Slavery And Its Abolition

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. 

***

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

***

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.

George Alexander Gratton "the Spotted Boy"

 

 George Alexander Gratton as he was later known was born to two enslaved parents on the island of St Vincent in the Caribbean in July 1808. He had a condition that meant much of his body was white skinned with only some black patches while his face and hair were mostly dark with lighter patches. 

Presumably through sale, George came into the possession of a ship's* captain who brought him to England. According to some reports he was at that point an orphan, and had already been exhibited in his nations capital. It was also claimed the little boys life was in danger due to the "superstitious prejudices" of the locals, although how far this was true or a later attempt to justify his removal is unclear. At Bristol the captain sold him to travelling showman John Richardson for a reported 1000 guineas. If true that was equivalent to the cost of buying multiple houses but John was a highly successful showmen already and could afford it. He was known to be a big spender. George was then between 14 months and 19 months old depending on which report you believe. It appears the Captain had sought out Richardson as a buyer rather than the other way round. 

John Richardson had been born in Marlow Workhouse. Again, according to which story you believe he either ran away from the workhouse or from a job he had been found at the age of 14 and went to London. There he became involved in running a pub and organising travelling theatricals. These seem to have been largely comic. He was not a "freak show" proprietor as such. 

For many years a Bible passed down through the Wildego family of Great Marlow which was said to have been gifted by Richardson to one of their female forebears. This was in recognition of her role in feeding and clothing the young runaway when he had no one else to turn to. Once he had made a success of himself, Richardson remembered her kindness and rewarded her with the Bible and a miniature chalk portrait of the Spotted Boy. The Bible was still in the family hands when the recipient's granddaughter Hannah Wildego died in 1883. 

George was exhibited as a toddler for several months in the Summer and Autumn of 1810. He was at St Bartholomew's Fair in London, at Sadler's Wells and at Croydon as well as at Marlow. I have not myself found any mention of his appearing anywhere after 1810 (though there were imitators who did).

The sideshow was called The Beautiful Spotted Boy and was billed as a chance to see the wonder of God's creation. The Star newspaper said George was the "without exception the greatest beauty and most interesting curiosity ever seen" while another dubbed him a "lovely infant". At Sadler's Wells in September 1810 the Spotted Boy was well down the list of attractions but by October his appearance was one of the most highlighted attractions.

Those he appeared on the bill with in September included Grimaldi the clown, the Sampford Ghost, Lambert the Fatman, Sadler's Baboon and The Yorkshire Giant. These did not work for Richardson, they just appeared as part of the same shows.

The comedy performer Charles Edwards must also have worked on the same bill as George at one point as his wife Anne in writing her biography of Charles said that he met the child and developed "a great attachment to him". He visited George regularly. Ann recalled that "the child loved him very much and they played together by the hour". The same affection was said to exist between George and John Richardson. Robert Chambers in his book The Book of Days for instance called George "a child of amiable manners much attached to Richardson". As well he might be, as John's affection aside, who else did he have in the world?

John had George formally baptised when they were together in Surrey. I believe the Gratton name had been given to him by the ship's captain -  it was supposedly the name of the overseer of the plantation on which George was born. ("Mr Alexander's", that is the Colonarie Vale sugar plantation of William Alexander which had around 300 slaves working there.) I do not think that it is possible to discover his birth name or those of his parents. 

In 1811 John commissioned an artist to paint the boy. In the painting George is posing with a bow and arrow which may reflect how he was taught to pose at the fairs. Typically those with unusual skin or body appearances either sat while people filed past them or stood on a stage and struck a series of poses to allow their appearance to be fully demonstrated. Later John began to educate George, who was said to have a "quick and penetrating mind." But the child is thought to have had tuberculosis and died in February 1813, just short of the age of 5 or 6. (A swelling of the jaw was mentioned as the first symptom, and a fever.)

Above, Alexander as depicted in the painting hung in the church. 

He was buried in John's native Marlow in a brick vault within the churchyard. Apparently the showman feared the boy's remains would be stolen and so had chosen not to bury him for 3 months. I have not been able to ascertain whether this rumour was true. When John himself died in 1837 he asked to be buried next to him, which is what happened. Their graves can still be seen in All Saints churchyard. In the parish church is the portrait of little George**

The popularity of George as an attraction led to many "spotted boys" popping up at fairs for decades after George's death. To see one (real or subject to some body painting) in a sideshow became as commonplace as seeing a bearded lady or a strong man. I also found one case of a painted statue purporting to be a likeness of George being used as an attraction in the 1830s, after John Richardson's death.

An additional memorial is now in the churchyard for George, alongside his grave. This notes that George is the first known person from St Vincent's to have come to Great Britain.

You may be interested in this post on the blog which is about an African boy who lived in Marlow for a while also in the 1800s. And see this post about Marlow's links to slavery and its abolition.

Life at Great Marlow Workhouse 1775-1843 - here and later at the Wycombe Union workhouse at Saunderton here

All mentions of an individual on this blog can be found under the Person Index on the top drop down menu. More posts dedicated to one person can be found under the Biographies Of Individuals menu option.

*Possibly aboard The Friends of Emma, arriving September 1809.

** Another portrait from life was made by Mr D Orme. It shows George sitting on a turtle or tortoise with a Dalmatian dog at his side. 

© MarlowAncestors.  Written by Charlotte Day and researched by Charlotte Day and Kathryn Day. 

Sources:

Memories of Charles Mathews Volume 4 by Mrs Anne Mathews. 1839. Copy in the British Library, digitized by Google.

The Book Of Days or A Miscellany Of Popular Antiquities by Robert Chambers 1864. Published by W and R Chambers.

The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham by George Lipscombe. 1847. Digitized by Google.

The Morning Advertiser, 29th September 1810 and 10th October 1810. Copy held in the British Library archives and accessed via the BNA.

The Star (London) 10th October 1810. As above.

The Morning Post 7th April 1810. As above.

Graves Great Marlow.

Literary Journal and Miscellany of  Science, Art, History and Politics Vol 2, 1819. 

 https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146636936

Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News, 12 May 1883. 

The People Of Westhorpe House, Little Marlow

Westhorpe House is a Georgian mansion by Little Marlow. It previously sat in around 100 acres of parkland and was often sold and occupied in conjunction with nearby Westhorpe Farm and Little Marlow Manor. In this post I aim to shine a light on some of the people who made the house their home above or below stairs.

The house was built in the late 1600s by the Chase family.

Field Marshal Sir George Nugent and his wife Maria were perhaps the most prominent residents of the house. George had been a commander in the American Revolutionary War and for five years governor of Jamaica. 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. Also while she criticized the slave population for laziness and immorality she thought that the fault for that lay not with them but with the bad example set by their lazy and immoral masters. At the same time 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 actually looking happy and being more interested in her carriage than taking in their new surroundings.

Maria and George left Jamaica in 1806 and were at Westhorpe by 1819. Four years later they threw a party at the house to celebrate the 21st birthday of their son George junior.

Maria was the driving force behind the couple gifting 100 blankets as well as items of warm clothing to the poor of Little Marlow every year. England had seemed particularly cold to her she said after her time abroad in Jamaica, India and the USA.  

Maria became suddenly ill while taking the air in her carriage in 1834 and died shortly afterwards.

At the time of the 1841 census the widowed George lived at Westhorpe with his married daughter Maria [sometimes given as Mary] and her husband Rice Richard Clayton AKA Richard Clayton for company, not to mention a whole pack of servants.

George died in 1849 aged 91 and was buried at Little Marlow. Following his death the contents of the house were sold including a large library of quality books and a cellar full of expensive wines. 

Maria's sudden demise was not the only unexpected death at Westhorpe. In 1859 occupier Sir Arthur Buller's butler William Forward committed suicide by shooting himself in the face in the cellar of the house. He had been complaining of ill health and acting in a subdued manner. The jury at the inquest [which took place at the house!] thought that his long time separation from his wife Sarah was a key factor in his low spirits. It seems that this marriage was not known of by his fellow workers. Only when going through his personal papers did they discover evidence of it. 

Arthur Buller was born in India in 1808 and worked for the British state there, in Sri Lanka and in Canada before moving back to England, his family's ancestral home.

It is not certain how long Arthur had been at Westhorpe when his butler died. Certainly not quite as far back as the time of the 1851 census when Lt Edward and Eliza Simeon lived there, but probably soon afterwards. Edward and Eliza had moved in in 1849 after George Nugent's death. With them in 1851 were 10 servants including two footmen MJ Rogers and Phillip Eaton. One of the female servants F Hinzel had come all the way from Switzerland. 

Both Edward and Eliza were the  survivor's of their previous marriages. Her parents resided at Leeds Castle, Kent. His was a Berkshire and Oxfordshire family.

A few months after the census Edward died and was buried in Reading. It is likely that Arthur Buller moved into Westhorpe soon afterwards.

He moved to London eventually and the house was sold in 1859 to George Jackson Esquire. George put the house up to let in 1862 for a minimum period of 7 years but perhaps there were no takers as he apparently continued to live at Westhorpe until his death in 1896. He had previously resided at Little Marlow Manor. 

The 1863 property to let adverts say that the house and gardens had both recently been overhauled. The house interior, prospective tenants were reassured, was decorated with "taste and simple elegance". Outside were the luxuries of hot houses, melon pits and  an expanse of ornamental water not to mention a trendy rock garden [The gardener from at least 1869 to at least 1890 was George Davis].

During George Jackson's time at Westhorpe there was another sudden death in the house- an unnamed nursery maid aged just 22 whose heart gave out as she changed her clothes after coming back from a walk with her charges.

The 1861 census shows George a widower with 11 children from just a year old up to 19 years old. 

One of those children Felix, away working at a brewery in Burton Upon Trent when in his 20s, fell into some machinery and was killed instantly.

Keeping the Jackson family going in 1861 was a group of 10 live in servants. 

By 1871 with the number of children at home reduced, only 7 servants were kept.

The 1871 cook Ann Chaplin had had an impressive rise from being the 16 year old sole servant in a London household on the 1861 census, to the cook in the large household at Westhorpe in 1871. She was the daughter of James and Elizabeth Chaplin and was born circa 1840 in Easthampstead Berkshire. I was not able to find her in 1881. The cook at Westhorpe then was Fanny Gilbert, and Eliza Humphrey in 1891.

1871 footman Enoch Watts, born circa 1827 had risen to butler by 1881. Enoch was a married man whose wife Theresa and family did not live with him at Westhorpe though, they were staying in the village of Little Marlow.  This was quite an unusual situation for a butler who tended to be unmarried or married to the cook/ housekeeper of the same household. He continued to live in Little Marlow after his retirement with his married daughter Sarah Piggott. Theresa died 1881. She worked as a laundress, as did Sarah before marriage. (To see the grave of Enoch and Theresa see here)

Westhorpe House was sold in 1896 following George Jackson's death. He left an estate worth over £100,000.  A Mr Gordon was the resident in 1899.

The estate was again sold in 1917.

The 1917 sale guide said that the house had 19 bed and dressing rooms, 2 bathrooms, a billiards room and library amongst other things. In a sign of changing times some of the stabling had given way to motor garages.

Our blog primarily deals with Marlow people pre 1920s so with that I will bid farewell to this handsome house.

For more on Marlow's links to both slavery and its abolition see here . More Little Marlow content can be found listed under Other Places on the menu. All mentions of an individual on the blog can be found on the Person Index.

To find posts about everyday life in old Marlow, see the listing here

Sources:

Reading Mercury 31st December 1849 [suicide], 18th April 1863 [nursery maid death] and 19th August 1882 [Felix Jackson death]. Bucks Herald 17th May 1862 [property description] Copies at the British Library accessed via the BNA October 2020.

Little Marlow Parish Registers.

1841, 61, 71 and 91 censuses transcribed from microfilm by Jane Pullinger. 1851 and 1881 census my own transcription from microfilm.

Wikipedia articles on Sir George Nugent, Sir Arthur Buller and Sir John Simeon [father of Edward] all accessed October 13th-15th 2020.

Lady Nugent's Journal, reprinted 1907 by the Institute of Jamaica. Can be purchased on Amazon if you want to read it.

Auction sale guide, 1917. Loose. Poor condition. Partial.

GRO Death Index online. Accessed February 2021.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

©Marlow Ancestors. If reusing this research (which you are very welcome to do for family or local history purposes) please give credit to this blog and link here.