It
is one of Kensal Green’s more mysterious mausoleums, a forbidding Egyptian
revival fortress built of massive purple-black granite blocks with a pair of
imposing columns flanking the entrance supporting a portico with a double
headed winged Uraeus. The entrance has been bricked up and cemented over,
entombing its several occupants as securely as any pharaoh in the Valley of the
Kings. The owner of the mausoleum was Henry Adderley of Inverness Terrace,
Bayswater and Nassau, New Providence in the Bahamas who died on 11 July 1875
and who was, as you would expect from such a magnificent final resting place, a
very wealthy man.
The
will, dated March 26,1872. Mr. Henry Adderley, formerly the Island New
Providence, but late of No. 76, Inverness Terrace, Bayswatar, who died on July
11 last, was proved on the 10th Aug. by Mrs. Mary Adderley, the widow, Augustus
John Adderley, Edward Adderley, and Charles Adderley, the sons; and Geo. David
Harris, the son-in-law, the acting executors, the personal estate being sworn
under £250,000. The testator bequeaths his furniture and effects to his wife,
with a pecuniary legacy of £2OOO for her immediate need, and present legacies
to his children and three of his grandchildren, directs all his real estate,
whether is Great Britain or elsewhere, be sold and the whole income of the
residue of his property gives to his wife for life, and at her death he gives
such residue to all his children in equal shares.
Brechin Advertiser - Tuesday 14
September 1875 (from the Illustrated London News)
Henry Adderley was born on 03 October 1803 in
Nassau to Nehemiah and Harriet Adderley. Nehemiah was also a native-born
Bahamian but Henry’s grandfather Abraham, had been born in England in 1736 and had
settled in New Providence by way of Bermuda. Henry married Mary Ann Perpall in
1828, the daughter of Juan Perpall, originally from Minorca, but like the
Adderleys a successful merchant and trader in Nassau. The couple went on to
have 12 children. As the Adderleys and Perpalls lived and worked in the Caribbean
they were inevitably involved in human trafficking. Nehemiah inherited 16 slaves from his father
Abraham when he died in 1816. The 1825 slave register shows Nehemiah owned 21
slaves, 12 males and 9 females, the oldest 78 year old Hannah and the youngest 1
month old Harry (the full list, if you are interested, is Emanuel 55, Gouk 42, Quamina
51, Bob 53, Hannah 78, Jenny 54, Sam 39,
Toby 31, Jacob 25, Bess 41, Joe 40, Charles 24, Matilda 39, Rachael 49, Betty 29,
Phoeby 25, Fanny 13, Sally 19, Harry 1, Nanny 17, and Tom 2 . Poor Jessamy had
died the previous September and so was removed from the register). 22 year old Henry was not listed as owning
any slaves but did make a declaration on behalf of his younger brother George
who was a minor and therefore could not sign himself as owner of Jack, a 25 year
old creole black. The Perpalls declared 18 slaves that year. Unlike the
Adderleys some of their slaves are listed as mulattos, 9 year old Sue and 5
year old Charlotte. They had, in the previous twelve months, sold two other female mulattos to James May Esq. Perhaps Juan, or one of his older sons, was exercising
droit de seigneur with their powerless chattels.
 |
| Henry's declaration of slave ownership on behalf of his younger brother. |
Henry
became a prosperous merchant in Nassau but acquired a degree of notoriety when
he availed himself of the business opportunities offered by the Confederates
during the American Civil War. A letter
sent to Henry from Richmond Virginia on July 30 1861 was intercepted by the US
government:
My
Dear Adderley; the Secretary of the Navy of the Confederate States of America
has ordered from England, to be shipped to Nassau, a quantity of arms and
powder. I have recommended them to be consigned to you, and I have to ask of
you as a favour to me to take good care of them. I will be with you soon, and I
expect your aid in transshipping the same. I must request you to regard this as
a confidential communication, and will explain the reasons when we meet. You
need not write me at all on the subject. Hoping to see you soon.
I
remain your friend
Jno.
P. Baldwin
The
Union strongly protested to the Duke of Newcastle, the then Secretary of State for
the Colonies about the blockade busting activities of Henry Adderley & Co. and an investigation by HM Government was launched. Henry denied receiving any ‘warlike
stores’ from England and expressed his concern at the US Government’s
interference with the mails. He seemed unfazed by the accusations of gun running
on behalf of the Confederates and within a couple of weeks he audaciously
requested the Lieutenant Governor of the
Bahamas provide a convoy of navy vessels to protect his ship Ella Warley as the
captain was ‘apprehensive that is the intention of the commanders of the two
or three United State’s men-of-war, which are said to be cruising in British
waters in the vicinity of this place and the Hole-in-the wall passage, to
capture his vessel.’ The request was curtly declined.
Official
scrutiny of his business activities and apparent governmental disapproval (even
if no action was actually taken against him) coupled with the declining fortunes
of the confederates may have prompted Henry to uproot himself and his family from
Nassau and move to England. In July 1862 in an article about blockade runners The
New York Times reported that “the steamer Bahama sailed from here, for
Liverpool, about a fortnight ago, taking among her passengers the celebrated
HENRY ADDERLEY. He may return via New-York, and a sharp lookout should be kept
for him.” Henry seems to have heeded the warning and as far as we can tell
never returned to Nassau via New York or indeed any other route. In London he
bought 76 Inverness Terrace, a large terraced house in Bayswater just north of
Hyde Park. His daughter Eliza Margaret was already living in the same street with
her husband Sir George David Harris JP who had also been a member of the
Colonial Parliament of the Bahamas. The Harris family were already well established
in London and the firm of S&H Harris, based in Mansell Street, Goodman
Fields, manufactured blackings and polishes for leatherware using their well-known
'black but beautiful' logo (the telling use of the word ‘but’ in that sentence
comes from the Song of Solomon “I am black, but comely…”). Henry and his
brother Augustus used the Harris’ Mansell street address as their contact when
they invested heavily in the London and Westminster Bank in 1868. Henry seems
to have retired from active business after moving to England other than making occasional
investments of his substantial capital.
In
1833 when slavery was first abolished in some parts of the British Empire the
Government pledged £20 million, 40% of the national budget, to compensate slave
owners. Henry’s father received almost £300 in compensation for the
emancipation of Emanuel, Gouk, Quamina and the rest. The debt incurred by Earl
Grey’s Government took 182 years to pay off. The final settling of the
emancipation debt would probably have gone unnoticed if the treasury had not
tweeted a ‘Surprising Friday Fact’ on 09 Feb 2018 saying that “millions of you
helped end the slave trade through your taxes” and pointing out that it had taken
until 2015 to clear the cost of Earl Grey’s commitment to slave owners. The
treasury was startled by the reaction of British tax payers who had no idea
they were still paying for compensation to the beneficiaries of the slave trade. Descendants of former slaves
who were now British taxpayers were particularly put out to find out that they
had been footing the bill for setting their own great great great great
grandparents free. Former slaves received no compensation, of course, for having
their lives and liberties stolen from them. As well as passing their
compensation bill to their slaves’ descendants the Adderleys and Perpalls also
passed their surnames. The Bahamas contains the highest concentration of these
two surnames in the world – one in every 112 people in the Bahamas are an
Adderley and one in every 2433 is still a Perpall.
