Joanna Vassa (1795-1857) was the only surviving descendant of author and leading anti-slavery campaigner, Olaudah Equiano, who is also known as "Gustavus Vassa, the African".
Joanna's early life was tragic. In 1796, only a year after her birth, her English mother, Susannah Cullen of Fordham, Cambridgeshire, died, and was buried at St Andrew's Church, Soham. In the following year, her famous West African father Equiano died in London (31 March 179...
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Joanna Vassa (1795-1857) was the only surviving descendant of author and leading anti-slavery campaigner, Olaudah Equiano, who is also known as "Gustavus Vassa, the African".
Joanna's early life was tragic. In 1796, only a year after her birth, her English mother, Susannah Cullen of Fordham, Cambridgeshire, died, and was buried at St Andrew's Church, Soham. In the following year, her famous West African father Equiano died in London (31 March 1797, aged 52), and this was shortly followed by the death of her elder sister and only sibling Anna Maria (b.1793), on 21 July.
In 1816, on reaching her 21st birthday, Joanna Vassa, being Equiano's only known surviving relative, inherited a silver watch and £950 from his former estate; a figure that would perhaps be worth a hundred times that value today.
She married the Congregational minister, the Rev. Henry Bromley, whose first position was at Appledore in Devon, where he worked for five years.
For many years Joanna Vassa (Bromley) lived near...
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