October is Black History Month and since running this blog, I have always tried to write at least one post to celebrate this. This time, I would like to share a story I recently discovered about friendship between Tony Small, an escaped slave, who became a servant and confidante to Edward Fitzgerald, the fifth son of the Duke of Leinster. Unlike most master and servant relationships, it appears that this was more like a genuine friendship between the pair, but their meeting was a rather unusual one.
Edward Fitzgerald was a lieutenant in the 19th Regiment of Foot during the Revolutionary War in America. Fitzgerald was a participant in the Battle of Eutaw Spring on 8 September 1781 in South Carolina, which was the last major battle of the conflict fought within the Carolinas. It was also nearly Fitzgerald’s last battle too. He was severely injured and lay dying on the battlefield. However, he was found by Tony Small, an escaped slave, who carried him away from the field and nursed him back to health.[1]
Little is known about Tony’s life prior to this event, other than he had managed to escape from his owners during the chaos of the Revolutionary War. It’s uncertain whether this meant Tony had been born and escaped from elsewhere in South Carolina, or whether he had escaped from elsewhere. It’s also unsure whether Tony had already been attached to the British army prior to this, or whether he had discovered Fitzgerald whilst scavenging the battlefield. Whichever of these is true, it cemented a lifelong friendship between the two men.
Upon regaining his health, Fitzgerald was able to rejoin his regiment and offered Tony the chance to come with him as his groom and manservant, which Tony accepted. In 1783, just two years after their paths had crossed, Fitzgerald and Tony arrived in Ireland, staying at the family home of Leinster House in Dublin. It was here that Tony, as well as the other servants, were often allowed to participate in dances above stairs.[2]
By 1788, Fitzgerald had joined the 54th Regiment of Foot on its way to Nova Scotia and of course, Tony went with him. This would have been an experience for both of them. At the time of their stay in Nova Scotia, it was home to thousands of black people who had remained loyal to the British, rather than America. They had been offered resettlement there with the promise of land they could farm and initial funding for their new life too.[3] This fell short and they weren’t given as much as promised, meaning that many suffered with the harsh winter conditions in Nova Scotia. Whilst there, Fitzgerald often commented on how Tony ensured he didn’t spend much of the money they were trying to save. From the wording, it would seem that Tony was the more practical of the two, with Fitzgerald being the more frivolous and romantic. It is probably for this reason that Tony was often allowed to participate in debates on the family’s circumstances and political matters.[4]
The pair returned to Ireland in the 1790s following Fitzgerald’s marriage to Pamela de Genlis, a Frenchwoman with little English at the time. When the couple began to have children, they employed a nursemaid by the name of Julia, who fell in love with Tony and they themselves married, going on to have at least two children by the names of Edward and Harriett Pamela. Reference is made to another child Moirico, but other researchers have struggled to follow this up in the records, whereas the other two children are known to have existed for this reason.
Things were looking nice and rosy all round, but not for long because in 1798, an order was made for Fitzgerald’s arrest for high treason after he was part of plot to create a united Ireland through insurrection.[5] Tony managed to alert Fitzgerald when men came to arrest him, so he was able to escape and stay on the run for the next two months. During this time, a reward was placed on his safe capture. When he was finally arrested again, he was shot accidentally, dying of his wounds a month later, before being buried in St Werburgh’s Church near Dublin Castle.[6]
Despite having died, Fitzgerald was posthumously charged with treason, meaning his estates and assets were seized, leaving his widow, Pamela with nothing. She was briefly helped by her husband’s family but nothing long term meant she moved to Hamburg to live with a cousin, taking Tont and his family with her.[7] This arrangement continued until Pamela remarried in 1801. Still, out of fondness for the Smalls, she organised a passport from them to return to London, where they were able to set up their own home and business in Piccadilly.
Sadly, Tony’s health wasn’t good enough to keep the business running for financial benefit. Without benefits or sick pay, life could be precarious for those with long-term health issues and the same applied to the Small family. Julia began to advertise that she was looking for work as a lady’s maid, whilst Tony was in correspondence with the Fitzgerald family about them offering some financial assistance.[8] It must have worked to some extent as Tony was able to employ John Heavisides, surgeon to George III, which must have been expensive. Whatever treatments he offered, they didn’t help as Tony died in 1804.
With Tony’s death the story of this genuine friendship with a member of the Irish aristocracy and the escaped slave who nursed him from a battlefield in South Carolina has been somewhat lost. However it has gained more interest in recent years, which I hope will continue. It shows that whilst it was a ‘fashion statement’ to have black servants during the Georgian period, that in this instance it was so much more and that Fitzgerald and Tony did have an real connection that is tangible even now.
[1] Laura McKenna, ‘Every man is exactly what he makes himself’, History Ireland, 6.28 (2020), https://www.historyireland.com/every-man-is-exactly-what-he-makes-himself/
[2] Mixed Museum, ‘Foreign’ Mixed Race Couples in Ireland, https://mixedmuseum.org.uk/amri-exhibition/tony-and-julie-small-william-g-allen-and-mary-king/
[3] Laura McKenna, ‘Every man is exactly what he makes himself’
[4] Ibid
[5] Mixed Museum, ‘Foreign’ Mixed Race Couples in Ireland
[6] ‘Tony Small: The escaped slave who lived in Leinster House’, 29 January 2013, https://comeheretome.com/2013/01/29/tony-small-the-escaped-slave-who-lived-in-leinster-house/
[7] Laura McKenna, ‘Every man is exactly what he makes himself’
[8] Ibid; Mixed Museum, ‘Foreign’ Mixed Race Couples in Ireland
Voyager of History 