Remembering Charles Ignatius Sancho
The University of Greenwich and Sancho Memorial Committee collaborated on a crowdfunding campaign that raised over £26,000 for a permanent memorial to Charles Ignatius Sancho in Greenwich park.
Ignatius Sancho was a man of many talents - a writer, composer, shopkeeper, social commentator and abolitionist. He composed 100 dances and minuets which were played by fashionable Londoners and wrote two plays and a book of composition.
He was the first recorded Black voter and first Black man to have an obituary in the British press.
The university is grateful to our alumni and friends who helped us reach our target of £26,000 and have contributed to remembering the important legacy of Ignatius Sancho.
Meet Ignatius Sancho, an African Briton and a Georgian celebrity
Charles Ignatius Sancho was born on a ship carrying enslaved Africans across the Atlantic in around 1729. He later became a celebrity in Georgian London and the first Black person to vote in a Westminster election.
Sancho was transported, aged two, to work for three sisters near Dartmouth Row, Greenwich, where his talent was spotted by the Duke of Montagu, through whom he learnt to read.
At the Duke’s death in 1749, he fled from the sisters to the Duchess. He was freed and became her butler and head of a large household close to Greenwich park.
Sancho inherited £30 and a year’s salary when the Duchess died in 1751. When a revived duchy of Montagu was created in 1766, he became valet to the Duke.
During this period, he wrote a letter to Laurence Sterne, author of 'Tristram Shandy', appealing to him to publicise the evil of slavery. Sterne's publicised response to Sancho's letter plays an important role in 18th-century abolitionist literature.
In 1768, in the fashionable city of Bath, he was also painted by Thomas Gainsborough.
The Duke funded him in 1774 to open a grocery shop in Charles street, Westminster, where the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office now stands.
It was here, in the last six years of his life, his celebrity took off. He composed 100 dances and minuets played by fashionable Londoners and wrote two plays and a book of composition, now lost.
He was known for conducting lively correspondence with his friends, including aristocrats, artists, actors, bankers and booksellers.
As a literate man of property, Sancho was able to vote. He was the first recorded Black voter in a Westminster election when he voted for Charles James Fox, the abolitionist who proposed the successful bill in 1807, who wrote to thank him.
Sancho died in 1780 and was the first Black man to have an obituary in the British press. After his death, his letters were published in two volumes, raising the large sum of £500 for his widow and surviving children. Samuel Johnson proposed to write his biography, though he never did so.
Sancho identified as an African Briton and yet his chapter in British history is often neglected. The memorial in Greenwich park is one way we can continue to tell his story.
The Memorial
Based on his portrait by Thomas Gainsborough, the memorial has been designed by the sculptor Christy Symington, who created the sculpture of Olaudah Equiano displayed at the Queen’s House, Greenwich; Parliament's Portcullis House; and the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool.
It will be erected by permission of the Trustees of the Royal Parks, who have given their approval. The aim is to unveil the memorial in 2024.
Pictured: Ignatius Sancho memorial relief sculpture by Christy Symington MRSS. Architectural render by Charlie Harris RIBA.
"Sancho identified as an African Briton and yet his chapter in British history is often overlooked. The university is very pleased to support the establishment of a permanent memorial to Sancho in Greenwich park which will be a fitting tribute to an incredible man."
-Vice-Chancellor and CEO, Professor Jane Harrington
The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho
In October 2023, beloved actor and writer Paterson Joseph, released his book, ‘The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho’.
The book brings to life the legend of the young Black man, telling the true story of a Great Black Briton. We were honoured to hear an excerpt from Paterson's book during the annual Vice-Chancellor's Dinner hosted in the Painted Hall in March 2023. The evening celebrated our university's existing and new partnerships, focusing on our collaborative community and how this can drive equitable change.
