Appendix

APPENDICES 3 - 5

APPENDIX 3

From the London Gazette 1797

Whereas the acting Commissioners in the Commission of Bankrupt awarded and issued forth against Thomas Filmore Sercombe, of the City of Exeter, Money-Scrivener, have certified to the Right Hon. Alexander Lord Loughborough, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, that the said Thomas Filmore Sercombe hath in all Things conformed himself according to the Directions of the several Acts of Parliament made concerning Bankrupts: This is to give Notice, that, by virtue of an Act passed in the Fifth year of His late Majesty’s Reign, his Certificate will be allowed and confirmed as the said Act directs, unless Cause be shewn to the contrary on or before the 3rd Day of June next.



APPENDIX 4

Letter to Thomas Colcock about the slave trade

Stamford Mercury, 3rd July 1789

Extract of a letter from the mate of a Guineaman on the coast of Africa to Thomas Colcock, of White’s-yard, Whitecross-street, dated Dick’s-cove,
April 5, 1789, by the African packet, Capt. Thornby.

“The schooner Chace, Capt. Proudfoot, late from London, going down the coast, upset with 33 slaves and 50 ounces of gold dust. All the white people were saved in their boat, and got on shore, expecting the schooner would be broke in pieces and the slaves would all perish below, as they were locked down in their rooms, and the vessel full of water upon her beam ends when they left her; but luckily three days after the ship Hinde, Capt. Hervey, of Liverpool fell in with the same wreck 20 leagues to windward off where she upset, and sending his boat to see what wreck it was, got on board, when they heard some people groan below deck. Upon sending on board their ship for some axes, they cut scuttles in her deck and got up 11 live slaves. Several of the dead slaves being in irons with the living, they were obliged to cut the legs and arms of the dead, to save the lives of the others, who were almost exhausted. These poor creatures were 57 hours in the water from their being upset; and being in water so long, the Captain says they were bleached so, that he actually thought they were white men.

“P.S. This day we hear the vessel is driven on shore. The blacks have got the gold, and towns of Exim and Princess are fighting about it.

“Just staved off a Frenchman with 450 prime slaves, and the Mary, Capt. Thompson, will fail in ten days with 200.”



APPENDIX 5

Extract from an anti-slavery article which mentions St. John’s, where the Otto-Baijers owned plantations

Anti-Slavery Advocate, 1st October 1861

… The old prejudice against African blood is disappearing, though under slavery it was intensely strong; so much so that the colored people were generally not allowed to be buried in the same churchyard with the whites. Nay, at St. John’s, in Antigua, the church-bell was not allowed to be profaned by tolling for the demise of these degraded people, and a smaller one was actually provided for that purpose!