Toby's Cottage - The Story of an Unexpected Restoration

FREE online history talk on on Wednesday, 28 October, at 6pm (GMT).

We are delighted to welcome Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, Director of the French Domains of St Helena, with a surprising story of the unexpected restoration of Toby's Cottage.

Toby's Cottage is one of the few remaining traces of St Helena's long history of reliance on enslaved labour. The original cottage was a basic two-roomed dwelling inhabited by enslaved domestic workers at The Briars, where Napoléon spent his first months in exile on St Helena. At the time of Napoléon's arrival, it was inhabited by Toby, a skilled gardener, aged about 60, who was held in slavery by the Balcombe family. Napoléon struck up an unlikely friendship with Toby, and attempted unsuccessfully to buy his freedom. He was generous to him, often presenting him with a gold coin when they met, so that Toby gradually amassed a nest egg worth some £100. By 1822, however, his cottage must have been in poor condition, as while he was working in the garden at the Briars, a burglar got in through a rear crumbling wall, broke open his storage chests, and stole his precious savings. The money was never recovered, and when Toby died in March 1827, aged 72, he was still registered as a slave. 

By 2000, the cottage was a tumbledown, overgrown ruin, its last residents having moved out in the 1950s. Today, it has been rebuilt and fitted out as Toby would have known it and serves as a memorial to his life and times. 

Michel Dancoisne-Martineau steered this fascinating restoration project over several years to its successful launch last October. Please join us to hear him explain how the project came about, the thinking behind the decision to rebuild the cottage, and the research, people and skills involved. We're hugely grateful for his willingness to share the story with us. We're also grateful to our Trustee, Dr Peter Hicks, Manager of International Affairs at the Fondation Napoléon, who will introduce Michel. 

The talk is free to attend. Join us online on Wednesday, 28 October, at 6pm (GMT). All welcome.