We are a group of students at Chiswick School who undertook a project to promote and celebrate the African residents of Chiswick House. ;xNLx;With this timeline we hope to inform people about how our local history can be seen from a national and global perspective.;xNLx;
Asante Empire of the Akan people established in West Africa (Ghana).
Britain becomes the dominant European naval & commercial power.
Anne was the last Stuart monarch and the first sovereign of Great Britain. Her reign is notable for the Acts of Union in 1707, which united England and Scotland. She also oversaw the War of the Spanish Succession and is remembered for her patronage of the arts.
Richard Boyle inherits the Jacobean house & estate at Chiswick, Burlington House (St James), Londesborough Hall estate (Yorkshire) & Lismore Castle estate (Ireland) aged 11, becoming the 3rd Earl of Burlington. Juliana, his mother, managed all his estates until 1715, and was responsible for his interest in music and the arts.
Act of Union creates the Kingdom of Great Britain.
In the autumn of 1710, Handel visited London, drawn by the city's thriving Italian opera scene. He was appointed Kapellmeister (Master of Music) to the Elector of Hanover (later King George I) the same year after composing the opera 'Rinaldo' which was a big hit.
Under the Treaty of Utrecht France transfers its interests in many American territories to Britain. The South Sea Company, in which the Burlingtons invested, acquired exclusive rights to supply Spain's American colonies with enslaved people.
George was the first Hanoverian monarch of Great Britain. He ascended to the throne as the closest Protestant relative to Queen Anne, who had no surviving children. His reign was marked by the Jacobite rising of 1715, which aimed to restore the Catholic Stuart line to the throne. George spent a considerable amount of time in Hanover and spoke mainly German.
Summer Parlour added to Old Jacobean House. This would become the space in which Lady Burlington would entertain, play music and paint.
He resides at Burlington House for a few years under the patronage of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and his mother Juliana.
Lord Burlington goes on his second Grand Tour to Rome where he meets artist and designer, William Kent, a fellow Yorkshire Man. Kent returns from Rome with Lord Burlington and moves into Burlington House. He remained with the family for several decades.
Handel, like many others including the Burlingtons, made money from investing in slave-trading companies (Royal African Company in 1720 and the South Sea Company in 1725–32). Handel also had a close association with financiers such as Chandos, another of Handel’s patrons and a director of Royal Academy of Music, who were actively engaged in slave commerce. While Handel’s conduct may have been ‘normalised’ today as a reflection of the differing standards of the day, the horrors of the slave trade and plantation labour practices had already attracted severe criticism.
The Royal African Company was created in 1671 to manage the royal monopoly on all aspects of Anglo-African Trade. It lost this monopoly in 1697, which led to a huge increase in British slave trading activities. In 1720, the Duke of Chandos attempted to refinance the RAC with the help of peers, including Lord Burlington, by issuing 15,000 new shares. This investment was intended to clear the Company's debts and help rebuild the decaying British controlled posts along the West African (Guinea) coastline. The RAC continued to take part in the trade of enslaved Africans, but looked to increase the range of products that the RAC produced and collected in Africa, with African labour, for export direct to Britain. Chandos hoped that profits made from African commodities would help the RAC recapture control of the trade in enslaved Africans. Between 1672 and 1731, the Royal African Company transported 187,697 enslaved people on company-owned ships (653 voyages) to English colonies in the Americas.
Lord Burlington (26) marries Dorothy Savile (21)
From this date forward the English East India Company & Royal African Company ships' captains are entitled to bring home one enslaved individual per journey free of charge. The number of enslaved Africans in the UK increases significantly, as do the number of those resisting captivity. Many, now described as Freedom Seekers, liberate themselves by running away from enslavers.
An anonymous enslaved person in Virginia, writes to the 'arch Bishop of Lonnd’, asking him to ‘releese us out of this Cruell Bondegg'.
With a close connection to Handel, who resided at Burlington House for several years, Lord and Lady Burlington's black footmen, Joseph and Richard, are baptised with the surnames Caesar and Tamerlane in 1725 and 1726 in St Nicholas' church, Chiswick.
In St James's parish church, London.
The Jacobean House catches fire and the west wing is demolished. This prompts Lord Burlington to build the Villa to keep his incredible art and manuscript collection safe.
Joseph Casar is baptised in St Nicholas's church, Chiswick. We know that there was at least one other 'Black' employee working alongside Joseph - Richard Tamerlane, who was also baptised at Chiswick in May 1726.
Burlington went to France in 1726, where the exiled Stuart king was planning another Jacobite rebellion. His companion, and brother-in-law, Sir Henry Bedingfeld paid large sums into a Jacobite bank whilst they were in Paris. Lord Burlington was given the code name Mr Buck. From Lady Burlington's letters to her husband, we learn that their correspondence was opened by the postmaster general. This was only permitted if the writers were under suspicion of treason. Lady Burlington had to place her complete trust in Joseph Casar to deliver and keep private her personal communications.
Richard Tamerlane 'a Black servant to ye Right Honble ye Earl of Burlington' is baptised at St Nicholas Church, Chiswick
A Mr Randalls, Master of a House of Correction is paid £3 for the fees and lodgings of Richard Tamerlane. What was a House of Correction, why was Richard taken there and what happened to him afterwards? In 1726, London had several houses of correction, also known as bridewells, which were institutions designed to punish and correct offenders, particularly vagrants and those deemed idle or disorderly. These institutions aimed to provide work for the poor and punish those who refused to work or engaged in minor offenses. Some prominent houses of correction in London during that time included Bridewell Prison, Tothill Fields Bridewell (also known as Westminster House of Correction), and the Middlesex House of Correction (later Coldbath Fields Prison).
Handel is appointed State Composer to King George I who dies in June of the same year.
Lady Burlington gives birth to another daughter, named Juliana after Lord Burlington's mother. The baby is baptised in St James, Westminster
The piece has been played at every royal coronation since and was written for two oboes, two bassoons, three trumpets, timpani and strings. The lyrics of the piece originate from the bible (1 Kings 1:34-45) ‘Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king. And all the people rejoiced and said: God save the King! Long live the King! God save the King! May the King live forever. Amen. Hallelujah.’
George II was the last British monarch to lead troops into battle. His reign saw significant British expansion in Canada and India, and he dealt with the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. He had fraught relationships with his father and with his son, Frederick, Prince of Wales.
Dorothy Boyle was one of Queen Caroline's Ladies of the Bedchamber. On her appointment Lord Hervey said her manner was like 'a cringing House-Maid'
Joseph Casar is refunded the travel and accomodation expenses he recorded when delivering Lady Burlington's messages. Clearly demonstrating he could read, write and do maths.
The First Maroon War in Jamaica was a conflict between the British colonial authorities and the Jamaican Maroons - self-liberated Africans led by Queen Nanny of Ghana, who established independent communities in the island's interior. The war lasted from roughly 1728 to 1740, culminating in peace treaties that granted the Maroons some autonomy.
In the library at Chatsworth is a copy of a book published in 1728 by William Smith, a surveyor for the Royal African Company. The book is called '30 Different Drafts of Guinea' and includes a map of the African coastline, views and plans of British forts and Castles. Lord Burlington is listed as one of the subscribers, indicating more than just a passing interest in the books contents.
Lady Burlington, accompanied by several employees including Joseph, is attending the Queen at Windsor Castle. She writes to her husband expressing concern for Joseph and recognising his vulnerability
With the exception of the link building that would connect the Villa to the Jacobean House - not completed until 1733.
He is now one of a group of special advisors to the King, and therefore plays a significant role in government decisions made at the time.
Joseph Casar is missing from the list of wages paid to staff. In January 1731 the only footman recorded is Richard Harris and by October he has been replaced by Joseph Love. Did Joseph leave or go to Londesborough as suggested by Lady Burlington in her letter of 1729?
A few of Kent's sketches show individuals of colour in the Chiswick Gardens attending or assisting Lady Burlington. These could be Joseph Casar.
Revolt takes place on board the British ship 'Little George'. 96 enslaved African women and men capture the ship, sailing it to the Sierra Leone river where they escape, leaving the crew on board.
Lady Burlington gives birth to her daughter Charlotte
'It is Ordered by this Court, That for the future no Africans or other Blacks be suffered to be bound Apprentices at any of the Companies of this City to any Freeman thereof; and that Copies of this Order be Printed and sent to the Masters and Wardens of the several Companies of this City, who are required to see the same at all times hereafter duly observed.’ The legal notification was hastily published after John Satie, born into slavery in Barbados, was able to apply successfully to become a Freeman of London. He had been brought to England many years earlier as a child and had become apprenticed to a London joiner in 1718, before finally earning his entitlement to become a Freeman in September 1731. The Aldermen of the City of London reluctantly recognised the legal strength of his case, but were determined that no such rights be conceded to London’s Black population in the future.
The Upper and Lower link buildings once connected the Villa to the Jacobean house. Staff and residents could pass between the two buildings protected from the weather.
Caesar was the Black servant of the Spencer family. He was baptised in Brington, Northamptonshire aged 10. He was employed by John Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire Georgiana Cavendish’s father and would have been 35 when she was born.
Lord Burlington resigns from all of his royal and state offices after a dispute with Prime Minister Robert Walpole. After which, he spends much of his time at Londesborough Hall, Yorkshire.
Thomas Coram presents King George II with the first petition for a Foundling Hospital to care for abandoned babies across the capital. Lord and Lady Burlington are amongst the first to financially support the proposal.
Lady Burlington redecorates the Summer Parlour at her own expense. The large green chairs in the Green Velvet Room were commissioned by her for the Parlour and the ceiling decoration inspired by Meissen porcelain designs. The room also gives a nod to the Savile family through the Owl that appeared on the family crest
An uprising takes place in Antigua led by Prince Klaas. He was installed as King of the Black Antiguans during an Akan ritual. Although this was regarded by the white Antiguan slave owners as an "innocent ceremony," according to West African traditions, it was actually a declaration of war. On the report of an unnamed slave, Klaas was found guilty of participating in the scheme along with 132 other individuals. 88 revolutionaries were executed, including Klaas. The Most Exalted Order of the National Hero, Antigua and Barbuda's highest honour, was posthumously given to Klaas in 2000.
Margaret Jenando, age 60, appeals for financial help from Westminster parish. She is the widow of Robert Jenando who was born in Guinea in 1657 and became a pageboy in the Dukes of Devonshires' (Cavendish family) household in 1663 at the age of six. He lived and worked at the Old Devonshire House in Bloomsbury and then moved to Berkeley House (later renamed Devonshire House) from 1696, the same year that he and Margaret married, until his death in 1716. He would have served both the 1st and 2nd Dukes of Devonshire.
In his will, Christopher Cumberlidge frees a man named Thomas Cumberlidge. It seems highly probable, given the unusual surname and the proximity of Fulham to Chiswick, that Thomas is connected to James Cumberlidge somehow. 'I...give unto my Trusty servant Thomas…his liberty and twenty pounds in money - withall my wearing apparel to be paid him in one year’
Dorothy Boyle retires from her Royal Court position upon Queen Caroline’s death. The Queen died after primitive surgery at St James's Palace.
Accounts confirm that three ‘Black boys’ are tutored at Chiswick - one of whom is likely to be James Cumberlidge. The fees were paid by Lady Burlington, who used the same schoolmaster to tutor her daughter Charlotte who was 7 (born 1731)
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