Black Servants in Ayrshire
Although little is known of how Scipio felt about his new life, he appears to have become fairly well acquainted with local customs and inhabitants. In 1728 he appeared before the Kirkoswald Kirk Session to be publicly rebuked for his sins with Jean Fergusson!
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| 9 June 1728 Scipio appears in the Kirkoswald Kirk Session Minutes - publicly rebuked with Jean Fergusson. [CH2/562/1]
Click on the image for enlarged view. |
He later married a local girl, Margaret Gray and together they had a number of children, all with their father’s adopted Scottish surname.
Scipio and his growing family were given a home on a plot of land on the estate and he remained there until his death in 1774, outliving both his master and mistress.
Scipio Kennedy is perhaps the most well known Ayrshire black servant but he was not the only one. Black servants continued to be employed in Ayrshire throughout the 18th century and well into the 19th century.
Jack Scott was a black servant of Mungo Smith, Drongan in the 1770s.
[NAS/ Male Servant Tax records E/326/5/1]
Robert Campbell, a native of Jamaica was a butler to A.W. Hamilton of Pinmore for almost 50 years, and died at Bellisle in 1838. [Ayr Advertiser, 15 March 1838]
For many years the Jamaican John Brown served William Paterson of Wellington Square, Ayr, as butler, Mr Brown also died in 1838.
[Ayr Advertiser, 9 August 1838]
Edward Reid Brooks, black butler at Williamfield, Irvine, attempted to leave his master after only one month’s service in 1876. Charged with breach of the peace his defence was that he was a newly liberated slave, had not long been in the country, and was unfamiliar with the customs.
[Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, 29 April 1876]