Pioneer really was a cut above
In honour of Black History Month, BETHAN THOMAS researched the history behind some of Carmarthenshire’s first recorded black residents
IN the 19th Century, when Llanelli was overflowing with sailors, farmers, gentlemen, dockyard workers and drovers, the town was a bustling hub of trade and life.
The town was an industrial town which manufactured tin, copper and iron as well as being filled with coal mines and a sea port.
And with the constant flow of traders coming in and out of the town, there were plenty of men looking to exchange a sixpence for a quick trim, a shave or even a wig dressing.
But the man holding the razor in one of Llanelli’s most esteemed barber shops had quite a history of his own.
Thomas Rigby, known at the time and throughout much of local history as ‘Thomas the Black Barber’ is one of Carmarthenshire’s earliest recorded black residents.
The hairdresser was originally born in Africa around the 1780s but was captured as a slave at the age of eight and taken to work in horrendous conditions in the West Indies.
After years working as a servant in the Caribbean,
Thomas was taken to England and then to Kidwelly by Reverend John Norcross. He obtained his freedom and eventually became a well-esteemed character in the community. Thomas became a popular hairdresser and is believed to have owned a barber shop on Llanelli’s aptly-named Thomas Street.
The barber shop would have been located near
today’s pub The Drovers.
Thomas Rigby met a Llanelli girl named Mary and the pair married on January, 19, 1819.
His wife was a publican and worked in Thomas Street’s The Drovers Arms, which is still a popular Llanelli pub.
The pair built a life together in Llanelli and became big parts of the community with many local men visiting Thomas’s shop and the couple
went on to have six children.
In Llanelli, Thomas learned to read and write and it is believed could have learned Welsh.
After decades of cutting Llanelli residents’ hair, building a family and starting a life in a small corner of Wales, Thomas Rigby passed away the year of his youngest daughter’s birth, in 1841.
He was believed to be around 58 at the time of
his death and was mourned by the community who had lost a ‘gentle’ and ‘harmless’ man.
His obituary in newspaper The Cambrian read: “On the 8th instant at Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Thomas Rigby, an African, who was taken as a slave to the West Indies when only eight years old.
“After the lapse of a few years he obtained his freedom and came to England. He resided for many
years at Llanelly, where he gained his livelihood as a hairdresser.
“He was a wellesteemed as an industrious and harmless man. He has left a wife and several children.”
The Carmarthenshire Antiquary says that it has been possible to trace the family back far enough to suggest that they left descendants who still live in Carmarthenshire today.