STAMFORD BROOK HOUSE - Part 1
This attractive Georgian house in Stamford Brook Avenue is Grade II listed and was the first house of any size in Stamford Brook. It was built about 1743 by Thomas Patterson and between 1795 and about 1865 it was home to the Frere family.
The Frere family had moved back to England having been long term residents and ‘eminent’ in the slave owning elite of Barbados in the 17th and 18th centuries. Barbados had been settled in 1627 and after a period where planters tried unsuccessfully to grow tobacco, cane sugar production began in 1642, with the first slaves arriving soon after as the indentured convicts brought from Ireland and Scotland proved vulnerable to the diseases of the tropics. Tobias Frere was listed as owning estates in Barbados as early as 1674 and his name is included in the ownership records of various tobacco and sugar growing estates across the island.
Applewhaite Frere, the first Frere to live in Stamford Brook, was the son of Hon. John Frere II and Susannah Applethwhaite, two families whose names crop up frequently in the slave histories of Barbados in the 17th and 18th centuries. John Frere II was Lieut-General and President of Barbados during this period.
Applewhaite Frere, who had been a founding member of the Barbados Society of Arts, before relocating the family to Stamford Brook died there in 1830 aged 78 and is buried at St Paul's, Hammersmith. The house passed to his eldest son John Frere III, who was Magistrate for the County of Middlesex.
In 1833 Britain passed the Slavery Abolition Act granting freedom to enslaved people in most of the British Empire. The Act freed over “800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa as well as a small number in Canada.” The Frere family would have received compensation based on the number and details of the slaves they owned at that point. The amounts were fixed according to the classification of each individual - their gender, age, type of work and level of skill - and the level of productivity, and therefore profitability, of the different islands and territories.
The ending of slavery did not end the relationship with estate owners and the production of sugar. John Frere III, is listed as owning estates in Barbados as late as 1847.
Nor did the outlawing of slavery end the link with Stamford Brook House, because of the curious involvement of pro-slavery pamphlet writer William Willocks Sleigh. Between 1845 and 1849 various industrial patents were awarded to a 'William Willcocks Sleigh', listed as residing during this period at Stamford Brook House. On these documents he was described variously as a 'doctor' and an 'engineer'. However his relationship with the Frere family, who still owned Stamford Brook House, or the reasons he was based there are unknown. The Patents were published in industry journals like 'The Civil Engineer' and 'Architects Journal' as well as being reported in regional papers like the Leeds Times. They covered various engineering topics such as 'a hydro-mechanic apparatus for producing motive power, to extend to the colonies only (in 1845) and 'a means of preventing injuries to persons and property, from the sudden stoppage of railway carriages - (in 1849). Both patents are addressed at Stamford Brook House.
However, the link with the earlier slave history of the Frere's is a hint to understanding why William Willcocks Sleigh was at Stamford Brook House. During his early career as a surgeon he had spent time in Dublin and then Philidephia, where in 1832 he wrote and published a book in defense of the slave trade called 'Abolitionism Exposed!'.
This book claimed to be 'Proving That the Principles of Abolitionism Are Injurious to the Slaves Themselves, Destructive to This Nation, and Contrary to the Express Commands of God; with Strong Evidence that Some of the Principle Champions of Abolitionism are Inveterate Enemies to this Country, and are Taking Advantage of the 'anti-slavery War-whoop' to Dissever, and Break Up, the Union ".
John Frere was listed as still living at Stamford Brook ‘Lodge’ when Willocks Sleigh was based there and was included in the 1851 Census. Later, on his death in 1864, the house passed, to his younger bother Tobias Frere II. Tobias passed away a year later and the Frere family connection thus ended in 1865. Both brothers are buried at St Mary's Church, Acton. The house has recently been listed on the website for the UCL 'Legacies of British Slave Ownership' project (see link at bottom).
By the end of the 19C the story of Stamford Brook House takes a dramatic turn, when it became the centre of the pioneering social work of Victorian-era reformers Ellen and Archibald Grey Macgregor. Their story is told in the second part of this article here.
Useful references for this article:
Barbados Plantation History https://creolelinks.com/barbados-plantation-history.html
Legacies of British Slave-ownership https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/context/