John Ystumlly’s arrival in North Wales was marked by trauma and violence. In the 1740s, John, who was also known as “Jack Black” or “Jac Ddu” in Wales, lived in Criccieth. John was not his original name because he was kidnapped from Africa when he was eight years old.
It’s unclear whose African country he came from, but according to his history, he was “on the banks of a stream amid woodland, attempting to catch a moorhen, when white men arrived, caught him, and dragged him away with them to the ship.” They dragged him away from his mother, who ran and yelled after them, according to John.
According to North Wales Live, he was taken from his mother’s arms and shipped to the Ystumllyn estate in Criccieth, North Wales, as a “gift” to the aristocratic Wynn family. Afterward, he was christened as “John Ystumllyn” in a church in Gwynedd town, named after the Wynn family’s Ystumllyn estate.
According to legend, some aristocratic families in the 18th century, when Britain was engaged in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, wished to have a Black servant, and it was during this time, John landed in North Wales. Some historians believe he was kidnapped and brought home by a member of the Wynn family, while others claim he was brought as a present by the sister of Ellis Wynn, the owner of the Ystumllyn estate, who lived in London.
Despite his horrible experience, John fought against the odds. He received a decent education after that, learning Welsh and English and horticulture in the gardens where he worked. He would go on to become a well-known gardener and the region’s first Black person with a well-documented life.
When he fell in love with Margaret Gruffydd, a local White woman, he quit his work at Ystumllyn and eloped with her in Dolgellau. The couple had seven children, two of whom died tragically at an early age. The other five went on to achieve great success. Indeed, the couple’s eldest son worked as a huntsman at Glynllifon grounds, which was a high-status position at the time.
While he was alive, John was also well-liked. This was not only because of his horticultural expertise but also because of his honesty. Slavery was still prevalent at the time, but John was not one of the slaves. Instead, John was “very much a free man,” who was accepted in his society and loved by his family.
“However, there is evidence that his community made him sick and upset,” Gwyn told North Wales Live.
“Two local men thought they were being funny and proceeded to ‘black’ themselves up on two separate occasions,” she claimed.
John was the gardener at this point, and he had the authority to order people around. However, these two individuals tried to impersonate him by going to adjacent establishments and placing orders in his name. This appears to have angered John, and his doctor claims that it caused him to become ill.
“Just because the word ‘racist’ didn’t exist at the time doesn’t negate the reality that it was racism.”
Despite running away from his estate employment in 1768 to marry, John later returned to work for the Wynn family. Later, the family gave him and his wife a house with a garden. According to history, John’s marriage to Margaret was one of the first mixed-race marriages in Wales. Indeed, before he was buried in the churchyard of Ynyscynhaearn near Criccieth in 1791, his love tale with Margaret, which transcended ethnic and social barriers, became well-known in North Wales and was passed down in tradition.
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And, more than 200 years after his death, John, whose family still lives in Wales, has been honored with a rose named after him.
“We did it out of friendship,” Zehra Zaidi, creator of the group We Too Built Britain, told the BBC last month. “That’s why the color is yellow; it symbolizes for love, it represents for community.”
“Those are the ideals John embodied, as anyone who knows his tale understands.”
Zaidi, whose organization increases awareness of the accomplishments of under-represented groups, grew up in Carmarthen, South Wales, as part of a minority ethnic group. Because John’s narrative is so important to her, she said she approached Harkness Roses in Hertfordshire and proposed the rose during recent Black Lives Matter marches. Harkness Roses have bred Roses named after the Queen.
Campaigners believe John’s rose is the first in the UK to be named after a member of an ethnic minority group.
