Who gets married in a church like this?
Described in later life as ‘a man of colour’, Stephen Hannibal was born in Poplar in 1814. In 1833 he was found guilty of breaking and entering and theft and was transported to Australia for a term of seven years.
He didn’t take easily to his new life in Sydney and was punished with fifty lashes for his contemptuous attitude when ordered to undertake a menial task. The sentence was doubled for the insolent way he responded when told of his punishment.
Not many convicts returned to England after completing their sentence but Stephen Hannibal did. After seven years in the penal colony he took work as a seaman and eventually made his way back to England.
In 1850 Stephen married Elizabeth Mary Ives at St Jude’s church in Upper Chelsea. We cannot know how many of his fellow parishioners were aware of his chequered past nor what they would have made of it. For us, we admire his evident resilience and instinct for survival.
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