Dido Elizabeth Belle was an illegitimate daughter of John Lindsay

John Lindsay (admiral)

Admiral Sir John Lindsay KB was a British naval officer of the 18th century, and the father of Dido Elizabeth Belle.-Family:...

 and an Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n 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

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, SL, PC was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. Born to Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth, Scotland before moving to London at the age of 13 to take up a place at Westminster School...

 who was her father's Uncle and her Great-Uncle.

Life

Dido Elizabeth Belle was born around 1761. She was baptised in 1766 at St. George's Church in Bloomsbury. Her father, John Lindsay, nephew of the Earl of Mansfield, was at the time a Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 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

Kenwood House

Kenwood House is a former stately home, in Hampstead, London, on the northern boundary of Hampstead Heath. It is managed by English Heritage.-History:...

 in Hampstead

Hampstead

Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, which was then just outside London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. 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

Lady's companion

A lady's companion was a woman of genteel birth who acted as a paid companion for women of rank or wealth. The term was in use in the United Kingdom from at least the 18th century to the mid 20th century. It was related to the position of lady-in-waiting, which by the 19th century was only applied...

 than that of a lady's maid

Lady's maid

A lady's maid is a female personal attendant who waits on the lady of the house. The position is very similar to a gentleman's valet. Traditionally, in eras past, the lady's maid was not as high-ranking as a lady's companion, who was a retainer rather than a servant, but the rewards included room...

).

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

Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales

The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...

. When called upon to judge the case of an escaped slave, Somersett's Case

Somersett's Case

R v Knowles, ex parte Somersett 20 State Tr 1 is a famous judgment of the English Court of King's Bench in 1772 which held that slavery was unsupported by law in England and Wales...

, 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

Positive law

Positive law is the term generally used to describe man-made laws which bestow specific privileges upon, or remove them from, an individual or group...

, 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. Dido would not dine with the rest of the family, especially if they had guests, but joined the ladies for coffee afterwards in the drawing room

Drawing room

A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained. The name is derived from the sixteenth-century terms "withdrawing room" and "withdrawing chamber", which remained in use through the seventeenth century, and made its first written appearance in 1642...

. As she grew older, she took responsibility for the dairy

Dairy

A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...

 and poultry

Poultry

Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...

 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

Gentry

Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....

 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

Beneficiary

A beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example: The beneficiary of a life insurance policy, is the person who receives the payment of the amount of insurance after the death of the insured...

 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

Johann Zoffany

Johan Zoffany, Zoffani or Zauffelij was a German neoclassical painter, active mainly in England...

) 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 had the greater rapport with. The painting, which hangs at Scone Palace

Scone Palace

Scone Palace is a Category A listed historic house at Scone, Perthshire, Scotland. It was constructed in 1808 for the Earls of Mansfield by William Atkinson...

 in Perth, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, 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.

When Dido's father died without legitimate heirs in 1788 he left £1000 to a son, and £1000 to his other illegitimate daughter, Elizabeth Lindsay or Palmer (b. c. 1765) who lived in Scotland, asking his wife Mary to take care of her. Mary Lindsay's will does not mention Dido or Elizabeth Lindsay. Lord Mansfield left Dido £500 outright and a £100 annuity

Life annuity

A life annuity is a financial contract in the form of an insurance product according to which a seller — typically a financial institution such as a life insurance company — makes a series of future payments to a buyer in exchange for the immediate payment of a lump sum or a series...

 in his will, and officially confirmed her freedom

Manumission

Manumission is the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. In the United States before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished most slavery, this often happened upon the death of the owner, under conditions in his will.-Motivations:The...

.

After her uncle's death in March 1793 Dido married John Davinier on 5th December at St. George's Hanover Square; both she and he were then residents of the parish. The Daviniers had three sons at least: the twins Charles and John, also baptized at St George's on 8 May 1795, and William Thomas, baptized there on the 26 January 1802.

Dido Belle Davinier died in 1804 and was buried in July that year at St George's Fields, a burial-ground close to what is now Bayswater Road: in the 1970s however the site was redeveloped and her grave was moved. She was survived by her husband, who later remarried and had two more children.

Dramatic Recreations

• Let Justice 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.

External links

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