The Extraordinary Story of Dido Elizabeth Belle

Dido Elizabeth Belle was the daughter of a Royal Navy officer who commanded the HMS Victory. She was raised outside of racial conventions during the 18th century. Her father, Sir John Lindsay, had impregnated a 14-year-old enslaved girl named Maria Belle during his career in the Caribbean. This resulted in the birth of their daughter, Dido Elizabeth Belle, in 1761.

Though African communities had been present in England before the Transatlantic Slave Trade, European opinions of people of color were at an all-time low as the slave trade reached its peak. Not only was Dido Elizabeth Belle living a life unheard of in 18th-century England, but the painting itself is a rare example of an African woman in European art. Africans are undoubtedly present in 18th-century paintings of the upper classes. However, they almost always served as foils to enhance the perceived “superiority” of the white figures in the painting, whether through indicators of wealth and power or purely aesthetic contrasts such as lighter skin compared to the darker complexions of African figures. The African figures are almost always shown in some form of servitude, as in the painting above titled A Young Girl with an Enslaved Servant from 1725.

Sir John Lindsay 

In 1766, John returned to England with Maria and Dido, arranging for Maria to be financially taken care of and sending Dido to be raised and educated as a gentlewoman by his uncle, Lord Mansfield, at the marvelous manor of Kenwood House. Lord Mansfield and his wife had a childless marriage. That same year, they had taken in another young girl named Lady Elizabeth Murray, whose mother had passed away. Therefore, they agreed to take Dido in as a companion to Elizabeth. Maria lived as a free woman in London, though it is unclear where in London and what her circumstances were like. It is also unclear whether or not she was allowed to remain in contact with her daughter.

Upon returning to the Caribbean shortly after taking Maria and Dido to England, he fathered four more children with African and mixed-race women, two of whom were stillborn or lost shortly after birth. Maria Belle was the only enslaved woman to bear Sir John Lindsay a child, but his approach was similar for all three of his surviving children, sending Dido’s younger half-siblings to be raised in Scotland.

Despite freeing and providing for Maria and ensuring Dido’s genteel upbringing, Lindsay did not legally recognize her as his daughter at her baptism, nor did he mention her in his will. However, he did mention Dido’s younger siblings in Scotland, who had his last name due to recognition and who continued to refer to themselves as Lindsay’s children for the rest of their lives. At Dido’s baptism, Maria Belle is recorded as being married to a “Mr. Belle.” In later documents from 1781 in Pensacola, Mrs. Belle is described as a widow, indicating she could have been married before meeting Sir John Lindsay, though no evidence has surfaced to support this theory, and “Mr. Belle” could have been a way to fill the empty blank on the certificate if the child had no legally recognized father.

Dido’s upbringing under the care of Lord Mansfield was thorough. She became very close with her cousin, Elizabeth. They grew up together like sisters. She was taught to read, write, play music, recite poetry, and all of the skills expected of a finely accomplished young woman of the Georgian era. She was included in family celebrations and holidays, given expensive gifts, and given an allowance to spend as she pleased (albeit less money than her cousin, though that was to be expected for an illegitimate child compared to a legitimate and recognized child).

An American loyalist moved to England in 1779, visiting Kenwood House and meeting Dido and Elizabeth. He describes that a young African woman joined the group after supper to drink coffee and take a walk in the gardens and that he was shocked to find her arm-in-arm with the other aristocratic lady as if they were equals—something that was out of the ordinary for the time period. Societal pressures did cause household behaviors that were exclusionary for Dido, but historians and art historians are often unsure if this was because of her race or illegitimate status.

Dido was not allowed to dine with the family during the American guest’s visit, instead being reunited with only them after the meal had ended. There is a lack of evidence to suggest whether this was normal for the family due to her illegitimacy or if it was because the family was aware of American opinions on people of color. In a similar vein, Lord Mansfield rarely claimed to be her great-uncle in front of guests, despite how proudly he included her when social restrictions allowed it.

It is unclear if this lack of relational claim stems from her illegitimacy or her skin color. Nevertheless, her illegitimate status would determine many aspects of her life, including her marriage prospects. Lord Mansfield held Dido in high esteem, showing off her education and skills to guests as if she were his own daughter. In 1807, a previous guest recalled meeting her as a ten-year-old and being impressed by her poetry recital, which Lord Mansfield had proudly requested.

Dido’s daily life was typical for a gentlewoman of the time. She cared for the estate’s dairy and poultry yards, an everyday chore for young women of high birth. However, she took on the extraordinary job of being Lord Mansfield’s amanuensis. An amanuensis was an assistant who wrote down verbal messages or copied manuscripts for their employer. This role was not typical for young women in the 18th century, but it serves as a testament to the top-quality education that was provided for her.

There is no evidence to suggest that Dido continued to claim Lindsay as her father. It is more likely she would have viewed Lord Mansfield as a father figure. Moreover, unlike her biological father, Lord Mansfield left his great-niece an inheritance in his will. He officially and legally confirmed that Dido was a free woman, though she had never been enslaved in England. Lord Mansfield likely did this to protect her from becoming enslaved if any laws shifted unfavorably after he passed.

He gave her a lump sum of £500 (roughly £90,800 in 2024) and £100 (roughly £18,100 in 2024) annually until her death. However, Lord Mansfield claimed Elizabeth Murray as his legal and biological niece, while he did not make such familial distinctions for Dido. This is likely due to her illegitimate status and her father’s lack of recognition, which caused Dido to retain the Belle name rather than Lindsay, like her half-siblings.

It was not uncommon for British officers to sexually assault enslaved women, and the relationship between Sir John Lindsay and Maria Belle was almost certainly non-consensual. However, Sir John Lindsay took a very different approach to the situation than most men of his background and standing would have taken—he freed Maria Belle, boarded the teenage girl and their young daughter on his ship, and sailed them to England for a better life.

This painting depicts Dido Elizabeth Belle and Lady Elizabeth Murray during their childhoods at Kenwood House. They both wear expensive clothing and jewelry, with Lady Elizabeth Murray wearing pink satin and tulle with her hair delicately styled with flowers. Next to her, Dido Elizabeth Belle is wearing a silk or satin gown that shimmers as it catches the light. They wear matching pearl necklaces, a sign of status and linked girlhood. Elizabeth is spending her leisure reading, while Dido is more active beside her. Elizabeth reaches out to touch her with sincerity and fondness, an act of friendship and equality between the figures. Dido places a finger on her cheek while holding feathers and fruit.

The feathers and fruit, along with the turban and feather she wears, are often debated to be an act of exoticization by the artist. Others argue it is a nod to her heritage since she is not presented as inferior in the composition or attitude of the painting. Instead, both girls’ faces are positioned at the same level in the painting, indicating that they were equal in the eyes of the commissioner (probably Lord Mansfield).

In 1774, Lindsay transferred a piece of Florida property into Maria Belle’s name and confirmed her status as a free woman. This occurred only one year after Lord Mansfield’s famous ruling, nicknamed Mansfield’s Judgement, in which he declared it illegal to take any African person from English soil to enslave in the Americas and publicly voiced his negative opinions of slavery, calling it “odious,” to quote his statement.

This meant that if an enslaved person was brought to English soil by their owners, they could not be forced back into slavery so long as they remained in England. Slavery would be officially abolished in 1833, and some scholars look to Mansfield’s Judgment as one of the inciting incidents that led to abolition in England, though this is debated. Nevertheless, it was an important ruling in English history, especially considering discussions around slavery being introduced to England at the time, which he sought to prevent.

The Siege of Pensacola 

The property that Sir John Lindsay gifted to Maria Belle was located in Pensacola, Florida, in an upper-class neighborhood near the garrison. Maria returned to Pensacola, where they had stayed for about a year before they came to England. She was given an expensive plot of land by the harbor, located near Lindsay Street, which was likely named after Sir John Lindsay. The contract stated she had ten years to build a house on the property. However, evidence suggests that she was re-enslaved at one point before purchasing her own freedom later in that same year.

She arrived in Pensacola in January 1774, and records show that she had paid for her own freedom from a man named Phillip Comyn in August 1774. She last appears in records in 1781 as a widow and disappears from historical record after the Siege of Pensacola. The Siege of Pensacola was a brutal attack on the city by the Spanish in a final and successful attempt to capture it from the British. It is unknown what fate befell her during or after the siege.

Dido Elizabeth Belle married a Frenchman named John Davinier in 1793. He was the head steward for an estate in Mayfair. Dido had been at Kenwood House for over 30 years. Lady Elizabeth Murray had found love and married George Finch-Hatton in 1785, moving out of Kenwood House. Lord Mansfield had passed away in 1788, leaving the estate in the hands of her two aunts, who were also fond of Dido. After moving in with her husband, they had an uneventful marriage and twin sons, Charles and John, in 1795. A third son, William, followed in 1802. Her great-grandchild would go on to live in apartheid South Africa during the 1950s, listed as a white man.

Two years after the birth of William, Dido Elizabeth Belle passed away at the age of forty-six and was interred into her grave at St. George Field’s near Westminster Abbey in London. The burial ground was cleared in 1968-69 by a housing trust to build new homes on the land. All of the skeletons found while clearing the land were piled into a wooden box and taken to the local crematorium. However, the bones were not properly picked up, causing many to find them in the area after the gathered bones had already been taken to the crematorium. Some researchers suggest there is a small possibility her grave may still be intact in an area that did not get bulldozed, but this has not been proven.

Dido Elizabeth Belle had an extraordinary life. She was born the daughter of a previously enslaved woman, taken to England by her aristocratic father, and abandoned in the care of her great-uncle, who loved her and gave her an education. She lived outside of racial conventions and could have been a catalyst for Lord Mansfield’s ruling in favor of freedom for Africans on English soil.