Dido Elizabeth Belle (June 1761 – July 1804) was a British gentlewoman. She was born into slavery as the illegitimate daughter of a Royal Navy officer. Her father was Sir John Lindsay, a British career naval officer who was later knighted and promoted to admiral. Her mother was Maria Belle, an enslaved Black woman in the British West Indies. Lindsay took Dido with him when he returned to England in 1765, entrusting her upbringing to his uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and his wife Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Mansfield. The Murrays educated Belle, bringing her up as a free gentlewoman at their Kenwood House, together with another great-niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray, whose mother had died. Lady Elizabeth and Belle were second cousins. Belle lived there for 30 years. In his will of 1793, Lord Mansfield provided an outright sum and an annuity to her.
Early life
Dido Elizabeth Belle was born into slavery in 1761 in the British West Indies to an enslaved African woman known as Maria Belle and spent part of her childhood in Pensacola in Spanish Florida, where Captain Lindsay was stationed from 1764 to 1765. (Her name was spelled as Maria Bell in Dido's baptism record.) Her father was 24-year-old Sir John Lindsay, a member of the Lindsay of Evelix branch of the Clan Lindsay, who was a career naval officer and then captain of the British warship , based in the West Indies. He was the son of Sir Alexander Lindsay, 3rd Baronet and his wife Amelia, daughter of David Murray, 5th Viscount Stormont. Lindsay is thought to have found Dido's mother, Maria Belle, held as a slave on a Spanish ship which his forces captured in the Caribbean. Maria Belle was a 14-year-old child slave when she was captured, around the same time she got pregnant by Lindsay, and gave birth to Dido when she was about 15 years old. Her age was confirmed by the Pensacola property record about her later life: "the manumission transaction for the sum of two hundred Spanish milled dollars paid by Maria Belle a Negro Woman Slave about 28 years of age", dated 22 August 1774; this confirmed that Maria Belle was about 14 when Dido was conceived; it is unlikely that the conception was consensual.
Sir John Lindsay returned to London after the war in 1765 with his young daughter and Maria Belle; a year later, he presumably took Dido to Kenwood House in 1766, home of his uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and his wife. Belle was baptised as Dido Elizabeth Belle in November 1766 at St George's, Bloomsbury, by her mother, Maria Belle, but Lindsay was absent from the baptism record and likely wasn't in England around this time, as he appeared in Jamaican birth records instead for his two daughters, Ann in November 1766 and Elizabeth in December 1766.
Dido Belle was not publicly acknowledged by her father, Sir John Lindsay, hence she was not given the last name Lindsay, and instead used her mother's last name. Dido also did not receive inheritance or acknowledgement from her father's later will, unlike her half-siblings. Despite being named after the legendary Queen of Carthage, Dido was also a popular name given to female slaves at the time. Dido was then raised at Kenwood with her second cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray, whose mother had died.
Lindsay married Mary Milner (1740–1799) in 1768. They had no children together. Maria Belle was known to have remained in England with Lindsay until 1774, when Lindsay having made her free and paid for her manumission, also transferred a piece of property in Pensacola to Maria, where she was required to build a house within 10 years; Maria Belle appeared in the Pensacola property record and her manumission paper. In 1776, Lindsay jointly bought a slave plantation in Nevis.
Sir John Lindsay would father a total of five illegitimate children from five different women: Dido Belle in June 1761, John Edward Lindsay in February 1762, Ann Lindsay in November 1766, Elizabeth Lindsay (later Palmer) in December 1766, and John Lindsay in November 1767. Only the latter two were named in his will.
A contemporary obituary of Sir John Lindsay, who had eventually been promoted to admiral, assumed that he was the father of Dido Belle, and included the statement: "[H]e has died, we believe, without any legitimate issue but has left one natural daughter, a Mulatta who has been brought up in Lord Mansfield's family almost from her infancy and whose amiable disposition and accomplishments have gained her the highest respect from all his Lordship's relations and visitants." At one time, historians thought her mother was an African slave on a ship captured by Lindsay's warship during the Siege of Havana, but this specific date is unlikely, as Dido was born in 1761. The obituary also failed to mention the existence of John and Elizabeth Lindsay, named in Sir John Lindsay's will.
At Kenwood House
The Earl and Countess of Mansfield lived at Kenwood House in Hampstead, just outside the City of London. Childless, they were already raising their motherless great-niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray, born in 1760. It is possible that the Mansfields took Belle in to be Lady Elizabeth's playmate and, later in life, her personal attendant. As a result, Belle was baptised eight months after Lady Elizabeth's arrival. Her role within the family suggests that Belle became more that of a lady's companion than a lady's maid.
At Kenwood House, Belle worked in the dairy and poultry yard and as an amanuensis for Lord Mansfield in his later years.
Belle lived at Kenwood House for 31 years. Her position was unusual because she had been born into slavery according to colonial law. Lord and Lady Mansfield treated her well and brought her up as an educated woman. As she grew older, she often assisted Mansfield by taking dictation of his letters, which showed she had been educated.
One of Mansfield's friends, American Thomas Hutchinson, a former governor of Massachusetts who as a Loyalist had moved to London, recalled in his personal diary a visit to Kenwood in 1779 that Belle "was called upon by my Lord every minute for this thing and that, and showed the greatest attention to everything he said". He described her as "neither handsome nor genteel – pert enough".
He also talked about his first impressions of her at Lord Mansfield's house, saying, "A Black came in after dinner and sat with the ladies, and after coffee, walked with the company in the gardens, one of the young ladies having her arm within the other. She had a very high cap, and her wool was much frizzled in her neck, but not enough to answer the large curls now in fashion. I knew her history before, but my Lord mentioned it again. Sir Lindsay, having taken her mother prisoner in a Spanish vessel, brought her to England, where she delivered of this girl, of which she was then with child, and which was taken care of by Lord M., and has been educated by his family. He calls her Dido, which I suppose is all the name she has. He knows he has been reproached for showing a fondness for her – I dare say not criminal".
From Lord Mansfield's statement to Hutchinson, Mansfield seemed to have disguised the fact that Belle was his own great niece from the Governor, which created an implication that Hutchinson thought she was Mansfield's mistress. Such a relationship would have been common in the West Indies as his diary implied "I dare say not criminal".
A brief reference to Belle occurs in volume II of James Beattie's Elements of Moral Science. Beattie refers to her intelligence, saying "But I happened, a few days after, to see his theory overturned, and my conjecture established by a negro girl about ten years old, who had been six years in England, and not only spoke with the articulation and accent of a native, but repeated some pieces of poetry, with a degree of elegance, which would have been admired in any English child of her years." Following this is a footnote which states, "She was in Lord Mansfield's family; and at his desire, and in his presence, repeated those pieces of poetry to me. She was called Dido, and I believe is still alive." This and the quotations from Thomas Hutchinson are some of the few direct references to Belle found in primary source material. However, neither Beattie nor Hutchinson were aware of Belle's familial ties to Lord Mansfield.
Lord Mansfield ruled on a related matter of the status of slaves in England in his capacity as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. When called on in 1772 to judge Somerset v Stewart, the case of an escaped slave whose owner wanted to send him back to the West Indies for sale, Mansfield tried hard to prevent the case coming to trial; Mansfield also suggested to Somerset's abolitionist protectors to buy him from Stewart, but they refused. The case went for trial, and he decreed:
Mansfield ruled that slavery did not exist in common law and had never been introduced by positive law. He later said his decision was intended only to apply to the slave at issue in the case. Mansfield's ruling may have warned some slave owners to not bring their slaves to England, but it did not stop slavery in the colonies. Later his ruling was used by the abolitionists to argue that slavery was abolished in England.
At the time, it was suggested that Mansfield's personal experience with raising Dido Belle influenced his decision. Thomas Hutchinson later recalled a comment by a slave-owner: "A few years ago there was a cause before his Lordship brought by a Black for recovery of his liberty. A Jamaican planter, being asked what judgment his Lordship would give, answered] 'No doubt ... he will be set free, for Lord Mansfield keeps a Black in his house which governs him and the whole family.
Social position The notion of a biracial child born in this era to be raised as part of an aristocratic British family was virtually unheard of, and the social conventions of Mansfield's household are somewhat unclear. A 2007 exhibit at Kenwood suggests that Belle's African origins may have played a part in the disparity, yet it was also usual to treat illegitimate children as lesser family, therefore she was not permitted to dine in with guests, as was reported by Thomas Hutchinson. He said Belle joined the ladies afterwards for coffee in the drawing-room. In 2014, author Paula Byrne wrote that Belle's exclusion from this particular dinner was pragmatic rather than the custom. She notes that other aspects of Belle's life, such as being given expensive medical treatments and luxurious bedroom furnishings, were evidence of her position as Lady Elizabeth's equal at Kenwood.Start the Week, BBC Radio 4, 14 April 2014.
As Belle grew older, she took on the responsibility of managing the dairy and poultry yards at Kenwood. This was a typical occupation for ladies of the gentry, but helping her uncle with his correspondence was less usual. This was normally done by a male secretary or a clerk. However, Elizabeth was never recorded managing dairy or poultry yards. Thomas Hutchinson also remarked on Belle's position in 1779 "She is a sort of Superintendent over the dairy, poultry yard, &c., which we visited, and she was called upon by my Lord every minute for this thing and that, and shewed the greatest attention to everything he said."
Although Lady Elizabeth attended Royal balls and parties with her father, Belle apparently was not allowed to attend. Belle was even absent from the ball thrown by Elizabeth's stepmother in 1782. Lord Mansfield would also take Elizabeth riding with him to visit their neighbours, as noted by Mrs. Boscawen, but not Belle.