Lacock Abbey and the Davenport Papers: Reassessing Slavery Connections in the Talbot Line
The Lacock Papers
This article is part of the ongoing research of the Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE). TREE works to preserve, interpret, and share archival records of enslavement and emancipation, connecting them to the histories of families, estates, and institutions across Britain.
In 2020 the National Trust published its Colonialism and Historic Slavery report. For Lacock Abbey, the report highlighted John Rock Grosett MP, a tenant in the 1820s who received compensation for enslaved people in Jamaica. This narrative positioned slavery wealth as something that arrived at Lacock from outside the family, through a temporary tenant.
Research undertaken by the Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE) now suggests a broader and more complex picture. Archival evidence preserved at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre shows that slavery-linked wealth entered the Talbot family line itself. This connection stretches back more than a century before Grosett, through the Davenport family, whose papers reveal direct involvement in the East India Company’s trade in enslaved people.
The Davenport line did not remain separate. Through a sequence of marriages with the Talbots and the Ivory family, Davenport wealth became intertwined with Lacock Abbey’s inheritance. By the early nineteenth century, William Henry Fox Talbot, the pioneer of photography, was an heir not only to Lacock but also to financial resources rooted in his great-grandfather Henry Davenport’s mercantile career.
The archival evidence is clear. Henry Davenport’s account book records the sale of four enslaved boys and one woman in July 1711. His bonds and estate papers include receipts for a “slave boy” named Dick and a “slave wench” named Diana in 1713 and 1714. Bills of lading from the same period preserve a further bill of sale for a “slave wench” as well as financial dealings with senior East India Company officials such as Thomas Pitt and Bernard Benyon. Together, these documents confirm that Davenport’s wealth derived in part from direct involvement in the trade in enslaved people.
This wealth was not lost to the family. Henry Davenport married Barbara Ivory, linking his descendants directly to the Talbots of Lacock. Their son, the Reverend William Davenport (1725–1781), married Jane Ivory Talbot. When John Talbot died without an heir in 1778, the Davenports inherited Lacock. From that point, Davenport capital and Talbot landholding were joined.
The inheritance continued into the nineteenth century. In 1821 William Henry Fox Talbot received more than £10,500 from the Davenport side of his family, equivalent to nearly one million pounds today. Trust papers confirm that this inheritance was managed by trustees including the Earl of Ilchester, preserving the value of capital originally generated in the early eighteenth century through East India Company ventures that included enslaved people.
The portraits hanging in Lacock Abbey reflect this history, though their captions do not. The portrait of Henry Davenport (1677–1731) currently highlights his marriages but makes no mention of his role in the East India Company or his documented involvement in the slave trade. The portrait of Reverend William Davenport (1725–1781) describes his clerical career and the inheritance of Lacock “by chance,” overlooking the reality that his position was built on the consolidation of Davenport wealth with the Talbot and Ivory families.
Taken together, the documents and the portraits tell a story that has been absent from public interpretation. Lacock Abbey was not only the home of photography. It was also a site where slavery-derived wealth was embedded, transmitted, and displayed across generations. TREE’s research adds this layer to the narrative, placing archival evidence into dialogue with family history and material culture.
References
Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, Lacock Abbey Collection:
2664/3/2D/2/96 (Henry Davenport account book, 1711–1714)
2664/3/2D/1/13 (Bonds and receipts referencing enslaved people, 1710–1730)
2664/3/2D/2/73 (Bills of lading and bill of sale for “slave wench,” 1706–1716)
2664/3/2B/135 (Letters to Henry Davenport at Fort St George, 1708–1713)
2664/3/2B/158 (Letters and accounts, including Deputy Governorship, 1711–1729)
2664/1/2A/577, 2664/1/2A/576 (Fox Talbot inheritance records, 1821)
National Trust Collections: Portrait of Henry Davenport (object 996341); Portrait of Rev. William Davenport (object 996333).
National Trust, Colonialism and Historic Slavery Report (2020).
About TREE
The Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE) is dedicated to uncovering, preserving, and interpreting archival records of enslavement and emancipation. Our mission is to connect these histories to the present, ensuring they are accessible for education, heritage, and public understanding.
This article is part of TREE’s Lacock Papers series. The full series explores how slavery wealth entered the Talbot family line at Lacock Abbey.
This research note was prepared by Matt Johnston, Founder & Trustee of the Trust for Records of Enslavement and Emancipation (TREE).
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