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The British Cemetery Funchal Madeira Presents

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The British Cemetery Funchal Madeira Presents The British Cemetery Funchal Madeira presents: The following comprise the scripts of a series of eight biographical monologues given in a public costumed performance on the evening Saturday 29th October 2016 by members of Holy Trinity Church to raise funds for church and cemetery restoration, and is printed here along with photographs of the relevant graves and historical portraits of the “residents”. It is our privilege to present here that series of monologues, vignettes, windows on the past - but a past that is also very present for us who are honored by being the current custodians of this slice of Empire and European history… a slice that speaks of global commerce and military might (aspects so difficult to separate) … these are real tales of endeavours carried out by our forebears whose mortal remains were gifted to the British Cemetery for posterity. It is right and fitting we make you aware of their presence and remind you of their achievements as our obligation in return. “MEET THE RESIDENTS” Grave 1: Old Cemetery Lady Sophia Bligh Portrait of Anne Dashwood by Sir Joshua Reynolds Lady Sophia Bligh´s grave (foreground) “Good Eve kind gentle folk, I am Lady Sophia Bligh. I was born Sophia Stewart, in 1780, the sixteenth child of John Stewart, 7 th Earl of Galloway and Anne, Countess of Galloway. My older sister Susan Spencer Churchill was the Duchess of Marlborough and Marchioness of Blandford. My brother George Stewart became the 8 th Earl of Galloway, and his younger brother was General Sir William Stewart GCB. My other brothers and sisters were Anne Harriet Chichester; Rt. Rev. Hon. Charles James Stewart, Bishop of Quebec; Lady Charlotte Stewart; Caroline Rushout; Hon Edward Richard Stewart; Montgomery Granville John Stewart; Lt.-Col. James Henry Keith Stewart; Elizabeth Euphemia Stewart and Alexander Stewart. My beautiful mother Anne was the daughter of Sir James Dashwood , 2nd Baronet and her pre-wedding portrait was painted by none other than Sir Joshua Reynolds and now hangs on public display in the museum in New York, I believe it’s a city in our former American Colonies. My father was a famous politician: member of Parliament for Morpeth (1761-1768); member of Parliament for Ludgershall (1768-1773); and, Lord of Police (1768-1782). He sat as a Tory peer for Scotland 1774-1790 in the House of Lords. Many people loved him not as I did, and especially he was the target of two hostile poems by Robert Burns, John Bushby's Lamentation and On the Earl of Galloway A frequent opera-goer, my father was caricatured by James Gillray in An Old Encore at the Opera! of 1803. In 1762 James Boswell wrote of him that he had "a petulant forwardness that cannot fail to disgust people of sense and delicacy". From 1783 until his death in 1806 he was a Lord of the Bedchamber to King George III. As you can see I was a very well connected lady and if I had a Facebook page today, my friends would be among the Great and the Good! Indeed I am an ancestor of both Sir Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales. “ Portrait of John Stewart, 7th Earl of Galloway by Anton-Raphael Mengs, 1758. “I married the Honorable William Bligh, General to his Majesty George IV, and younger brother to John Bligh the 4th Earl Darnley, and who as colonel of his regiment in 1807, accompanied by his family, was stationed here in Madeira as part of the British garrison under General Beresford protecting the island from the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte. I bore two children - a daughter Sophia, who later married Henry William Parnell, 3rd Baron Congleton; and then a son William Stoyte born on 28th May 1808 but who apparently died age only 13 in 1821. It was suspected that my own death was a result of complications following his difficult birth from which I never really recovered. This lovely spot was firstly the British Military burial ground exclusively reserved for military personnel and their families until the late 1830s when, lack of space in the old Nation´s Burial Ground meant easing the regulations, but in 1809 I was the first person to be laid to rest here. My grave is very simple to comply with military rules. But I am sure my family erected a memorial back in England more in keeping with my dignity and station.” Grave 2: Old Cemetery, George Pepple, the King of Bonny (1849 – 31st October 1888) Grave of the King of Bonny Chiefs of Bonny 1896 George Oruigbiji Pepple - the King of Bonny “I am George Oruigbiji Pepple (b. 1849 – d. 31 Oct 1888) I ruled the Kingdom of Bonny, an independent trading state in the Niger Delta between 30 September 1866 and 14 December 1883, when I was deposed. After the British signed a treaty making the state a protectorate, I was restored on 22 January 1887, ruling until my death. The Kingdom of Bonny was a trading state founded before 1600, based on the port of Bonny in what is now Rivers State, Nigeria. It became a major trading center, first of slaves and later of palm oil products. I was born in 1849, son of King William Dappa Pepple of Bonny, who was deposed by the British and deported to Britain in 1854. As an infant I went into exile with my father, and was educated in England at the boys’ school at Hall Place, Bexley in southeast London. My studies included English, Greek, Mathematics, Scripture and History, the conventional syllabus of Victorian England. During my father's exile, Bonny was torn by struggles, at times violent, between two rival factions attached to the two ruling houses. The Manilla Pepple faction was led by Chief Oko Jumbo, but was racked by internal dissension. It was opposed by the Anna or Annie Pepple faction, led by Chief Jubo Jubogha, known as Ja-Ja to the British. In an attempt to restore peace, the British brought my father King William Dappa back and restored him to the throne in August 1861, reigning until his death in September 1866. (This theme will repeat itself as you will hear). The Bonny kingdom became important as early as the 15th century with the arrival of the Portuguese and the growth and development of friendship ties as well as trade and commerce between the Kingdom and the visiting Europeans. From the period of the Portuguese friendship, trade between Bonny and the Europeans commenced across the Atlantic. The Atlantic trade in slaves thus gradually commenced from the period of the influence of the Portuguese in the Kingdom. At its height of power, Bonny was one of the main entrepôts on the Slave Coast. Later the Dutch and then the British took control of the slave trade in Bonny and other ancient Kingdoms and trading States of the Niger Delta region, with the British renaming the port of Okoloama, "Bonny", and thereby popularized Okoloama as "Bonny" and in turn "Grand Bonny". When the British passed an Act to abolish the slave trade in 1807, the port of Grand Bonny Island became the export port of oil palm products, ivory and Guinea pepper.The majority of the inhabitants of the area converted to Christianity in the early 1800’s. Actually the Christian faith in Bonny was introduced by my father King William Dappa Pepple, who while in England elected to become a Christian King so that God will grant him power and wisdom to rule his people. King William Dappa Pepple was baptised by Reverend G. H. McGill and later confirmed by Dr. Tait, the Bishop of London. At the behest of my father the Church Missionary Society in London sent Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first Black African Bishop, to Bonny in 1864 to establish the Gospel of our lord Jesus Christ in Bonny. In 1864, Crowther was ordained as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church; he was consecrated a bishop on St Peter's day 1864, by Charles Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral. He later received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Oxford. Actually, from Bonny Christianity spread to the neighboring communities and the hinterlands of Eastern Nigeria. On January 24, 1889, Bonny Christians presented their beautiful church to Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther as his Cathedral. This he accepted and St. Stephen’s church in Bonny became the first Cathedral in Nigeria and the second Cathedral in West Africa. The Church was eventually dedicated by the Bishop on 27th February , 1889, but that was after my death… When I succeeded to my father´ throne on 30 September 1866, as I was a Christian also, I wrote to Bishop Crowther giving him support for the further introduction of our religion in Bonny. On 21 April 1867, supported by Oko Jumbo and other Manilla Pepple chiefs, I declared the iguana was no longer the sacred deity of the kingdom. Alas, my association with Christianity, at first welcomed by many people for the benefits it gave, gradually made me become identified with British interests and caused growing resentment. My supporters turned enemies. By 1790 Bonny had become Africa's biggest slave market, exporting annually a minimum of 20,000 slaves of whom 16,000 were Igbo people. By 1830 Bonny was exporting as many slaves as all the rest of Africa put together. In 1839 and 1841 we signed treaties with the British guaranteeing to pay us 2,000 dollar and 10,000 dollars in return for the end of the slave trade. In order to avoid an economic catastrophe my father quickly developed with British traders a vast palm oil industry.
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