Sarah Forbes Bonetta- c1862. An African lady in Brighton.

1862 - Sarah Forbes Bonetta - The African Princess in Brighton

Miss Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a West African of royal blood, was orphaned in a brutal massacre in her home country at the age of eight.

She was captured and later given to Queen Victoria who, impressed by the girl's natural regal manner and exceptional intelligence, was pleased to give her sanction to be married in St, Nicholas Church in Brighton in August 1862.

The wedding party, which arrived from West Hill Lodge, Brighton in ten carriages and pairs of grays, was made up of White ladies with African gentlemen, and African ladies with White gentlemen. There were sixteen bridesmaids.

In his journal, Captain Frederick Forbes gave an account of his mission with relation to Miss Bonetta:

"I have only to add a few particulars about my extraordinary present 'the African Child' - one of the captives of this dreadful slave-hunt was this interesting girl"

"It is usual to reserve the best born for the high behest of royalty and the immolation on the tombs of the diseased nobility. For one of these ends she has been detained at court for two years, proving, by her not having been sold to slave dealers, that she was of good family".

"She is a perfect genius; she now speaks English well, and has a great talent for music. She has won the affections, but with few exceptions, of all who have known her. She is far in advance of any white child of her age, in aptness of learning, and strength of mind and affection".

Source:
Royal Pavilion, Libraries & Museums archive (Brighton Gazette August 1862)




http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2005/oct/02/art

http://www.black-history.org.uk/bonetta.asp

http://www.pampetty.com/ssmajesty.htm




http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FY3043CC

The print shows a full length portrait against a rustic backdrop of Sarah Forbes Bonetta and her husband James Pinson Labulo Davies. The print is inserted into slits made in the title page of Forbes (1851), opposite the chromolithographed frontispiece showing Sarah Forbes as a young girl. Sarah Forbes was a Yoruba girl captured by the King of Dahomey in 1848 during a war in which her parents were killed. She was given as a present to Commander Forbes when he was visited Dahomey as an emissary of the British Government in 1850, and she subsequently took Forbes' name as well as that of his ship, the 'Bonetta'. She returned to England with Forbes who presented her to Queen Victoria, who in turn gave her over to the Church Missionary Society to be educated. She attended the Female Institution in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and later returned to England where she was placed under the charge of Mr and Mrs Schön at Chatham. In 1862 she married, at Brighton, James Pinson Labulo Davies, a merchant of Sierra Leonean origin who later settled in Lagos where he was a member of the Legislative Council from 1872-74 (in which year Lagos Colony was for a time amalgated into the Gold Coast). This photograph was probably taken shortly after their marriage. Sarah Forbes Bonetta died in 1880, aged about 43.