ABSTRACT
Ranging from children redeemed from slavery either directly by the CMS or through the judicial process of the Vice Admiralty Court, to children emerging from comparatively privileged backgrounds, those passing through these schools experienced a remarkable trajectory. Like Richard Wilkinson, Simeon Wilhelm accompanied a CMS missionary to England. The presence of Caulker from the first record at Bashia in 1809 is of particular interest, as that family's influence on the Banana Islands and on Plantain Island shaped the early history of the colony due to conflict between branches of the family. stephen Caulker then appears in the pupil lists at Yongroo Pomoh, aged 15, though he is recorded as a pupil as opposed to an assistant. The Caulkers were an old Afro-European family along the upper Guinea coast; one which navigated the power dynamic between European traders and local chiefdoms for generations.
