Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780) was born a slave on a ship crossing the Atlantic from Africa to the West Indies. He was christened Ignatius at Cartagena, on the coast of Columbia. His mother died soon afterwards, and his father killed himself rather than exist as a slave.
When Ignatius was about two, his owner brought him to England and gave him to three maiden sisters who lived in Greenwich. These ladies called him Sancho because they thought he looked like Don Quixote’s squire. They did not believe in the education of slaves; nonetheless, Ignatius taught himself to read and write.
The Duke of Montagu, who lived nearby in Blackheath, liked Ignatius’ acquisitive nature and bought him books and tried to persuade the sisters to educate him, but they would not, So Ignatius ran away and stayed with the Montagus.
He persuaded the powerful Montagu family to take him on as their butler. There he was able to indulge in his passion for reading and subsequently wrote poetry, two stage plays and a Theory of Music dedicated to the Princess Royal. He was also a composer, with three collections of songs, minuets, and other pieces for violin, mandolin, flute and harpsichord all published anonymously. He loved the theatre and would regularly go to Drury Lane to see the great actor Garrick, who later became a friend.
Sancho left the service of the Montagus in 1773, and with a legacy left to him by the Duchess of Montagu, he opened a grocery shop in Charles Street, Westminster with his wife Anne.
He composed music, appeared on the stage, and wrote a large number of letters which were collected and published in 1782, two years after his death.
See also Mary Seacole
