"However, after going to Cambridge's Magdalene College library to borrow a signed Equiano letter for the Black Atlantic exhibition in 2021, Prof Victoria Avery, of the Fitzwilliam Museum, found long-forgotten, unheralded research by Cathy O'Neill. O'Neill had found and photographed the likely location of Anna Maria's plot in the churchyard of St Andrew's, in the Chesterton area of Cambridge, while doing her A-levels in 1977."
"This October, while working on an article about Equiano's Cambridgeshire family for Women's History Review, Avery with the help of the vicar of St Andrew's, the Rev Dr Philip Lockley, and perfect light conditions was finally able to wrap up the academic mystery. Avery confirmed that eroded lettering on the stone said AMV 1797, confirming it as Anna Maria's footstone, thanks to O'Neill's previous research. In the moment of discovery there was a deep sense of her being found, Lockley said."
Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, escaped enslavement and became a celebrated author and campaigner in Georgian England. He married Susannah Cullen of Ely and settled in Soham, supported by a local network of abolitionist friends during a period of political hostility. Their first daughter, Anna Maria Vassa, died aged three and her grave location was lost. Cathy O'Neill discovered and photographed the likely plot in St Andrew's churchyard while doing her A-levels in 1977. In 2021, Prof Victoria Avery located O'Neill's research, and in October, with the vicar Philip Lockley and favorable light, confirmed eroded lettering reading AMV 1797 on the stone, identifying the footstone. The 700-year-old church has held an annual remembrance for Anna Maria since the 1990s.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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