1862

          

.

                     Sarah Forbes was a Yoruba girl captured by the King of Dahomey in 1848

                                       during a war in which her parents were killed.

                    She was given as a present to Commander Forbes

                                      when he was visited Dahomey

                    as an emissary of the British Government in 1850,

                                     and she subsequently took

                        Forbes' name as well as that of his ship, the 'Bonetta'.

                                         She returned to England with

                       Forbes who presented her to Queen Victoria,

                                   who in turn gave her over to the

                            Church Missionary Society to be educated. 

                         She attended the Female Institution in Feetown,                                  

                                                         Sierra Leone,

                                and later returned to England where she was

                  placed under the charge of Mr and Mrs Schön at Chatham. In 1862         

                            Queen Victoria was so impressed by the girl's

                           natural regal manner and exceptional intelligence,

                            was pleased to give her sanction to be

                        married in St, Nicholas Church in Brighton in August 1862

                                 She married, James Pinson Labulo Davies,

                                     a merchant of Sierra Leonean origin ,

                                  who later settled in Lagos where he was a

                              member of the Legislative Council from 1872-74

                                    (in which year Lagos Colony was for a time amalgated

                                                   into the Gold Coast).

                                          This photograph was probably taken shortly

                                                         after their marriage.

                                                                                                                            

                                         

                                                                                 .

                              The wedding party, which arrived from West Hill Lodge,

                             Brighton in ten carriages and pairs of grays, was made up of

                     White ladies with African gentlemen, and African ladies with White gentlemen.

                                                           There were sixteen bridesmaids.

 

                            In his journal, Captain Frederick Forbes gave an account

                                  of his mission with relation to Miss Bonetta:

                     I have only to add a few particulars about my extraordinary

                                            present 'the African Child'

                            - one of the captives of this dreadful slave-hunt was this interesting girl"

                      "It is usual to reserve the best born for the high behest of

                                       royalty and the immolation on the

                                            tombs of the decease nobility.

                           For one of these ends she has been detained at court for two years,

                                              proving, by her not having been sold to slave dealers,

                                              that she was of good family".

                                              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.

                           o refuse, would have been to have signed her death warrant: which, probably,

                      would have been carried into execution forthwith. Immediately on arriving...

                                      Of her own history she was only a confused idea.

                                                   Her parents were decapitated;

                        her brother and sisters she knows not what their fate might have been .

                                            For her age supposed to be eight years.

                                    She is a perfect genius; she now speaks English well,

                                            and have and great talent for music.

                                 She has won the affections, with but few exceptions,

                                                of all who have known her,

                                   she is far in advance of any white child of her age,

                                                    in aptness of learning,

                                       and strength of mind and affection:

                           and with her, been an excellent specimens of the Negro race,....

                                                                       

                                   James Pinson Labulo Davies (born 1829), Merchant

                                          
 

                                      

 

                                                           

                                                           *Victoria Davies*

                                            a daughter named Victoria Davies,

                                             who was presented to Queen Victoria.

                                            Upon the death of Sarah Forbes Bonetta,

                                                   the Queen wrote in her diary:

                                        "Saw poor Victoria Davies, my black godchild,

                               who learnt this morning of the death of her dear mother".

                                  So proud was Queen Victoria of Sarah's daughter,

                                     that when she passed her music examination,

                                       teachers and children had one day holiday.

                               Sarah Forbes Bonetta died in 1880, aged about 43.

 

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