James Chappell (servant)
James Chappell (1648–1730) was an English servant of Sir Christopher Hatton. Chappell saved the life of Hatton and his three young daughters in a 1672 explosion at Castle Cornet in Guernsey. Hatton awarded Chappell a £20-a-year pension in his will which he used to set up a household and become landlord of a public house. Chappell is thought to have been the first black English landlord.
Biography
[edit]James Chappell was born in 1648 and, at the age of 15, joined the household of Sir Christopher Hatton as a servant at Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire.[1][2] Chappell accompanied Hatton and his family to Guernsey when Hatton was appointed governor in 1670.[1]
The official residence of the governor was Castle Cornet in the Little Roussel. It was struck by lightning in 1672 which ignited a store of gunpowder, triggering a large explosion that killed Hatton's wife and mother.[1][2] Chappell pulled Hatton and his three young daughters from the rubble, saving their lives.[1][3] Hatton and his household, including Chappell, returned to England later that year and stayed briefly in London,[1] and Chappell's marriage to Elizabeth is likely to be that of "Jacobi Chappell" recorded in the 1672 parish register of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster.[4] Chappell and Elizabeth had a daughter, also named Elizabeth, who was baptised in Gretton, near Kirby Hall, on 10 September 1676. This child died young and was buried in 1679.[4]
Chappell was named as a beneficiary in Hatton's 1695 will, being entitled to a pension of £20 a year for the remainder of his life after Hatton's 1706 death.[1][4] Such a sum was a lifechanging amount in this period, especially as most black servants would neither have been paid nor free to leave service.[1][5]
Chappell's wife died in 1704 and he remarried the following year to Mercy Peach; together they had one daughter, Amey. At this time a Thomas Peach, likely to have been Mercy's father or brother, was the licensee of the Hatton Arms.[4] Chappell used his pension to establish a household near Kirby and became landlord of a public house, which local legend states was the Hatton Arms.[1][4] Chappell is believed to have been the first black landlord in England.[6] He died in 1730.[2]
In 2021 Chappell was featured in an English Heritage exhibition on the African diaspora in English history. A fictionalized painting of Chappell in later life was commissioned from Glory Samjolly, who used a black male model's likeness as Chappell and exhibited at Kirby Hall in June 2021.[5][2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h "Learn: Black Lives in Britain". English Heritage. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
- ^ a b c d Cronin, Kate (9 June 2021). "The hero African servant who saved the life of Sir Christopher Hatton honoured at new Kirby Hall exhibition". Northamptonshire Telegraph. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
- ^ Current Archaeology. A & W. Selkirk. 2002. p. 471.
- ^ a b c d e Habib, Imtiaz (15 May 2017). Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500–1677: Imprints of the Invisible. Routledge. p. 357. ISBN 978-1-317-17394-6.
- ^ a b "The African figures 'forgotten' by England's cultural past". BBC News. 9 June 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
- ^ Quarmby, Katharine (20 April 2005). "Uncovering black history". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 June 2021.