Africanus, Scipio (c. 1702–1720), servant, was born of an African family that most likely came from west Africa, where many Bristol merchants bought or captured black men and women for transport to the American colonies. He became the servant of Charles William Howard, ...
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Article
Africanus, Scipio (c. 1702–1720), servant
Tim Macquiban
Article
Ashford, Mary Ann (1787–1870), domestic servant and autobiographer
Alison C. Kay
Ashford, Mary Ann (1787–1870), domestic servant and autobiographer, was born on 30 October 1787 in London, where she was baptized at St Mary Woolnoth on 2 December 1787, the second child of Joseph Ashford (d. 1800), tanner, and his wife, Jane, née...
Article
Barber, Francis (c. 1745–1801), servant
William R. Jones
Barber, Francis (c. 1745–1801), servant, was born a slave in Jamaica; his birth name and family are unknown. He was brought to England by Richard Bathurst, father to Johnson's friend of that name, who had him baptized and named Francis Barber, and sent him to a school in ...
Article
Carryl, Mary (d. 1809), servant and friend of the Ladies of Llangollen
Rosemary Raughter
Carryl, Mary (d. 1809), servant and friend of the Ladies of Llangollen, was one of at least three children of humble parents from Ross, co. Wexford. Little is known of her background or upbringing, but her forceful personality was apparent at an early age; it was reported that as a young woman '...
Article
Coker, Frances [Fanny] (1767–1820), freed slave and domestic servant
Christine Eickelmann
Coker, Frances [Fanny] (1767–1820), freed slave and domestic servant, was born on 26 August 1767 on Mountravers plantation, Nevis, in the West Indies, the first of five children of Black Polly (b. c.1752, d. in or after 1823). Her mother was probably enslaved in ...
Article
Colling, Mary Maria (1804–1853), poet and domestic servant
Susan J. Levasseur
Colling, Mary Maria (1804–1853), poet and domestic servant, was born on 20 August 1804 (although she later claimed to have been born a year later), in Tavistock, Devon, and was baptized there on 2 September 1804, the daughter of Edmund Colling (1769/70–1855), husbandman and assistant to the surveyor of the highways, and his wife, ...
Article
Cowper [known as Shell], Agnes (b. c. 1559, d. after 1619), servant and vagrant
Laura Gowing
Cowper [known as Shell], Agnes (b. c. 1559, d. after 1619), servant and vagrant, was born in the parish of St Olave, Southwark, Surrey, the daughter of William Cowper (d. c.1565), an embroiderer, and his wife (d. c.1570), whose name is unknown. Her life story is illuminated by the chance of her encounter in 1619 with the exhaustive record keepers of the parish of ...
Article
Falcieri, Giovanni Battista [Tita] (1798–1874), servant
Ralph Lloyd-Jones
Falcieri, Giovanni Battista [Tita] (1798–1874), servant, was born in Venice, the son of a gondolier, also Giovanni Battista Falcieri (1761–in or after 1835). The Falcieri were hereditary gondoliers to the Mocenigi family and, as a result, the younger Giovanni's service came with the house when ...
Article
Fletcher, William (b. 1773, d. in or after 1841), valet
Ralph Lloyd-Jones
Fletcher, William (b. 1773, d. in or after 1841), valet, was the son of John Fletcher (c.1750–1808), a farmer, and his wife, Mary (c.1750–1800). He was already a manservant at Burgage Manor, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, when Catherine Byron and her son arrived there in July 1803. On 23 July 1804 he married ...
Article
Gronniosaw, Ukawsaw [pseud. James Albert] (1710x14–1775), freed slave and autobiographer
Vincent Carretta
Gronniosaw, Ukawsaw [pseud. James Albert] (1710x14–1775), freed slave and autobiographer, was probably born in Bornu (now north-eastern Nigeria), the youngest of the six children of the eldest daughter of the king of Bournou (Bornu). Spiritually dissatisfied with the animist faith in which he was brought up, he soon alienated himself from his friends and relatives by his constant questions challenging their faith in physical objects, as well as by his growing belief in the existence of an uncreated creator. Increasingly '...
Article
Henson, Josiah (1789–1883), escaped slave, slavery abolitionist, and Methodist minister
Sharon A. Roger Hepburn
Henson, Josiah (1789–1883), escaped slave, slavery abolitionist, and Methodist minister, was born on 15 June 1789 in Charles county, Maryland, USA, one of six children of slave parents. He experienced the harsh realities of slavery early in life. He saw his father receive 100 lashes and then have his ear cut off as punishment for defending his mother from the plantation overseer. His father was then sold south and was never heard from again. ...
Article
Hochee, John (1789–1869), servant and landowner
Jeffrey Green
Hochee, John (1789–1869), servant and landowner, was born Ho Chee, otherwise Ho Chi or He Zhi, in Canton, China, in 1789, the son of Ho Foo, a mandarin. After education he probably worked for the East India Company in Canton, since he met and became a trusted servant of ...
Article
Husee, John (d. 1548), agent and soldier
David Grummitt
Husee, John (d. 1548), agent and soldier, is known to history principally as the servant of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, governor of the English outpost at Calais between 1533 and 1540. Thanks to that employment, and as a result of the seizure of ...
Article
Jermy [née Withers], Louise Jane [Louisa] (1877–1952), domestic servant and autobiographer
Jane McDermid
Jermy [née Withers], Louise Jane [Louisa] (1877–1952), domestic servant and autobiographer, was born on 30 January 1877 at Howe Lane, Romsey, Hampshire, on the Broadlands estate where her maternal grandmother, Sarah Medley, was laundress to the ‘great house’. Her mother, Selina (...
Article
Kennedy [known as Douglas], Scipio [Sipio] (1693x7–1774), freed slave and weaver
Michael S. Moss
Kennedy [known as Douglas], Scipio [Sipio] (1693x7–1774), freed slave and weaver, was born in Guinea, on the west African coast, from where he was taken by slave ship to Jamaica about 1702. Details of his family are unknown. On his arrival in ...
Article
Marshall, William (1748–1833), composer and servant
Mary Anne Alburger
Marshall, William (1748–1833), composer and servant, spent his life near Fochabers, Moray, where he was born on 27 December 1748, one of at least three children of Francis Marishal and his wife, Isabel Innes. At the age of twelve, after 'some instruction from his father...
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Moat, Henry (1871–1940), servant
Philip Carter
Moat, Henry (1871–1940), servant, was born on 2 August 1871 at 17 The Cragg, Whitby, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the son of John Moat (b. 1827/8), master joiner, and his wife, Jane, née Carter (b. 1831/2). By his own account the ...
Image
Moat, Henry (1871–1940)
Maker: Christopher Richard Nevinson
In
Henry Moat (1871–1940) by Christopher Richard Nevinson, 1918 © The University of Hull Art Collection / Bridgeman Art Library
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