We know very little about Molly. She was baptised in November 1764 in the Priory Church close to the Judges’ Lodgings and was buried just a month later. It’s likely she was intended to live as a servant, free or enslaved, with a local merchant family. In the same year Molly died, the Customs House was built on the quayside in Lancaster to a design by Richard Gillow. The new building was a sign of the ambition of the city’s merchants and the wealth created by the Atlantic Slave Trade and West Indies Trade.

This picture of Molly, perhaps more of a tribute to her and her story than a true ‘portrait’ was commissioned in partnership with Lancaster Black History Group, Lancaster University and the Institute for Black Atlantic Research at University of Central Lancashire. Molly’s story may have been isolated, short, humble even, but the legacy of that story and the deep injustices that sit around it need to be kept alive.

Image, with thanks to Art UK
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/molly-344355