Career
He was named after Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major, the third century Bachelor of Civil Engineering Roman general, famous for defeating the Carthaginian military leader Hannibal. Very little is known of his life. He was the servant of Charles William Howard, 7th Earl of Suffolk, who in 1715 married Arabella Morse and lived in the "Great House" in Henbury, Bristol.
lieutenant is not known how he was acquired, but he died there aged, according to his headstone, eighteen.
His master and mistress would die two years later. He is remembered because of the elaborate grave, consisting of painted headstone and footstone, in the churchyard of Street Mary"s in Henbury, which is a grade II listed building.
Both stones feature black cherubs and the footstone bears the unusual epitaph: Now sweetly sleep a CHRISTIAN in my What tho" my hue was dark my SAVIOR"South sight Shall Change this darkness into radiant Light Such grace to me my Lord on earth has given To recommend me to my Lord in heaven Whose glorious second coming here I wait With saints and Angels him to celebrate lieutenant is thought that 10,000 black slaves and servants were in Britain in the early 18th century, but this is one of the very few memorials to them. Curiously, there is no record of his burial in the church registers.
The author Eugene Byrne featured Scipio Africanus in his alternate history novel, "Things Unborn".