Joanna Vassa
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Joanna Vassa (/ˈvæsə/; 11 April 1795 – 10 March 1857) was the only surviving adult child of the former slave and anti-slavery campaigner Olaudah Equiano.[1] Her grave in Abney Park Cemetery, London, was given listed status in 2008[2] but little is known of her life.
She was born to Susannah Cullen of Fordham,[3] Cambridgeshire, and Olaudah Equiano (also known as "Gustavus Vassa, the African") on 11 April 1795, and baptised in St Andrew's Church, Soham, Cambridgeshire, on 29 April. Her father was well known for his 1789 autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.[4] Her mother was a subscriber to Equiano's Narrative and they were married on 7 April 1792 in Soham parish church.[5][6][2]
The year after Joanna's birth, Susannah died of an illness, on 21 February 1796, and was buried at St Andrew's Church, Soham. Joanna's father died just over a year later.[7] Shortly afterwards followed the death of her elder sister and only sibling Anna Maria (born 30 January 1793), on 21 July 1797.[8] Anna Maria is commemorated by a poetic plaque outside St Andrew’s Church, Chesterton, Cambridge[9] and her grave marked with a footstone engraved AMV 1797 was rediscovered nearby in the churchyard in 2025.[10][11]
Adulthood and marriage
In 1816, on reaching her 21st birthday, Joanna Vassa, being Equiano's only known surviving relative, inherited a silver watch and £950 (equivalent to £80,100 in 2025) from his estate.[12] It is not known who brought her up but it is speculated it may have been John Audley who was an executor of Equiano's will and later a witness at her wedding.[13]
It is not clear how Joanna met her future husband, the Congregational minister, Rev. Henry Bromley, but on 29 August 1821, they were married at St James's Church, Clerkenwell, a Church of England parish church in London. He had been ordained a minister at the Independent Chapel in Appledore in Devon, two months prior to the wedding. He was 24 years old and Joanna was 26. They settled in Devon for at least five years until they moved to the Congregational Church (present day United Reformed Church) at Clavering, Essex, where Rev. Bromley was pastor between 1827 and 1845.[2] He was a member of Clavering Reading Society throughout his time there.[14]
