ABSTRACT
Ignatius Sancho (1729–80) was born aboard a slave ship sailing towards the Spanish West Indies. His mother soon fell sick and died; his father committed suicide rather than lead a life in captivity. Sancho was two years old when he was brought to Greenwich and sold to three sisters who gave him his surname thinking that he looked like Cervantes’ comic anti-hero. Their efforts to keep Sancho domesticated and illiterate were stymied by the intervention of John, 2nd Duke of Montagu, who lived nearby in Blackheath. A man of paradoxical behaviour – he was renowned for his philanthropy towards strangers but also proposed the construction of a seaport and depot at Beaulieu Creek through which he could profit from the slave trade – he became Sancho’s patron and helped him to learn about music, literature and art. After her husband’s death in 1749, the Duke’s widow, Mary, employed Sancho as a butler and left him £70 in addition to an annuity of £30 when she died in 1751.
