Exploring syllabus composers: Ignatius Sancho
In our third and final blog post about the lives of influential musicians featured on our syllabuses, composer and performer Althea Talbot-Howard shines a spotlight on the composer, writer and abolitionist Ignatius Sancho.
Read Althea's other articles on the Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
British composer Ignatius Sancho (c.1729-1780) has perhaps the most remarkable story of all the musicians in this short series, not least because his life illustrates the fact that enslavement of Africans existed within the UK; as well as outside it.
Charles Ignatius Sancho is generally believed to have been born on a slave ship during the Middle Passage – the journey westwards across the Atlantic from Africa to the New World (the Caribbean and the Americas) – in 1729, or thereabouts. He was brought to England as an infant, and raised in the household of three ladies in Greenwich, London, who were his official owners.
Around the age of twenty, he ran away to the nearby home of the 2nd Duke of Montagu, whose fine mansion and estate were situated on the edge of what is now the south-west corner of Greenwich Park. Sancho rose through the ranks of the household, becoming butler to the Duchess and valet to her son-in-law. As he did so, he was educated in the art of music by the Montagus themselves. During his time in their house, he composed a number of works which were of simple construction, but endowed with much charm. Arrangements of some of them feature on ABRSM’s early-grade syllabuses. In 1768, Sancho received the great honour of being painted by renowned artist Thomas Gainsborough, whilst still resident at Montagu House.
After twenty years with the Montagus, Sancho finally began an independent life. A generous legacy from the Duchess helped him to purchase a grocery store in London’s Mayfair. From this shop, he sold goods produced in different countries around the globe. These included sugar from the Caribbean, produced by slavery; and tea, from Asia.
Sancho’s music was not particularly innovative, but his life was highly-so. Not only was he the first composer of African descent to have his music published – and the first African writer to be published – but he was also the first such man to vote in a British election! He voted in 1774 and 1780: on the latter occasion, for renowned parliamentarian and abolitionist Charles James Fox.
Sancho’s enfranchisement was possible because he was a property owner in Mayfair: thanks to the Duchess’s legacy. It is interesting and instructive to note that although the Duchess was a woman of great means, whose generosity empowered Sancho to become a property owner – and thus eligible to vote – she, and all British women, remained excluded from British elections for another 154 years.
Whilst still in service at the Montagus’ home, Sancho married Anne Osborne. Unlike Afro-French composer Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who was prohibited from marrying by France’s Code Noir, Sancho suffered under no such restriction. Together, he and his wife raised seven children.
Find out more
You can find Sancho’s music in the following ABRSM syllabuses: Flute Grade 1 (Le Douze de Décembre), Violin Grade 1 (The Sword Knot), Viola Grade 3 (Minuet) and Grade 1 for all Brass instruments (Les Matadors).
Watch performances of syllabus works by Sancho on our YouTube channel:
- Les Matadors – Grade 1 Brass (all instruments)
- Minuet – Grade 3 Viola
Discover Althea Talbot-Howard’s intermediate duet transcription of three of Sancho’s Country Dances from the Year 1779 on her website: Althea Talbot-Howard
Photo credits
Portrait of Ignatius Sancho by Thomas Gainsborough
Ignatius Sancho plaque, Greenwich Park. Image credit: Althea Talbot-Howard (2023)
