See also Europeans: Texts and Sources
RICHARD BREW
- Priestly, Margaret, West African Trade and Coast Society OUP 1969 (quotations and notes)
- Richard Brew.
1756-60 and 1761-4: Governor at Anomabu.
1756-60: Richard Brew is reprimanded for selling slaves to the Dutch.
1757 moved into Castle.
1759 Building finished .
1760 early Feb: Brew left for Ireland (after nearly 15 years)
1761 September. Returned. Took over Castle on 1 October. Accused of shipping Dutch goods to Africa in 1761
1756-63: 7 years war Britain - France.
1763 probable start of construction of Castle Brew.
Snow = two-masted ship used in slave trading. Ships spent several months acquiring slaves for export.
7 Forts relied on the immediate locality for a wide range of services: canoemen, labourers, domestics, certain foodstuffs (fowls, eggs, cows) water, wood. Had house slaves. Cook. Had own small European staff and garrison for administration and defence.
8 Letters took up to six months to reach England. The Committee's store ship was normally an annual event.
22 1766 -1816 Philip Quaque appointed as missionary, catechist and schoolmaster for the negroes on the Gold Coast of Africa by the Society for the Propagation of the gospel. Appointed first African chaplain at Cape Coast Castle by the Committee of Merchants. English wife.
69 Horatio Smith, cousin of Samuel Smith, Brew's partner, assistant to Brew from 1769.
71 Dutch feared in 1765 that Brew and Webster's company would gradually swallow up and spoil the whole trade on the coast.
72 Brew's company owned schooners, brigs and sloops which plied between Anomabu and outstations.
75 Antelope, Albany, Brew Packet
73 1765-72 competitive mediator alongside the British and Dutch; efforts to bring himself to the notice of Osei Kwadjo, Asantehene.
74 Trading in East India cottons and linens, weapons, gunpowder and spirits.
75 Brew bought rum, tobacco and provisions from the Portuguese. Standard measure of gold dust: ounces and ackies (= 1/16 troy ounce = £4) Guinea cloth, dyed with indigo (blue) common (Yoruba from Ijebu)
78 Brew had dealings with Vernons, merchants from Newport, Rhode Island
79 Traders aimed at accumulating a gold reserve, valuable as a commodity, but also as medium of exchange. Might be acquired by barter for tobacco.
80 A ship's carpenter made Brew's coffin in 1776. Buried the same day as he died.
Brew was a thorn in the flesh of the Dutch (and English) through his machinations to obtain an overriding advantage in local diplomacy. Abusive in language. Dominating in behaviour, imbued with romantic notions of impressing upon the local population his superiority in power, wealth, importance. Turbulent personality
93 Brew's mediating attempts aimed at settling the peace of the country and opening the trading paths into the interior brought trouble and embarrassment to the forts. In 1765 Brew's assistant Webster seized the Dutch Director General's messenger and placed him in double chains at Castle Brew. Dutch protested at Cape Coast Castle.
99 Castle Brew - domestic situation. Traders were hard headed business realists, adventurers, crude, requiring an unusual degree of toughness both of spirit and body for survival on the Coast. Measure of sophistication and literary style of merit. Bedroom and hall furnished in mahogany. Bedroom had bedstead, settee, two arm chairs, table, bureau and bookcase used for storage of valuables such as gold. Hall, spacious, scene of social and business dealings, two settees, 23 Windsor chairs, 4 mahogany tables, 2 bureaux and bookcases, sideboard. 4 bedsteads for extra sleeping accommodation. Lighting by candles. Glass chandelier in hall. 4 looking glasses. 66 pictures of different sizes. Organ played for religious services. (Quaque visited). Silverware candlesticks, large salver, cream jug, teaspoons, china, glassware, linen, 60 plates, 24 cups and saucers, Queen's ware, decanters for wine, punch and water, wineglasses, 26 table cloths. Clothes in 18th century style: 15 waistcoats, 9 coats laced and plain, 16 shirts, 9 velvet collars, cravats, patterned silk breeches, pairs of stockings, some of them silk. Played cards and backgammon. Books included Tom Jones, Pope, Swift, Addison, Dr. Johnson's dictionary, History of Guinea, Don Quixote.
103 Castle architecture: bastion, ravelin, horn work.
Brew preparing a few anecdotes to throw into the palaver house (parliament).
104 Small and restricted European society. Tensions. Animosity. Backbiting. Existence narrow and encompassed. Companionship too unvarying. Gossiping rife. Conversation turned on scandal. Incidents magnified out of proportion. Friendships precarious. With the Dutch Brew had stormy passages over the years, though this did not preclude business relations. Occasional visiting. Frequent communication by letter sent by messenger. In times of emergency or illness, assistance offered or asked. Westgate suggested to Brew, who had been unwell, that he convalesce by taking a sea trip to Winneba. Brew was told that he ought to have more exercise and avoid indigestible foods such as yam. Also not to neglect the daily dose of Chinchona bark, a preventive against fever. Sheep and turkey for a Christmas present. Ships from Europe brought newspapers, hampers of fine potatoes. Referred to their black women as wenches.
Fleeting liaisons were sometimes contracted. There were few resident traders who did not enter into a settled relationship with a local woman. Will: "ïn consideration of her strict attention and attendance on me during the three years we have lived together the sum of £20 sterling to be paid to her in gold with 2 gold rings which belong to me as a token of remembrance".
109 On Trinity Sunday 1770 Quaque conducted evening service at Castle Brew; baptized child of captain Ebenezer Price in the presence of several Liverpool captains.
110 Brew kept Asante hostages at Castle Brew including the Asantehene's cousin, a young man of 20. Osei Kwadjo wanted them returned. (1765-72) Released the cousin in 1771, Fanti having agreed to stand security for his claim for the cost of upkeep.
113 On his death, the Dutch looked forward to an era of peace now that one so notorious had left the earthly scene. (Director General P Woortman, 1776)
- Thomas, Hugh, The Slave Trade, The history of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440-1870 Papermac 1998
- 327 When the American Revolution interrupted the slave trade, the shortage of rum on the West Coast of Africa caused as much heartache among the European factors and governors as among the African dealers. Governor Richard Miles of Cape Coast had to make do with Caribbean rum for some years, but it was not the same thing. Richard Brew was equally distraught. The Africans with whom Rhode Island captains had traded, especially along the Gold and Windward coasts, had also become addicted to North American rum, a fact which gave captains from Rhode Island a remarkable advantage when the traffic recovered in the 1780s.