Dido Elizabeth Belle
| Dido Elizabeth Belle | |
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Painting of Belle, formerly attributed to Johann Zoffany, 1779
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| Born | c.1761 |
| Died | July 1804 (aged c.43) |
| Resting place | St George's Fields, Westminster (1804–1970s) |
| Residence | Kenwood House |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | heiress |
| Spouse(s) | John Davinier (1793–1804; her death) |
| Children |
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| Parent(s) |
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| Relatives |
Sir Alexander Lindsay, 3rd Baronet (grandfather) William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (great-uncle) Margaret Lindsay Ramsay (aunt) Lady Elizabeth Murray (cousin) |
Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761–1804) was born into slavery as the natural daughter of Maria Belle, an enslaved African woman in the West Indies, and Sir John Lindsay, a British career naval officer who was stationed there. He was later knighted and promoted to admiral. Lindsay took Belle with him when he returned to England in 1765, entrusting her raising to his uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and his wife Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Mansfield. The Murrays educated Belle, bringing her up as a free gentlewoman at their Kenwood House, together with their niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray, whose mother had died. Belle lived there for 30 years. In his will of 1793, Lord Mansfield confirmed her freedom and provided an outright sum and an annuity to her, making her an heiress.
In these years, her great-uncle, in his capacity as Lord Chief Justice, ruled in two significant slavery cases, finding in 1772 that slavery had no precedent in common law in England, and had never been authorized under positive law. This was taken as the formal end of slavery in Britain. In the Zong massacre, a case related to the slave trade, he narrowly ruled that the owners of the ship were not due insurance payments for the loss of slaves they had thrown overboard during a voyage, as their killing appeared to be related to errors by the officers.
Dido Elizabeth Belle was born into slavery in 1761 in the West Indies to an enslaved African woman known as Maria Belle. (Her name was spelled as Maria Bell in her daughter's baptism record.) Her father was Sir John Lindsay, a member of the Lindsay family of Evelix branch of the Clan Lindsay and a descendant of the Clan Murray, who was a career naval officer and then captain of the British warship HMS Trent, based in the West Indies. He was the son of Sir Alexander Lindsay, 3rd Baronet and his wife Amelia, daughter of David Murray, 5th Viscount Stormont. Lindsay is thought to have found Maria Belle held as a slave on a Spanish ship which his forces captured in the Caribbean; he appears to have taken her as his concubine (see plaçage). Lindsay returned to England after the war in 1765, likely bringing at that time his young, multiracial biological daughter to London. He entrusted her to the care of his uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and his wife Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Mansfield. She was baptized as Dido Elizabeth Belle in 1766 at St. George's, Bloomsbury.
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