the Caribbean. He is usually given as a merchant however I believe he was also the Daniel Moore who owned a plantation in Jamaica and had on it over 100 enslaved people.
Charles John Bloxam- lawyer of the High Street was one of those who did the paperwork for some slave owners when they were granted financial compensation for the abolition of the slave trade. The two people he acted for were not locals.
John Ashley - buried aged 73 in Little Marlow churchyard. Grave says he of Ashley Hall in the parish of Vere, Jamaica. This was a sugar plantation with slaves. His ownership of this property seems to have become complicated and disputed. He certainly however owned slaves, at least 10 of them. He died while on a visit to Little Marlow, hence his burial there. The Ashley family were from Gloucestershire and Jamaica, not locals. Transporting bodies at that time was difficult so many people had to be buried wherever they died, not where they would have wanted. John lived York Crescent, Clifton, Gloucestershire having moved there from Jamaica.
Above: John Ashley's grave in Little Marlow churchyard.
Involved With Abolition Of Slavery
Pascoe Grenfell (born 1761)- M.P for Marlow 1802-20 was "on every ground of humanity, justice and policy" a vocal supporter of the abolition of slavery and Wilberforce's efforts to get that done. Pascoe's son appears to have grown up to have financial investments partly dependent on the slave trade, something which must have disappointed him. The son also possibly owned a slave personally.
In 1792 residents of Marlow met in the Vestry at the behest of the Reverend Richard Hunt to discuss slavery. It was unanimously agreed to send a petition to parliament from the town calling for the "abolition or reform of the slave trade". This was part of a nationwide push by abolitionists to get local people from around the country to come together and petition parliament on the issue. Similar meetings took place in Wallingford and Newbury for example. The "abolition or reform" wording was a template for the petition. Those at Marlow unanimously passed an additional vote of support for Wilberforce who wanted full abolition.
The Wesleyan congregation of Marlow sent a petition to Parliament again calling for full Abolition in 1831.
A local emancipation committee to promote anti-slavery sentiment was being set up in Marlow in 1861. James Carson of Spinfield House was instrumental in this. In October 1861 he presided over a lecture meeting in Marlow where African American Reverend J Sella Martin and Canadian Reverend T.M Kinnaird who had himself been a slave spoke of the Civil War in America and the anti - slavery movement in general. The speakers, praised Simpson for his efforts to remove slavery from plantations he had any business connection to in Jamaica. His family had never had any slaves themselves he later said. A lot more on James Carson in this post
Other
Field Marshal Sir George Nugent and his wife Maria lived for a while at Westhorpe House, Little Marlow. George had been a commander in the American Revolutionary War and for five years governor of Jamaica. They left Jamaica for England in 1806. American-born Maria kept a journal of her time in Jamaica which was published posthumously. This is considered a key text in Jamaican history and is an interesting read. Her attitude to the slaves she encountered was bafflingly contradictory. She was willing to dance with a slave and continually asserted that slaves had souls just like anyone else and so were worth saving in the religious sense. She criticized the enslaved population for laziness and immorality but thought that the fault for that lay not with them but with the bad example of their lazy and immoral masters. Overall she thought most slaves well treated, being willfully oblivious to the fact someone declared a slave [e.g a non person] is by definition being appallingly treated even if no additional suffering is heaped upon them by violence etc. It also stretches credibility when Maria tells us that a boatload of newly arrived slaves which she examined to see if they looked sad and in need of spiritual succour surprised her by looking happy and being more interested in her carriage than taking in their new surroundings or circumstances.
For more about this family and the general history of Westhorpe too see a dedicated post here
Enslaved People
George Alexander Gratton, born into slavery in St Vincents, stage name the "Spotted Boy" is buried in Marlow and has a dedicated post of his own here
In 1861 "fugitive slave" John Jackson was on a local speaking tour describing how he escaped from slavery and bringing to the people a first hand account of life under its grip. I do not believe John came to Marlow but interested Marlovians may have travelled to sites like Chesham Town Hall, or had friends and family who told them about his testimony. His appearances were widely advertised in advance. The following year, fellow escaped slave Washington Duff did reach Marlow on his lecture tour. He spoke in the Lecture Room (aka The Music Room, now the Masonic Centre, St Peters Str.) Washington spoke about the cruelty he and others had recieved at the hands of their "masters", including sadistic punishments which left the audience shocked and revolted. Washington bore the scars of one such assault on his legs. He was from Kentucky and had escaped to Canada.
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June 2022 for more Marlow slavery links see here
All mentions of someone on this blog can be found on the Person Index.
To find other content about every day life in old Marlow see the post listing here
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Sources:
Bucks Herald, 27th April 1861. Copy held British Library Archives and accessed via the BNA March 2021.
Reading Mercury 17th March 1792. As above.
South Bucks Free Press 28 November 1862
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/moore-daniel-1701. Accessed March 2021.
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/grenfell-pascoe-1761-1838 Accessed March 2021.
'Charles John Bloxam' Legacies of British Slave Ownership database , http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk./lbs/person/view/46245 Accessed March 26th 2021.
©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here so that my sources listed above retain credit.
