Dido Elizabeth Belle

Dido Elizabeth Belle with her cousin Elizabeth, detail of a painting formerly thought to be by Johann Zoffany

Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804) (or Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay) was an illegitimate daughter of John Lindsay and an African slave woman known only as Belle. Very little is known about Belle only that she was black and a slave. Her daughter Dido lived in the household of the Earl of Mansfield who was her father's Uncle and her Great-Uncle.

Life

Dido Elizabeth Belle was born around 1761. Her father, John Lindsay, nephew of the Earl of Mansfield, was at the time a Royal Navy captain in HMS Trent, a warship based in the West Indies that took part in the capture of Havana from the Spanish in 1762. It has previously been suggested that her mother was an enslaved African on board one of the Spanish ships that were captured during this battle, but the dates are inconsistent and there is no reason any of the Spanish ships (which were immobilised in the inner habour) would have had women on board when they were delivered up on the formal surrender of the fortress. Her baptism record, however, shows that she was born while Lindsay was in the West Indies and that her mother's name was Maria Belle.

Lindsay sent the child to his uncle, the Earl of Mansfield, who lived with his family at Kenwood House in Hampstead, England, which was then just outside London. He and his wife, who were childless, were already raising her cousin Elizabeth Murray after her mother's death; Elizabeth was about the same age as Dido. It is possible Mansfield took her in as Elizabeth's playmate and, later in life, her personal attendant (her role in the family outlined below suggests this would have been more as a lady's companion than that of a lady's maid).

Dido spent some 30 years at Kenwood House. Her position was unusual because she was formally the daughter of a slave, and would have been considered a slave outside of Britain. But she was after a fashion treated as a member of the family. Lord Mansfield himself resolved this paradox in his capacity as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. When called upon to judge the case of an escaped slave, Somersett's Case, he decreed that "The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political; but only positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasion, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory: it's so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from a decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England." His decision was taken by abolitionists to mean that slavery was abolished in England, although his wording reserves judgment on this point, and he later said it was only to apply to the slave at issue in the case. Historians have since suggested that his personal experience influenced his decision.

Despite his revulsion for slavery, the social conventions of Mansfield's household were discriminatory. She did not dine with the rest of the family, especially if they had guests, but joined the ladies for coffee afterwards in the drawing room. As she grew older, she took responsibility for the dairy and poultry yards at Kenwood, she also helped Mansfield with his correspondence indicating that she was fairly well educated. The running of the dairy and poultry yard was a typical occupation for ladies of the gentry but helping her Uncle with his correspondence was less usual as this was normally done by a secretary or a male clerk. Dido also received an annual allowance of £30 10s, several times the wages of a domestic servant; Elizabeth received around £100, but she was after all an heiress in her own right, and Dido, quite apart from her race, was illegitimate in a time and place when great social stigma usually accompanied such status.

A 1779 painting by an unknown painter (though previously attributed to Johann Zoffany) depicts her alongside Elizabeth, carrying exotic fruit and wearing a turban with a large feather. Dido is depicted with extraordinary vivacity and there is little doubt as to which of his sitters the painter fell for. The painting, which hangs at Scone Palace in Perth, Scotland, is owned by the present Earl Mansfield and in 2007 was exhibited in Kenwood during an exhibition to run alongside the Bicentenary of the Abolition of Slavery Act 1807.

Elizabeth married and left the estate around 1780 at the age of about 20. When Dido's father died, he left her £1000 in his will and asked his wife Mary to take care of her. Mary Lindsay's will does not mention Dido. Lord Mansfield left Dido £500 outright and a £100 annuity in his will, and officially confirmed her freedom.

Mansfield family tree

Mansfield tree
David Murray Marjory Scott David Murray Anne Stewart James Murray Marjory Murray John Hay Amelia Murray Sir Alexander Lindsay of Evelick 2) Louisa Cathcart David Murray 1) Henrietta Frederica Bunau Daniel Finch Anne Hatton David Lindsay John Lindsay Margaret Lindsay Ramsay Frederica Murray David William Murray Henry Murray Edward Finch Elizabeth Finch William Murray William Lindsay Dido Elizabeth Belle Frederica Murray James Hamilton Stanhope William David Murray Lady Elizabeth Murray George Finch-Hatton James Stanhope George Finch-Hatton
Notes:

Dramatic Recreations

• Let Jutice Be Done Mixed Blessings Theatre Group. 2008 play featuring the possible influence that Dido Elizabeth Belle might have had on the Somerset Ruling of 1772.

References

• Sarah Minney - The Search for Dido (History Today October 2005)

External links

• Dido Belle At Kenwood
• Slavery and Justice at Kenwood House, exhibition on Mansfield and Dido
• Scotsman
• Article on BBC website