Ignatius Sancho. © NMM

Ignatius Sancho was a self-educated slave and the first African prose writer to publish his work in England.

He wrote poetry, stage plays and composed music.

A collection of his letters was published in 1782, two years after his death in 1780. They proved to British society that an untutored African may possess abilities equal to a European.

Ignatius was brought to Greenwich as an orphan at the age of two. He was owned by three sisters who did not believe in the education of enslaved Africans. Ignatius taught himself to read and write. He developed his talents as a writer and a musician with the encouragement of his benefactor, the Duke of Montagu. When the Duke died, Ignatius ran away from the demanding sisters and worked as a butler for the Montagus in Blackheath.

He retired from domestic service due to ill health and opened a grocery shop on Charles Street in Westminister. Here he settled into family life with his Caribbean wife and two children, William and Elizabeth.

Ignatius acquired the name ‘Sancho’ from the three sisters in Greenwich, who thought he looked like Don Quixote’s Squire.

Ignatius embraced the London’s literary and artistic scene. He was painted by Gainsborough in 1768 and became friends with historical painter John Hamilton Mortimer and writers Samuel Johnson and Laurence Sterne.

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