Nathaniel Wells

Nathaniel Wells
Wells' seal
Born	(1779-09-10)10 September 1779 Saint Kitts
Died	13 May 1852(1852-05-13) (aged 72) Bath, Somerset
Nationality	British
Occupation(s)	planter, landowner, magistrate, sheriff, officer

Nathaniel Wells (10 September 1779 – 13 May 1852) was a British land owner and magistrate of Afro-Caribbean descent. Born on a Saint Kitts plantation to a white father and black mother, Wells inherited his father's plantations. He was sent to Britain to complete his education, eventually becoming a magistrate after being called to the bar, and became the second individual of African descent to hold a commission in the British Armed Forces after John Perkins of the Royal Navy. He was also Britain's first black sheriff. Wells died in 1852, remaining wealthy despite his slaves having been emancipated 19 years earlier by law.

Early life

Nathaniel Wells was born on 10 September 1779 to William Wells and Juggy Wells. William Wells (1730-1794) was a Welshman who emigrated from a wealthy Cardiff family to Saint Kitts with his younger brother Nataniel (b.1732). He became a successful slave trader before becoming a plantation owner. His wife Elizabeth, their son, and one daughter died and were buried in Basseterre and their surviving daughter Elizabeth married John Taylor of Nevis.^[1]

Following his wife's death, William Wells began fathering children by his female slaves – at least six, all by different women.^[2] Although sexual liaisons with slaves was a common practice at the time, Wells differed from the majority by looking after both the children and their mothers, giving them both their freedom and sums of money to live on—including Nathaniel's mother Juggy (d.1811),^[3] who became known as Joardine Wells following her manumission.^[4] William Wells died when Nathaniel was 15 years old and left the bulk of his estate to him as his only surviving, 'natural and dear'^[5] son. This included around £120,000 and three sugar plantations.^[4]

Return to Wales

When Nathaniel was aged around ten, his father sent him to

Wells remained a plantation owner and slave owner until emancipation was enacted by law in St Kitts in 1833, and was compensated financially for his loss by the British government with the sum of £1,400 9s 7d for the ownership of 86 enslaved people on St Kitts.^[7][1]

Piercefield House and Monmouthshire

By 1801, Wells had property worth an estimated £200,000 and was married to Harriet Este (1780–1820), the only daughter of Charles Este, a former chaplain to King George II.^[8] They had ten children including author Nathaniel Armstrong Wells (1806–1846), and churchmen Charles Rush Wells (1807-1869) and John Tighe Wells (1808-1848).^[1]

In 1802, he bought Piercefield House, Chepstow from Colonel Mark Wood, after agreeing to buy it for £90,000 over dinner.^[2] Wells added to Piercefield until it reached almost 3,000 acres (12km²). He continued the tradition of allowing visitors access to the grounds of his estate, among them the landscape painter Joseph Farington, who having met him in 1803 noted in his diary: "Mr Wells is a West Indian of large fortune, a man of very gentlemanly manners, but so much a man of colour as to be little removed from a Negro".^[1]

Wells seems to have taken full part in local society. In 1804, he was appointed a churchwarden of St Arvans Church near Piercefield, a position he held for 40 years. Together with the Duke of Beaufort he contributed to the upkeep of the church fabric, and St Arvan's distinctive octagonal tower (1820) was his gift.^[9] In 1806, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace,^[10] while in 1832 he was on the committee of the Chepstow Hunt.

Sheriff

On 24 January 1818, Wells became Britain's first Black

Wells' military service was not just an honorary role. As Lieutenant Wells, it is recorded[14] that he took part in action against striking coal-miners and iron workers in South Wales in 1822. Jackson's Oxford Journal of 11 May 1822 reprinting an article from the Bristol Mercury recorded that:

"It was then decided that a party of the cavalry, under the command of Lieutenant Wells, of Piercefield, should form a kind of advance guard, and should precede the main body by about a mile, to prevent the breaking up of the roads." However, the road ran along a steep-sided valley, and his party came under attack from the iron workers, who threw down large stones and rocks. Even with the arrival of the rest of the Yeomanry, and the reading of the Riot Act, the road could not be cleared, and was not until three hours later, with the arrival of the regular cavalry of the Royal Scots Greys behind the workers, that the road was cleared.^[15]

He resigned his commission on 7 August 1822.^[16]

Declining years

In 1850, in failing health, Wells sold Piercefield to John Russell (1788–1873). Wells had been married twice: His second wife, in 1823, was Esther Owen (1804–1871), daughter of John Owen (1766–1822).^[17] Her sister, Mary Frances Owen, was married to William Wilberforce (1798–1879), eldest son of William Wilberforce.

In all, Wells had 22 children. Two of his sons became clergymen and the eldest, Nathaniel Armstrong Wells (1806–1846), an author, writing and illustrating an account of his travels through Spain.^[18]

Wells died at 9 Park Street, Landsdown in Bath, Somerset, in 1852 at the age of 72, worth an estimated £100,000.^{[citation needed]} Esther Wells and four her daughters moved to Brighton after Wells' passing.^[19]

A memorial tablet can be seen at St Arvans Church, near Chepstow, Monmouthshire.^[20][21] Piercefield estate is now the home of Chepstow Racecourse, while the house is abandoned and derelict.^[22]

Esther Wells died in Brighton in 1871, having been recorded in the census of that year living with five of her daughters, Esther, Augusta, Catharine, Cecilia and Matilda Wells.^[23] Her daughters remained in the town during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.^[19]

References