By Richard Bryant and Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group
This article explores another of Lindfield’s black history connections.
The story begins with Francis Smith senior in Nevis, an island in the Eastern Caribbean, one of the two islands which today form the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis. The islands were among the first in the Caribbean to be colonised by European settlers. English settlers arrived in Nevis in the 1620s, decimating the native population. By the 1640s, cane sugar became their main crop. Sugar and its by-product, rum, were profitable exports. The settlers at first worked with white indentured labourers from Britain but soon began to import enslaved Africans. By the late 1780s, the enslaved population was 8,420 while the whites numbered 1,510.
Among the white inhabitants were brothers Richard and Francis Smith. Richard managed sugar estates owned by the planter James Smith (the brothers may have been related to James). Francis Smith was a ship’s carpenter, building local craft and repairing vessels from England working the triangular slave trade route.
In 1789, Richard died and Francis became ill, prompting him to make his Will, and he died shortly afterwards. His possessions included two black boys, bequeathing one each to Francis and Jenny; children of Amelia Brodbelt, a free coloured woman (here the term ‘coloured’ is used to reflect its historic meaning). She was the daughter of an enslaved black woman and a white plantation owner and had been granted her freedom in 1765. The rest of his possessions were shared equally between her five children: Francis, Jenny, Amelia, Hetty and Christiana. Given the bequests and that her children had the surname Smith, Francis Smith was undoubtedly was their father. The offspring of a black mother and white father were known in the language of the time, as ‘mulattoes’. Although they weren’t married, Amelia Brodbelt was regarded as his surviving ‘spouse’.
Amelia inherited from her wider family a property on the edge of Charlestown. With business acumen she and her four daughters developed and ran some sort of hospitality and accommodation business, which initially perhaps included a brothel. The business increasingly prospered and, eventually renting properties that were occupied by the island’s Court, Council and Assembly, they became respected members of island society.
Turning to the Francis Smith born in 1787, the surviving son of Amelia Brodbelt and Francis Smith (the ship’s carpenter): little is known of this Francis’ early years in Nevis, but his working life may have started in London. Some prosperous, well-connected coloured people financed their sons’ work experience abroad. Amelia Brodbelt may well have wanted her son to become a ‘merchant of London’. However, by 1817, it is known he had settled in Haiti, working as a trader or merchant.
During his time in Haiti, Francis Smith met Josephine Villeneuve, who was to be his life partner and mother of his many children. She was clearly of African descent. Their first child was born in 1817, followed on 13th February 1819 by Francis Villeneuve Smith. His birth registration records his mother as a resident of Port-auPrince, Haiti and his father as a foreign merchant. From her signature she was an educated woman and perhaps from a well-to-do family.
As business opportunities in Haiti reduced, Francis Smith moved his family to London and in 1821 they were living at Brunswick Place, Shoreditch. After a couple of years, the family moved to ‘a more wholesome environment, settling in Lindfield’. Francis Smith purchased Townlands, opposite the parish church, and its farm from Captain Pilford R.N. Pilford was able to purchase and alter Townlands, following promotion after his success at the Battle of Trafalgar. In recognition, he renamed the house Nelson Hall. He sold due to money problems. The farmland today is the site of The Welkin development and part of Hickmans Lane Recreation Ground.
While Francis Smith turned to farming and was now regarded as an ‘Esquire’, Josephine was busy with their growing family, with William and Rosa being born in Lindfield and baptised in Lindfield Parish Church. At that time, it was quite common for parish registers to record people’s skin colour or foreign origin; the Lindfield register makes no such note, suggesting Francis Smith’s complexion must have been so light and his features so European that he passed as white.
Josephine now called herself Marie Josephine and as her skin colour portrayed her origin, she may not have been readily accepted into village society.
As an aside, Marie Josephine Villeneuve always claimed, but it was never proved, that her father was Pierre Charles Jean Baptiste Silvestre de Villeneuve, a French naval officer stationed in the Caribbean. Villeneuve commanded the French fleet defeated by Nelson at Trafalgar. How ironic if Villeneuve’s illegitimate daughter lived in a house with Trafalgar victory connections? Perhaps a fanciful thought.
The Smith family lived at Townlands for only a few years, leaving Lindfield for whatever reason and sailing to Australia in June 1828, before settling in Van Diemen’s Land, now called Tasmania.
Francis Smith bought two large tracts of partially developed land, and created an impressive cattle and sheep farming estate, he called ‘Campania’. To develop his property, a large workforce was required, and he employed convicts, both male and female. The estate house was impressive and well furnished. On a trip back to England in 1843 he lobbied government to end convict transportation.
However, everything was not well, as Marie Josephine was ostracised due to her colour, and, together with the children, suffered racial insults. In total she had 12 children but sadly six children died. Meanwhile, Francis, a domineering man, developed the farm and other business, and participated in local society, becoming a Justice of the Peace and leading citizen. He appears to have successfully hidden his mulattoe origins.
Francis Smith died on 8th September 1855 and was buried in a local cemetery in Richmond. Shortly afterwards, Marie Josephine Villeneuve and her three unmarried daughters returned to England, setting up home in London. She died in December 1893 while living with her son, Sir Francis Villeneuve Smith, at his grand residence in Kensington. The Sussex Express announced the death as the widow of Francis Smith ‘JP’, formerly of Lindfield.
The story continues with Francis Villeneuve Smith, one of the Smiths’ children who lived in Lindfield prior to growing up on his father’s estate in Tasmania; returning to England to further his education. In 1838, he began studying law at the Middle Temple, being called to the Bar in 1842. Returning to Tasmania, he was a successful barrister, becoming Solicitor General. In 1856, following election to the Tasmania House of Assembly, he served as Attorney General becoming Tasmania’s fourth Premier (1857-1860), a Supreme Court Judge (1860-70) and Chief Justice (1870-75). He received a Knighthood in 1862.
Francis, on 26th August 1851, married Sarah Giles born in the County of Mayo, Ireland, the only child of Reverend George Giles. Their marriage was blessed with two sons and two daughters. Interestingly, all were given Villeneuve as their second forename, which recognised his mother’s ancestry.
On retirement, he retired to England, purchasing a fine house in South Kensington and Heathside, Mount Ephraim, Tunbridge Wells, where he died on 17th January 1909, age 89. His widow died six months later.
Special thanks to Christine Eickelmann for permission to use her paper, ‘The Enigmatic Father of Tasmania’s fourth Premier’ published in the Tasmanian Historical Research Association’s journal, August 2021, as the base for this article.
Contact Lindfield History Project Group via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/