February is Black History Month and this year marks the 400th anniversary that blacks were brought to Bermuda as indentured servants. Throughout this month, The Royal Gazette will feature people, events, places and institutions that have contributed to the shaping of African history.Nathaniel Wells, a former slave, plantation owner and businessman who lived during the 18th and 19th centuries, was also the first person of African ancestry to become a high sheriff in England. Wells was born on September 10, 1779 on the island of St Kitts in the Caribbean to William Wells, a wealthy merchant and plantation owner, and one of his lovers, a slave known only as “Juggy”. William’s European wife had died shortly after his arrival in the West Indies and, although he never married any of his slaves, it is recorded that he had relationships with several. Records show that he treated the women with whom he had relationships and his children well. Nathaniel was the oldest of at least six children, all by various different mothers.In 1783, William Wells freed his son and later sent him to school in England with aspirations that he might attend Oxford University. When his father died, however, Wells inherited his lands and property, including the slaves, and chose not to attend university. In 1803, Wells moved to Bath in the English West Country and later purchased a 2,200-acre plot of land near Chepstow.Wells became active in local society. He became a churchwarden of St Arvan’s Church and a justice of the peace. Most notably, Wells became a deputy lieutenant of the County of Monmouthshire and was appointed High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1818, a position in which he served until 1830.In 1820, Wells was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Chepstow Yeomanry. His commission makes him the second man of black origin to hold a commission in the armed forces of the Crown. During his military service, Wells took part in the breaking of the picket lines during the coalminers’ strikes in Wales in 1822. At the end of 1822, after the striking miners and iron workers had been broken by force, Wells resigned his commission.In 1833, when slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire, Wells, along with many other plantation owners, illegally retained his slaves. The slaveowners were unhappy about releasing “property” without suitable recompense and lobbied the British Government for compensation. In 1837, Parliament relented and paid slave-owners to release their slaves. Wells, along with hundreds of other plantation owners, duly accepted the compensation and released their slaves.Owing to failing health, Wells moved to Bath in 1850. A common practice in Britain at the time for patients suffering from long-term illnesses was to “take the waters” at the Roman Baths located in the city. Wells died in Bath on May 13, 1852 at the age of 72. He left behind a fortune of more than £100,000 (roughly £10 million in today’s terms) and 22 children from two marriages. There is a memorial to him at St Arvan’s Church in Chepstow. • Sources: John Evans, Nathaniel Wells of Monmouthshire and St Kitts: from Slave to Sheriff (Black and Asian Studies Association Newsletter No. 33, London, April 2002); Windham Henry Wyndham-Quin, The Yeomanry Cavalry of Gloucestershire and Monmouth (Republished: Golden Valley Publications, 2005)