Pedestal to the statue of Edward Colston

Summary

Pedestal to the statue of Edward Colston, 1895, by sculptor John Cassidy of Manchester.

Reasons for Designation

The pedestal to the statue of Edward Colston is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a high-quality and artistically accomplished pedestal to the statue of Edward Colston, now absent, constructed in finely moulded Hopton Wood limestone, with bronze work in the New Sculpture style.

Historic interest:

* for the commemoration of Edward Colston, Bristol's most famous philanthropist, now notorious for his direct and sustained involvement in the trade of enslaved African people;
* telling the story of changing attitudes to public commemoration, commissioned in the late-Victorian period to celebrate Colston’s philanthropy, and felled in 2020 after lengthy debate around the concept of memorialising a leading trader in enslaved people.

Group value:

* with the statue of Edmund Burke, the Cenotaph, and a drinking fountain commemorating the Industrial and Fine Art Exhibition of 1893.

History

The pedestal is the remaining element of the monument to Edward Colston, the statue itself and its stone plinth having been pulled down by protestors in June 2020.

Edward Colston (1636-1721) was born in the Temple Parish of Bristol. His father, William, was a prominent figure in the city: a leading merchant and the holder of various civic offices, though his support for the Royalist cause led to his being stripped of office in 1645, and the family moved to London. Edward, the eldest of their eleven children, served an eight-year apprenticeship to the London Mercers’ Company, beginning in 1654. This equipped him to establish a successful business, initially trading in various commodities, such as export of luxury cloth and the import of wine, with Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Africa.

The Colston family was involved in the Royal African Company from the 1670s, with Edward Colston becoming a shareholder in 1680. The Royal African Company was the principal institution through which enslaved people from west Africa were transported on English ships to the Americas, a trade which it monopolised in the late C17, aided by a privileged charter. In this period Colston was a member of the Company’s Court of Assistants and served as deputy governor from 1689-90. His dividends from the Royal African Company equate to over £5 million per capita GDP today. His involvement in the trade in enslaved people continued after he left the company. He was also involved in the South Sea Company, which transported enslaved African people to Spanish America.

Colston maintained an interest in his native city. He inherited a Bristol business from his brother, and became a partner in a Bristol sugar refinery, processing the product of West Indian plantations. He was elected a free burgess of the city, and a member of the Society of Merchant Venturers, which meant that he could trade out of Bristol. He may have moved to the city for a period in the 1680s, but by 1689 had taken up residence at Mortlake, Surrey, where he lived for the rest of his life. The vast wealth Colston accumulated in the 1680s enabled an extensive programme of philanthropic ventures, concentrated on Bristol. He gave a substantial part of his wealth to philanthropy. He founded alms-houses and schools, supported charitable institutions, workhouses, and churches. His donations were littered with clauses to limit beneficiaries to those who shared his religious and political beliefs. He was MP for the city from 1710-14. Colston died in 1721 leaving detailed instructions for his funeral, which was to take place in Bristol with a cortege made up of his beneficiaries; he is buried at All Saints' Church.

The statue of Colston was erected in November 1895, 174 years after his death. The land on which it stands was formed when the northern leg of the Floating Harbour was culverted along Colston Avenue in the 1890s. Upon completion in 1893, the space hosted the Bristol Industrial and Fine Art Exhibition, before becoming Magpie Park, which was populated with statues commemorating individuals associated with the city. The first, erected in 1894, was of Edmund Burke, Whig MP for Bristol in 1774-8 (listed at Grade II), and was a gift to the city from William Henry Wills. The Colston statue was commissioned by a committee organised by J W Arrowsmith, a wealthy Bristol printer and publisher, and president of the charitable Anchor Society. It was intended to commemorate Colston’s substantial donations to Bristol and to celebrate his philanthropy. Fund raising for the statue had limited success and it is generally believed that the costs were covered by Arrowsmith himself. The sculptor was John Cassidy, and the statue was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Bristol on 13 November 1895.

Understanding of Colston's involvement in the trade in enslaved people, the source of much of the money which he bestowed in Bristol, developed as the C20 progressed. There has been growing critical interest in Bristol's role in the 'triangular trade', which saw ships leave Bristol filled with goods to trade for African people, carry those enslaved people to West Indian plantations, and return to Bristol laden with sugar. Colston has come to be the preeminent representation of this aspect of Bristol's history, and the principle of monumentalising him has been debated for many years. On 7 June 2020, the Colston statue was pulled down during Black Lives Matter protests and rolled into the harbour. Following consultation with the city in 2021, the bronze figure and stone plinth entered the collections of Bristol City Council’s museums. The pedestal survives in position, and listed building consent was granted in March 2024 to add an explanatory plaque.

Details

Pedestal to the statue of Edward Colston, 1895, by sculptor John Cassidy of Manchester.

MATERIALS: Hopton Wood stone with bronze work by the Coalbrookdale Company.

DESCRIPTION: square on plan, of two stages, comprising a base with angle buttresses beneath a pedestal with chamfered corners and cornice. At the corners of the pedestal, resting on the buttresses, are bronze dolphins (dolphins feature on the Colston family crest), and on each face, a bronze plaque with reliefs in the style of the New Sculpture movement. On the south face, the words 'Erected by / citizens of Bristol / as a memorial / of one of the most / virtuous and wise sons of / their city / AD 1895' and 'John Cassidy fecit'. On the west face, Colston dispenses charity to poor families; on the north he is shown at the harbour inspecting one of his ships; on the east is a symbolic scene with marine horses, mermaids, and anchors. Inscribed on the south face of the base the words 'Edward Colston / Born 1636 / Died 1721'.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

379334

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Winstone, R, Bristol in the 1890s, (1960)
Merritt, D, Sculpture in Bristol, (2002)
Coules, V, The Trade: Bristol and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, (2007)
Wilkins, H J, Edward Colston 1636 - 1721: A Chronological account of his life and work, together with an account of the Colston Societies and memorials in Bristol, (1920)

Websites
Ball, R, The Royal African Company and Edward Colston (1680-92), Edward Colston Research Paper no. 2, Bristol Radical History Group (2017), accessed 30/04/2024 from https://www.brh.org.uk/site/articles/edward-colston-research-paper-2/
Information on Edward Colston statue, Bristol (1895) from John Cassidy: Manchester Sculptor, accessed 30/04/2024 from http://johncassidy.org.uk/
Cole, T, Burch-Brown, J, et al., The Colston Statue: What Next?, ‘We are Bristol’ History Commission Full Report. (2022), accessed 30/04/2024 from https://www.bristol.gov.uk/files/documents/1825-history-commission-full-report-final/file
Hayton, D, Cruickshanks, E, Handley, S (eds.) ‘Colston, Edward II (1636-1721), of Mortlake, Surr. (member biography)’, in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715 (2002), accessed 30/04/2024 from https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/colston-edward-ii-1636-1721
Morgan, K, Colston, Edward (1636–1721), merchant, slave trader, and philanthropist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (December 09, 2021), accessed 30/04/2024 from https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-5996
'New display at M Shed: the toppling of the Colston statue', Bristol Museums, 15 March 2024, accessed 18/06/2024 from https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/blog/new-display-at-m-shed-the-toppling-of-the-colston-statue/

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