Joanna Vassa

Joanna Vassa (1795-1857) was the only surviving child of the former slave and anti-slavery campaigner Olaudah Equiano. Her grave has recently been rediscovered in Abney Park Cemetery, London, but little is known of her life.

She was born to Susannah Cullen of Fordham, Cambridgeshire, and Olaudah Equiano (also known as "Gustavus Vassa, the African") on 11 April 1795, and baptised on 29 April. Her father was well known for his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789). Her mother was a subscriber to Equiano's Narrative and they were married on 7 April 1792 in Soham.

The year after Joanna's birth, Susannah died of an illness, on 21 February 1796, and was buried at St Andrew's Church, Soham. Joanna's father died just over a year later. Shortly afterwards followed the death of her elder sister and only sibling Anna Maria (born 30 January 1793), on 21 July 1797.; Anna Maria is commemorated by a poetic plaque outside St Andrew's Church, Chesterton.

Mixed race children were not common in eighteenth century England, but nor, as the British Empire grew, were they unknown, especially in the capital and port cities.

In 1816, on reaching her 21st birthday, Joanna Vassa, being Equiano's only known surviving relative, inherited a silver watch and £950 from his estate; the National Archives inflation calculator gives an approximate equivalence of £32,000 in 2005.

It is not clear how Joanna met her future husband, the Congregational minister, Rev. Henry Bromley, but on 29 August 1821, they were married at St. James, Clerkenwell, an Anglican parish church in London. He had been ordained a minister at the Independent Chapel in Appledore in Devon, two months prior to the wedding. He was 24 years old and Joanna was 26. They settled in Devon for at least five years until they moved to the Congregational Church (present day United Reformed Church) at Clavering, Essex, where Rev. Bromley was pastor between 1827 and 1845. He was a member of Clavering Reading Society throughout his time there.

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