Update — Autumn 2024

I. Electronic Enlightenment Edition of Correspondence

This autumn, Electronic Enlightenment has ingested letters written by Ignatius Sancho. We have added over 160 letters from The Letters of Charles Ignatius Sancho, edited by Vincent Carretta and published by Broadview Press, adding a whole new perspective and web of connections to the Electronic Enlightenment Collection.

These letters, which span from 1766 to early 1780, document Sancho’s life, thought and work after he consolidated his status as a man of letters through his famous correspondence with Laurence Sterne, in which he introduces himself as follows:

I am one of those people whom the illiberal and vulgar call a Nee—gur — : the early part of my Life was rather unlucky; as I was placed in a family who judged that Ignorance was the best Security for obedience: a little Reading and writing, I got by unwearied application

Ignatius Sancho to Laurence Sterne, 21 July 1766

These famous lines offer a perfect framework for exploring Sancho’s life and works — we have the provocative affirmation of his African identity and deliberate self-representation as a counter to racist arguments of black intellectual inferiority, asserting his own wit with his playful insertion of Africans into literary and cultural history, as in his reconceptualisation of the Noah story in Ignatius Sancho to John Meheux, 5 October 1779, celebrating figures like Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784) in Ignatius Sancho to Jabez Fisher, 27 January 1778 and finding work for his fellows of African descent, like in Charles Ignatius Sancho to Charles Browne, senior, 12 August 1775. In the noted case of fellow Black British celebrity, Julius Soubise, whose extravagant dress and movements in high society caused him to be satirised as ‘The Mungo Macaroni’, Sancho appoints himself the representative of respectable middle-class Black British manners, offering a sober corrective to Soubise’s aristocratic performativity:

Young man, thou canst not discern wood from trees;—with awe and reverence look up to thy more than parents—look up to thy almost divine benefactors—search into the motive of every glorious action—retrace thine own history—and when you are convinced that they (like the All-gracious Power they serve) go about in mercy doing good—retire abashed at the number of their virtues—and humbly beg the Almighty to inspire and give you strength to imitate them.—Happy, happy lad! what a fortune is thine!—Look round upon the miserable fate of almost all of our unfortunate colour—superadded to ignorance,—see slavery, and the contempt of those very wretches who roll in affluence from our labours superadded to this woeful catalogue—hear the ill-bred and heart-racking abuse of the foolish vulgar.—You, S[oubis]e, tread as cautiously as the strictest rectitude can guide ye—yet must you suffer from this—but armed with truth—honesty—and conscious integrity—you will be sure of the plaudit and countenance of the good;—if, therefore, thy repentance is sincere—I congratulate thee as sincerely upon it—it is thy birth-day to real happiness.—Providence has been very lavish of her bounty to you—and you are deeply in arrears to her—your parts are as quick as most mens; urge but your speed in the race of virtue with the same ardency of zeal as you have exhibited in error—and you will recover, to the satisfaction of your noble patrons—and to the glory of yourself.

Ignatius Sancho to Julius Soubise, 29 November 1778

As we can see from this extract, the self-made and self-taught nature of Sancho’s material and cultural success was a key part of the image he cultivated through his letters. Likely born in 1729, on a slave ship crossing the Middle Passage, Sancho cultivated basic literacy as a child against, as he describes, the explicit wishes of his first owners. By the time he was in his twenties he had consolidated this learning into the foundation of the man of letters he would become. Fleeing his hostile owners shortly after 1749, Sancho took on the role of Valet to the Montagu household, where he would work until 1773, building social connections, educating himself in French and English literature, and enjoying the patronage of first John Montagu (1690–1749), then Mary Montagu (1689–1751) and finally George Montagu. With George’s support, Sancho established a “Tea and Snuff-Shop” on Charles Street, Westminster, in 1776 which he would co-manage with his wife Anne until his death in 1780.

His letters describe both the everyday life of a London grocer, as in Ignatius Sancho to Mrs H, 1 November 1773 or Ignatius Sancho to William Stevenson, 24 October 1777, and the inequalities which he continues to face as a businessman on the fringes of high society:

Trade is at so low an ebb, the greatest are glad to see ready money—in truth we are a ruined people—let hirelings affect to write and talk as big as they please—and, what is worse, religion and morality are vanished with our prosperity—every good principle seems to be leaving us:—as our means lessen, luxury and every sort of expensive pleasure increases.—The blessed Sabbath-day is used by the trader for country excursions—tavern-dinners—rural walks—and then whipping and galloping through dust and over turnpikes drunk home.—The poorer sort do any thing—but go to church—they take their dust in the field, and conclude the sacred evening with riots, drunkenness, and empty pockets:—the beau in upper life hires his whisky and beast for twelve shillings; his girl dressed en militaire for half a guinea and spends his whole week’s earnings to look and be thought quite the thing.—And for upper tiptop high life—cards and music are called in to dissipate the chagrin of a tiresome, tedious Sunday’s evening

Ignatius Sancho to Mrs H, 20 May 1780

Alongside their role as documents of a working London life in the 1770s, Sancho’s letters also bear witness to some significant historical events already evidenced in the Electronic Enlightenment collection, such as the Gordon Riots of June 1780, for which Sancho’s vivid account provides a visceral companion to reports by Jeremy Bentham in Jeremy Bentham to Sir Samuel Bentham, 5 June 1780 and the following letter by James Macpherson:

There is at this present moment at least a hundred thousand poor, miserable, ragged rabble, from twelve to sixty years of age, with blue cockades in their hats—besides half as many women and children—all parading the streets—the bridge—the park—ready for any and every mischief.—Gracious God! what’s the matter now? I was obliged to leave off—the shouts of the mob—the horrid clashing of swords—and the clutter of a multitude in swiftest motion—drew me to the door—when every one in the street was employed in shutting up shop.—It is now just five o’clock—the ballad-singers are exhausting their musical talents—with the downfall of Popery, S[andwic]h, and N[ort]h.—Lord S[andwic]h narrowly escaped with life about an hour since;—the mob seized his chariot going to the house, broke his glasses, and, in struggling to get his lordship out, they somehow have cut his face;

James Macpherson to Adam Ferguson, 10 June 1780

Sancho’s letters also attest to his engagement with literature, theatre, and music. A noted composer, whose Minuets & Cotillons & Country Dances for the Violin, Mandolin, German Flute, & Harpsichord Composed by an African... (1760s) were published while he was still working as Valet to George Montagu, Sancho remained connected to theatrical circles throughout his life, including both David Garrick and later John Henderson, Garrick’s successor as king of the London stage, in his circle of acquaintance. Beyond frequenting plays by Shakespeare, as discussed in Ignatius Sancho to John Meheux, 9 October 1777, noted pugilist-cum-comedian Henry Bate, whose Henry and Emma he describes in Ignatius Sancho to John Meheux, 4 January 1776, and Garrick himself, in Ignatius Sancho to James Kisbee, 16 July 1770, Sancho demonstrates a familiar and playful use of the literary canon of his day. His references include Edward Young’s Night Thoughts (1742) which he describes himself reading in Ignatius Sancho to John Meheux, 20 September 1777, and Alexander Pope, a quote from whom serves as an epigraph to Ignatius Sancho to Jack Wingrave, 14 February 1778, among others. We can also find him offering a critical comparative reading of the merits of satirical novelists Henry Fielding and Laurence Sterne in Ignatius Sancho to John Meheux, 10 June 1778.

Another key theme which emerges in Sancho’s correspondence is his relationship with his wife Anne and his children, particularly William, who appears as "Billy" across his father’s letters which reflect all the stresses and joys of new fatherhood, from the frustrations of teething in Ignatius Sancho to John Meheux, 14 August 1777, to pride and joy in his developing language skills in Ignatius Sancho to William Stevenson, 24 October 1777. Anne appears throughout the letters as well, bearing and raising the children in Ignatius Sancho to Mrs H, 1 November 1773, sharing in Sancho’s intellectual and cultural life in Ignatius Sancho to John Meheux, 16 September 1777 and Ignatius Sancho to John Spink, 27 November 1780, and appearing as co-signatory on a couple of letters, Ignatius Sancho to Mrs H, 23 March 1780 and Ignatius Sancho to Lydia Leach, 14 December 1775. What Sancho discusses less often is the role which Anne played in co-managing Sancho’s shop with him, a role which she maintained after Sancho’s death.

After Sancho’s passing William, Anne, and Elizabeth maintained the shop on Charles Street until 1803, before relocating to new premises in Mew’s Gate, Castle Street, Leicester Square, where they established a bookseller. For the first time, Electronic Enlightenment is showcasing the 7 known letters by William and Elizabeth Sancho alongside their father’s correspondence, offering a glimpse into the life of a second generation black British professional family at the turn of the 19th century.

II. New Biographies

36 Biographies have been added to Electronic Enlightenment or substantially updated, including:

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