Frances Duff's Jamaican Inheritance

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1:39Dana Schwartz:Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manke. Listener discretion advised. In July 1738, Jamaica's House of Assembly convened in St. Diego de la Vega for what seemed to be an ordinary day of legislative business. In that room were some of the richest men in Britain's richest Caribbean colony, likely dressed in light linen shirts to weather the heat. While these men were elected officials, they were hardly representative of the population. At this time, around 100 ,000 enslaved Africans lived in Jamaica, outnumbering the white population of the island 10 to 1.

2:31But these white, propertied elites who built their fortunes on sugar plantations and the enslaved people who worked on them wrote the laws that governed the colony. One topic of discussion was a private petition from a woman named Susanna Aguir. Susanna was mixed race. Her father was a white planter, and her mother was enslaved on his plantation. Her mother's name did not survive the historical record. Susanna was born into slavery, but had been freed sometime before her father died in 1722. We don't know exactly how Susanna was freed, but she went on to have a number of relationships with white plantation owners and bore six children.

3:26Free people of color like Susanna and her children occupied an uneasy middle position in Jamaican society. They could own property and businesses and, in some cases, amass a significant amount of wealth, But they couldn't vote, inherit large amounts of property, or testify in court, and they were saddled with additional fees and taxes. Their position was only made more uneasy in 1728 when the assembly ruled that anyone with more than one black great-grandparent could not legally be white, out of a fear that the colony's growing mixed-race population might side with the enslaved in a rebellion.

4:20In the summer of 1738, Susanna had brought a petition before the assembly to grant herself and two of her daughters, quote, the same rights and privileges with English subjects born of white parents, end quote. Susanna was the second recorded individual and the first woman to submit a private bill like this to the Jamaican Assembly. Although Susanna was born into slavery with an African parent, she was asking the House of Assembly to grant herself and her daughters whiteness under the eyes of the law. On July 19, 1738, the Jamaican Assembly approved Susanna's petition. She had taken great pains to show the Assembly that she was no threat to the white, propertied Jamaican elite.

5:22In spite of her origins, Susanna had come to own a share of a sugar plantation, which included both land and enslaved human beings. Her daughters had a Church of England education, and their father had a number of plum posts in the legal elite as the provost marshal and sergeant at Mace of the Jamaican High Court of Admiralty. It was not cheap to lodge a petition with the assembly. It cost 90 pounds, roughly the price of, according to historian Miranda Kaufman, three enslaved people. Susanna's petition would set her two daughters up for riches and status far beyond even the considerable wealth she had managed to earn in her own life.

6:14One of these daughters, Frances, who was just nine in 1738, would go on to marry a Scottish aristocrat, the youngest son of the first Earl of Fife. In doing so, she became the first heiress of African ancestry,

6:33Dana Schwartz:as far as we know, to join the British aristocracy. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood.

6:45By the time Frances Dalzell was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1729, her mother Susanna had already had four other children. Three of these were with Peter Coyard, a prosperous merchant in Kingston. Peter was a friend and business partner of Susanna's father, and he eventually entered into a sexual relationship with Susanna when she was around 13 and Peter was in his 50s. These types of arrangements between white enslavers and Black or mixed heritage women were commonplace in the Caribbean. As Miranda Kaufman put it, these relationships, quote, existed on a spectrum from brutal rape to long-term cohabitation, but always involved a coercive element or, at best, an extreme imbalance of power.

7:41In 1725, when Peter was 60 and Susanna was 17, she had her first daughter by Peter and would go on to have two more children in 1726 and 1728. Peter died the same month that their youngest child was born, leaving Susanna with a massive fortune, which included several properties in Kingston and San Diego de la Vega, a plantation in St. Andrew, and two cattle pen and two plots of land in St. Catherine, all of which was worth an estimated 26 ,150 pounds. Kaufman speculates that Peter even bought Susanna's freedom a few years earlier, sometime before her father died in 1722. Although no surviving evidence confirms that, it does explain a curious detail in Susanna's father's will.

8:40After his death, his will ensured the manumission of many of his enslaved children and left them part of his inheritance, which was extremely rare for the time. But he did not free Susanna, nor did he leave anything for her in his will. Kaufman infers that her father had left Susanna out because he knew that his friend and colleague Peter had already freed her and offered her tremendous financial support. After Peter's death, Susanna began a relationship with another wealthy merchant, Gibson Dalzell, who had left Scotland as a young man and built a fortune in Jamaica's booming sugar economy. Gibson was far closer to Susanna's age at this point than Peter had been and appeared to show her and her children affection throughout their relationship.

9:37But there is no evidence of her feelings for him. In any case, their relationship was unequal at its core. As a free woman of color, Susanna's legal rights still depended on his goodwill. Gibson and Susanna conceived Francis the year they met. Susanna raised Francis in a townhouse that had once belonged to Peter in Water Lane in Kingston. After Susanna's petition successfully guaranteed her and her children's legal whiteness, Francis left for boarding school in Britain in the fall of 1738. Francis was lucky to go to boarding school at the time she did. At the end of the 18th century, elite schools would crack down on admissions to people of mixed heritage.

10:30But in the 1730s, thousands of young people of color left the Caribbean to attend British schools. The Jamaican enslaver and historian Edward Long explained that mixed-race children quote, are often sent to the most expensive public schools where the history of their parentage is entirely unknown. They pass under the general name of West Indians, and the bronze of their complexion is ignorantly ascribed to the fervor of the sun in the torrid zone. End quote. In Francis's case, this may have only been partially true. Francis's grandfather, Robert Dalzell, was her closest relative in London, but it seems that he may have received her coolly.

11:21In spite of his wealth, his sister-in-law paid Francis's tuition instead. Perhaps her grandfather treated Francis with such distance because she represented Gibson's life in Jamaica, which to Robert seemed like an undignified dalliance from a real career in London. In 1743, a few years after Francis left Jamaica for school, Robert ordered Gibson to return to England. He promised that he would set his son up with a job, a townhouse, a coach, quote, everything he likes. Robert may have even used his granddaughter as a bargaining chip. Although she was too young to marry, Robert said that if Gibson returned to England and picked out a good match for her, He, Robert, would, quote, give her a fortune, according to a letter from Gibson's aunt.

12:21Much to his father's delight, Gibson arrived in London in 1746, reuniting with 15-year-old Francis for the first time in six years. Robert had secured his son Gibson a prestigious directorship and a lucrative public office in London that would allow him to make a fortune while running his plantations remotely. But Gibson was in London reluctantly, still longing for his life back in Jamaica. Even though Susanna and Gibson were not married, their lives were deeply intertwined. They lived together in Kingston with Francis's younger brother, Bob, who had been born while Francis was away. In 1739, Susanna had bought 300 acres of land that she had transferred to Gibson for a token payment of five shillings.

13:17Gibson expanded it by 1 ,000 acres, transforming it into a sugar plantation called Lucky Hill. In spite of Gibson's protestations, his father convinced him to remain in London. In late 1746, Gibson's son Bob joined him at the Dalzell House in Mayfair to go to a posh elementary school, just like his sister had. Meanwhile, Susanna remained in Jamaica alone. Frances often wore a gold chain that her mother had sent, perhaps as a tribute to her. It was unclear if Frances would ever see her mother again.

14:01Throughout Francis's young adulthood, she and her father tried to stay in touch with Susanna. Both wrote Susanna long letters. Gibson even included affectionate messages for her in his business correspondence. In one, he wrote, Tell her I sincerely wish her health and happiness, which I suppose does qualify as affectionate. But replies were few and far between. In July 1751, Frances was still waiting for her mother to reply to a letter she had sent last November. Susanna had problems of her own to deal with back in Jamaica. In 1748, when one of Susanna's debts led her to transfer a valuable bond Gibson had given her, creditors came after him for more than 2 ,000 pounds.

14:55The crisis forced the family to reorganize Susanna's affairs. Gibson's attorney persuaded her to write a will, leaving her estate to their two children. With his old, imperious father skeptical of his financial dealings in the Caribbean, and his son, too young to understand, Gibson turned to his daughter Frances to discuss his business as if she were his apprentice. He even entrusted her with a copy of his will when she was just 17. Francis, too, was preparing for her future. In March 1756, Francis introduced her father to the man that she hoped to marry, George Duff, a 20-year-old cornet in the 10th Regiment of Dragoons.

15:46He seemed to be besotted with Francis from the jump. After they met at the marriage mart in Bath, he plied her with flowery letters, writing, quote, The power you have over me, you can use me ill or well as you please. And that when they weren't together, quote, I could not be said to live. Francis affectionately called him My Dear Duff, but she was a little more reserved than George was, at least from his perspective. In one letter, he complained she wasn't expressing as much devotion to him as she was to her. But it was hard to compete with George's devotion. He wrote that, quote,

16:39While perhaps a sweet sentiment, it seemed clear that neither of them would have a life of poverty. As the youngest son of William Duff, Lord Bracco of Kilbride, George was rich and titled, educated at Edinburgh and St. Andrews, and about to inherit estates in Banffshire and Moray, yielding over a thousand pounds a year. George approached Francis's father, Gibson, with a similar poetic flair. The day after they met, George wrote to him, I have loved your daughter ever since I had the happiness to know her, and it is in your power and hers to make me happy or miserable forever. I never can be happy without her, but rather than you should be displeased with her, I'll suffer all the torments the world affords.

17:36But before George could formally get Frances' father's permission for her hand in marriage, Gibson died in May 1756 at the age of 58. Frances had to break the news to her mother. She wrote to Susanna, It will always give me great pleasure to hear of your happiness and to serve you in everything in my power, whichever you want, please to command me. Gibson's will placed his assets in trust, the income to be shared equally between his two children. His total personal property in Jamaica was worth£5 ,798, including both land and 133 enslaved people across his plantations. The people he enslaved represented almost 75 % of his wealth.

18:32Additionally, Gibson left Francis the income from several shares of his businesses in London. Unusually, her younger brother Bob would benefit from these assets only in the event of Francis' death without children, suggesting just how much Gibson trusted his daughter. But Gibson had not named a formal executor for his estates in his will, leaving it open to interference from his various trustees. Frances feared that they would use the interests of her 14-year-old younger brother, still too young to advocate for himself, as an excuse to wrest control of the estate. As she put it, she would not, quote, permit any of the trustees in England to interfere, because, in her words, they had treated her, quote, very ill since her father's death.

19:29Francis challenged the arrangement in court. In English law of the time, a beneficiary of a will could apply for probate in situations where no executor was named. In July 1756, Francis won letters of administration, giving her legal control over her father's estate. But she had not managed to inherit the land in Jamaica. To do that, she would need a grant from the governor. She sent copies of the letters of administration and Gibson's will across the Atlantic and appointed two of her father's friends with power of attorney, allowing them to act as her agents on the island. Later that year, the governor granted her responsibility for running her late father's Lucky Hill estate, an extraordinary victory for an unmarried 26-year-old woman.

20:27But even though Frances was able to secure her inheritance, her engagement to George was on less solid ground. In her way was another set of gatekeepers, George's parents.

20:44Dana Schwartz:After George told his parents he was engaged in late 1756, his parents were furious. He received an angry letter from his mother, and his father threatened to disown him. There is no solid evidence as to what exactly about Francis the family disliked, but they had plenty of ammo. In spite of her wealth, Francis was 26 years old, considered old for the time, from Jamaica, had unmarried parents, and had mixed heritage. George's sentimental promises of eternal love wouldn't work on the ambitious, pragmatic Duffs. Kaufman speculates that the Duffs were, quote, self-conscious about their social position.

21:31George's brother and sister had already married unimpressive prospects in their parents' eyes. His brother had seduced his mother's maid, while his sister eloped with a Jacobite. George's father had only held his title since 1735 and feared that his social scene saw them as imposters. But in February 1757, George's parents seemed open to changing their minds. They were impressed by Frances' connection to her grandfather, Robert Dalzell, who was by that point a well-known general and the oldest serving officer in Britain. One of George's uncles described Frances as, quote, a grandchild of General Dalzell's by whom George got a good fortune.

22:25George's father sent two of his relatives to visit the general, quote, to know his mind with regard to the intended marriage and whether he would agree to leave Francis any money, according to a letter he sent to his son. While we don't know what they discussed, it must have pleased the Duffs well enough to consent to Francis's marriage to George. Frances married George Duff on April 7, 1757, at St. Martin in the Fields. But even at that moment she entered married life, Frances was watchful of ways things could go wrong. She kept her marriage a secret for several months, refusing to change her maiden name.

23:12She was still nervous about her father's trustees going after her estate. Because the power of attorney she had sent to Jamaica had been executed under her maiden name, changing her name might give them leeway to question its validity. It wasn't until the end of the year she began to sign her name, Frances Duff, instead of Frances Dalzo. For all of the excitement of her new marriage, Frances was still thinking of Jamaica.

23:46Dana Schwartz:Frances had been contemplating a trip home to take charge of her inheritance in person, and perhaps even to see her mother again after decades of separation. She wrote to one of her business partners,

24:06But the ongoing Seven Years' War made Atlantic crossings slower and more dangerous, so Frances delayed her trip. And by April 1757, Susanna was dead. She had passed suddenly in February, but Francis hadn't found out until May, a month after her wedding. Susanna may have taken pride in seeing how far her daughter had risen, made possible in part by her own determined advocacy. But in a few years, the German Assembly would make that trajectory nearly impossible for anyone else. In 1761, the Jamaica Assembly passed a law limiting inheritances for mixed heritage people to 2 ,000 pounds in Jamaica currency, which would have prevented Frances from amassing the fortune she had fought so hard for.

25:03Although Susanna might have hoped that her 1738 private act would have exempted her daughter from these restrictions, by 1761, that was no longer a guarantee. In a motion to the British government, the Jamaican Assembly even cited Francis's inheritance explicitly as an example of what they were trying to prevent. The legislators wrote about these kinds of inheritance, and as a brief aside, because they use antiquated terms for race, I'll be replacing them in my reading. They wrote that these inheritances, quote, tend to greatly destroy the distinction requisite and absolutely necessary to be kept up in this island between white persons and people of color, their issue and offspring, and may in progress of time, be the means of decreasing the number of white inhabitants.

26:01The state viewed mixed-heritage women like Frances as particular threats to the status quo. The British agent to Jamaica wrote that they needed to be, quote, restrained, or else, quote, a great part of the property of the island will be in the hands of mixed-race people, and, quote, As power ever follows property, the power will then be in their hands. These fears were unfounded, at least in Frances's case. After years apprenticing her father as a teenager, she was prepared to take over the work of operating her father's plantations as they were. She proved herself to be an attentive businesswoman, ordering inventories of every asset and demanding meticulous accounts.

26:53She purchased 20 enslaved people for Lucky Hill in 1757 and instructed her lawyer to brand them with, quote, Our Mark, a common practice at the time. We're not sure exactly what this brand might have looked like. Often it was the owner's initials. Perhaps it was once her father's initials, and then after he died, it might have been hers. As historian Miranda Kaufman puts it, quote,

27:37It is a complicated, fascinating story, a moment in time when a woman of mixed heritage could rise, but only on the terms of a deeply exploitative system.

27:52Dana Schwartz:That's the story of Frances Duff, but stick around to hear about how her story may have influenced a work of classic English literature.

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