Wickham House: Robin Brown

Robin Brown was born sometime before 1785. In his decades-long enslavement by the Wickham family, he was described as a trusted “manservant” to John Wickham, with whom he lived, worked and traveled. Currently, we do not have any sources directly from Robin. Nearly all the information about Robin comes from documents written by the Wickhams. 

His duties included running errands and attending the family at the Wickham home. He was called “Wickham’s accomplished servant” and was able to travel independently more easily than most enslaved people. A newspaper article suggested he could travel the city at night, which enslaved people were generally not allowed to do.  

Information about Robin’s travel and duties comes from John Wickham‘s letters. John  wrote to his wife Elizabeth on October 23, likely 1832 – when cholera first broke out in Richmond. He told her that “Robin being very intent on going to Richmond went on Friday afternoon and returned for me on Saturday.”  

This tells us several things: Robin traveled, seemingly unaccompanied, between Richmond and East Tuckahoe, where the plantation was located. Likely he was written a pass, to avoid arrest and accusations of being a “runaway.” Wickham indeed trusted that he would not seek freedom during these intervals. 

In John Wickham’s 1839 will, he requested Robin have “comfortable support.” He did not free Robin, writing, “I do not wish him kept perfectly idle if able to follow any employment – he will I hope choose to remain with my wife and children…”  

After Wickham’s death, records show Robin continued laboring. He was sometimes given money to purchase things, as in 1841, when he received $8.00, “to pay Groom of Musgrave.”  

In an 1844 letter, John’s daughter Bettina Wickham told her brother Littleton about Robin sending a letter after her, as she had traveled to White Sulfur. In an undated letter, Bettina wrote to Littleton, “As there is no chance of it’s [sic] being injured by rain, Uncle Robin sends up your saddle – he tells me he can’t get any good potatoes but that ‘old Miss Morning has a plenty.”  

Throughout the 1840s, in account records of John Wickham’s estate maintained by his son William F. Wickham, we see records of Robin’s clothing and, less frequently, medical expenses.  

Robin died in late 1846, sometime prior to December 9 according to the estate records. Wickham’s estate paid for Robin Brown’s funeral and hearse.  His burial site is unknown. 

Robin appears in a record for the last time on October 29, 1847, when clothes for him are paid for by the estate. These records were recorded after Robin’s death because the estate likely received the bills months after he had passed. In the months prior, he had doctor’s bills paid for – though his ailment is unknown. However, after October 1847 there is no further record of Robin. 

Consider This…

• Based on what we know about Robin, how much control over his own life do you think he had? 
• Can you think of any strategies that an enslaved person might have used to survive the conditions of their enslavement? 
• Why don’t we know more about Robin Brown’s story and his family? 

Sources

• Census Office, 1840 and 1850 United States Census (Washington, DC, 1840 and 1850). 
• Richmond City Hustings Wills, Inventories & Accounts No. 11, 1847. 
• John Wickham Estate Account (Hustings Court, Richmond, VA, 1841). 
• John Wickham to Elizabeth Wickham letter October 23, UVA Box 5, no year 
• “Robin Brown,” Political Arena (Richmond, VA) April 1, 1836. 
• Midori Takagi, Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1999), 23. 
• Elizabeth Selden Maclurg Wickham, letter to Littleton Waller Tazwell Wickham (Virginia Museum of History and Culture Mss1W6326cFA2, Richmond, undated).