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In the Nick of Time Anti-slavery campaigner Granville Sharp had a court order preventing Thomas Lewis being shipped off to slavery, but he had to find him first.
1771
King George III 1760-1820
Music: Sir William Sterndale Bennett

© Christine Matthews, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

Looking across Spithead to Nettlestone Point on the Isle of Wight.

In the Nick of Time
Granville Sharp (1735-1813), a clergyman’s son from Durham, was a vigorous anti-slavery campaigner, whose perseverance saved many lives. Among them was that of Thomas Lewis, whose fate was decided at a sensational trial on 20th February, 1771.

AN African boy named Thomas Lewis was snatched at night by two boatmen working for Robert Stapylton, a wealthy plantation-owner from Chelsea. Thomas was gagged with a stick, tied up, and put aboard a ship bound for Jamaica.

Granville Sharp got to hear of it from Mrs Banks,* Stapylton’s next-door neighbour. He rushed over to Gravesend, but the ship had moved, so Sharp obtained a writ of Habeas Corpus, and served it on Stapylton at Spithead, just as the vessel was to leave the country. Thomas was discovered chained to the main mast, bathed in tears and gazing back helplessly at England.

Sharp tried to settle out of court, but Stapylton refused, hoping to bankrupt Sharp with legal costs.

With his customary caution, the judge, Lord Mansfield, asked the jury to rule not on slavery itself, but on whether anyone could prove ownership of Thomas. The jury decided that no one could, and Mansfield set Thomas free.

Dorothea Banks was the wife of Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist who sailed with captain James Cook.

Précis

A plantation-owner from Chelsea named Robert Stapylton kidnapped Thomas Lewis, a young African boy, and prepared to take him to Jamaica. A neighbour heard the commotion, and got anti-slavery campaigner Granville Sharp involved. Stapylton insisted on taking the matter to court, but the jury found against him, and Lewis was set free. (52 / 60 words)

Source

Based on the Memoirs of Granville Sharp, and Samuel Smiles’s ‘Self-Help’.

Suggested Music

Piano Concerto No.5 in F Minor (1836)

3: Presto agitato

Sir William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875)

Performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with Malcolm Binns (piano) conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite.

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