Joseph Almaze, a late 18th-century Black Londoner

By Audrey Dewjee (15^th July 2026)

The stories of several Africans living in Britain in the eighteenth century have been examined in detail by a number of writers, but there are stories of yet more individuals waiting to be revealed.  That of Joseph Almaze is one of them, but before relating it, some background information is required about the times he lived in.

Black Life in London

It is clear that there were strong links and connections between Black Londoners in the eighteenth century, and that news travelled quickly throughout the community.  They gathered together for celebrations and to assist one another.  Well-known examples include the “Ball of Blacks” which Jack Beef attended in the late 1750s; the exclusively Black event at which 57 people entertained themselves with music and dancing in a pub in Fleet Street, recorded in the London Chronicle in February 1764; and the community celebration following the judgement in the Somerset case.^[1]In an attempt to get a ruling that slavery was illegal in England and Wales, Granville Sharp brought the case of James Somerset before Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice at the Court of King’s … Continue reading  On 27^th June 1772, the Public Advertiser reported:

On Monday near 200 Blacks, with their Ladies, had an Entertainment at a Public-house in Westminster, to celebrate the Triumph which their Brother Somerset had obtained over Mr. Stuart his Master. Lord Mansfield’s Health was echoed round the Room; and the Evening was concluded with a Ball. The Tickets for admittance to this black Assembly were 5s.[shillings] each.

Another much-quoted celebration was a Christening at St. Giles Cripplegate in 1726, which was reported in the Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer:

On Sunday last, a very odd and uncommon Christning happen’d at the Parish Church of St. Giles’s Cripplegate:  The Procession was thus; 1st, Came the reputed Father a Guiney Black, a very clever well-drest Fellow, and another Black, who was to be the Godfather.  2dly, The Midwife, or rather her Deputy, a White Woman, carrying the little sooty Pagan, who was to be metamorphosed into a Christian.  3dly, The Mother, who was also a Black, but not of the Guiney Breed, a well-shap’d, well-dress’d, genteel Woman.  4thly, The two intended Godmothers, attended by 6 or 8 more, all Guiney Blacks, as pretty, genteel Girls, as could be girt with a Girdle….It occasion’d a great Hubbub in the Church, but by prudent Management, Things were so order’d, that the young Town-born Negro was carry’d home as staunch a Believer as any of the European Complexion of the same Age ever was.

I have searched the parish register in vain for the names of this family.  As there was one godfather and two godmothers in this case, I presume the child was female.  Fourteen baptisms were recorded in the register for this day – ten girls and four boys – but none of the records give a clue that any child or its parents were Black.

Funerals were another important occasion where Black people came together to honour the departed and meet their friends.  Early in 1722, London newspapers described the funeral of William Phipps, a ‘Blackamoor,’ who was interred in the churchyard of St. Clement Danes:

six Blacks held up the Pall, and the Corpse was follow’d in good Order by 60 or 70 others of the same Complexion, and about the same Number of English People brought up the Reer.^[2]Weekly Journal or Saturday’s Post, 20 January, 1722.  The Newcastle Courant, of 27 January also reported on this event, citing the London Journal of 20 January as its source.  The Courant stated … Continue reading

William Phipps and Lucy Bromley, recorded as “a black” on her baptism at Bromley in Kent in 1692, had married in London in 1701.  They had at least seven children, some of whom died as infants.  As the owner of a cook shop in Milford Lane and a long-time resident in the area, William must have been very well-known.^[3]For a little more information about the Phipps family, see “Early Black Freemen and Voters,” https://www.historycalroots.com/early-black-freemen-and-voters-john-satia-john-london-and-john-moore/

In 1759, the London Evening Post informed its readers:

a Black Girl was buried from the Foundling-Hospital, whose Corpse was carried to the Grave by four of her own Complexion, and attended by twelve Couple likewise of the same Colour,

while the following appeared in 1781 in Lloyds Evening Post:

DEATHS.  Sept. 1.

Mrs. Ruth Crook, a Black, in Red Lion-street, Holborn, lately brought from Jamaica; and on Sunday night her corpse was carried from Red Lion-street, followed by twenty-eight couple of men and women, all Blacks, and interred in a genteel manner in St. George’s [Bloomsbury] burying-ground.  Plenty of punch and wine was given to those that came to the funeral.

People also got together with friends on less formal occasions.  When Baptist Noel Turner (at the time a student at Emmanuel College, Cambridge) called to see Dr. Samuel Johnson, he found that Johnson was out.  He noted in a subsequent letter that,

when Francis Barber, his black servant, opened the door to tell me so, a group of his African countrymen were sitting around a fire in the gloomy anti-room; and on their all turning their sooty faces at once to stare at me, they presented a curious spectacle.^[4]Aleyn L. Reade, Johnsonian Gleanings, Arden Press, 1912, p.15.  https://ia801600.us.archive.org/27/items/johnsoniangleani02readuoft/johnsoniangleani02readuoft.pdf

And when two Black men were imprisoned for begging in the streets of London in August 1773, the London Packet reported that they were “visited by upwards of 300 of their countrymen” who “contributed largely towards their support during their confinement”.  Whilst it is possible the newspaper may have exaggerated the numbers (in the way that newspapers often distort or exaggerate), it is clear that the prisoners were well supported by the Black community.  As Shyllon pointed out,

The magnitude of arranging for upwards of 300 blacks to visit their brothers, and the administrative complexity of collecting monies for their maintenance would seem to reveal how well developed was the social and communal life of the blacks.^[5]Black People in Britain, p.81.

Community activism

In Britain in the late eighteenth century, some people of African descent were still enslaved, while others were free.  Understandably, the main concern of Black Londoners at that time was freedom from enslavement – both for fellow Africans in the West Indies, America and in Africa, and for themselves.  They developed a variety of strategies to fight the evil, from direct action to correspondence and meetings with White abolitionists to encourage their efforts.  They participated in mainstream meetings and political events, and they gathered together to make their views known and challenge enslavement by all means at their disposal.

For example in 1772, a number of Africans attended court to hear the judgement in the Somerset Case; and in 1785, a group of fellow-Africans accompanied Olaudah Equiano (then known as Gustavus Vassa) when he delivered an address of thanks to the Society of Friends (Quakers) for their pioneering efforts in the fight against slavery.  Moreover, when Dolben’s Bill to regulate the horrific conditions on slave ships was being debated in parliament in 1788, Equiano, who was in constant consultation with Sir William Dolben, led several black delegations to the Houses of Parliament to listen to the debates and the examination of witnesses.

Advertisements in newspapers in various parts of the country (though principally in London) prove that hundreds of Africans (and Asians) took back their freedom by running away from their oppressors, often assisted by fellow Africans who were already free.  For example, in 1787, when the Caledonian Mercury advertised a reward for anyone reporting the whereabouts of an indentured “Mulatto Girl” named Emma who had “left a family” wearing a green petticoat and a purple printed gown, they noted it was suspected that she had gone off “with a Black man and woman”.

Sometimes two or more people decamped together, such as David Sugar and Henry Mundy who absconded from Colonel Drax in 1679; or Silas Charles “an Indian servant” who escaped with Kit, “a Negro man” in 1743.^[6]London Gazette, 27^th November 1679, no. 1464;  Daily Advertiser, 3^rd August 1753, issue 3193.  Four men – Boatswain, Johnny Mass, Jack Black and Harry Green – “absented themselves from…on board the Ship Hampden…while she lay repairing in Stanton’s Dock, near Deptford” in 1759, when it was “imagined that [the four of them] are gone down to Gravesend, and will endeavour to get away in some outward-bound Ships”.^[7]Public Advertiser, 25^th October 1759, issue 7790.

Thousands of Africans and Asians got themselves baptised, both from religious conviction and because they believed that baptism would make them free.  Tom “a Negro Man of the Ibo Country”, was christened at All Hallows Church, Bread Street on 16^th February 1765 in the name of William Johnson.  Five days later, the Public Advertiser announced that he had absented himself from his master in Watling Street, Cheapside.  George Ganges, “an East-Indian Boy about 12 years old”, waited well over a year after his baptism before he took back his freedom.^[8]George Ganges was baptised at St. Sepulchre Holborn on 5^th January 1773; his escape was advertised in the Daily Advertiser, 5^th September 1774, issue 13637.  At such a young age, it is probable that he had assistance from older members of the community.

When Africans who had liberated themselves were recaptured by their enslavers, members of the Black community joined in efforts to set them free again.  Godparents of those baptised, the majority of whom would have been White, also assisted in such efforts.  When their former “masters” seized Africans and intended to ship them to enslavement in the West Indies, Thomas Clarkson noted that, if they had the opportunity, they usually sent to their godfathers for protection:

And in the result, their godfathers, maintaining that they had been baptized, and that they were free on this account as well as by the general tenour of the laws of England, dared those, who had taken possession of them, to send them out of the kingdom.^[9]Thomas Clarkson, The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliament, vol. 1, 1808.

These tactics appear to have been very successful.  Sir John Fielding, the influential Bow Street magistrate, bemoaned this community activism in his book, Extracts from such of the penal laws, as particularly relate to the peace and good order of this metropolis, published in 1768.  He complained that when West Indian plantation owners brought their enslaved workers to England “as cheap servants having no right to wages”,

they no sooner arrive here than they put themselves on a footing with other servants, become intoxicated with liberty, grow refractory, and either by persuasion of others or from their own inclinations, begin to expect wages according to their own opinion of their merits.

He further protested that

[free black men and women] enter into societies and make it their business to corrupt and dissatisfy the mind of every black servant that comes to England…by getting them christened or married, which, they inform them, makes them free (tho’ it has been adjudged by our most able lawyers, that neither of these circumstances alter the master’s property in a slave).  However it so far answers their purpose that it gets the mob on their side and makes it not only difficult but dangerous…to recover possession of them, when once they are spirited away.

Four years later, in 1772, Edward Long, whom Peter Fryer labelled “the father of English racism”, confirmed the fact that those who had already reclaimed their freedom were encouraging and aiding others to do the same:

Upon arriving in London, these servants soon grow acquainted with a knot of blacks, who, having eloped from their respective owners at different times…endeavour to strengthen their party by seducing as many of these strangers into the association as they can work to their purpose.^[10]Edward Long, Candid Reflections Upon the Judgement lately awarded by the Court of King’s Bench, in Westminster-Hall, On what is commonly called the Negroe-cause, T. Lowndes, 1772, p.47.

Black Londoners also attended mainstream gatherings and expressed their opinions. A debate was held at Coachmakers’ Hall in May 1789 on the subject, “Would not the Abolition of the Slave Trade be yielding to the principles of mistaken humanity, and highly injurious to the interest of this country?”  The Diary or Woodfall’s Register noted that while several gentlemen reprobated the slave trade as totally repugnant to humanity, only one gentleman opposed the abolition “in a speech of great fluency”.  He was replied to “by an African, (not Gustavus Vassa) who discovered much strong natural sense, and spoke with wonderful facility.”

Who was this mysterious African who was not Gustavus Vassa (as Olaudah Equiano was known at that time)?  How many more were there, like him, attending debates and political meetings, displaying strong natural sense and speaking with wonderful facility?

Black Londoners were also present at political meetings.  In July 1788, the Coldstream Guards were called out to deal with “a desperate mob” that had assembled in Covent Garden after a political meeting at the Shakespeare Tavern.  Thomas Carlisle “a Black” distinguished himself when he jumped in front of soldiers armed with fixed bayonets to protect the life of radical politician and ardent abolitionist, Charles James Fox.  Despite the fact that he had been seriously injured in the attack, Carlisle went to court next day to identify the assailants and give evidence.  He deposed that

George Brown [one of the Coldstream Guards] had struck at Mr. Fox with his bayonet, and that he had run between them, and had received a wound on his forehead, which appeared of a dangerous nature, from the soldier.

Letters from groups of Africans to White supporters of abolition

I first came across the name of Joseph Almaze when I was reading Folarin Shyllon’s Black People in Britain 1555-1833, sometime in the latter half of the 1970s.^[11]Folarin Shyllon, Black People in Britain 1555-1833, published for The Institute of Race Relations, London, by Oxford University Press, 1977.  Joseph’s name was included with eleven others on a letter to Granville Sharp written on 15^th December 1787.

The letter Joseph Almaze signed is headed, ‘The Address of Thanks of the Sons of Africa to the Honourable Granville Sharp’. It was one of six letters of thanks written by African men in the years 1787 to 1789 – two were addressed directly to Granville Sharp, and the rest to other influential figures in the anti-slavery cause, via newspapers.^[12]The texts of the six letters are attached as an appendix at the end of this article.  In the Address of Thanks, the writers expressed their appreciation for all that Sharp had done for more than 20 years to promulgate the anti-slavery cause in his writings and by taking cases to the courts, as well as by rescuing a number of individuals from their enslavers.  Part of the Address reads as follows:

We who are a part, or descendants, of the much-wronged people of Africa, are peculiarly and greatly indebted to you, for the many good and friendly services that you have done towards us, and which are now even out of our power to enumerate.

Nevertheless, we are truly sensible of your great kindness and humanity; and we cannot do otherwise but endeavour, with the utmost sincerity and thankfulness, to acknowledge our great obligations to you, and, with the most feeling sense of our hearts, on all occasions to express and manifest our gratitude and love for your long, valuable, indefatigable labours and benevolence towards us, in using every means to rescue our suffering brethren in slavery.

Your writings, Sir, are not of trivial matter, but of great and essential things of moral and religious importance….Therefore, we wish…that these valuable treatises may be collected and preserved, for the benefit and good of all men, and for an enduring memorial of the great learning, piety, and vigilance of our good friend the worthy Author.^[13]Gloucestershire Archives hold the main collection of Granville Sharp’s papers, while York Minster Library holds a substantial collection of his correspondence.

The heading of this letter has given rise to a conviction among many that there was a Black anti-slavery society or organisation in London named “The Sons of Africa”, however, I am not convinced that this was the case.  In the context in which it was written, I think the phrase “Sons of Africa” is simply a collective way of describing people of African descent – whether born in Britain, the Caribbean, North America, or in Africa itself.  I have found no reference in contemporary newspapers to a so named group; and while Shyllon argues that “a consciousness of racial affinity and a background of common experience were the principal unifying bonds of the black community”, and that “there is no doubt that the blacks established a sort of transplant of African communal life in Britain” (which he describes as a “community of interests”), he does not suggest that there was a group of activists who gave themselves the title “The Sons of Africa”.  Nevertheless, with or without this name, groups of African activists gathered together to review current happenings and ways in which they could further the cause of abolition.

It is difficult to know how many men in total signed the six letters.  The original letters have not survived, only copies in books and newspapers.  Some men signed the letters twice – in both their adopted British names (probably taken at baptism) and also in their former African names, and it is not always clear if two names apply to the same man.  However, the best guess I can make is that a total of 23 men signed one or more of the letters.

Two names among the signatories stand out.  One of them signed all the letters; variously subscribing as John Stuart (in two letters); Ottobah Cugoana [sic] Steward (in three letters) and “Ottobah Cugoano, or John Suarr” (in the sixth and last letter).  Ottobah Cugoano was the author of Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of Human Species…which was published in 1787.  At the time of its publication, Cugoano was the most prominent Black abolitionist in the country.  The other well-known name among the signatories is that of Gustavus Vassa, who signed five of the six letters – four as Gustavus Vas(s)a by which name he was generally known at the time, and one as “Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vasa”.  George Robert Mandeville also signed all six letters, while Thomas Cooper, whose name appeared at the head of the list of names in four of them, signed five letters in total.

The other signatories were John Christopher and Thomas Jones, who each signed three letters; Thomas Oxford, James Bailey, Bernard Elliott/Bernard Elliott Griffiths, and Jasper Goree (also known as Boughwa Gegansmel/Broughwar Jogensmel), who each signed two; and John Adams, Yahne Aelane (also known as Joseph Sanders), Joseph Almaze, Cojoh Ammere (also known as George Williams), Thomas Carlisle,^[14]Thomas Carlisle was probably the same man who was injured when he intervened to save Charles James Fox from the soldier’s bayonet in July 1788. Daniel Christopher, Jorge Dent, James Forster, James Frazer, William Greek (or Green), John Scott, William Stevens, and George Wallace, who signed one letter each.

These 23 men fascinated me and I have tried to find out more about them over many years.  In some cases I found snippets of information but, given the ordinariness of their English names, this was an up-hill struggle.  The only one with a name distinctive enough to facilitate a more in-depth search was Joseph Almaze – and his is quite a story.

Joseph Almaze  c.1759 – c.1806

The uncommonness of the name Joseph Almaze (spelled in at least 11 different ways – Alamaze, Alemaze, Allamaz, Allamaza, Allamaze, Allambazi, Allemazy, Allmaize, Almage, Almaze and Ellmaze) has allowed us to find out a little more about him with which to sketch an outline of his life and highlight areas where further research may be fruitful.

My interest in Joseph was piqued initially by a discovery, in the early days of the internet, of a record on a family history site of a Joseph Almaze being married in Ireland to a woman named Hester Goin, eldest daughter of Thomas Goin (or Gowin) of Mountrath, woolcomber and shopkeeper, and his first wife Anne, daughter of Joseph Pavey, merchant, of Mountrath.  No date was given for this marriage, but as Hester was likely born c.1758, possibly it took place in the late 1770s.  Being new to using the internet, I imagined that all information once uploaded would remain online for ever.  Sadly this item did not, and I didn’t have the facility at the time to copy the record.  All that I have is a hand-written, undated note with the information as shown below, and I made no record of the name of the website I found it on.  I did not imagine this – I saw the record – it exists somewhere.  Will it ever resurface?  I hope so.

It is possible that there could have been two or even three men with the name Joseph Almaze, but later records suggest that the Joseph Almaze in question may have spent time in Ireland.^[15]On 23rd January 1780, an intriguing entry in a Sheffield baptism register reads: “Joseph Allamaze, son of Joseph Allamaze, Eaton, by Mary his wife.”  Could the baby’s father be another man, or … Continue reading

In an attempt to find out more about him, I contacted fellow-researcher and noted genealogist, Kathleen Chater.^[16]Kathleen Chater is the author of Untold Histories: Black People in England and Wales During the Period of the British Slave Trade, c.1660-1807, as well as a number of general guides on how to trace … Continue reading  Kathy and I had often previously exchanged information about names of Black and Asian people we found when searching parish records.  In 2015 Kathy discovered Joseph’s baptism.  It had taken place at St. Leonard, Shoreditch on 22^nd October 1773.  The entry in the baptism register reads, “Joseph Allmaize a Blackmoor Supposed to be about 14 years of Age Baptised ye 22d inst.,”  which suggests he was born somewhere around 1759.

According to information revealed at a later date, in 1770 Joseph was living in Capel Court in the City of London, the slave of a merchant named Facio.  Mr. Facio went abroad to Florida, leaving Joseph with his brother in England.  Soon after his master’s departure, Joseph got himself baptised, presumably in the belief that this would free him from enslavement.

After his baptism, Joseph entered the service of Alderman Frederick Bull and was said to be in his service when Bull became Lord Mayor of London in November 1773.  By 1774 he was working as a footman in Hornsey.  What he did in the years following is unknown but, perhaps, he relocated to Ireland for a time. Black servants working in Ireland were not at all uncommon.  Many examples have been reported on.^[17]For example Tony Small who worked for Lord Edward Fitzgerald in the 1790s; and the Black servant seated on the back of a carriage in the painting of Edward Stratford, 2nd Earl of Alborough reviewing … Continue reading

Scandal

In March 1781, London was abuzz with gossip about an affair which had come to light between the White wife of a wealthy builder connected with Covent Garden Theatre and a young Black man she had met at a dance.  The young man was Joseph Almaze who was then about 19-years-old.

In the eighteenth century, the ability to dance was a very important social asset – absolutely essential if one wanted to become a member of high society, and much sought after by people in the lower ranks.  In the 1780s, dances such as the fashionable French Cotillions, courtly set dances such as the Minuet, and English Country Dances were extremely complicated, and time and tuition were necessary if a person wanted to learn to execute them correctly.  This led to the immense popularity of dancing schools.  Africans excelled in the art of dance and some became dancing masters.^[18]For example Mr. Ledda ‘a man of colour’ and dancing master, whose marriage was reported in the Stamford Mercury of 19th February 1836; and Emmanuel Charles Green, ‘a St. Domingo Black’, … Continue reading  Dancing schools and public dances were places where people from different social worlds could meet.

Then as now, scandal sold newspapers – and the newspapers gave this story full scope.  Along with other papers, the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser of 7^th March 1781 reported that James Piper of Covent Garden Theatre had been granted a divorce from his wife on the grounds of adultery with one Alamaze, a black servant of an Alderman of the City of London.  The newspaper accounts were mocking.  They reported that counsel for Mr. Piper represented, “in a most extravagant manner”, the wife as “unnatural and vicious”.  Dr. Scott, who appeared for the wife was said to have “kept the Court in one continual titter”, and “displayed his eloquence” by referring to “gentle Desdemona” and “Harlequin Friday”.

At the time this affair took place, James Piper was going up in the world.  He was a master builder, a man of property with a fortune of £500 a year (equivalent to about £110,000 today).  He had bought a house for his family in the neighbourhood of the fashionable new development of Manchester Square and must have been very pleased with his upward progress in society.  The discovery of his wife’s affair, and especially that the man concerned was Black, must have been a dreadful blow to his status and self-esteem.

Kathy Chater checked at the London Metropolitan Archives to see what remained of the records of the case, but she discovered that few of the papers from the actual hearing have survived.  No answer (i.e. the wife’s case), or depositions, or witness statements, were copied into the relevant Act books, only the Allegation and Verdict were copied.  They gave little more information than had appeared in the newspapers but they did record Mrs. Piper’s first name as Ann, and Kathy noted that the fact that Joseph was Black was not mentioned.

Fortunately, some of the original witness statements were later published in a book entitled The Cuckold’s Chronicle being select trials for adultry, incest, imbecility, ravishment, &c. in 1793.  The only possible reason for inclusion of this divorce case in an otherwise horribly lurid collection of stories about people in high society, is because Joseph was Black and his lover was White.  At the time, there was a campaign amongst certain sections of society to prevent sexual relations and intermarriage between Blacks and Whites in Britain.  Plantation owners resident here and their supporters wrote books and letters to the press on the subject, expressing their disgust.  For example, James Tobin, a prominent merchant and owner of the Stoney Grove plantation in Nevis, complained about “the great number of [Black men] at present in England, the strange partiality shewn for them by the lower order of women, the rapid increase of a dark and contaminated breed” and called for urgent enquiry and redress.  Meanwhile ordinary people just got on with their lives, associating with and marrying whoever they wanted.

The witness statements during the divorce hearing revealed that Joseph met Ann Piper, a married woman with five children, at a dance in January 1780 in the house of a dancing master, and that she fell madly in love with him.  Elizabeth Webb, who had known Joseph since the days when he lived with the Facio brothers, stated that in June he came to her in great distress.  He told her that Mrs. Piper was in love with him and that she had been supporting him since they met.  She wanted him to run away to Jamaica with her.  Joseph had approached a sea captain who said he would charge £70 to take both of them (according to Google, this would be in excess of £15,000 in today’s money) and he wrote to Mrs. Piper to tell her of this.  Elizabeth Webb delivered his letter.

Mrs. Piper replied:

Dear Alamaze,

I received your letter by your friend, and she informed me I can see you at her house; Mr. Piper came home and used me very ill, but I don’t mind, so you are but happy; and I would freely resign my poor breath to save yours.”

She added that Mr. Piper talked of putting her and her children somewhere in the country, but that let her go where she would, she would always let him know where she was, and “he should never want whilst she had a bit of bread in the world.”

She sent this reply via Mrs. Webb, but Mrs. Webb didn’t pass it on to Joseph.  Instead she gave it to Mr. Piper.  Outraged, Piper had Joseph arrested, alleging that he (and Ann) had stolen blankets and other things from his house, and he asked Mrs. Webb to appear as a witness at the Old Bailey which she refused.  On hearing this, Mrs. Piper declared her determination of going and appearing at the Old Bailey herself and asked Mrs. Webb to go with her and show her the way.

On the way there, the two of them met Joseph in the custody of a lieutenant and a press gang, along with Mr. Piper.  Mrs. Piper was distraught: she fell onto her knees exclaiming, “My God, my God!  What do I see?  They have torn him from me!”  Mr. Piper informed the lieutenant that this was his wife and that she was in love with Almaze, at which the lieutenant joked, “Then I think we may as well take her with us too!”  Mrs Piper took this literally and said in great earnest, “With all my heart, I will freely go, and if it was not for one thing (presumably lack of money) I would put on men’s cloaths, and freely go with or after him.”  The press gang took Joseph Almaze off to imprisonment aboard a tender.^[19]A tender was an old, unseaworthy, naval ship, stripped of its masts, and used as a floating prison.

Although James Piper had been granted his divorce, it wasn’t a divorce such as we think of  today.  As Kathy Chater explained,

At that time what Mr Piper had achieved was a legal separation, just to stop the wife passing off a lover’s child as the husband’s and also to stop a seriously disgruntled woman running up debts he had to pay. If either of the Pipers wanted to remarry, they would have needed an annulment, a declaration that the marriage had never been valid, or an Act of Parliament, both of which were extremely expensive.

At present nothing more is known of what happened to the Pipers.  Presumably James kept custody of the children while a penniless Ann was left to make her way in life as best she could.

Cordial relationships between Black and White servants

Witness statements at this divorce hearing provided an interesting insight into the amicable relationships that existed between Black and White working-class people in the 1780s.  Elizabeth Webb said she had known Joseph for eleven years from the time she had moved into a house next door but one to where he was living with Mr. Facio.  They had clearly remained in touch over the years as she was aware of different places where he had been employed as a livery servant, and it was to her that he came “in great distress” about his affair with Ann Piper.

Another witness, Mary Ann Harwood had known Joseph for eight years since they had been fellow servants in a family in Hornsey, she as cook and he as a footman.  They had kept up their acquaintance and Joseph frequently called to see Mary and her husband.  Indeed he had lodged with the Harwoods for a brief period in 1780, and Ann Piper had met Joseph at their house.  Mrs. Harwood further mentioned that Joseph had lodged for a time “in Old Bethlem Court, at the house of Esquire Long’s footman, whose name was Mather”.

Shyllon, too, concluded that “relations between black and white servants were cordial”, citing as one example that “when two blacks fought a duel with pistols behind Montagu House in 1780, their seconds were two white footmen”.^[20]Shylon, Black People in Britain, p.102.

Lampooned

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, caricatures and satirical prints were wildly popular. They provided a highly accessible, entertaining, and scathingly funny way to consume news, politics, and celebrity gossip. Acting as the equivalent of modern-day tabloid magazines and digital memes, they allowed the public to laugh at the hypocrisy of the rich and powerful.  Coincidentally, they also provide a glimpse of the presence of Black people in Britain in the time before photography.  Printmakers provided the only pictorial rendering of the shifting moods, fashions, scandals, and political debates of the day, and their shop windows functioned as free public galleries.  Judging by this image, it seems that Black Londoners also enjoyed the fun.

Printmakers pushed boundaries, going as far as they dared to reveal the identity of those featured in their prints without risking being sued for defamation.

Inevitably, at the time of the divorce, Joseph Almaze and Mrs. Piper became the subject of a lurid print published on 29^th March 1781.  Entitled “The Gentle Desdemona, & Harlequin Friday”, it referenced both Shakespeare’s Othello (Desdemona was the name of his wife) and a character called Harlequin Friday from a pantomime created by Sheridan, based on Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.^[21]Robinson Crusoe; or, Harlequin Friday.  A grand pantomime in two acts, as performed at the Theatre-Royal, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1791, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, printed  by Hall and Elliott, 1791.

Quoting Parkers General Advertiser of 7^th March as its inspiration, the text at the bottom of the satire is an extract from a speech by Iago to Desdemona’s father in Othello.  It reads: “Sir, You’re Robb’d, you have lost half your Soul, ev’n now, ev’n very now, the Black Ram is Tupping your white Ewe, Arise, Arise, Awake the snorting Citizens with the Bells, &c. &c.  Shakespeare.”  In the left hand corner on a small piece of paper is written, “Theatre Covent Garden acted this evening Othello Desdemona”, at the bottom of which is a partially-obscured word which begins “Pipe..”

Family life in difficult times

After this debacle, perhaps Joseph laid low for a while to let interest in the affair die down.  Was he released from jail, or was he forced by the press gang into a period of service at sea?  Did he leave the country for a while?  Perhaps go to Ireland?  The next credible record we have of him, five years later, is at the baptism of his son.  Joshua (or possibly Joseph) Thomas Alemaze (born 8^th March) son of Joseph Alemaze and Harriot was baptised on 16^th April 1786 at St. Marylebone Church.

Life was hard for working-class families, the infant death rate was very high, many women lost their lives in childbirth and losing a job could literally end in starvation.  Probably life was even harder for Black families.  Being employed in domestic service, for example as a groom, or footman or butler, was one of the better jobs available.  Even for those who were enslaved and unpaid, at least it ensured accommodation, clothing and food, medical attention when sick and the possibility of vails (tips) when visitors came to stay.  However, those who married usually had to leave their employment and find an alternative home.

Also in 1786, a Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor was set up in London.  This came about because London was full of homeless Black beggars and vagrants.  Some of them were Asian sailors (known as lascars) who had been engaged to replace the British sailors on East India Company ships who had died on the voyage out to India or absconded on arrival there.  When these replacement sailors arrived in London the East India Company discharged and abandoned them, and begging became their only means of survival.  Their numbers were swelled when Black loyalists who had fought on the British side in the War of American Independence arrived to seek payment of the compensation they had been promised on enlistment.

The Committee originally provided food and other forms of relief, such as medicine, bedding, and shoes and stockings.  The lists of the names of those who claimed included Joseph Almaze.  Eventually obtaining this relief depended on whether recipients would sign up to an emigration scheme which would remove the Black Poor from the streets of London and send them to Sierra Leone in West Africa.  By October 1786, 675 people had signed the agreement to go to Africa, including “Joseph Allamaza and Hariot Allamaza”.  Prior to this, Harriot was not listed among the claimants of the relief but, in October 1786, Joseph Allamaze is recorded as getting relief from the Committee along with Joshua Allamaze, Ann Allamaze and Harriot, so it appears that baby Joshua had an older sister called Ann.

When the emigrants set sail in early 1787, the Almaze family was not among them.  Joseph and Harriot had made a very sensible decision not to go, as the scheme turned out to be a disaster.  It is likely that it was at this time (or possibly earlier) that Joseph made the acquaintance of Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano.  Equiano had been employed as Commissary of Provision and Stores for the scheme in November 1786.^[22]Commissary – a government official charged with oversight, in Equiano’s case for food, clothing and equipment for the emigrants.  However, he was later dismissed from this post after he exposed the corruption of a government agent by the name of Henry Irwin.

In business as a hairdresser

On 15^th December 1787, the same day that the letter of thanks was sent to Granville Sharp, an advertisement appeared in the World newspaper (issue 288), which read:

WANTS a Place, as Ladies and Gentlemen’s Hair Dresser, a Black Young Man, or to attend on a Single Gentleman, or as a Servant in a Genteel Family; is every way qualified to discharge his duty as a Servant in any capacity of servitude; is of an active affable disposition, and can be well recommended from the Gentleman he lived with last.

Please direct a line to A. B. at Mr. Almage’s Hair Dresser. No. 28, Mary-le-bone Lane, Manchester Square.

By now Joseph had set himself up in business as a hairdresser and it looks as if he was helping other members of the Black community by acting as a post-restante for their letters.  Seven months later he became a father again.   Harriet Matilda Alemaze (born 23^rd July) daughter of Joseph and Harriot Alemaze was baptised on 31^st August 1788 – again at St. Marylebone.

The parish register of St. Marylebone Church includes a lot of Black baptisms.  Between 1771 and 1800, very nearly 200 Black and mixed-race people were baptised at the church, along with a handful of Asians.  The area was being newly developed and wealthy families who employed live-in servants moved into the fine new houses in the area.  The church, constructed in 1742, was a very modest building and wasn’t big enough for the growing population.  The parishioners had to wait, however, until 1817 for the construction and consecration of the replacement church which is still standing today.  Even so, the old church survived as a chapel-of-ease until 1949, when it was pulled down because of wartime bomb damage.

In December 1788 another advertisement appeared in the World newspaper.  “H.N.”, a young Black man was seeking work and his contact address was Mr. Almaze, hair-dresser, who was now situated at No. 5 Charles-street, near George street, Portman Square.  It seems that Joseph was continuing to help fellow-members of the Black community who may not have had permanent addresses, by receiving and holding letters for their collection.

Two further advertisements giving his address of 5 Charles-street appeared in the next six months.

Morning Herald, Wednesday 28^th January 1789.  (Issue 2581)

A Black Servant, a Native of Africa, who has been mostly in London since, can dress ladies and gentlemen’s hair well, and is well qualified to act in the place of a servant, being of an active and affable disposition, inclined to carefulness, industry and sobriety, and can have a good character from the gentleman he last lived with.  Direct to J. A. at Mr. Alamaze’s, No. 5, Charles-street, Portman-square.

World and Fashionable Advertiser, Monday 25^th May 1789.  (Issue 748)

AS VALET to a Single Gentleman, or SERVANT in a genteel family, either for a constancy or for a season, a Black Young Man, a native of Africa, who has been mostly brought up in London; can dress hair incomparably well, and is qualified for the duty of a Servant; is of an active and affable disposition.  Direct for J. A. at No.5 Charles-street, near Baker-street, Portman-square.

On 24^th March 1789, Equiano’s book The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: or, Gustavus Vassa, the African was first published.  It was highly influential in furthering the abolitionist cause and, as a result, Equiano became the most important Black abolitionist in the country.  He continued to use letters to the newspapers as a tool in the campaign, lambasting racists and endorsing the efforts of White abolitionists.

Around the middle of 1789, the Almaze family disappears from the records for a while.  Where did they go?

In 1793, publication of The Cuckold’s Chronicle resurrected the story of the scandal with Mrs. Piper.  How Joseph must have felt when this happened can scarcely be imagined.  Somehow he must have survived, because family life continued.  The baptisms of two further children were recorded.  Esther Harriett Allemaze, born 22^nd September, was baptized on 13^th October 1793, and Joseph Povay Ellmaze, born 22^nd June, was baptised on 5^th July 1795, both again at St. Marylebone.

The names given to some of Joseph’s children suggest to me that there may indeed have been a connection with the Goin / Pavey family in Ireland.  If this is the case, Ann – the daughter born prior to 1786, was given the same name as her maternal grandmother.  The second name given to the son born in 1786 was Thomas – the same name as his maternal grandfather.  Hester (Esther) was the name of the woman who was said to have married Joseph on the family tree I found online (did she subsequently use the name Harriot?), and were these names given to the daughter born in 1793?  (By this time the Harriett Matilda born in 1788 may have died, as it is unlikely two children would be given the same name.)  Most compelling for this theory however, is the name of the son born in 1795.  Was he named Joseph Povay [Pavey] after his maternal great-grandfather?  If there is no connection between them, then the use of these names appears to be an odd coincidence.

On 25^th January 1796 a very interesting advertisement appeared in The Times.  It read:

As Servant to a single Gentleman, or in a genteel Family, a young Man, a native of Africa, 32 years of age, who has been brought up here; can shave and dress hair well, perfectly understand the side-board, and is well qualified, having lived with some of the first families of England and Ireland; no objection to look after a pair of horses with a single gentleman; can have a good character from his last place where he lived three years – Direct to J. A. at No. 17, George-street, Portland-place.

Is it in any way possible that this advertisement was placed by Joseph Almaze?  Could he possibly have been looking for employment for himself?  The description of the “young Man”, a native of Africa of roughly Joseph’s age, who was brought up here, could dress hair well and had served some of the first families in England and Ireland, seems a perfect description of him.  But if he did place the advertisement, why on earth did he do so?  It would be unusual for an employer to engage a man as a live-in servant if he had a wife and several children in tow.  Dr. Johnson, who allowed Francis Barber’s wife and family to join his household, was an exception.

Had Joseph’s wife left him?  Was he in desperate financial difficulties?  Or is this just a figment of my imagination and the man in question is someone completely different?  The inconsistency with my theory is the mention of his being able to provide “a good character (i.e. testimonial or reference) from his last place where he lived three years”.  Would this refer to the three years immediately prior to 1796 (when it would be extremely unlikely that his family was with him), or could it refer to the last three years he was in service before he became self-employed, which would have been many years previously?  On balance, I suppose I must concede this jobseeker was likely a different man.

I discovered one final parish record in the name of Almaze.  On 20^th November 1808, a Charlotte Jane Alamaze married William Astins Locket at St. Marylebone.  At first I thought this may have been another daughter of Joseph and Harriett’s.  That was until I saw an image of the parish register and realised that Charlotte was a widow.

I suspect, but have no proof, that Harriet may have died some time after the birth of Joseph Povay in 1795.  Could that be a possible reason for Joseph to look for a position in a “genteel family”?  Had he found someone to look after his children while he earned a living for them elsewhere?

Did he marry Charlotte Jane as his second wife?  I have not been able to find a marriage record.  Death of a spouse was a common occurrence in the eighteenth century and, if the couple had children, remarriage usually happened very quickly afterwards.  A widow needed a man to provide for her and her family, and a widower needed a woman to look after his children.  If Charlotte had indeed married Joseph sometime between 1795 and 1808, then Joseph must have passed away by 1808.  Where is the record of his death?

Alicia Charlotte, daughter of William Austen and Charlotte Jane Lockett (born 10^th August) was baptised on 30^th August 1809.

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Without the witness statements in the divorce case, we would have known little about Joseph Almaze’s life – he would have remained just a name on a letter.  Reading about the case spurred me into doing further research.

What I learned was that Joseph Almaze was someone who was deeply involved in Black life in London.  He engaged in community discourse and played his part in anti-slavery activity and community building.  He was literate and must have been educated during his youth.  He was employed in at least one highly-significant household.  I doubt that the Lord Mayor of London would have employed him if he hadn’t been intelligent and extremely competent.  He had the good sense not to go to Sierra Leone, after which he subsequently ran his own business, continued to raise his family and remained involved in community life.

While we have quite a lot of information about his life, there are still many unknowns and unanswered questions which researchers could pursue.  It is amazing that no one seems to have done so before now.

Hopefully some young researcher will read this article, be intrigued by Joseph’s story and will be inspired to dig deep and discover some of the answers.

Despite the many gaps, what we do know about Joseph’s life provides us with a rare and intriguing glimpse into Black community life in London in the late eighteenth century.

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APPENDIX

LETTER  I

Text of undated letter to Granville Sharp published in Prince Hoare’s Memoirs of Granville Sharp, 1828, pp.114-115.

To Granville Sharp, Esq.

Sir,

Being assembled (few and insignificant as we are) for the purpose of offering grateful thanks to our benefactors, it was impossible to forget HIM who has been the great source and support of our hopes.  We need not use many words.  We are those who were considered as slaves, even in England itself, till your aid and exertions set us free.  We are of those whose minds and bodies are bartered from hand to hand on the coast of Africa, and in the West Indies, as the ordinary commodities of trade.  But it is said that we are the factors of our own slavery, and sell one another at our own market for a price.  No doubt but in our uncivilized state we commit much evil; but surely the trader cannot believe that the strong on the coast of Africa are entitled to deprive the weak of every right of humanity, and to devote to the most cruel slavery them and their posterity for ever; or that it belongs to him, more enlightened than we, to execute so horrid a doom.  But our cause is in better hands than our own; and humbleness and sobriety, we are sensible, will best become our condition: and this, also, we know to be the return desired by you, looking for your own peculiar reward in the consciousness of doing good.

But yet, Sir, you may allow us to believe that the name of GRANVILLE SHARP, our constant and generous friend, will be drawn forth by our more enlightened posterity, and distinguishingly marked in future times for gratitude and praise.

(Signed*)

THOMAS COOPER                                                 JOHN SCOT
GEO. ROBT. MANDEVILLE                                 JORGE DENT
JOHN STUART                                                         THOS. OXFORD
DANIEL CHRISTOPHER                                       JAMES BALEY
BERNARD ELLIOTT                                               JAMES FRAZER
JAMES FORSTER                                                     THOMAS CARLISLE

* Each in his own handwriting.

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LETTER  II

Published in Prince Hoare’s Memoirs of Granville Sharp, 1828, pp.175-177.

The Address of Thanks of the Sons of Africa to the Honourable Granville Sharp, Esq.

Honourable and Worthy Sir,                                                                                                              December 15, 1787.

Give us leave to say, that every virtuous man is a truly honourable man; and he that doth good hath the honour to himself: and many blessings are upon the head of the just, and their memory shall be blessed, and their works praise them in the gate.

And we must say, that we, who are a part, or descendants, of the much-wronged people of Africa, are peculiarly and greatly indebted to you, for the many good and friendly services that you have done towards us, and which are now even out of our power to enumerate.

Nevertheless, we are truly sensible of your great kindness and humanity; and we cannot do otherwise but endeavour, with the utmost sincerity and thankfulness, to acknowledge our great obligations to you, and, with the most feeling sense of our hearts, on all occasions to express and manifest our gratitude and love for your long, valuable, and indefatigable labours and benevolence towards us, in using every means to rescue our suffering brethren in slavery.

Your writings, Sir, are not of trivial matters, but of great and essential things of moral and religious importance, worthy the regard of all men; and abound with many great and precious things, of sacred writ, particularly respecting the laws of God, and the duties of men.

Therefore, we wish, for ourselves and others, that these valuable treatises may be collected and preserved, for the benefit and good of all men, and for an enduring memorial of the great learning, piety, and vigilance of our good friend the worthy Author.  And we wish that the laws of God, and his ways of righteousness and truth, set forth and described therein, may be as a path for the virtuous and prudent to walk in, and as a clear shining light to the wise in all ages; and that these, and other writings of that nature, may be preserved and established as a monument or beacon to guide and to warn men, lest they should depart from the paths of justice and humanity; and that they may more and more become a means of curbing the vicious violators of God’s holy Law, and to restrain the avaricious invaders of the rights and liberties of men, whilever the human race inhabits this earth below.

And, ever honourable and worthy Sir, may the blessing and peace of Almighty God be with you, and long preserve your valuable life, and make you abundantly useful in every good word and work!  And when God’s appointed time shall come, may your exit be blessed, and may  you arise and for ever shine in the glorious world above, when that Sovereign Voice, speaking with joy, as the sound of many waters, shall be heard saying, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!’  It will then be the sweetest of all delights for ever, and more melodious than all music!  And such honour and felicity will the blessed God and Saviour of his people bestow upon all the saints and faithful servants who are redeemed from among men, and saved from sin, slavery, misery, pain, and death, and from eternal dishonour and wrath impending upon the heads of all the wicked and rebellious.

And now, honourable Sir, with the greatest submission, we must beg you to accept this memorial of our thanks for your good and faithful services towards us, and for your humane commiseration of our brethren and countrymen unlawfully held in slavery.

And we have hereunto subscribed a few of our names, as a mark of our gratitude and love.  And we are, with the greatest esteem and veneration, honourable and worthy Sir, your most obliged and most devoted humble servants,

OTTOBAH CUGOANO                               JASPER GOREE
JOHN STUART                                             GUSTAVUS VASSA
GEO. ROB. MANDERVILLE                     JAMES BAILEY
WILLIAM STEVENS                                  THOMAS OXFORD
JOSEPH ALMAZE                                        JOHN ADAMS
BOUGHWA GEGANSMEL                        GEORGE WALLACE

N.B.  Hoare appears to think that the above two letters to Granville Sharp were sent back from Sierra Leone.  This is obviously wrong as we know for certain that Cugoano, Equiano, Joseph Almaze and at least five other signatories, remained in London.

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The following three letters were all published in The Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser on 15^th July 1788

LETTER III

TO THE Honourable Sir WILLIAM DOLBEN, Bart.^[23]Sir William Dolben, MP for Oxford University, introduced the Slave Trade Act 1788. This Act limited the number of enslaved people a ship was allowed to carry, based on the ship’s tonnage, and also … Continue reading

SIR,

We beg your permission to lay in manner our humble thankfulness before you, for a benevolent law obtained at your motion, by which the miseries of our unhappy brethren, on the coast of Africa, may be alleviated, and by which the lives of many, though destined for the present to a cruel slavery, may be preserved, as we hope, for future and for great mercies.

Our simple testimony is not much, yet you will not be displeased to learn, that a few persons of colour, existing here, providentially released from the common calamity, and feeling for their kind, are daily pouring forth their prayers for you, Sir, and other noble and generous persons who will not (as we understand) longer suffer the rights of humanity to be confounded with ordinary commodities, and passed from hand to hand, as an article of trade.

We are not ignorant, however, Sir, that the best return we can make, is, to behave with sobriety, fidelity, and diligence in our different stations whether remaining here under the protection of the laws, or colonizing our native soil, as most of us wish to do, under the dominion of this country; or as free labourers and artizans in the West India islands, which, under equal laws, might become to men of colour places of voluntary and very general resort.

But in whatever station, Sir, having lived here, as we hope, without reproach, so we trust that we and our whole race shall endeavour to merit, by dutiful behaviour, those mercies, which, humane and benevolent minds seem to be preparing for us.

THOMAS COOPER
GUSTAVUS VASSA
OTTOBAH CUGOANA STEWARD
GEORGE ROBERT MANDEVIL
JOHN CHRISTOPHER
THOMAS JONES

For ourselves and Brethren

LETTER IV

To the Right Honourable WILLIAM PITT.^[24]William Pitt was the Prime Minister.  However, in 1788, his official title was “First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer”.  The title “Prime Minister” was first used … Continue reading

SIR,

We  will not presume to trouble you with many words.  We are persons of colour, happily released from the common calamity, and desirous of leaving at your door, in behalf of our Brethren, on the Coast of Africa, this simple, but grateful acknowledgment of your goodness and benevolence towards our unhappy race.

THOMAS COOPER
GUSTAVUS VASSA
OTTOBAH CUGOANA STEWARD
GEORGE ROBERT MANDEVIL
JOHN CHRISTOPHER
THOMAS JONES

For ourselves and Brethren

LETTER V

To the Right Honourable CHARLES JAMES FOX.^[25]Charles James Fox, MP for Westminster, was the leader of the parliamentary opposition in the House of Commons, heading the Whig party.

SIR,

We are men of colour, happily, ourselves, emancipated from a general calamity by the laws of this place, but yet feeling very sensibly for our kind, and hearing, Sir, that, in their favour, you have co-operated with the Minister [Pitt], and have nobly considered the rights of humanity as a common cause, we have thereupon assumed the liberty (we hope, without offence) of leaving this simple, but honest token of our joy and thankfulness at your door.

THOMAS COOPER
GUSTAVUS VASSA
OTTOBAH CUGOANA STEWARD
GEORGE ROBERT MANDEVIL
JOHN CHRISTOPHER
THOMAS JONES

For ourselves and Brethren

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Published in The Diary; or Woodfall’s Register, 25^th April 1789

LETTER VI

To Mr. WILLIAM DICKSON, formerly Private Secretary to the Hon. Edward Hay, Governor of the Island of Barbadoes.

SIR,

We who have perused your well authenticated Book, entitled LETTERS ON SLAVERY, think it a duty incumbent on us to confess, that in our opinion, such a work cannot be too much esteemed; you have given but too just a picture of the Slave Trade, and the horrid cruelties practised on the poor sable people in the West Indies, to the disgrace of Christianity.  Their injury calls aloud for redress, and the day we hope is not far distant, which may record one of the most glorious acts that ever passed the British Senate – we mean an Act for the total Abolition of the Slave Trade.

It is the duty of every man who is a friend to religion and humanity (and such you have shewn yourself to be) to shew his detestation of such inhuman traffick.  Thank to God the nation at last is awakened to a sense of our sufferings except the Oran Otang philosophers, who we think will find it a hard task to dissect your letters.  Those who can feel for the distresses of their own countrymen, will also commiserate the case of the poor Africans.

Permit us, Sir, on behalf of ourselves and the rest of our brethren, to offer you our sincere thanks for the testimony of regard you have shewn for the poor and much oppressed sable people.

With our best wishes that your praise-worthy publication may meet with the wished-for success, and may the all-bountiful Creator bless you with health and happiness, and bestow on you every blessing of time and eternity.

We are,

SIR,

Your most obedient humble servants,

OLAUDAH EQUIANO, or GUSTAVUS VASA
OTTOBAH CUGOANO, or JOHN SUARR
YAHNE AELANE, or JOSEPH SANDERS
BROUGHWAR JOGENSMEL, or JASPER GOREE
COJOH AMMERE, or GEORGE WILLIAMS
THOMAS COOPER
WILLIAM GREEK
GEORGE MANDEVILLE
BERNARD ELLIOT GRIFFITHS