(reproduced by kind permission of Lambeth archives).
“From 1689 to 1721 Cromwell House was the residence of Edward Colston (1636-1721) of the London Mercers’ Company, a major philanthropic benefactor in Bristol, his home town. In 1792 Lysons described it as an “Ancient house” and it was then associated with the Aynscombe family: Cromwell Lane was renamed Aynscombe Lane.” (London Gardens Trust)
“Colston was a Bristol-born merchant who made some of his fortune from the slave trade, particularly between 1680 and 1692. He was an active member of the Royal African Company, and was briefly deputy governor in 1689–90. During his tenure, the Company transported an estimated 84,000 slaves from West Africa to the Americas. Colston used his wealth to provide financial support to almshouses, hospitals, schools, workhouses and churches throughout England, particularly in his home city of Bristol; he represented the Bristol constituency as its Member of Parliament from 1710 to 1713. He left £71,000 to charities after his death, as well as £100,000 to members of his family. In the 19th century he was seen as a philanthropist. The fact that some of his fortune was made in the slave trade was largely ignored until the 1990s.” (Wikipedia”
“The Aynscombe family home was Cromwell House in Mortlake. Charlotte Ann Aynscombe died in Mortlake in 1799 and there is a tablet in the vestry of the church in Mortlake.” (Barnes & Mortlake Appreciation Album, Facebook)
Charlotte Aynscombe’s collection of 121 etchings, prints and drawings were sold at Christie’s in 1982 and again in 1981. (Wikipedia)
“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” (Oscar Wilde)
And the Aynscombe’s of Mortlake are not talked about except on recondite websites and by a curious walker (with beagle) on the Thames Path yesterday with a propensity to cut and paste.