Francis Barber was born into slavery in Jamaica, became Samuel Johnson's heir and later opened a village school. His plaque launches the City's redesigned scheme.
Francis Barber was born into slavery and is thought to have been Britain’s first Black schoolteacher. He has now been given a permanent plaque at Dr Johnson’s House in the City of London. He lived there as part of Samuel Johnson’s household and was later named as the writer’s heir.
The ceremony also marked the launch of the City of London Corporation’s redesigned plaque scheme. The City’s very first heritage plaque went up on the same house 150 years ago.
Barber was born in about 1742 on Orange River, a sugar estate in Jamaica. As a child he was called Quashey, and he had been held in slavery since birth. The estate was later sold, and he arrived in England aged around eight. There he was baptised Francis Barber.
Johnson, a writer who spoke out against the slave trade, arranged Barber’s education. Pages on which Barber practised his handwriting are still kept at the house. Many servants of the time could not bring guests home, but Barber was allowed to have his own friends to visit. Georgian London had one of Britain’s biggest Black communities, and the house may at times have been a place where Black Londoners gathered.
The bond between the two men deepened into a close friendship across roughly three decades. Johnson died in 1784 and made Barber the main beneficiary of his will. It gave him £25 a year, around £9,000 in today’s money, as long as he settled in Lichfield, Johnson’s home city in Staffordshire. Barber and his wife, Elizabeth, ran a drapers shop there, and he later opened a village school.
Celine Luppo McDaid, Hyde Director of Dr Johnson’s House, told guests at the unveiling that as an infant Barber “didn’t even own his own name”. She said he ended his life as an educator. His descendants can still be traced in the Lichfield area.
No other surviving building in the Square Mile is believed to have been home to someone born enslaved who went on to live in it in freedom. Cedric Barber, his great-great-great-great-grandson, unveiled a temporary plaque on the house in 2016.
This time the honours went to Michael Bundock, who wrote The Fortunes of Francis Barber and directs Dr Johnson’s House Trust, together with Alderman Tim Hailes.
Brendan Barns chairs the Corporation’s Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committee. Speaking at the ceremony, he said that in a city known for looking ahead, “it is fitting that we also take time to look back”. He added that plaques remind people the Square Mile has been shaped by remarkable people and places.
It is on Dr Johnson's House in the City of London, where Barber lived as part of Samuel Johnson's household.
He was born enslaved in Jamaica in about 1742 and became Samuel Johnson's close friend and main heir. He later opened a village school and is thought to have been Britain's first Black schoolteacher.
The unveiling launched the City of London Corporation's redesigned plaque scheme, 150 years after the City's first heritage plaque went up on the same house.
The stage musical based on the 2014 film, about lesbian and gay activists who raised money for striking Welsh miners, comes to London after two sold-out…
The canalside park opened in 1960 on land once covered by a white lead factory and its terraced streets. It took until the late 1970s to…
A 27-metre batik hangs above the nave of St Cyprian's in the Bagri Foundation's first Springboard show, the artist's debut in the UK.
Magritte's paintings hang beside work by more than 40 other artists, from a Jeff Koons locomotive to a bird with a woman's face.
We use strictly necessary cookies to run the site and to remember this choice. With your permission we would also use analytics cookies, to count visits and see which stories are read, and advertising cookies, so the adverts that pay for How2London can be shown and measured. You can accept all, reject all, or choose for yourself. Read our cookie policy and privacy policy.
Needed for the site to work and to remember your cookie choice. Always on, no consent required.
Google Analytics 4 counts visits and shows which stories are read. Without consent it runs without cookies.
Google AdSense cookies, used to show and measure adverts. Our own How2London banners need no cookies and are shown either way.
