By David Siddall

ONE of the first times a black slave was permitted to share a white person’s burial plot in England happened in Whitehaven in 1700.

And the Whitehaven burial in St Nicholas’ churchyard, of the slave called Jane, was in defiance of the then law stating that no African could be buried in a churchyard.

The burial was that of the slave servant of Mildred Gale, grandmother of the first US president, George Washington.

Amateur researcher Jean McInally, who hails from Kells but now lives in Scotland, has spotted the unique nature of the slave burial in English history.

She said: “I have been asked why I think the burial of Mildred Gale, her baby daughter and her African slave in St Nicholas’s Churchyard, Whitehaven, is so important.

“It was very important as in 1665 New Amsterdam was taken by the British from the Dutch and renamed New York. The British then brought in very harsh laws against the African slave population.

“America was, at this time and at the time of Mildred Gale’s burial, a colony of Britain.

“Even before the laws in New York, all Africans were buried in mass or communal graves. They weren’t allowed to marry without permission, travel or meet in groups and in 1695 the British brought in a law stating that no African could be buried in a churchyard!

“Whitehaven would know all about this at the time as ships were going back and forward from the old port on a regular basis.

“No way would a white woman have shared a burial plot with an African slave in America or Britain at this time.”

But Muriel Cinnamon, who wrote a book on the Gale family, told The News this week: “I think the family had Jane baptised either in London or on the way to Whitehaven. They probably knew she was ailing and the baptism would have enabled her to be buried alongside her mistress. Jane is referred to in the parish register as a ‘negro servant’ rather than slave.”

Mrs McInally said: “From all accounts passed down to me, Mildred Gale had this slave girl educated and had her dressed as well as herself. They were great friends.

“Mildred Gale was 300 years ahead of her time – as was Whitehaven regarding this burial. Cumbria was more advanced than the rest of the country by about 100 years!

“William Wilberforce, the son of a wealthy Hull merchant born 1759, became an MP at age 20, and fought for over 50 years to stop the slave trade. Before he died in 1833 he knew his bill was going through Parliament and it was passed just after he died, The Abolition of the Slave Trade. He had friends in Cumbria.

“American gave them their freedom in 1863. A civil war was fought over it and it was the 1960s, 1970s, before the colour bar started to fall.

“Mildred Gale’s short life was certainly amazing. America would be a wild place as she was growing up in the 1670s. Pirates raiding the coastal settlements. Britain, France and Spain all fighting over the sugar, tobacco and rum trade. American Indians fighting to keep their land and way of life and the terrible slave ships and auctions.

“Her burial is exactly opposite the fish restaurant on Duke Street, the tall dark headstone about 5ft high, about 10ft from the back wall, looked on to Duke Street, with just enough room for the burial in front.”

“Whitehaven proclaimed it to all the world on the headstone. It read: d 1700, Mildred Gale nee Warner of Warner Hall Virginia, wife of George Gale merchant of Whitehaven, Here also lie with her, her baby daughter and her African slave Jane.

“Mildred Gale was the widow of Major Laurence Washington and mother of their three children: John, Augustine and Mildred.”

“Her grandson, Major George Washington, showed great courage in 1781 when he promised slaves their freedom if they would fight for him against the British.

“A lot of them did and he won the battle of Yorktown 1781.

“He was the first president of America, eight years later in 1789.”