Last week I went to pay my respects to I.D. He is one of Bishop’s Castle’s mysteries – the man from Africa, who was laid to rest in the parish churchyard of St John the Baptist on the 9th September 1801. Origins and life story unknown.
Here lieth the Body of I.D.
A Native of Africa who died in this Town Sept 9th 1801
God hath made of one Blood all nations of Men Acts 17 verse 26
*
I’ve written about him before, but the mystery continues to niggle, and especially now that I’ve come to live in the town. Who was this man? Where did he come from, and how had he arrived in the isolated small farming town of Bishop’s Castle? What led to his death? Was he slave, originally from West Africa or the Congo, and a possession of some Shropshire plantation-owning grandee. Or was he a free man; or employed as a servant?
The headstone, if sparse in details, is a fine one; it suggests a certain status; someone must have paid for it. There’s also a presumption that the deceased was a baptised Christian since the grave is sited in a prominent spot beside a well used path.
If the man had been a well regarded servant, then one might expect more personal details; a name at least; the years of his service and the name of his employer. (Slaves were usually given their owner’s names.) If he were merely a passing traveller who happened to die in the town, then who took it upon themselves to give him a decent burial? The parish records throw no light on the matter, and only repeat the text on the stone.
But there is a clue in the biblical quotation: God hath made of one blood all nations of men. This was a trademark text used by campaigners for the abolition of slavery.
At the time, Shropshire had its own fierce anti-slavery movement, driven by the dogged determination of one Archdeacon Joseph Plymley who lived not far away at Longnor. From 1791 until abolition in 1807 he worked tirelessly, alongside his sister, Katherine Plymley, travelling the county, raising petitions, urging Salopians to boycott sugar. So perhaps a local abolitionist sympathiser paid for the funeral. And perhaps, too, that well-wisher had the sensibility not to bury the man with his full slave name, but not knowing his birth name, chose to identify him solely by the initials I.D.
So many questions about a man, identity unknown, cut off from family, culture and community, lying in this quiet, but alien burial ground at the foot of the town, late summer cyclamen under the trees, the drift of cool air in from the hills and fields. Africa far far away.
Tish Farrell 
A most intriguing story! Wonder if you’ll ever know more
I think a lot of local historians have looked into this, but then you never know.
Indeed
A mystery!
Fascinating, Tish.
Old gravestones either close a story or open one. Here’s another way to look at it: could this be a ceremonial grave for all those who came from Africa as slaves?
That’s a very interesting perspective, Anne. And definitely one worth considering. One of the major abolitionists from the London Committee, Thomas Clarkson, apparently came to Bishop’s Castle. He was also in regular contact with the Shropshire archdeacon who very much acted as his agent in the locality.
😊
Good that he’s found another sympathiser to share their respects, Tish.
Nicely put, Jo 🙂
More than a mystery. It’s disturbing, isn’t it? Someone was making a point.
Yes, making a point. And an intriguing place to find it being made too. Bishop’s Castle was a notoriously corrupt borough at this time. In 1802 the price of votes was £25, so only the rich got to vote for their chums.
Gravestones hold many stories and many questions. When we moved to Massachusetts and discovered our town’s cemetery, I had many questions. Your headstone looks exactly like the old ones here in Massachusetts. They are works of art on slate, and they tell a story.
Yes, Jennie, so many stories among the headstones, and most we’ll never get to know.
Exactly!
A really interesting mystery. If you manage to find out more, I’d be very interested to find out what happened. Real mysteries are so rare, aren’t they?
It’s certainly fascinating me. You’d think there ought to be some historical account of the man’s death, however brief. The parish record that records the headstone text also has a burial record several lines up the page, both entries are marked with an ‘x’ as if to indicate that they are related.
The burial, four lines up, is for a John Davies on 12th September. J’s were frequently written as I’s in old texts, with John written as Ioannes and similar (and I is easier to carve, so it’s a possibility that this was his slave name. There is apparently no record for a John Davies baptism in the register so it could be argued that he wasn’t a local and therefore a likely canditate. So: more mystery…
This is quite a mysterious case and curious too
It is, Mak.
How fascinating and somehow poignant! I like the idea that the burial was paid for by an abolitionist, but whether they did so out of kindness to this individual or to make a point could be questionable – maybe both?
At the time, and for decades before and after, the town’s 2 MPs were members of the Clive family or chums (Clive as in Clive of India), a pocket borough in other words. Also anti-abolitionists. There was an election coming up in 1802, though the whig contenders hadn’t a chance and later complained bitterly of ‘corruption and menaces.’ So yes, making a point could well have been an objective.
Tish……Is it a possibility that this native of Africa had arrived in England by way of India?
So many Africans from the east coast of Africa and from Ethiopia also were slave traded to India, as you know, from at least 1550s onwards. I don’t know if slaves brought into England by this route would be documented any more than those from other routes.
But perhaps he wasn’t a slave at the time of his death? Perhaps his immediate ancestors had, one way or another, ‘lost’ the status of slave before he left India?
Just a thought.
Yes, Sarah, there is plenty of room to consider these possibilities. I’m thinking though that most UK slaves and freed slaves, arrived via the West Indies plantations of British landowners, of which there were a number in Shropshire.
But yes too, there’s nothing to say he wasn’t a free man, descended from slaves long past or even not at all.
Of course an India connection could be possible through the Clive family via Robert Clive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Clive
Not a pretty story. Members of this family and associates were shoe-in MPs for Bishops Castle over several decades. They were apparently anti-abolitionists.
Oh so many questions without answers! Fascinating story.
Alison
Thanks, Alison. Happy you found this intriguing.
Your mention of Clive did take me, Tish, to India and the Africa/India/Britain triangle.
It also took me also to the North Wales of my schooling where there is a history of the first Black man to live and die there: John Ystumllyn. He was baptised in North Wales in 1756. Baptised? So interesting.
As you say, most of the Black population in Wales, did seem to arrive by way of the enslavement in the West Indies. One wonders if I.D. slipped into/ was taken to Bishop’s Castle over the border from Wales.
Wonderful to pay respects to I.D. We don’t die until there is nobody left to remember us!
We and our ancestors are all migrants, Tish, as you noted in an earlier post.
Many thanks for those further thoughts, Sarah. Another notion by local historians is that the Whig candidates opposing the Clive stronghold in the 1802 election, had shipping interests in Liverpool. There’s the thought that when they were campaigning in Bishop’s Castle, I.D. was part of their entourage in some capacity.
One further thought, Tish, connected to a suggestion of Ann Sandler, and also to memories of school Latin which have perturbed my sleep this night,
is that, perhaps, I.D. Stood for 2 Latin words meaning ‘Unknown Man of Dahomey’ (Incognatus Dahomey). The historic kingdom of Dahomey, a primary exporter of slaves, being at its most powerful during the life of this man.
Perhaps? I imagine this idea is among those researched…
Will add this to the mental files, Sarah. Another interesting angle.