Ignatius sancho biography

This biography of Ignatius Sancho was written by Joseph Jekyll in 1782 and has prefaced every edition of The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho to be published to date. In 1782 Jekyll was an unknown young man.

Perhaps for this reason the biography is unattributed in the earlier editions.

Ignatius sancho biography

He later became a well known Whig politician and lawyer and to reflect this his authorship of the biography is acknowledged in the 1803 edition. Sancho's son, William, added a long footnote to this biography in the 1803 edition.

I have not reproduced it here but it can be seen in the Edwards and Rewt (1994) edition.

The major problem with Jekyll's Life of Ignatius Sancho is that much of it is unverifiable, and, worse still, much of it directly contradicts what Sancho himself says to people in his letters.

For example, although Jekyll tells us that Sancho was born on a slave ship, Sancho himself seems convinced that he was born in Africa. For a more detailed reading of Jekyll's Life of Igna