Summary of the Ashton Court Smyths and the Slave Trade

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African slave trade records suggest it began in 1444 when Portuguese traders brought the first large number of slaves from Africa to Europe (mainly Portugal) because of their small working population. In 1526, Portuguese mariners carried the first shipload of African slaves to Brazil, establishing the Atlantic slave trade.

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John Smyth, merchant and twice Mayor of Bristol, purchased the wealthy Long Ashton Manor of Ashton Court in 1545. He did much trade, official & otherwise, with Europe including Portugal, especially in wine and cloth. We are not aware of any records suggesting involvement in trading beyond Europe. His main investments appeared to be in land around Bristol, and Ashton Court was the largest estate he bought.

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After John Smyth ( d 1556), the Smyths seemed more involved with the Royal Court in London, law and land, than in shipping, however the Royal Court took part in many money-making enterprises including investment in ‘international trade’ and privateers.

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Elizabeth I sponsored seafarer John Hawkins from the 1560s. He set up a slave trading syndicate of wealthy merchants and published a book “An Alliance to raid for slaves”. The Smyths had many trading connections but few if any ships left Bristol for Africa in the early 1600s.

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Florence Smyth (b1634) and the black page thought to be by Gilbert Jackson c 1640. She is daughter to Thomas & Florence Smyth. The painting is still the subject of research. It has been taken by some as an indication of Smyth involvement with slavery but at what level is unclear. It is a powerful visual image of one small outcome of the trade in human life serving fashions of the time. The unnamed boy may have been gifted by others, obtained from an agency or supplied by the painter as part of the iconography included in the image.

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The restored King Charles II (1660-1685) rewarded John Smyth with a baronetcy in 1663 for his support. Charles also granted a charter to the Company of Royal Adventurers into Africa within months of coming to the throne and later a charter to the reorganized Royal African Company of England in 1672 as the demand for slave labour in the Americas grew. The Company, based in London, had a monopoly in Britain on all trade with Africa.  Any other companies or merchants trading with Africa would have been acting illegally but penalties were not so high. We don’t know who was involved.

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In 1692, Elizabeth Astry from the wealthy Astry Family, married John Smyth, and significant changes to the SW wing of the house followed. We have not found specific connections to slave trading in her branch of the Astry family.

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In 1698, Parliament opened the slave trade to English traders; when this act expired in 1712, an official era of free trade began. Bristol merchant ships then led the way taking largely metal, copper and brass goods to Africa from the newly industrialised Avon valley to buy slaves which they took on to the Americas and brought sugar, tobacco and rum back to Bristol. This became known as the slave triangle or triangular trade. For a time in mid 1700s an average of 3 ships a month were leaving Bristol in the slave trade but this was soon overtaken by Liverpool.

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In 1741, Jarrit Smith, family lawyer, bought up the shared ownership of Ashton Court, from his wife’s Smyth family. He was a Merchant Venturer and a partner in the Bristol Brass Company involved with Slave Triangle, and a major investor in the Ashton Vale coalfield from 1748.

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Elizabeth Woolnough inherited a half share in a Jamaican sugar plantation from her uncle, the brother of her mother, Rebecca. In 1757, when only 15, she was married to Jarrit’s son, John Hugh Smyth. Chilling details of the ownership & trade in human life can be found in the Estate records from around this time. John Hugh was also involved in the Bristol Brass Company but his main interests lay in the heritage of Ashton Court. Talk of the building the NW wing at Ashton Court began from this time.

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John Hugh died childless in 1802. He left most of his ‘estate’ to his nephew Hugh. This did not include the ‘Jamaica property’ which had provided income during John Hugh and Elizabeth’s marriage but was subject to trusts, possibly through the marriage settlement. It passed to the widowed Elizabeth. She went to live at Clift House (site of Riverside Garden Centre) and left the plantation to a Long Ashton vicar in her will in 1825/6.

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After 1810 little is known about Smyth associations with slavery or the Brass Company as Bristol had lost out to Liverpool trade, and much brass production went to Swansea. The slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807 and income from mineral rights from coal mining and land rental was growing at Ashton Court. The Smyths are not recorded as receiving post slavery compensation which was introduced in 1833.

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In summary, Ashton Court was wealthy long before the Smyths arrived, or international trade, and piracy began in earnest in the post reformation era. In general, the Smyths were not directly involved with slave ownership or trading. The only direct links we know of (from the mid-1700s) are through the outsider Jarrit Smith, his son, John Hugh Smyth, and his daughter in law Elizabeth Woolnough. They may have benefited from capital investment and speculation for centuries.