John Edmonstone

(Originally published 9 October 2020)

For Black History Month 2020, Wakefield Museums and Castles explored some stories related to British slave ownership in the early 1800s.

This article focuses on the life of John Edmonstone (179? - c.1833). He was a formely enslaved person, who later became a taxidermist and teacher.

Content warning: this article discusses the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It contains some racist terms and attitudes when quoting from historical sources

Introduction

The lives of individual enslaved people are difficult to learn about. Their stories are under-represented. Documented stories of individuals are also few and far between. They were treated as property, used for the service and profit of others.

John Edmonstone, named by the man who enslaved him, is a rare story. His life began in enslavement in South America. It ended as a respected teacher and skilled taxidermist in Edinburgh.

John and Charles Edmonstone

The first known reference to John is in ‘Wanderings in South America’. This is a famous book written in 1825 by Charles Waterton of Walton Hall.

During a third expedition to Demerara in British Guiana in 1820, Waterton returned to Mibiri Creek: ‘the former habitation of my worthy friend Mr Edmonstone’. His ‘worthy friend’ was Charles Edmonstone, a close friend and his future father-in-law.

Charles Edmonstone owned a wood cutting business that used an enslaved workforce. This included John Edmonstone.

An illustration of Edmonstone's "wood cutting establishment". It shows some enslaved people wearing little clothing and chopping wood. There are huts and buildings in the background.

"Mr Edmonstone’s Wood Cutting Establishment, Mibiri Creek, Demerara River". Thomas Staunton St Clair, sketched around 1808. In 'A Residence in the West Indies and America' (London 1834, Vol 2). Copyright unknown.

John and Charles Waterton

Waterton was highly skilled at preserving birds for display in his museum in Wakefield. The skins he acquired had to be preserved very quickly in the heat of South America and he needed help to do it. He writes:

"It was upon this hill in former days that I first tried to teach John, the black slave of my friend Mr. Edmonstone, the proper way to do birds. But John had poor abilities, and it required much time and patience to drive anything into him. Some years after this his master took him to Scotland, where, becoming free, John left him, and got employed in the Glasgow, and then the Edinburgh Museum."
Waterton, Charles, Wanderings in South America, the north-west of the United States, and the Antilles in the years 1812, 1816, 1820 and 1824, London, 1825, pp 153 - 154

Waterton was a difficult man. He was known to have a quick temper. He was very argumentative and rarely praised people - John was no exception.

Although Waterton described him as having ‘poor abilities,’ it’s very likely that John accompanied him on his expeditions into the rainforests of Guiana. He would have learned valuable taxidermy skills there.

John and Charles Darwin

Waterton stated that, once freed, John began an independent life in Scotland.

The Edinburgh Post Office Directory for 1824 – 1825 lists John Edmonston (missing an ‘e’) as a bird-stuffer, living at 37, Lothian Street. This address is close to Edinburgh University. He had found employment there teaching students how to preserve birds.

One of his students would become one of the world’s greatest naturalists – Charles Darwin.

Darwin and his brother lodged a few doors away. In his autobiography he confirms Edmonstone’s connections with Waterton:

"a negro lived in Edinburgh, who had travelled with Waterton, and gained his livelihood by stuffing birds, which he did excellently: he gave me lessons for payment, and I used often to sit with him, for he was a very pleasant and intelligent man."
Darwin, Francis, Editor, The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter, 3 vols. London, 1887, Vol 1, p.40.

Edmonstone’s lessons cost Darwin ‘one guinea, for an hour every day for two months’. For that bargain price he learned skills that would last him a lifetime. It’s possible those 40 or so sessions inspired the impressionable young student to quit medicine and become a naturalist.

Five years later, in 1831, Darwin undertook his historic voyage on board the HMS Beagle. During this, he first began to form his theory on natural selection.

Darwin used the Galápagos finches to support his theory on the transmutation of species. He preserved them using the techniques that John Edmonstone had taught him.

John Edmonstone sat at a desk demonstrating taxidermy techniques to a young Charles Darwin

Artist impression of John Edmonston teaching a teenage Charles Darwin in Edinburgh, 1825. Copyright unknown.

John Edmonstone's work and later life

Edmonstone was a celebrated taxidermist in his day.

Along with teaching, some his work was bought by Edinburgh’s zoolological museum. The museum register shows the acquisition of a 15ft skin of a boa constrictor in 1822 – 23, presented by a Mr Edmonston.

In October 1823 the weekly report books state that two swallows, one water ouzel and one chaffinch were bought from John Edmonston. There were also fishes bought from him in 1825.

Very little more is known about him. The Edinburgh Post Office Directory lists him living in 1832-33 at 6 South St David’s Street, Edinburgh.

It is shameful that most stories of enslaved people are only known through the writing of those in a position of white privilege. We do not have John’s point of view of his enslavement. We don't even know whether he had any choice in joining Waterton on his expeditions.

All we know is that after he gained his freedom, he became a highly respected teacher and craftsman in the art of taxidermy. He became a mentor to one of the most important thinkers of the 1800s.

Today John Edmonstone is regarded as one of the '100 Great Black Britons'.