{"id":24920,"date":"2023-07-22T11:55:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T15:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=24920"},"modified":"2023-07-22T12:04:58","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T16:04:58","slug":"fwd-episode-856-dido-elizabeth-belle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=24920","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: episode 856 DIDO ELIZABETH BELLE —"},"content":{"rendered":"

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EPISODE 856   DIDO ELIZABETH BELLE<\/p>\n

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Alan skeoch<\/div>\n
july 13, 2023<\/div>\n

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What captures your attention when you look at this 18th century painting??<\/div>\n

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\u201cWho is the brown skinned lady in this paining?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHer name was Dido Elizabeth Belle and she was born in 1761 in the British West Indies.\u2019<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat is startling about her ?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cOff the top, she is very pretty.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd she seems totally relaxed with the white  girl\u2026they seem to be good friends.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy is that remarkable?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSlaves were expected to defer to their owners in the 18th century,  yet this brown girl<\/div>\n
seems to be good friend \u2026 certainly not a slave.  I think the girls are sharing conversation.<\/div>\n
As a mater of fact, the brown skinned girl named Dido is even more relaxed than the white girl. I would have<\/div>\n
expected the reverse in that century.   Seems like they are both sharing a secret conversation.<\/div>\n
they are equal, ..I would even go so far as to say the black girl is dominant..so totally<\/div>\n
relaxed.  So unlike a slave.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDo you know who she was?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHere name was Dido Elizabeth Belle.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cShe was a remarkable young lady\u2026a lucky young lady\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow so?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cShe may have influenced the abolition of slavery in England.<\/div>\n
\u2026.her early life was startling.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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HISTORY OF DIDO ELIZABETH BELLE<\/p>\n


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NOTE:  BELOW  is a short history of this remarkable young lady who was made famous<\/div>\n
by the only painting of her which is the lead picture in this episode.  I encourage you<\/div>\n
to read more about her.  You will not be disappointed.   Her story complements<\/div>\n
my episode about Kenwood House which was sent earlier.  Much has been written <\/div>\n
about Belle\u2026even a movie.  Do a  little searching.
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alan<\/div>\n
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‘her mother, whose name is believed to be Maria Bell, was a slave in the West Indies. The year that Belle\u2019s parents met is not known, nor is it clear that their relationship was consensual. Belle\u2019s baptism records yield no information about her father which indicates she was considered an illegitimate child.<\/p>\n

Upon the death of Maria Bell, John Lindsay in 1766 requested that Belle be entrusted to his uncle, Lord Mansfield, who was already raising his young great-niece, Elizabeth Murray, due to her mother passing and her father\u2019s serving the Crown as an ambassador first to Austria and later to France. The addition of Belle to Lord Mansfield\u2019s household provided Elizabeth Murray with a playmate. Belle\u2019s role in the household seemed to have been as Elizabeth\u2019s lady\u2019s companion rather than her lady\u2019s maid.  While in the household she received an education and an annual allowance of \u00a330, several times the wages of a domestic servant. As an adult she managed the estate\u2019s dairy and poultry yards and helped Lord Mansfield with his correspondence, a task normally assigned a male secretary or clerk.<\/p>\n

Dido Elizabeth Belle spent nearly three decades at Kenwood House, the home of the Murray family. The best insight into Belle\u2019s life with Lord Mansfield comes from Thomas Hutchinson who visited Kenwood House in 1779 when she was around 18 or 19. While dining with Mansfield, Hutchinson was surprised to see Belle, a woman of black ancestry, sitting with the ladies drinking coffee and later going on a walk with her arm locked with another woman.  An American guest reported, however, that Belle was not allowed to dine with the family.<\/p>\n

In 1784, Belle witnessed the death of Lady Mansfield and the following year the marriage of Lady Elizabeth Murray to a distant cousin, George Finch Hatton.  She remained at Kenwood House, however, for nearly another decade, finally leaving the estate upon the death of Lord Mansfield in 1793.<\/p>\n

Little is known about the remainder of her life.  She benefited from small inheritances left by Lord and Lady Mansfield. She did not receive an inheritance from her father, Sir John Lindsay, who died an Admiral in the British Navy in 1788.  On December 5, 1793 she married John Davinier, a French gentleman\u2019s steward.  The couple had three children, twins Charles and John, baptized in 1795, and William Thomas, baptized in 1802.  Dido Elizabeth Belle Davinier died in 1804.  Her approximate age at the time of her death was 43.<\/div>\n

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