James Irving

James Irving, the son of John Irving (1731-1807) and Isobel Little (1725-1791), was born at Langholm, Scotland, on 15th December 1759. His father was a blacksmith and innkeeper. It is believed that Irving received some form of medical training. Suzanne Schwarz has argued in Slave Captain: The Career of James Irving in the Liverpool Slave Trade (1995): "If Irving followed the usual pattern for surgeons, he would have been apprenticed between the ages of 14 and 18. It was usual for young men to spend between three and seven years in an apprenticeship and, in some cases, this was at some distance from their home. It is conceivable, though, that Irving was apprenticed close to home with George Little, a surgeon resident in Laugholm."

In January 1782 Irving was employed as a surgeon on the slave-ship, Prosperity. The ship based in Liverpool was captained by James Murphy and owned by John Dawson, who according to David Eltis, the author of The Volume and Structure of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (2001) was "possibly the world's leading slave trader". It has been claimed that "during his career he was involved in a number of voyages accounting for the delivery of some 3,000 slaves to the Americas". In his first trip he traded for slaves at Bight of Bonny. on the coast of West Africa.

Irving travelled to Jamaica under William Wilson on the slave-ship, Vulture in November 1782. It has been argued by Suzanne Schwarz: "Assuming that Irving was paid £4 wages a month, together with the value of two privilege slaves and one shilling head money for each of the 592 slaves delivered alive to the West Indies, it is likely that Irving earned approximately £140 from this voyage. This is consistent with the average voyage earnings of slave-ship surgeons in the late eighteenth century, which were typically between £100 and £150."

After his marriage to Mary Tunstall in Liverpool on 2nd July 1785, Irving was then recruited by Quayle Fargher, the captain of Jane. In May 1786 he sailed to Tobago. He wrote to his wife that "our black cattle are intolerably noisy and I'm almost melted in the midst of five or six hundred of them." David Richardson has argued: "Irving's insensitvity suggests that, even at a time when moral outrage in Britain at the enslavement of Africans was spreading, participation in the slave trade was still capable of promoting racism and blinding otherwise apparently quite caring individuals to the appalling suffering that they were helping to inflict on others."

The following year he served under William Sherwood on the Princess Royal, a ship that was capable of carrying up to 1,000 slaves and was the largest slave-ship owned by John Dawson and his partner, Peter Baker. His ship took over 800 slaves from Africa to Havana. In a letter to his wife in December, 1786 he wrote: "We have been in Tobago since the 25th November and have not yet disposed of any of our very disagreeable cargo... I'm nearly wearied of this unnatural accursed trade, and think... when convenience suits of adopting some other mode of life, although I'm fully sensible and aware of the difficulties attending any new undertaking, yet I will at least look around me."

In 1789 at the age of only twenty-nine, Irving was appointed as captain of the recently built, Anna. His improved financial situation enabled him to move to Pownall Square. Under the terms of the Dolben Act the ship was allowed to carry eighty slaves. He therefore only had a crew of eight men. This included John Clegg, Matthew Dawson, and three black men, Silvin Buckle, James Drachen and Jack Peters.

On 3rd May, 1789, Irving left Liverpool for Africa. On 27th May, the ship got into trouble off the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Irving later recalled that his attempts to alter the ship's course and "bring her to the wind" failed and the Anna was over-whelmed by the waves which "fell on board so heavily, and followed one another so quickly, that she soon lost head way, and struck in the hollow of the sea so very hard, that the rudder went away in a few seconds". Within ten minutes the ship filled with water and was pushed into the rocks. Irving and his crew were forced to abandon ship, and luckily they managed to safely get to the shore.

Irving and his crew were captured the following day by local Arabs and sold into slavery. Irving wrote to his wife, "all our hopes and prospects are vanished". Irving sent a letter to John Hutchinson, the British vice-counsul at Mogador (modern-day Essaouira), on the 24th June, 1789: "I hope you can feel for us, first suffering shipwreck, then seized on by a party of Arabs with outstretched arms and knives ready to stab us, next stripped to the skin, suffering a thousands deaths daily, insulted, spit upon, exposed to the sun and forced to travel through parched deserts." He pleaded with Hutchinson to "rescue us speedily from the most intolerable slavery".

Hutchinson successfully negotiated his release and after arriving in Marrakesh in January 1790 Irving informed his wife: "I have now the pleasure to tell you that after many difficulties and inconceivable hardships every one of us are got safe here in perfect health, and are under the care of our humane vice-consul, Mr. Hutchinson, who supplies us with clothes and the necessaries of life."

On his arrival in Liverpool he was reunited with his wife and his son, James, who had been born on 4th December 1789. However, it was not long before Irving was given the command of The Ellen, another ship owned by John Dawson. His crew of twenty-seven included Thomas Patton, Joseph Winters and James Bailey.

Irving wrote to his parents on 2nd January 1791: "We have been very busy loading the vessel.... We are bound for Annamaboe in the Gold Coast, discharge what goods we have for that price and set sail from it again within 48 hours after we arrived. Then we are to call at Lagos, Accra and other parts whose name I have forget. We are then to go down as far as Benin River and stay a day or two and then go back to Anomabo from which place we are to sail for the West Indies." The arrived at Annamaboe on 5th April 1791, before moving onto Lagos and Accra. While on the Gold Coast Irving purchased 341 Africans, eighty-eight of whom were transferred to other ships.

On 16th September 1791 The Ellen, with 253 slaves, sailed for Trinidad. During the journey, forty-six slaves died. James Irving died of an unspecified illness on 24th December 1791. He was the sixth and final member of the crew to die on the voyage.

Primary Sources

(1) James Irving, letter to Mary Irving (2nd December 1786)

We have been in Tobago since the 25th November and have not yet disposed of any of our very disagreeable cargo... I'm nearly wearied of this unnatural accursed trade, and think... when convenience suits of adopting some other mode of life, although I'm fully sensible and aware of the difficulties attending any new undertaking, yet I will at least look around me.

(2) David Richardson, The Mariner's Mirror (1996)

Irving's insensitvity suggests that, even at a time when moral outrage in Britain at the enslavement of Africans was spreading, participation in the slave trade was still capable of promoting racism and blinding otherwise apparently quite caring individuals to the appalling suffering that they were helping to inflict on others.

(3) James Irving, letter to John Hutchison (24th June, 1789)

The subscriber a most distrest and suffering object takes the liberty to inform you that he had the most greiveous misfortune to lose his vessel on the Arab Coast... The vessel was owned by John Dawson of Liverpool... I hope you can feel for us, first suffering shipwreck, then seized on by a party of Arabs with outstretched arms and knives ready to stab us, next stripped to the skin, suffering a thousands deaths daily, insulted, spit upon, exposed to the sun and forced to travel through parched deserts.

(4) James Irving, letter to his mother-in-law (1st August, 1789)

The Anna is lost, but thank God, we are all saved. We were carried ashore by the current on the 27th May, on the coast of Barbary, opposite the Canary Islands, and have been since that time amongst the natives in a poor condition although healthy.

(5) James Irving, letter to Mary Irving (1st August, 1789)

As a dream all our hopes and prospects are vanished. The Anna is wrecked and everything lost, yet be reconciled to your fate, God's will be done. Although the misfortune distresseth us most griveiously, yet by it I've learned what I never could have acquired by advice that to be happy is not be ambitious.

(6) James Irving, letter to Mary Irving (31st January, 1790)

I have now the pleasure to tell you that after many difficulties and inconcievable hardships every one of us are got safe here in perfect health, and are under the care of our humane vice-consul, Mr. Hutchison, who supplies us with clothes and the necessaries of life.

(7) James Irving, letter to his parents (2nd January, 1791)

We have been very busy loading the vessel.... We are bound for Annamaboe in the Gold Coast, discharge what goods we have for that price and set sail from it again within 48 hours after we arrived. Then we are to call at Lagos, Accra and other parts whose name I have forget. We are then to go down as far as Benin River and stay a day or two and then go back to Anomabo from which place we are to sail for the West Indies.