Thomas Caulker

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Thomas Canry Caulker (1846-1859) was the Sierra Leone-born son of the King of Bompey (a traditional state that became incorporated into Sierra Leone in 1888 and is today part of the Moyamba District). He is an early example, predating the formal proclamation of the Sierra Leone Protectorate, of a West African arriving in England for an education, to meet the rising international demands on traditional states for government and commerce, and illustrating the growth in influence of evangelical Christianity in the region, introduced largely by American Africans abolitionists.

[edit] Travel for Education in London

In the early 1850s Thomas Caulker was sent by his father, Canrah Bah Caulker, King of Bompey (syn: Bumpe), to London, for a Christian education in the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion pioneered in the eighteenth century by the evangelical Selina Hastings, and for his health. He lived with the Rev. J.K.Foster and his wife (the Rev Foster had formerly been a president of Cheshunt College, closely associated with the Methodist-leaning Connection).

Though very young, Thomas suffered from weakness of the eyes, which increased almost to blindness. He was sent to a school for the blind, but he was also afflicted by other medical problems and his health failed. He died at Canonbury in Islington while in the care of the Rev. Kirkman Foster, in 1859 aged only 13 and was buried at the non-denominational garden cemeterry, Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington. Here too, the Rev, Kirkman Foster and his wife were later interred.

Thomas' headstone read:

THOMAS CANRY CAULKER,

A native of Western Africa,

Son of

Canrah Bah Caulker,

King of Bompey

[edit] The Caulker Dynasty

The Bompey (syn. Bumpe) Kingdom was ruled by the Caulker dynasty throughout much of the nineteenth century, a period of considerable economic and political change:

1820-1832: Thomas Caulker

1832-1842: Charles Caulker

1842-1857: Canray Ba (Canreba)

1857-1864; Thomas Theophilus Caulker

1864-1888: Richard Canreba Caulker

1888-1895: vacant

1895-1898: R.C.Caulker (2nd period)

1898-1901: vacant

1901-19??: James Canreba Caulker

Prior to this, the Caulker dynasty came from Banana Island; a nearby traditional state or kingdom, from where they removed in 1820 upon incorporation of that kingdom into Sierra Leone.

[edit] Sources

French, James (1883). Walks in Abney Park Cemetery. London:James Clarke
Joyce, Paul (1984). Abney Park Cemetery. London:SAPC/Hackney Council
Great Britain Parliament (1855) An Act for Carrying Into Effect the Engagements Between Her Majesty and Certain Chiefs of the Sherbro Country Near Sierra Leone in Africa, for the More Effectual Suppression of the Slave Trade, London: George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty
Sanneh, Lamin (1999). Abolitionists Abroad: American blacks and the making of modern West Africa. London: Harvard Univ. Press (2nd edn Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press 2001)