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Dido Elizabeth Belle (June 1761 – July 1804) was a free black British gentlewoman. She was born into slavery and illegitimate; her mother, Maria Belle, was an enslaved Black woman in the British West Indies. Her father was Sir John Lindsay, a British career naval officer who was stationed there; later knighted and promoted to admiral. Lindsay took Belle with him when he returned to England in 1765, entrusting her upbringing to his uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and his wife Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Mansfield. The Murrays educated Belle, bringing her up as a free gentlewoman at their Kenwood House, together with another great-niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray, whose mother had died. Lady Elizabeth and Belle were second cousins. Belle lived there for 30 years. In his will of 1793, Lord Mansfield provided an outright sum and an annuity to her. Early life Dido Elizabeth Belle was born into slavery in 1761 in the British West Indies to an enslaved African woman known as Maria Belle. (Her name was spelled as Maria Bell in Dido's baptism record.) Her father was 24-year-old Sir John Lindsay, a member of the Lindsay of Evelix branch of the Clan Lindsay, who was a career naval officer and then captain of the British warship HMS Trent, based in the West Indies. He was the son of Sir Alexander Lindsay, 3rd Baronet and his wife Amelia, daughter of David Murray, 5th Viscount Stormont. Lindsay is thought to have found Dido's mother, Maria Belle, held as a slave on a Spanish ship which his forces captured in the Caribbean. Maria Belle was a 14-year-old child slave when she was captured, around the same time she got pregnant by Lindsay, and gave birth to Dido when she was about 15 years old. Her age was confirmed by the Pensacola property record about her later life: "the manumission transaction for the sum of two hundred Spanish milled dollars paid by Maria Belle a Negro Woman Slave about 28 years of age", dated 22 August 1774; this confirmed that Maria Belle was about 14 when Dido was conceived; it wasn't clear if the conception was consensual.Sir John Lindsay returned to London after the war in 1765 with his young daughter and Maria Belle; he presumably took Dido to Kenwood House, home of his uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and his wife. Belle was baptised as Dido Elizabeth Belle in November 1766 at St George's, Bloomsbury, by her mother, Maria Belle, but Lindsay was absent from the baptism record. Dido Belle wasn't publicly acknowledged by her father Sir John Lindsay, hence she wasn't given the last name Lindsay, and instead used her mother's last name. Dido also didn't receive inheritance or acknowledgement from her father's later will, unlike her half-siblings. Dido was raised at Kenwood with her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray, whose mother had died. Lindsay married Mary Milner (1740-1799) in 1768. They had no children together. Maria Belle was known to have remained in England with Lindsay until 1774, when Lindsay having made her free and paid for her manumission, also transferred a piece of property in Pensacola to Maria, where she was required to build a house within 10 years; Maria Belle appeared in the Pensacola property record and her manumission paper.Sir John Lindsay would father a total of five illegitimate children from five different women: Dido Belle in June 1761, John Edward Lindsay in February 1762, Ann in November 1766, Elizabeth Lindsay (later Palmer) in December 1766, and John Lindsay in November 1767. Only the latter two were named in his will. A contemporary obituary of Sir John Lindsay, who had eventually been promoted to admiral, assumed that he was the father of Dido Belle, and described her: "[H]e has died, we believe, without any legitimate issue but has left one natural daughter, a Mulatta who has been brought up in Lord Mansfield's family almost from her infancy and whose amiable disposition and accomplishments have gained her the highest respect from all his Lordship's relations and visitants." At one time, historians thought her mother was an African slave on a ship captured by Lindsay's warship during the Siege of Havana, but this specific date is unlikely, as Dido was born in 1761. The obituary also failed to mention the existence of John and Elizabeth Lindsay named in Sir John Lindsay's will. At Kenwood House The Earl and Countess of Mansfield lived at Kenwood House in Hampstead, just outside the City of London. Childless, they were already raising their motherless great-niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray, born in 1760. It is possible that the Mansfields took Belle in to be Lady Elizabeth's playmate and, later in life, her personal attendant. As a result, Dido was baptised eight months after Lady Elizabeth's arrival. Her role within the family suggests that Belle became more that of a lady's companion than a lady's maid. At Kenwood House, Dido Elizabeth Belle would work in dairy and poultry yard and as an amanuensis for Lord Mansfield in his later years.Belle lived at Kenwood House for 31 years. Her position was unusual because she had been born into slavery according to colonial law. Lord and Lady Mansfield treated her well and brought her up as an educated woman. As she grew older, she often assisted Mansfield by taking dictation of his letters, which showed she had been educated.One of Mansfield's friends, American Thomas Hutchinson, a former governor of Massachusetts who as a Loyalist had moved to London, recalled in his personal diary a visit to Kenwood in 1779 that Belle "was called upon by my Lord every minute for this thing and that, and showed the greatest attention to everything he said". He described her as "neither handsome nor genteel – pert enough". He also talked about his first impressions of her at Lord Mansfield's house, saying "A Black came in after dinner and sat with the ladies, and after coffee, walked with the company in the gardens, one of the young ladies having her arm within the other. She had a very high cap, and her wool was much frizzled in her neck, but not enough to answer the large curls now in fashion. I knew her history before, but my Lord mentioned it again. Sir Lindsay, having taken her mother prisoner in a Spanish vessel, brought her to England, where she delivered of this girl, of which she was then with child, and which was taken care of by Lord M., and has been educated by his family. He calls her Dido, which I suppose is all the name she has. He knows he has been reproached for showing a fondness for her – I dare say not criminal". From Lord Mansfield's statement to Hutchinson, Mansfield seemed to have disguised the fact that Dido was his own great niece from the Governor, which created an implication that Hutchinson thought she was Mansfield's mistress. Such a relationship would have been common in the West Indies as his diary implied "I dare say not criminal".A brief reference to Belle occurs in volume II of James Beattie's Elements of Moral Science. Beattie refers to her intell.... Discover the Lindsay Murray popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Lindsay Murray books.