Before Bristol there was Dorset. Merchants from Poole, Weymouth, and Lyme Regis were involved in the trading of slaves from West Africa with colonial West Indies. There is a suggestion that the main reason the shipping moved from Dorset to Bristol was because larger ships needed bigger and deeper ports. Whatever the reason the legacy remains written into the Dorset landscape.
Claims were made by people with addresses in Dorset and Wiltshire for compensation for the loss of their enslaved workforce of over 9335 people. The claims to the Slave Compensation Commission provide a census of slavery in the 1830s, available on a searchable database, and represent a snapshot in time of that vastly understates the numbers of enslaved people who toiled the create the wealth that made its way back to the United Kingdom.
Local historian and poet, Louis Adjoa Parker, has researched Dorset’s many links to the slave trade; links that make it difficult to imagine that there are any parishes or estates that were not implicated in some way.
That history begins with George Somers of Lyme Regis who was the founder of the Bermuda colony in 1609. Slightly before that though there is an entry in the accounts of the mayor of Lyme Regis for 1589-1590 recording the expenditure of two shillings for ‘the carriage of the Negro to the justice’. Lyme’s Borough records for 1662 for August 1662 have an entry for payment to ‘the barbadoes boy towards whippinge A strange women’.
Another Lyme Bay family, the Pinneys, are said to have brought black servants to their home at Bettiscombe, and local legend tells of misfortune for anyone who removes the skull of a faithful black servant from the manor.
The Burridge family of Lyme Regis traded with Virgina and Barbados, engaged in the slave trade, contributed to the maintenance of the Cobb, and were involved in raising a petition in the town in the late 17th Century calling on Parliament to recognise “that the trade of this port and your petitioners livelihoods very much depends on the western navigation and plantations whose products are chiefly raise by negroes bought from Africa”.
Staying in that area, John Audain, Rector of Charmouth between 1783-1825 (although only very nominally), spent much of his incumbency in the West Indies where he was a pirate, slave trader, plantation owner, and preacher at various churches.
The Dorset Records Office lists an archive entry from the parish of Winterborne Stickland for the 25th February 1701 stating that ‘an unbaptised Negro slave (belonging to Mr Vine) was buried.’ So there were clearly many more black people in the area at that time than one might at first assume.
The well-known association of the Beckford family of Bristol and Bath to slavery is perhaps a little hidden in Dorset by one line of the family adopting the Pitt name on being ennobled as Barons Rivers – hence Pitt-Rivers.
The Drax family of Charborough also derived their wealth from plantations in Barbados and therefore from the ownership of slaves. Richard Drax, the current owner of the estate and MP for South Dorset has expressed the view that he cannot be held responsible for the actions of people over 300 years ago, although it is striking that as well as owning over 13,000 acres in Dorset his family continues to own a sugar-plantation in Barbados.
The Gordon memorial plaque in St Peter’s church in Dorchester that has been a longstanding focus of debate about monuments celebrating slave owners and recently subject of agreement in Consistory Court that it can be removed (September 2022).
The chancel of St Andrew’s church Okeford Fitzpaine was rebuilt in 1772 by the Revd Duke Butler. A memorial to the Revd Duke Butler is in the south aisle, described in one article as the ‘slave owning vicar of Okeford Fitzpaine’. Along with his brothers he had inherited estates on Nevis. In the 1830s representatives of his estate claimed compensation for enslaved people on his Grove estate.
Other clergy who claimed compensation for the loss of slaves included William Biscoe who was vicar of Coombe Bissett, Edmund Waller who was curate at Coombe Bissett, Duke Butler’s son William who was at Frampton, and Edward Bernard who was curate at Holy Trinity in Weymouth.
Dorset’s ports were the focus of slave-trading as merchants and shipowners exploited the available opportunities. Wiltshire, with an economy based on wool and other commercial activity, was more likely to be associated with slavery through investment in plantations in the West Indies and southern states of America. Dr Lorna Haycock of Wiltshire Heritage Museum writes:
“Although Wiltshire, being an inland county, doesn’t take part directly in shipping slaves, many rich families, such as the Beckfords of Fonthill, are involved through their commercial investments.
The Watson-Taylors (later of Erlestoke), for instance, inherit through marriage the estates of Simon Taylor in Jamaica. And George Watson-Taylor, who owns 2-3,000 slaves on sugar estates and cattle ranches, becomes the M.P. for Devizes. But not all the Devizes electors are in favour of returning a member whose income is dependent on slave labour.
In the year 1826 a petition, signed by 20 residents, is drawn up in the town advocating the abolition of slavery. By this time, in 1807, the slave trade has already been abolished. But, despite the abolition, slavery remains legal in the British Empire until 1833. George Watson-Taylor and his predecessor Joshua Smith, for instance, are both opposed to abolition.
Although the prosperity of Devizes is based on wool, snuff, brewing and commerce, several prominent families have interests in the West Indies and the southern states of America.
The Heathcotes who live in Southbroom House, for instance, and the Garths who live in Brownston House are both commercially involved in Barbados and South Carolina and therefore must have condoned slave labour.”
[Some] People with addresses in Dorset and Wiltshire recorded as owning slaves, and also those who made claims for compensation for losing their slaves. Information from the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England is searchable online for Dorset, but I haven’t yet found an equivalent for Wiltshire.
- William Banks, claimant for compensation for 172 slaves, possibly acting on behalf of his mother’s estate.
- Julines Beckford MP, d. 1764, of ‘Iwerne Stepleton’ – probate recorded 662 slaves on his estates.
- Peter Beckford, d. 1774, left estates in Jamaica and other places in West Indies with enslaved people. Memorial in Iwerne Stepleton parish church.
- Hon George Charles Grantley Fitzhardinge Berkley, d. 1881 at Durlsey House, Poole, compensation claim for 292 slaves.
- Rev Samuel Edward Bernard, d.1885, curate of Holy Trinity, Weymouth, 1849-52, compensation for 202 slaves.
- Charles Blair, d.1854, Cattistock, linked to compensation claims for 359 slaves. Baptised on New Year’s day 1777 at Winterborne Whitechurch. Great Grandfather of George Orwell.
- Charles Blair, d.1802, of Down House, Dorset, died leaving estates in Jamaica.
- Rev Duke Butler, d. 1780, ‘the slave-owning vicar of Okeford Fitzpaine’.
- Rev William Butler, d.1843. Compensated with others for 147 slaves on estate at Nevis. ‘There is a small tablet on the south wall of the church’ at Frampton Dorset to Rev. William Butler LLB Vicar of Frampton who departed this life August 13 1843 aged 81. Living in Frampton in 1841, age 75, vicar.
- Mark Davis, d.1832, of Turnworth. Bristol West India Merchant. Memorial in parish church W. tower, on N. wall, wall-tablet with arms, urn and weeping figure, by Simmonds of Blandford
- Elizabeth Charity Drake, d.1827, Charmouth,
- John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge Erle-Drax, d.1887, of Charborough and Holnest, compensation for 189 slaves on the Drax Hall estate, Barbados.
- John Estridge, d. 1794, Bridehead (possibly rented), estates on St Kitts. Left £200 to the vicar of West Stafford.
- Francis Fane, d.1813, of Spetisbury, MP for Lyme Regis 1777-1780 and for Dorchester 1790-1807, trustee for the Blair estates
- Charles Franks, d.1870, died Weymouth, compensation for 358 slaves.
- William Marshall, d.1864, Rector of Chickerell 1831-1864, interest in a claim for compensation for 144 slaves.
- Rev William Biscoe, d. 1877, vicar of Coombe Bissett, compensated for 279 slaves.
- Rev Edmund Waller, d. 1854, curate of Coombe Bissett, compensated for 210 slaves.
- Thomas Baring, Norman Court, Wiltshire, beneficiary in compensation claims for over 1000 slaves.
- Susan Batt, New Hall, Salisbury, compensated for 157 slaves.
- William Beckford, d.1844, Fonthill Abbey, ‘England’s wealthiest son’, compensated for 661 slaves.
- Richard Pinnegar Broome, Calne, 74 slaves.
- James William Dawes, Trowbridge, 34 slaves.
- Henry Dawkins, Standlynch
- Miss Anna B de St Felix, Landford Cottage, 80 slaves.
- Bryan Edwards, Westbury, 171 slaves.
- Zachary Edwards, Westbury Leigh, 274 slaves.
- Edward Welch Eversley, Bradford on Avon, 9 slaves.
- Joseph Christopher Ewart, Devizes, 213 slaves.
- William Fowle, Chute, 192 slaves.
- Francis Glanville, Stratford Sub Castle, 334 slaves.
- John Gordon, Wincombe Park, Shaftesbury, 174 slaves.
- Samuel Greatheed, Landford Lodge, 283 slaves.
- Henry Newton Jarrett V, Codford St Peter, 695 slaves.
- Stephen Jarrett, Crane Lodge, Salisbury, 180 slaves.
- Edmund Kibblewhite, High Street, Wootton Bassett, 114 slaves.
- George Lawrence, Cowesfield House, Whiteparish, 263 slaves.
- Rev Henry Mair, Donhead Lodge, Tisbury, 418 slaves.
- Ann Clark McLery, Little Bedwyn, 12 slaves.
- Charlotte Peach, St John’s Street, Sarum, Devizes, 329 slaves.
- George Pitt Rivers, Rushmore Lodge, 542 slaves.
- Mary Skeete, Warminster, 322 slaves.
- Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland, Winterslow House, 401 slaves.
- John Welch, Laverstock House (inmate at the asylum there), 119 slaves.
Sources
Searchable database: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
Beckfords of Fonthill: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/articles/2007/03/06/abolition_fonthill_abbey_feature.shtml
Dorset’s Wilberforce, Wemouth MP Thomas Foxwell Buxton, campaigner for the abolition of slavery: https://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2012/12/weymouth%E2%80%99s-wilberforce/
Dorset’s links to slavery: http://www.marshwoodvale.com/history-community/2018/01/slavery/
Lyme Regis: https://lyme-online.co.uk/blogs/lyme-and-the-slave-trade/
https://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/related-article/the-slave-trade/
Rev John Audain of Charmouth: https://www.freshford.com/Charmouth%60s%20Pirate%20Parson%20Talk.html
The Gordon Plaque in Dorchester St Peter’s: https://dorseteye.com/positive-response-should-see-the-gordon-plaque-removed-from-st-peters-church-in-dorchester/
Gordon Plaque: https://www.wessexfm.com/news/dorset-news/3136037/calls-for-slave-owners-plaque-at-st-peters-church-to-be-removed/
Gordon and the rebellion of 1760: http://dorsetdorset.blogspot.com/2014/07/dorset-history-tale-of-slavery.html
Revd Duke Butler: Okeford Fitzpaine Monuments and Floor-slab. Monuments: In S. aisle, on S. wall; (2) of Rev. Duke Butler, 1779, his wife Mary (Freke), 1786, his brother, and his infant son, wall-monument of grey and white marbles with shaped apron with arms of Butler impaling Freke, elliptical-headed inscription panel, drapery, rosettes, Doric entablature, cherub’s head and urn finial; https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol3/pp200-207
http://www.okeford-fitzpaine.org/st-andrews-church/
Dr Lorna Haycock writing about slavery and Wiltshire: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/articles/2007/03/05/wiltshire_record_office_feature.shtml
Piece on Wiltshire slave-owners focussing on the Dickinsons of Lacock and the Newmans of Corsham: http://www.wshc.eu/blog/item/wiltshire-slave-owners-in-jamaica.html
Colin Brady 