Yorkshire Almanac 2025

Unedited excerpt

The excerpt in the book is shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

Whereas I am possessed of and entitled to one mulatto girl named — and known by the name of Nancie begotten on the body of a negro woman of mine named —- and known by the name of Euba residing upon my plantation estate in the parish of Hanover in the said island of Jamaica —- I do hereby give —– and discharge the said mulatto girl called Nancie of and from all duty slavery and service which she owes to me and of and from all —- and title power and authority whihc I have over or in her and all the —- and —- of her body begotten or to be begotten on the body of the said mulatto girl named Nancie and I will that the said Nancie all all the —– of her body shall forever hereafter be free and at her own will and disposal and further my will is that the said mulatto girl named Nancie shall have a very genteel maintenance with all —– whatsoever allowed her at the expense of my said Jamaica estate and my desire is that said Nancie shall have a good dwelling house built for her on my Jamaica Estate at the expense of the owner of my said Jamaica estate and the said Nancie to live peaceably and quietly in my said estate without any molestation whatsoever or —- for and during the — of her the said Nancie’s natural life in ——- to her and not otherwise provided that —-

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

I’m struggling a bit with the transcription of the relevant passage, bounded by red squiggles.

What happened to Nancy? Was Euba (elsewhere: Cuba) dead, or did she not merit liberation?

Via the UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Aldbrough, East Riding of Yorkshire (1) W/G ·
• Colony of Jamaica (2) W/G ·
• Holderness (16) W/G ·
• Jamaica (2) W/G ·
• Manumission (2) W/G ·
• Mulatto (1) W/G ·
• Slavery (22) W/G ·
• West Indies (9) W/G ·
• Will and testament (12) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

I’m struggling a bit with the transcription of the relevant passage, bounded by red squiggles.

What happened to Nancy? Was Euba (elsewhere: Cuba) dead, or did she not merit liberation?

Via the UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery

Something to say? Get in touch

Similar

24 November 1839: Betsy Sawyer, a freed Antiguan slave, and family servant to the Rev. Thomas Murray, dies at Yeadon

20 June 1795: The London painter Joseph Farington hears from a solicitor the details of the slavery-financed will of Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood and builder of Harewood House

26 February 1787: William Butterworth of Leeds arrives at Grenada (West Indies) from Calabar (West Africa) on the Hudibras (Liverpool) with the survivors of a cargo of 360 slaves

16 November 1814: Blacksmith Samuel Hick pantomimes for Selby Wesleyans a dream in which he sails to the West Indies to liberate the slaves

15 October 1838: Apologies from “imprisoned” Huddersfield workers are read to the great Chartist rally on Peep Green (Hartshead Moor), accusing middle-class radicals of betrayal

23 January 1640: Andrew Marvell’s father drowns in the Humber at Hull

26 April 1543: Robert Rawson, warder for the crown of the misses Levening, suggests to their mother at Acklam that she may wish to purchase them from him

26 August 1600: Following the Restoration, powerful local Catholics invade the Hackness (Scarborough) home of Sir Thomas Hoby, Puritan commissioner and newcomer

2 February 1188: Pilgrim-soldier Margaret of Beverley is freed after 15 months of slavery following the siege of Jerusalem

12 October 1659: With political turmoil elsewhere, gunfire celebrating the ceremonial demarcation of Hull’s bounds is heard as “a strange and very wonderful thing”

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

Hull to Patrington is about 15 miles for crows, but the sound of gunfire (though not perhaps musketfire) travelled greater distances at the time:

According to Derham, guns fired at Karlskrona were heard at Denmark, eighty or perhaps 120 miles distant. Dr. Hearn heard guns fired at Stockholm, 180 miles off. The cannonade of a sea-fight between the English and Dutch in 1672 was heard across England, at Shrewsbury and Wales, upwards of 200 miles from the scene of action. This last is a very remarkable circumstance, and it is to be remembered that in all to which allusion has been made, the sound travelled for the greatest part of the distance along the surface of water. The fact that sounds are more distinct and clear, and can be heard at a greater distance by night than by day, appears to be due, not only to the greater stillness then existing, and to the sense being engaged with one sound instead of many, but as Humboldt has said, to the greater homogeneity of the atmosphere, its density not then being affected by the partial variations in temperature (Pilcher 1843).

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