[Bell Historians] Bells funded by profits from the slave trade?

['Peter Rivet' peter@plrivet.plus.com [bellhistorians]]

The six bells cast for Lancaster Priory in 1744 by Abel Rudhall (augmented to eight in 1747) undoubtedly owed something to the slave trade which brought a lot of income to Lancaster.  As we don’t have a detailed record of the donors it’s impossible to say how much.   No. 5 of the eight was inscribed:

 

PROSPERITY TO THIS PORT AND PARISH A (bell) R 1744

 

Embarrassment over this could have been one of the reasons why none of the old inscriptions were reproduced on the Taylor bells which replaced them in 1885-6.  On the other hand at that time it wasn’t common practice to copy them and the new bells were significantly bigger than their predecessors.

 

The other ports heavily involved in the slave trade in the eighteenth century included Bristol and Liverpool.  Bristol, at that time, had several rings of bells and I would imagine they have something to contribute to your story.

 

Peter Rivet

 

 

 

 

From: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com [mailto:bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com] 
Sent: 07 November 2019 16:21
To: bellhistorians <bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Bell Historians] Bells funded by profits from the slave trade?

 

  


  Old North (Christ Church)  is revising some of its historic placards and talks based on new knowledge about the members in the 1740s who smuggled slaves into Suriname.  One of those, Gedney Clarke, was tied for highest donation to the fund to buy the bells (tied with Peter Faneuil, who was also involved in the slave trade, but in a more "normal" way).  They donated 100 pounds each.   There were dozens of other subscribers, but no amounts nearly that high.

    There were already signs in the church that included information about the enslaved and free Black people who were in the parish at the time, but more detail is being added.

  How many other change ringing bells were paid for (at least partially) by profits from the Atlantic slave trade?  There must have been some parishes besides Christ Church Boston that had many seafaring rich people with ill-gotten money to give. 

 

Laura Dickerson

 

PS is anything changing with this group as Yahoo groups become less useful?



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