Dido Elizabeth Belle
There is a new movie, opening this weekend, about the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle. The daughter of a British admiral, Sir John Lindsay, and an enslaved woman named Belle, Dido and her cousin's portrait is displayed in a castle in Scotland:
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Dido Elizabeth Belle
Scotland (1779)
oil on canvas
Scone Palace, Perth (private collection of the Earl of Mansfield)
From the link below: "This painting was most likely commissioned by her father, the nephew of the Earl of Mansfield, and depicts the beautiful and vivacious Belle alongside her cousin, Elizabeth Murray.
Dido Belle was raised and educated alongside the other highborn daughters of the household, and remained a favorite of the Earl and her father well into her thirties, after which an advantageous marriage was arranged.
Her position in the Earl’s household supervising the poultry yards was typical for any lady of high birth at the time, but her job overseeing the lord’s correspondence was usually a task reserved for a highly educated male clerk or scribe and is evidence of her importance and elevated rank. She received an allowance of £30 per year, more than any except the heiress herself and a sum unheard of at the time for any illegitimate daughter.
Upon Lord Mansfield’s death in 1788, Belle was furnished with a £500 lump sum in addition to a £100 annuity, as well as a suitable marriage to John Davinier, with whom she had three children. In Mansfield’s will, her status as a free person was carefully confirmed, since many would have been all too happy to divest her of her fortune.
Belle died in 1804 and was interred in St. George’s Fields, the parish to which she and her husband belonged.
http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/53279719036/unknown-formerly-att-johann-zoffany-dido
In the movie, the role of Dido Elizabeth Belle will be played by South African actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw
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