The life of James Pinson Labulo Davies : a colossus of Victorian Lagos

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Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a princess of the Egbado clan of the Yoruba people, is best known as the goddaughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Bonetta was born in 1843 in what is now southwest Nigeria. Her parents’ names are unknown as are the names of her siblings who were all killed in the 1847 slave raid that made Bonetta a captive.

Captain Forbes renamed her Sara Forbes Bonetta, after himself and his ship HMS Bonetta. Forbes initially intended to raise her himself. However, Queen Victoria was impressed by the young woman's "exceptional intelligence", and had the woman, whom she called Sally, [8] raised as her goddaughter in the British middle class. [8] [9] [10] James Pinson Labulo Davies was born to James and Charlotte Davies in the village of Bathurst, Sierra Leone, then a British colony. His parents were recaptive Yoruba people liberated by the British West Africa Squadron from the Atlantic Slave Trade, and whose origins were in Abeokuta and Ogbomoso respectively. [1] As far as I'm aware, the first person to plant cocoa on the main-land was the late Capt. J.P.L. Davies, a well known native of Lagos, who in 1882 used to tell me about the farm he had lately just made beyond the Protectorate of Lagos. [12] Philanthropy and establishment of CMS Grammar School [ ] Elebute, Adeyemo (2013). The Life of James Pinson Labulo Davies: A Colossus of Victorian Lagos. Kachifo Limited/Prestige. pp. 111–119. ISBN 9789785205763. Queen Victoria was so impressed by the girl’s natural regal manner and her gift for academic studies, Literature, Art and Music that she gave her an allowance for her welfare and Sarah became a regular visitor to Windsor Castle. Sarah’s genius became admired throughout the royal court and she continued to outshine her tutors with her advanced abilities in all studies.

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Lawrence, Andrew G.; Afe Adogame (29 September 2014). Africa in Scotland, Scotland in Africa: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Hybridities. p.123. ISBN 978-9-00-4276-9-01 . Retrieved 4 February 2015. Joan Anim-Addo, ' Bonetta [married name Davies], (Ina) Sarah Forbes [Sally]', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2015

Following their wedding in 1862, the couple lived briefly in Brighton’s Seven Dials at 17 Clifton Hill. They then moved to Lagos and had three children: Victoria Davies was born in 1863, followed by Arthur Davies in 1871 and Stella Davies in 1873. The first born was named after Queen Victoria, who was given an annuity by the Queen and continued to visit the royal household throughout her life.Davies was first married to Matilda Bonifacio Serrano, a Spanish lady from Havana, who died in 1860, nine months after their marriage. [7] [8] In August 1862, Davies married Sara Forbes Bonetta, a protégée of Queen Victoria. [9] Originally named Aina (also Ina), [10] she was enslaved following the raiding of her village in Okeadan and the death of her parents at the hands of Dahomean warriors, subsequently kept in King Ghezo of Dahomey's court. She was liberated by Captain Forbes of the Bonetta after a meeting with Ghezo. Sara died of tuberculosis in 1880, and Davies married Catherine Kofoworola Reffle in 1889. [8] [7] [11] Cocoa farming pioneer in West Africa [ edit ] a b c Rappaport, Helen (2003). Queen Victoria: A Biographical Companion. ABC-CLIO Biographical Companions. p.307. ISBN 9781851093557. So extraordinary a present would have been at least burden, had I not the conviction that, in consideration of the nature of the service I had performed, the government would consider her as the property of the crown.

Adedeji, J.A. The Church and the Emergence of the Nigerian Theatre, 1866-1914. Journal of Historical Society of Nigeria.6.1. p. 228. a b Elebute, Adeyemo (2013). The Life of James Pinson Labulo Davies: A Colossus of Victorian Lagos. Kachifo Limited/Prestige. p.1. ISBN 9789785205763.Anim-Addo, Joan (2015). "Bonetta [married name Davies], (Ina) Sarah Forbes [Sally] (C. 1843–1880), Queen Victoria's ward". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/75453. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) Being invited to meet the Queen was the highest honour a visitor could receive in 19th-century England. Crowther was invited to Windsor Castle with Lord Russell on November 18, 1851, when he met Prince Albert and his wife, Queen Victoria. Ajayi described his enslavement, the atrocities he endured, and the state of slavery in Lagos as of 1851. While Sarah was in Freetown the queen continued to send her presents and books. Apparently unhappy there, Sarah returned to England after four years. Victoria then placed her with the Schoen family, former missionaries in Africa, who lived in Gillingham, Kent. Sarah lived with them for six years before moving to Brighton, much against her wishes, where Victoria had arranged for a Miss Welsh to oversee her introduction into British society. Born 'Omoboa Aina' in a region now known as Nigeria, Sarah was thought to be a princess of a Yoruba dynasty. Little is known about her parents, but Forbes claimed that they were killed during the Okeadon war of 1848 when Sarah was only five years old. Held captive by King Gezo of Dahomey, she was given to Forbes as a diplomatic 'gift' for Queen Victoria. Meanwhile, as Crowther spoke about the horrors of slavery, a lady minimally dressed and too unassuming to deserve interruption of the narration came in and she listened to him with breathless attention. There was no voice speaking for the slaves in West Africa until the British rescued Crowther, gave him dignity, gave him culture and education and he became a voice; the voice. And when the Prince spread the map on the table wider to see Lagos, it blew out the candle light. As Crowther wrote in his autobiography, the Prince then said, “Will your Majesty kindly bring us a candle from the mantelpiece?” Then it dawned on Crowther the unassuming woman who had joined them earlier on was Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India. Wrote Crowther: “On hearing this, I became aware of the person before whom I was all of the time. I trembled from head to foot, and could not open my mouth to answer the questions that followed. Lord Russell and the Prince told me not to be frightened, and the smiles on the face of the good Queen assured me that she was not angry at the liberty I took in speaking so freely before her, and so my fears subsided.” After bringing the candles, the Queen then asked about what she could do about the slave situation in Lagos, Ajayi Crowther said seize Lagos by fire by force. Captain Labulo Davies, the second of the founding fathers, was a lieutenant on HMS Bloodhound, the flagship of the fleet that bombed Lagos.