Thomas Moody (1779–1849)

Colonel
Thomas Moody
JP, Knight of the Order of Military Merit (France)
Commanding Officer of Royal Engineers in the West Indies, Parliamentary Commissioner into West Indian Slavery, Advisor to the Colonial Office.
Monarch George IV, William IV, Victoria
Personal details
Born 1779
Died 9 May 1849(1849-05-09) (aged 69–70)
Nationality British
Political party Tory
Spouse(s) Martha Clement (1764 - 1868), daughter of Richard Clement (1754-1829), plantation-owner of Barbados. (Married 1 January 1809)
Relations Richard Stanley Hawks Moody (grandson)
Children 10, 8 of which survived their father, including Richard Clement Moody
Parents Thomas Moody (1732 - 1796) and Barbara Blamire (1740 - 1806)
Residence 7 Alfred Place, Bedford Square, and 23 Bolton Street, Mayfair, London.
Alma mater Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
Occupation Plantation-owner, merchant, mercantilist, slave-trader, Associate of East India Company, Director of the Crown Life Assurance Company, Director of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Land Company, Advisor to the Colonial Office
Religion Church of England
Awards Justice of the Peace, Knight of the Order of Military Merit (France).
Military service
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch  British Army and Royal Engineers.
Rank Colonel in Royal Engineers, Major in British Army.
Commands West Indies

Colonel Thomas Moody (1779 - 1849), JP, Knight of the Order of Military Merit (France), was a British owner of extensive plantations in the West Indies, where he was Commanding Officer of the Royal Engineers, a merchant, mercantilist, slave-trader, imperial advisor, Colonial Office administrator, and anti-abolitionist.

In the City of London, Moody was an associate of the East India Company, Director of the Crown Life Assurance Company, and Director of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Land Company.

Moody was Parliamentary Commissioner into the conditions of African slaves in the West Indies, in the performance of which role he produced the infamous report described by Thomas Babington Macaulay as ‘a defence of West Indian slavery’.

In 1828, Moody and his friend Sir James Stirling offered to colonize Australia using their own capital after the British government’s abandonment of its initial plans for the same, but were prohibited from so doing.

His 10 children included Major-General Richard Clement Moody FICE FRGS RIBA, the founder of British Columbia and first British Governor of the Falkland Islands, and Colonel Hampden Clement Blamire Moody CB.

Family

Thomas was the third son of Thomas Moody (1732 - 1796)[1][2][3] and Barbara Blamire (1740 - 1806),[4] a member of the Blamire family of Cumberland and cousin of William Blamire MP and the poet Susanna Blamire.[4][5] His second-great grandfather, Henry Moody (b. 1620, Suffolk), married Hannah Washington, daughter of the London-Rotterdam merchant Robert Washington (b. 1616, Adwick-le-Street) of Austrope Hall, Leeds,[6][7] who was a cousin of the US President George Washington and the Dutch Baron Jakob von Washington KCB.[8][9] Thomas's eldest brother, Charles (1781 - 1850), was a Colonial merchant in the West Indies and his other brother, George, was a surgeon.

West Indies

Thomas owned extensive plantations and estates in the Caribbean, including in Barbados, Guiana, Demerara, Berbice, and Tortola, all of which employed slave-labour. Moody was one of the many British landowners to redesignate his slaves as ‘apprentices’ to circumvent the Slave Trade Act 1807, which made the trade of slaves illegal, and, later, the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which made the ownership of slaves illegal, and to continue to trade and employ slaves under the former conditions. Moody witnessed the 1816 Barbados Slave Rebellion.[10] Moody was a claimant on insolvent estates in Berbice in 1827 (The Times 04/04/1827 p. 4).[11] and was awarded the compensation for one enslaved person in British Guiana.[11]

Moody served as private secretary to several members the Colonial administration of the islands, including the President of Tortola, and as aide-de-camp to both Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere[12] and Sir James Leith.[13]

The City of London

In the City of London, Moody was an associate of the East India Company, a Director of the Crown Life Assurance Company (based at 33 Bridge Street, Blackfriars)[14] and a Director of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Land Company (5 Coptball Court, London).[15]

French Knighthood

In 1820, Moody was knighted by Louis XVIII in the Order of Military Merit (France) for defending the French colony of Guadeloupe. He was permitted by George IV to wear the Cross of the Order whilst in Britain, but not to use the title 'Sir'.[16][17] Moody, already a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Engineers, received the rank of Major in the British Army for his services in conflicts in the West Indies.[17]

The Commission on Slavery

In 1821, William Wilberforce proposed to the House of Commons the creation a Commission to investigate the condition of slaves in the West Indies due to omnipresent reports that the Slave Trade Act 1807, which had made the trade of slaves illegal, was being universally violated by wealthy plantation owners, who were redesignating their slaves as ‘apprentices’ and continuing to trade.[18][19] Moody and John Dougan (1765-1826), an Admiralty agent of Tortola, volunteered for the commissionerships and were selected. The appointment of Moody was ironic, for he was one of the wealthiest landowners in the West Indies, a pioneer of the ‘apprentice’ trade, a friend of the President of Tortola and a member of the Colonial administration which, due to the core of such landowners within it, was committed to the perpetuation of the conditions of the employment and trade of slaves that had existed before the passing of the Act. Dougan was influenced by the zealous idealism of Whig agitators in England, such as John Barton (Quaker).[18][19][20][21]

Dougan and Moody disagreed spitefully over the issue: Dougan was supportive of the rights of the ‘apprentices’ and Moody supportive of their repression. When ‘apprentices’ employed by H. C. Maclean, a prosperous merchant who served as Comptroller of the Customs on Tortola, complained to the Commission, Macclean had them beaten. Moody refused to criticize him and placed such pressure on Dougan that Dougan, who found no support amongst the Colonial administration of the islands, was forced to resign from the Commission in June 1822, return to England, and submit his report to the House of Commons in private.[19] In this report, dated 20 December 1823, Dougan contends that "free labour in the West Indies is preferable to compulsory labour”.[18]

Moody's 'defence of West Indian slavery’ and Feud with the Whigs

Moody presented to the House of Commons an exposition of the reasons for his refusal to sign the report prepared by Dougan in Tortola, in addition to own report, dated 2 March 1825, in which he contends that “without some species of coercion African labour would be worthless”[22] and provides, in the words of Lord Macaulay, what ‘is, in substance, a defence of West Indian slavery’. Moody described his theories as a 'Philosophy of Labour'.[23] Moody’s extensive exposition of his contentions, which makes frequent use of rhetorical figures, won the support of Tories, but provoked the Whigs to ire, and, in addition to being targeted in the Anti-Slavery Monthly Reporter,[11] Moody’s contentions and his style of expression were severely mocked by Whig Lord Macaulay, who supported Dougan against Moody in the feud:[24]

For their efforts, Dougan and Moody were each made a Justice of the Peace.[18] Dougan died destitute in 1826: his efforts for reform were continued by his daughter, Mary.[19]

Despite the opposition of the Whigs, Moody and his fellow plantation owners, who governed the islands that they owned both de jure and de facto, continued their practices to exponential profit. During his subsequent tenure in the West Indies, Moody rose from the rank of Major to that of Colonel in the Royal Engineers[1][25][26] and he was grant command of the Royal Engineers in across the entire West Indies [27]

Moody's report also obtained for him the fervent support of Colonial sympathizers in London: Parliament declared his ‘great experience in the control of labour, both slave and free, both African and European, in garrison, and in the field’[28] and he became increasingly close to James Mangles (MP) (1768 –1838), Director of the East India Company, to whom he proffered advice regarding the settlement of the Swan River Colony at minimal cost to the British Government.[29]

Moody's offer to Colonize Australia

When the British government abandoned plans to implement the plans of James Stirling (Royal Navy officer) to settle the Swan River Colony, Stirling and Moody, in August 1828, offered form an association of private capitalists that would settle Australia, using their own capital, observing the ‘principles’ that had been observed by William Penn in the settlement of Pennsylvania, but this proposal was rejected by the government.[30][31]

Later life

Moody’s London residences were 7 Alfred Place Bedford Square and 23 Bolton Street, Mayfair. He died on 5 September 1849 at Berrywood House, near Southampton.[5] In 1852, an advertisement ran in the Times (02/06/1852 p. 1.) for around £120 unclaimed stock standing in name of Lieutenant-Colonel [sic] Thomas Moody of Waltham Abbey, with dividends unclaimed since 1839.[11]

Marriage and Issue

Thomas married Martha Clement (1764 - 1868), daughter of Richard Clement (1754-1829) of Barbados, on 1 January 1809. Thomas’s father in law was also a Caribbean plantation owner, owner of the Black Bess (196 slaves) and Clement Castle (220 slaves) estates on St Peter’s Island, which passed to sole remaining son, Hampden Clement, on his death.[32] Thomas and Martha had 10 children, 8 of whom were living at the time of their father’s death.[33]

  1. Thomas (b. 10 December 1809, Barbados, d. 21 March 1839, St Vincent). Captain of the 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot and Major in Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment). Died unmarried.
  2. Susannah (b. 29 August 1811, Barbados, d. `1884, St Leonards). Died unmarried.
  3. Richard Clement (b. 18 February 1813, Barbados, d. 1887, Bournemouth). Major-General Royal Engineers, Governor of the Falkland Islands, founder and Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia. Married Mary Susannah Hawks, daughter of Joseph Hawks JP DL, on 6 July 1852 St Andrew's, Newcastle. Had 13 children including Colonel Richard Stanley Hawks Moody.
  4. Sophia (b. 1 July 1814, Georgetown, Guyana, d. 1888, Royal Albert Hall Mansions, London).
  5. James Leith (b. 25 June 1816, Barbados, d. unknown). Chaplain to British Army Married Mary Willan, daughter of Rev. Willan, on 15 Oct. 1863 at Winchester. Had 5 children.
  6. Shute Barrington MICE[34] (b. 21 February 1818, Teignmouth, d. unknown). Sugar plantation owner in West Indies.[35] Married Sarah Blackwood, 19 January 1847, at St Michaels, Chester Square. Had one son, Thomas Barrington (b. 29 March 1848), Captain Royal Navy, who married Mary Ellen Dewrance and had one daughter, Joan Barrington Moody, who married Major Alan Holford Walker.
  7. Stapleton Cotton (b. March 1819, d. April 1820, Barbados).
  8. Hampden Clement Blamire CB (b. 10 January 1821, Bedford Square, d. 1869, Belfast). Colonel in Royal Engineers. Member of Hudson's Bay Company.[36] Married Louise Harriet Thompson, daughter of Samuel Thompson, at Belfast. Had two daughters and one son, Hampden Lewis Clement (b. 28 February 1855, Hong Kong), who was a Captain of the 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot.
  9. Clementia Barbara (b. 1822 - d. 1864).
  10. William Hoston (b. 6 June 1824, Bolton Street, Mayfair, d. December 1853). Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. Died unmarried.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Royal Engineers: Colonel Richard Clement Moody". Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  2. ↑ Dorothy Blakey Smith, ed., ‘The Journal of Arthur Thomas Bushby, 1858-1859,’ British Columbia
  3. ↑ "The Sapper Vol. 5 No. 1 June 1958". Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  4. 1 2 "The Moody Family, Some Longtown Families". Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  5. 1 2 "The Will of Major Thomas Moody, PROB 11/2101; The Carlisle Patriot 22/09/1849, accessed via Legacies of British Slave-Ownership: Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Moody: Profile and Legacies Summary". University College London. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  6. ↑ Genealogies of Virginia Families: From Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Volume I. Genealogical Publishing Company Incoporated. 1981. pp. 408–413.
  7. ↑ Dugdale, William (1899). Dugdale's Visitation of Yorkshire, with additions: ed. John William Clay (1838 - 1918). William Pollard and Co., The Printing Works, Exeter. p. 235.
  8. ↑ "a veteran diplomat" (3 September 1916). "Baron George Washington Fighting for Austria; Collateral Descendant of the First President of U.S., an Officer of the Austrian Lancers, May Make New Yorker His Heir". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
  9. ↑ "CLARENCE K. STREIT" (21 February 1926). "WITH GEORGE VON WASHINGTON AT HOME; Austrian Baron Descends From Same Family as "Father of Our Country" VON WASHINGTON IN HIS CASTLE". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
  10. ↑ "Letter of Thomas Moody to H. Goulburn, 14 October 1816, CO. 28/85, as noted in 'The Slave-Drivers' War: Bussa and the 1816 Barbados Slave Rebellion', Hilary McC Beckles, p.20". Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Legacies of British Slave-Ownership: Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Moody: Profile and Legacies Summary". University College London. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  12. ↑ The Royal Military Calendar or Army Service and Commission Book, Third Edition, Vol. V, 1820. p. 343.
  13. ↑ Slave Trade. Three Volumes. (Vol.2.) Papers Relating to Slaves in the Colonies; Slaves Manumitted; Slaves Imported, Exported; Manumissions, Marriages; Slave Trade at the Mauritius; Apprenticed Africans; Captured negroes at Tortola, St. Christopher's, and Demerara; etc. Session: 21 November 1826 -2 July 1827: Vol XXII. House of Commons Parlimentary Papers, 1826-1827. p. Slave Trade: Papers Relating To, p.54.
  14. ↑ Royal Kalendar and Court and City Register for England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Colonies: For the Year 1830. Suttaby, Fox, and Suttaby. p. 316.
  15. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 19706. p. 269. 12 February 1839. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  16. ↑ Bulletins and Other State Intelligence Compiled and Arranged from the Official Documents published in the London Gazette, 1820. R. G. Clarke, Cannon Row, Westminster. May 26, 1820. p. 220.
  17. 1 2 Hart, Captian H. G. (1844). Hart's Annual Army List, Special Reserve List, and Territorial Force List, Volume 5. John Murray, Albemarle Street, London. p. 288.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Slave Trade. Three Volumes. (Vol.2.) Papers Relating to Slaves in the Colonies; Slaves Manumitted; Slaves Imported, Exported; Manumissions, Marriages; Slave Trade at the Mauritius; Apprenticed Africans; Captured negroes at Tortola, St. Christopher's, and Demerara; etc. Session: 21 November 1826 -2 July 1827: Vol XXII. House of Commons Parlimentary Papers, 1826-1827.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Kinsman, Mary. John Dougan Remembered. Chatswood, NSW : Bannerman Bros. Pty. Ltd., 2001. ISBN 0646417215.
  20. ↑ Slave Trade. Papers relating to Captured Negroes. Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated 13th April 1824; (as far as it can at present be complied with) for copies of all reports made by the commissioners, or by either of them, who were appointed by His Majesty, in compliance with an address of the House, to inquire into the State of the Africans, who had been condemned to His Majesty under the acts abolishing the slave trade, and who had been apprenticed, or otherwise disposed of, in the West Indies. Viz. second part of Major Moody's report relating to Captured Negroes. House of Commons Parlimentary Papers, 1825.
  21. ↑ Slave Trade. (In Continuation of the Paper no. 462, Ordered to be Printed 12 June 1827.) Return to an address of the Honourable House of Commons, dated 12th March 1827;--for copy of any further reports made to His Majesty's government by Thomas Moody, Esq. and John Dougan, Esq. or either of them, or by any other commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of the slaves, condemned to the Crown, in the different colonies belonging to His Majesty, under the acts abolishing the Slave Trade. Captured negroes at Tortola. Mr. Dougan's further report,--and Major Moody's remarks thereon. (II). House of Commons Parlimentary Papers, 1828.
  22. ↑ Parliamentary Abstracts, Containing the Substance of all Important Papers laid before the two Houses of Parliament during the Session of 1825. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1826. p. 239. ISBN 0646417215.
  23. ↑ Macaulay, Thomas Babington. Social and Industrial Capacites of the Negroes (Edinburgh Review, March 1827), collected in Critical, Historical and Miscellaneous Essays, Volume 6 (1860),. New York, Sheldon and Company. pp. 361–404.
  24. ↑ Thomas Babington Macaulay, Social and Industrial Capacites of the Negroes (Edinburgh Review, March 1827), collected in Critical, Historical and Miscellaneous Essays, Volume 6 (1860), pp.361-404.
  25. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 20660. p. 3993. 10 November 1846. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  26. ↑ "Richard Clement Moody" in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online(2002)
  27. ↑ The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle: a Journal of Papers on Subjects Connected with Maritime Affairs. 1844. Simpkin, Marshall, and Company. p. 773.
  28. ↑ Slave Trade. Three Volumes. (Vol.2.) Papers Relating to Slaves in the Colonies; Slaves Manumitted; Slaves Imported, Exported; Manumissions, Marriages; Slave Trade at the Mauritius; Apprenticed Africans; Captured negroes at Tortola, St. Christopher's, and Demerara; etc. Session: 21 November 1826 -2 July 1827: Vol XXII. House of Commons Parlimentary Papers, 1826-1827. p. Captured Negroes on Tortola, p.45.
  29. ↑ Cameron, J. M. R. Ambitions Fire: Agricultural Colonization of Pre-Convict Western Australia. p. 38. ISBN 0855641967.
  30. ↑ Mills, Richard Charles. "III, p. 45". The Colonization of Australia (1829-42): The Wakefield Experiment in Empire Building. Sidgwick and Jackson, 1915.
  31. ↑ Letter by Captain Stirling and Major Moody to Under Secretary Hay. 21st August, 1828, in Official Papers relating to the Settlement at Swan River, West Australia, December 1826 – January 1830, in Historical Records of Australia, HRA Series III, Volume VI, pages 551-640.
  32. ↑ Will of Richard Clement of Barbados, PROB 11/1811/204, University College, London
  33. ↑ "The Will of Major Thomas Moody, PROB 11/2101, Codicil of 09/01/1843; The Carlisle Patriot 22/09/1849, accessed via Legacies of British Slave-Ownership: Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Moody: Profile and Legacies Summary". University College London. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  34. ↑ Newton, W. (1844). Newton's London Journal of Arts and Sciences. p. 293.
  35. ↑ Scoffern, John (1849). The Manufacture of Sugar in the Colonies and at Home: Chemically Considered.
  36. ↑ Meehan, John D. Chasing the Dragon in Shanghai: Canada’s Early Relations with China, 1858-1952. p. 17.
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