A Legacy of Slave-ownership in Deddington

Sarah &Thomas Hayle and Anna Hayle – Compensation on abolition of slavery

Rob Forsyth

In 1833,  the year in which the Abolition of Slavery Act received Royal Assent, slave ownership was widespread amongst the gentry and professional monied classes in much the same way that investment in equities is today. Many well-off farmers, doctors, country parsons and shop owners had a share of plantation ‘livestock’ as slaves were called. One of the facts about the history of slavery to emerge in recent weeks has been the surprising revelation that the £20M the Government borrowed (40% of then national income), with which to pay compensation to the  owners of slaves under the Act,  was not paid off until 2015. Not so surprising was that this  compensation – over £2Bn today -  was a big enough bribe to quell any real opposition to abolition. Politics never change.

It was interesting to discover that a  family in Deddington  – always a microcosm of the larger  world – received compensation for the slaves they owned on Jamaica plantations. That I know this is entirely due to our eldest  granddaughter researching the subject at Sussex University for an essay. She entered the name of Deddington into an extensive database of slave owners compiled by University College London (UCL). Three names appeared which she passed to me and I probed deeper.

Thomas Hayle (32), Surgeon, and his wife Sarah (28*) were recorded on the 1841 parish census as living on New Street together with Thomas’ half-sister Anna (50) and the Hayles two children aged two and 6 months. 

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* this entry appears to say 25 but census age recording is often innacurate. Other sources, including later census, give her year of birth as 1813 which makes her 28 in 1841.

Further research on the UCL website and elsewhere revealed that Thomas and  Sarah had both been  born in Jamaica as children of plantation owners. At some stage  Sarah had inherited a large share in a plantation called Dunbarton from her grandfather and Thomas and his half-sister both owned slaves on another plantation called Clarendon. Between the three of them they owned 276 slaves and received compensation in total of £5137 8s 5d. This is the equivalent of £615,500 today. 60% of this sum was due to Sarah because of her inheritance. This must have been akin to winning a Lottery Jackpot.  Possibly as a consequence of this sudden wealth, the family moved to Jesmond – a well-off suburb of Newcastle  – before the 1851 census .

With very large individual sums like this involved,  it is no wonder that such a vast amount of money had to be borrowed by Government and became part of the National Debt. 183 years seems an overlong time to pay it off but an HM Treasury ‘Freedom of Information’ statement last year explained that  this is not unusual because of the nature of the borrowing which was in the form of undated Gilts paying a ‘coupon’ (interest) of 4% .

Rev’d Cotton Risley is not recorded as being a slave owner and his diaries, which start in 1835,  make no reference to the subject other than on 29 October 1853 -  some  20 years after the Act but slavery still existed with other nations -  “…a black man named Benson came…” “…the black gent for the use of the new Schools which I could not grant to lecture in against slavery.” “…he came just as I was washing for dinner – sent a message to him but did not see him”. One can only speculate why he ‘could not grant to lecture in...'.

Additional research