We are a group of year 10 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
Enter story info here
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. image of Handel
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.
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 Burlington’s, 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 East India Company & Royal Africa Company ship’s captains are entitled to bring home one enslaved individual per journey free of charge. The number of enslaved Africans in the UK increases significantly.
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 respectively in st Nicholas' church, Chiswick
In St James 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.
He performs several short operetti including ‘Julius Caesar’ and ‘Tamerlano’. Notably, the Burlington’s Black footmen were baptised with the surnames Caesar and Tamerlane in 1725 and 1726 in St Nicholas’ church, Chiswick.
Lady Burlington gives birth to another daughter, named Juliana after Lord Burlington's mother. The baby is baptised in St James, Westminster
this music was played for the coronation of King George 2nd. this piece of music has been played at every royal coronation ever since.
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.
Led by Queen Nanny, starts between the Jamaican Maroons and British colonial authorities on the island.
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
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.
Lord Burlington resigns all his positions in Court, spending much of his time at Londesborough Hall as Lord Lieutenant of the whole of Yorkshire Ridings
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 a "innocent ceremony," according to Western 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 honor, 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 Devonshire 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. add image of document in drive
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)
Under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 that ended the War of the Spanish Succession, Great Britain received a 30-year asiento, or contract right, from Spain. The asiento was in two parts, the Asiento de Negros, which allowed Britain a monopoly to supply 5,000 slaves each year to the Spanish colonies, and the Navio de Permiso, which permitted a single British ship to take 500 tons of trade goods to the annual trade fair at Porto Bello. The British government granted a monopoly for both of the agreements to the South Sea Company. But other British merchants and bankers also wanted access to the lucrative Spanish markets of the Caribbean, and Spanish colonists in turn desired British-made goods. The result was a thriving black market in smuggled goods between industrious merchants in both countries. In an effort to curb British smugglers, Great Britain in 1729 granted Spain the right to stop and search British ships in Spanish waters to ensure that the terms of the agreements were being respected. But the smuggling continued, and the Spanish continued to board and seize British ships and take their crews prisoner, often torturing them for good measure. This led to a swell of anti-Spanish sentiment in Great Britain. In addition to smuggling in the Caribbean, another festering issue between Great Britain and Spain concerned the border dispute between British-controlled Georgia and Spanish Florida. Resolution of both issues was aggravated by patriotic bravado, the clamour of public opinion, and the personal honour of the interested monarchs, George II of England and Philip V of Spain.
An invoice shows a large number of items are ordered for James Cumberlidge to match those of the footman. On top are charges for several repairs to James's clothes, to be expected for a boy of his age. This invoice is the only incorrect reference made to James as James Cambridge.
A schoolmaster called J Stevenson is employed at Chiswick for '2 quarts' (6 months?) to teach James Cumberlidge to read, write and take accounts.
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