Dido Elizabeth Belle

Dido Elizabeth Belle was born into slavery in 1761 (Her name was spelled as Maria Bell in Dido's baptism record.) Her father was 24-year-old Sir John Lindsay, a member of the Lindsay of Evelix branch of the Clan Lindsay, who was a career naval officer and then captain of the British warship , 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 Dido's mother, Maria Belle, held as a slave on a Spanish ship which his forces captured in the Caribbean. Maria Belle was a 14-year-old child slave when she was captured, around the same time she got pregnant by Lindsay, and gave birth to Dido when she was about 15 years old. Her age was confirmed by the Pensacola property record about her later life: "the manumission transaction for the sum of two hundred Spanish milled dollars paid by Maria Belle a Negro Woman Slave about 28 years of age", dated 22 August 1774; this confirmed that Maria Belle was about 14 when Dido was conceived; it is unlikely that the conception was consensual. Only the latter two were named in his will. A contemporary obituary of Sir John Lindsay, who had eventually been promoted to admiral, assumed that he was the father of Dido Belle, and included the statement: "[H]e has died, we believe, without any legitimate issue but has left one natural daughter, a Mulatta who has been brought up in Lord Mansfield's family almost from her infancy and whose amiable disposition and accomplishments have gained her the highest respect from all his Lordship's relations and visitants." but this specific date is unlikely, as Dido was born in 1761. The obituary also failed to mention the existence of John and Elizabeth Lindsay, named in Sir John Lindsay's will. ==At Kenwood House==

, where Dido Elizabeth Belle spent most of her life before marriage '' by David Martin, 1778. Painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle (l) and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray (r). '' by John Singleton Copley, 1783. William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Dido Elizabeth Belle's great uncle and de facto guardian The Earl and Countess of Mansfield lived at Kenwood House in Hampstead, just outside the City of London. Childless, they were already raising their motherless great-niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray, born in 1760. It is possible that the Mansfields took Belle in to be Lady Elizabeth's playmate and, later in life, her personal attendant. As a result, Belle was baptised eight months after Lady Elizabeth's arrival. From Lord Mansfield's statement to Hutchinson, Mansfield seemed to have disguised the fact that Belle was his own great niece from the Governor, which created an implication that Hutchinson thought she was Mansfield's mistress. Such a relationship would have been common in the West Indies as his diary implied "I dare say not criminal". A brief reference to Belle occurs in volume II of James Beattie's Elements of Moral Science. Beattie refers to her intelligence, saying "But I happened, a few days after, to see his theory overturned, and my conjecture established by a negro girl about ten years old, who had been six years in England, and not only spoke with the articulation and accent of a native, but repeated some pieces of poetry, with a degree of elegance, which would have been admired in any English child of her years." Mansfield's ruling may have warned some slave owners to not bring their slaves to England, but it did not stop slavery in the colonies. Social position The notion of a biracial child born in this era to be raised as part of an aristocratic British family was virtually unheard of, and the social conventions of Mansfield's household are somewhat unclear. A 2007 exhibit at Kenwood suggests that Belle's African origins may have played a part in the disparity, yet it was also usual to treat illegitimate children as lesser family, therefore she was not permitted to dine in with guests, as was reported by Thomas Hutchinson. As Belle grew older, she took on the responsibility of managing the dairy and poultry yards at Kenwood. This was a typical occupation for ladies of the gentry, but helping her uncle with his correspondence was less usual. This was normally done by a male secretary or a clerk. However, Elizabeth was never recorded managing dairy or poultry yards. Thomas Hutchinson also remarked on Belle's position in 1779 "She is a sort of Superintendent over the dairy, poultry yard, &c., which we visited, and she was called upon by my Lord every minute for this thing and that, and shewed the greatest attention to everything he said." Lord Mansfield would also take Elizabeth riding with him to visit their neighbours, as noted by Mrs. Boscawen, but not Belle. For comparison, the annual wage of a female domestic worker holding the position of a housekeeper in a high-status household ranged from £20 to £70 at that time, while a lieutenant in the Royal Navy would draw about £100 a year. About £200 purchased a 3-bedroom house with garden outside the city of London. In Lord Mansfield's will written and directed by himself, Mansfield did not acknowledge Belle as his niece; by contrast, he referred to Lady Elizabeth, Lady Anne, and Lady Margery Murray all as his nieces. Other contemporary accounts Mary Hamilton (1756–1816), diarist, served Queen Charlotte as royal governess. She wrote in her diary that in spring 1784, her first cousin Lady Stormont and her stepdaughter Lady Elizabeth were invited to a royal ball at Carlton house by The Prince of Wales. Evidently, Belle was not invited to the ball. Throughout Hamilton's diary, she never once mentioned Belle, despite her numerous visits to Kenwood, in which she had described all members of the Murray family, including Lady Elizabeth, Elizabeth's three half siblings, two unmarried aunts, old Lord Mansfield, even the parish priest. Dido was apparently excluded from excursions to church, tours of Kenwood, and other family outings that were attended by Hamilton, which seems to consolidate Belle's awkward position in the household. ==Later life==

Lady Mansfield died on 10 April 1784 after a long illness; thus Elizabeth's two aunts, Lady Anne and Lady Margery, took charge of the household accounts. On 15 December 1785, Lady Elizabeth married George Finch Hatton, a rich aristocratic gentleman, Lady Mansfield's nephew and heir to Earl of Winchilsea and Earl of Nottingham after his unmarried first cousin. Their wedding was witnessed by Lord Stormont and Lord Mansfield. Elizabeth, Belle's companion all their young lives, thus left Kenwood at the age of 25 and began her married life between her husband's two vast estates Kirby Hall and Eastwell Park. Elizabeth Palmer and her half brother John Lindsay were known to keep in contact. Belle's legal status while Lord Mansfield was alive is uncertain. In his will, written in 1783 and published in 1793, Lord Mansfield officially confirmed or conferred Belle's freedom, but unlike Lady Elizabeth, he did not refer to Belle as his niece. In 1799, Belle also inherited £100 from Lady Margery Murray, one of two unmarried aunts who had previously come to live with and help care for the Murrays in their later years. Lord Mansfield left his niece Lady Elizabeth Murray £10,000. Her father was in line to inherit his uncle's title and entire wealth; he further gave Elizabeth £7,000 more. Belle's husband was a French servant from Ducey in Normandy. His date of birth is unknown, but he was baptised on 16 November 1768; assuming this happened shortly after birth, he was seven years younger than his wife. He had left France for England towards the end of the 1780s and found work as valet or steward, the terminology of his occupation varies on different sources, but his employer John ('Fish') Craufurd died in 1814, and in his will, he referred John Davinière firmly as "his valet". They were both then residents of the parish. The Daviniers had at least three sons: twins Charles and John, both baptised at St George's on 8 May 1795; and then William Thomas, baptised there on 26 January 1802. The six year gap period between pregnancies suggests she might have been unwell. During her time at Kenwood, she was known to receive expensive medical care. They became neighbors amongst the working class like gardener, baker, clock maker, barber, and butcher. ==Ancestry==

Two of Belle's sons, William Thomas and Charles, were employed by the East India Company: William in England, and Charles in India. Presumably, both of them had enjoyed a private school education in their childhood, with tuition in English, Greek, Latin, French, accounting, land surveying, mathematics and drawing. Becoming major in 1841, Davinière retired on health grounds in 1845 Nonetheless, he was promoted one more time, to lieutenant colonel of the Madras Infantry, in 1855. The reason seems unclear; possibly he was reactivated for an unknown number of years. Charles Davinière married Hannah Nash, the youngest daughter of J. Nash, Esquire of Kensington, at Kensington Church in August 1836. After his (final) retirement, Charles lived with his wife, children, and servants at Lansdowne Villas in Notting Hill, where he died on 24 January 1873. William Thomas Davinière married a widow, Fanny Graham, and had a daughter, Emily. Emily died unmarried in 1870, several years after the death of her parents. Belle's last known descendant was her great-great-grandson, Harold Davinier, a motor mechanic who died childless and left an estate of £250 in South Africa in 1975. ==Representation in media==

18th-century portrait painting The family commissioned British artist David Martin to paint a double portrait of Belle and her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray, completed in 1778. According to Historic England, the painting is "unique in British art of the 18th century in depicting a black woman and a white woman as near equals". The 2013 film Belle (see below) drew inspiration from the painting. • The painting features as the modern cover of The Woman of Colour, an anonymously written 1808 novel about a mixed-race heiress named Olivia and her black slave Dido. • An African Cargo by Margaret Busby, a play staged by Black Theatre Co-operative (now NitroBeat) featuring actor Jeffery Kissoon at Greenwich Theatre, 2007, in commemoration of the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, deals with a landmark 1783 trial presided over by Lord Mansfield at the Guildhall, resulting from the Zong massacre. The character of Dido Belle expresses to the audience feelings of horror and injustice for the murder of the slaves on the ship. • Let Justice Be Done by Suchitra Chatterjee and Maureen Hicks, a play put on by the Mixed Blessings Theatre Group was premiered at the 2008 Brighton Fringe and explored the influence that Dido Belle might have had on her great-uncle's Somersett Ruling of 1772. • Belle (2013), a highly fictionalised feature film directed by Amma Asante, explores Dido's life as the multiracial natural daughter of an aristocrat in 18th-century England, who became an heiress but occupied an ambiguous social position. The film is based on the 1779 painting of Dido and her cousin Elizabeth. The film stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dido and Tom Wilkinson as her guardian Lord Mansfield. • Fern Meets Dido (2018), A musical written by Evadne Bygrave based on the book Fern and Kate Meet Dido Elizabeth Belle by David Gleave. The story of a modern-day young biracial girl, disaffected at school and uncertain about her identity. On a school trip to Kenwood House, something magical happens, and she goes back in time and meets Dido. • I, Dido (2018), a three-handed play by Non Vaughan-O'Hagan was commissioned by St George's Bloomsbury where Dido was baptised. The play explores the relationship between Dido, Lord Mansfield and Lady Betty. Act I takes place on the night of 6 June 1780, when the Mansfields' home in Bloomsbury Square was destroyed in the Gordon Riots. Act II takes place in Kenwood House six years later, after the death of Lady Betty. The play has also been adapted as a short film of the same name, directed by Penelope Shales-Slyne. • The character of Katherine "Kitty" Higham is inspired by Dido in the BBC TV series Ghosts. Novels • Family Likeness, a 2013 novel by Caitlin Davies, was inspired in part by the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle. • Author Paula Byrne was commissioned to write Belle: The True Story of Dido Belle (2014) as a tie-in to the 2013 film Belle. It was published in paperback and as an audiobook when the movie opened in the United States. • Zadie Smith mentions the story of Belle in her 2016 novel Swing Time when the narrator goes to Kenwood House and overhears a tour guide talking about her. • The short-story collection The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, by Emma Donoghue, contains a short story called "Dido", about Dido Elizabeth Belle. • Dangerous Freedom, a 2021 historical novel about Dido Belle by Lawrence Scott, the story was largely spun from a lot of known facts about Dido Elizabeth Belle. • Dido Elizabeth Belle features as one of the two central characters in The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Drama and Danger by children's author J.T. Williams, published in 2022. This is the first of series of historical novels set in eighteenth century London, anchored around the imagined friendship of Dido Belle with Elizabeth "Lizzie" Sancho, daughter of Ignatius Sancho. ==References==