In 1701 Thomas Papillon of London left his son an enslaved man, ‘whom I take to be in the nature of my goods and chattels.’9 That Papillon felt the need to assert his claim to this enslaved man as chattel hints at some understanding on his part that the laws of England were unclear on the exact status of slaves, as they were to remain for at least another seventy years. In October 1718 the Bristol merchant Beecher Fleming evidently felt more confident about his right to leave ‘my negro boy, named Tallow’ to Mrs Mary Beecher, presumably his widow.
