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Entry TypePerson
SurnameMallows
ForenamesMercury
PlaceWalton Hall, Chesterfield
EpithetServant to Joshua Jebb
Datesd1801
Gender IdentityMale
Cultural HeritageBlack African heritage
BiographyNothing is known about the life of Mercury Mallows, but the name Mercury suggests he may have been born into enslavement, probably in Jamaica. Mercury was a servant in the household of Joshua Jebb (1769-1845) of Walton Hall, Chesterfield. Joshua was the son of Samuel Jebb (1720-1786) who in 1752 married Anne Harriott, the daughter of William Harriott of St Elizabeth, Jamaica. The Harriott family were enslavers and as Samuel owned estates in Jamaica when he died, he may have met Anne in Jamaica because he was himself an enslaver with estates there, or have acquired the estates through his marriage.

At a meeting in Chesterfield to petition parliament about slavery (reported in The Derby and Chesterfield Reporter, 2 Mar 1826) Joshua Jebb stated that he 'had lived in the Colonies for some years' and was 'acquainted... with the character of Slavery'. He expressed anti-slavery sentiments at the meeting, and as no-one with the surname Jebb is listed in the Legacies of British Slavery database, it would appear that Joshua Jebb had divested himself of any Jamaican property by 1833 and probably much earlier. It is possible that Mercury was enslaved by Joshua Jebb or his parents and subsequently freed.
SourceBurke's Landed Gentry, 1886; Derby and Chesterfield Reporter, 2 Mar 1826; will of Samuel Jebb 1786.
Authorised Form of NameMallows; Mercury (d1801); Servant to Joshua Jebb

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