{{Short description|British actor-musician (1754–1798)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} thumb|''A Mungo Macaroni'' engraving by Matthew and Mary Darly (1772) '''Julius Soubise''' (c. 1754 – 25 August 1798) was a formerly enslaved Afro-Caribbean man and a well-known fop in late eighteenth-century Britain. The satirized depiction of Soubise, ''A Mungo Macaroni'', is a relic of intersectionality between race, class, and gender in eighteenth-century London. His life of luxury as a free man of colour allowed him to excel in elite activities such as fencing and made him notorious in London's social scene as an exception to norms.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book|title=Slaves to fashion : black dandyism and the styling of black diasporic identity|author=Miller, Monica L.|date=2009|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=9780822391517|location=Durham|oclc=462914558}}</ref>
==Biography== Soubise was born on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean, the son of an enslaved Jamaican woman.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=The global eighteenth century|last=Nussbaum|first=Felicity|author-link=Felicity Nussbaum|date=2005|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=978-0801882692|location=Baltimore, Md.|oclc=65201715}}</ref><ref name="UKNA">{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/culture/music.htm|title=Black Presence: Asian and Black History in Britain|publisher=The National Archives (UK Government)|access-date=17 January 2007}}</ref> He was bought by Royal Navy Captain Stair Douglas<ref name=":4" /> and taken to England, enslaved, at ten years of age, under the name Othello.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unchained voices : an anthology of Black authors in the English-speaking world of the eighteenth century|date=2004|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|others=Carretta, Vincent.|isbn=9780813144085|edition= Expanded |location=Lexington|oclc=835158020}}</ref><ref name= "Unchained">{{cite book|author=Vincent Carretta |title=Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-speaking World of the 18th Century |publisher=University Press of Kentucky|year=2004|isbn=978-0-8131-9076-1|page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=-2olIZi8ThsC&dq=julius+soubise&pg=RA1-PA103 103]|edition=Expanded }}</ref> In 1764, he was given to Catherine Douglas, Duchess of Queensberry, Captain Douglas' relative and an eccentric emblem of London's high society, who manumitted him.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carretta|first=Vincent|date=2003|title=Naval records and eighteenth-century black biography|journal=Journal for Maritime Research|language=en|volume=5|issue=1|pages=143–158|doi=10.1080/21533369.2003.9668332|s2cid=161062397|issn=2153-3369|doi-access=free}}</ref> He was renamed after a French duke, Charles de Rohan, by the Duchess.<ref name=":03"/> She gave Soubise a privileged life, treating him as if he were her own son – apparently with her husband Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry's blessing.<ref name="Hyde">{{cite book|author=Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina |title=Black London: Life Before Emancipation |publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0-8135-2272-2|page= [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0813522722/ 54]}}</ref>
Trained by Domenico Angelo (whom Soubise also regularly accompanied as usher to Eton and Windsor<ref name="Hyde" />), Soubise became the riding and fencing master to the Duchess.<ref name="LARS">{{cite book|title=Re-Membering the Black Atlantic: On the Poetics and Politics of Literary Memory|author=Lars Eckstein|publisher=Rodopi|year=2006|isbn=978-90-420-1958-4|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=2rpeW3U9-WEC&dq=Julius+Soubise+most&pg=PA85 85]}}</ref> He became a popular acquaintance among young noblemen and rose as a figure in upper-class social circles, becoming the member of many fashionable clubs such as the Thatched House Club.<ref name="Hyde" /><ref name=":03"/> The personal favour and patronage of the Duchess allowed Soubise a lifestyle of socializing and fashion. He would sometimes style himself as "Prince Ana-Ana-maboe"<ref>Vincent Carretta and Philip Gould (2001), ''Genius in Bondage: Literature of the Early Black Atlantic''; University Press of Kentucky, p. 209. {{ISBN|0-8131-2203-1}}</ref> or "The Black Prince", claiming to be African royalty.<ref>{{cite book|author=Carretta and Gould|title=Genius in Bondage|year=2001|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FLSk4UH7URAC&dq=%22black+prince+%22+soubise&pg=RA3-PA63 63]}}</ref> It was rumoured that his relationship with the Duchess developed into a sexual one.<ref>{{cite book|author=Markman Ellis|title=The Politics of Sensibility (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism) |publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0-521-55221-9|page= [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0521552214/ 84]}}</ref><ref>Laura J. Rosenthal, [https://books.google.com/books?id=RJNBaEYYsp8C&dq=%22julius+soubise%22+lover&pg=RA2-PA161 ''Infamous Commerce: Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture''], Cornell University Press, 2006, p. 161. {{ISBN|0-8014-4404-7}}.</ref>
In the collected letters of the famous freed slave Ignatius Sancho, Letter XIIII (dated 11 October 1772) is addressed to Soubise, whom Sancho encourages to consider his lucky position as an unusually privileged black person and so live a more seemly life.<ref name="LETTERS">{{cite book|title=The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African|author=Ignatius Sancho (ed. Vincent Carretta)|publisher=Penguin Classics|year=1998|isbn=978-0-14-043637-2|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DgsezxDWe1sC&dq=Soubise+macaroni&pg=PA257 257]}}</ref>
However, on 15 July 1777 Soubise fled Britain for India.<ref name="Unchained" /> Historical accounts dispute whether he was sent away simply to amend his debauchery or to evade a rape accusation from a maid of the Duchess’.<ref name=":03"/> The Duchess died two days after his departure.
Once in India, he settled in Calcutta, Bengal, where he founded a fencing and riding school which was advertised as open to men and women students.<ref name=":2">{{Cite ODNB|title=Soubise, Julius [formerly Othello] (c. 1754–1798), man of fashion|volume = 1|last=Carretta|first=Vincent|date=2004-09-23|series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/60841}}</ref> The venture does not appear to have been successful, as records show multiple notices of insolvency, and Soubise was for a time imprisoned in a debtor's jail.<ref name=":15">{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Ashley L. |last2=Gerzina |first2=Gretchen |title=Britain's Black Past |date=31 March 2020 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |location=Liverpool |isbn=9781800341135 |pages=215–234 |url=https://watermark02.silverchair.com/331795960.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAA1swggNXBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggNIMIIDRAIBADCCAz0GCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMosj_IMCjOW3PZNoPAgEQgIIDDo9jOjl6yIxmdvmBinBOfJrai2S2v9ZPrNb5vrHz0kmk_cB11CSZH2-yRVj-qssDlaJBqaXqNNLWlGLSI1jR_st8hUSAwHW3n28A_4iUgLsEyZopK9pBJCBhKqT-nUq4OucWaOu0PKWVDQrtgMGkTn38KdnOqkfhCKheRvR05D7VOh4uCapQcuXzcR1QNmI-KguGXXbeOkVrG8C1V2gSdG9vzE764U_2KuoQ1tqIzVESdoNIkl4HcOq2opVZfxQF-YbllLOcaXf1xW27INYuZ0QINid-R2S8ra5m__g860o1ol1Z0dvNwp4viWEntPKSgmGwZWyFhZ27C1p0QUTIhmtG0qTbVEnmDVOjWsQiMRVCGqmmotEVPiAeiTYFRXqhDEFpTOs_S1RTnLKfTqkSdB8vCCNvZMM4Dn5LmsuqyQ93ALlaxRt-isaDvn5tcB5DQv3_lFmmTkylAglpoLDmB6xCdhayB8zXLZw7jZBQDfA87dmqEZHgietG9n-1WupSufxJ8RKrVgENwU_f0xH03BR6fUTy6psXMTnusGXWdqdGSPPygwXlDrDu1Va1XVzkoT2gQC6LCAq_9tdLkHqJOTd3z11oTt03hxm8jHaKGn7sdQCxOTuIRaHiTjQNBxFc5yWRdV8XImpz6YWN96qgq_o6Luum6gCpZGIHKUGgB7Erk5vqamjO0Bs6G55QXO6oojQVH14WiZtrr0jLm0dhGBSFBvAiPMRzrY9o-oepUusixPHY_3Psw55PI-tBbrEYVrVoKRo6Kk4zw1USZWcFMXwcKBDkRSwkljsd-CTFgWFH4DvHT35YrxvcTZPOS6jCjEzUHxSQFuJcwub4Z8fsCXt1ykLCQIFvo9G4IkmjTEZ3dqex8HKFZds4GdnfzJoSrEi1icb6GNbMXG0w8MIdQQCKfqjvbDj8ABww_zOcYdqTpsPMeJ3j_V1-qhd_pcpURQkQsMLAMQ1fcAkc_O2TQp8Yg917wubvysFKp003SsUERgXaWVDDUJxTRhpZAF_C9ZFz0ubLpkisZmCCGhuZ |access-date=19 March 2026}}</ref> In 1794, he married Catherine Pawson, the white daughter of a disgraced paymaster general with the [http://East%20India%20Company East India Company]. Contemporary accounts suggest it was a happy marriage.<ref name=":15" /> While in Calcutta he also fathered two known children, Mary and William Soubise.<ref name=":2" /> Based on dates, Catherine is likely to have been the mother of these children, though no mother was named in the baptism records. On 25 August 1798, Soubise fell while attempting to break in a horse.<ref name="Unchained" /><ref>{{cite book|author=Catherine Lynette Innes|title=A History of Black and Asian Writing in Britain, 1700–2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-521-64327-6|page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=hSCZsYuQWYgC&dq=Julius+Soubise+riding+school&pg=RA1-PA27 27]}}</ref> The fall came after a year of ailing health due to rheumatism, and he succumbed to his injuries, dying the following day at the age of 44.<ref name=":15" />
== Caricature depictions == thumb|338x338px|Print by William Austin, "The Duchess of Queensberry and Soubise" Soubise became socially prominent enough to become the subject of several caricatures. Most notably, Soubise is attributed as the muse for ''A Mungo Macaroni'' (published on 10 September 1772), part of a famous 1771–1773 satirical series of engravings depicting fashionable young men, published by Matthew and Mary Darly.<ref>{{cite book|title=Spaces of Modernity: London's Geographies 1680–1780|author=Miles Ogborn|publisher=Guilford Press|year=1998|isbn=978-1-57230-365-2|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tCp_X-AUQ6MC&dq=%22mungo+macaroni%27&pg=PA134 134]}}</ref><ref name="LETTERS" /> The term "macaroni" was a contemporary name for a fashionable young man, a dandy, while "Mungo" was a name of an officious slave from the 1769 comic opera ''The Padlock'' by Isaac Bickerstaffe.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge companion to British theatre, 1730-1830|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|others=Moody, Jane, 1967-2011., O'Quinn, Daniel, 1962-|isbn=9781139001656|location=Cambridge|oclc=723453913}}</ref> In previous contexts, use of the term "mungo" was often aimed towards luxury slaves, an application of the character to those treated theatrically like elite's pets. Applying the epithet to Soubise in combination with "macaroni" was intended to mock the identity he had assumed for himself.<ref name=":03"/>
William Austin's well-known satirical print, ''The Duchess of Queensbury and Soubise'' (published 1 May 1773) shows the pair engaged in a fencing match.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Reminiscences of Henry Angelo|author=Henry Angelo|publisher=Ayer Publishing|year=1972<!--; first published 1904-->|isbn=978-0-405-18118-4|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8zeYeoVD5kQC&dq=soubise+angelo&pg=PA350 350]}}</ref><ref name="Hyde" /> Austin's engraving was based on illustrations of fencing compiled by the Angelo fencing dynasty, combined with accounts of Soubise from Henry Angelo’s memoir.<ref>Henry Charles W. Angelo, [https://archive.org/details/angelospicnicor00angegoog/page/n75 <!-- pg=62 quote=angelo mungo. --> ''Angelo's Pic nic; or, Table Talk''], p. 61.</ref> These accounts were satirized by Austin in a way which addresses Soubise and the duchess’ uncustomary relationship, depicting Soubise as Mungo the servant.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1481055&partId=1|title=satirical print / print|website=British Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-11-03}}</ref> In the print, text shows Soubise saying, ''“Mungo here, Mungo dere, Mungo every where; Above and below. Hah! Vat your gracy tink of me now?,”'' direct lines from the Mungo character.<ref name=":03"/><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/282/the-d-------of-----playing-at-foils-with-her-favorite-lap-dog-mungo-after-expending-near-%C2%A310000-to-make-him-a----------|title=The D------ of [...]-- playing at foils with her favourite lap dog Mungo after expending near £10000 to make him a----------* {{!}} Yale Center For British Art|website=interactive.britishart.yale.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-11-03}}</ref> This work has reappeared historically under several titles, including “The Eccentric Duchess of Queensbury fencing with her protégé the Creole Soubise (otherwise ‘Mungo’)” and “The Duchess of Queensberry playing at foils with her favourite Lap Dog Mungo after Expending near £10,000 to make him a—.”<ref name=":3" />
== Arts and education == In his work as an actor, Soubise is suggested to have had runs in the role of Othello as well as the character Mungo from ''The Padlock,'' characters historically most often played by white actors in blackface.<ref name=":1" /> However, such reports come from ''Hicky's Bengal Gazette'', which could have posited this satirically to mock Soubise's status. Soubise was strongly associated with these characters throughout his time in the elite social sphere, labelled by others because he was a black actor, punctuated by his depiction in ''A Mungo Macaroni''.
Soubise received instruction in the privileged accomplishments of riding and fencing, taught by fencing master Domenico Angelo per Duchess Douglas’ connections.<ref name=":2" /> He was also known as an amateur violinist,<ref name="UKNA" /> singer and actor – he was taught oration by the famous actor David Garrick.<ref name="Hyde" />
== Fashion == Soubise's styles were likened to other fops of the time, often characterized by the French influence he also granted his namesake.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2J6S9QbpxI0C&q=Julius+Soubise|title=The Limits of the Human: Fictions of Anomaly, Race and Gender in the Long Eighteenth Century|last=Nussbaum|first=Felicity|date=2003-05-15|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521016421|language=en}}</ref> ''A Mungo Macaroni'' depicts Soubise sporting a luxurious hat, ruffles, a cane, and an adorned sword.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1637545&partId=1&searchText=macaronis&page=1|title=A Mungo Macaroni / Macaronies, Characters, Caricatures &c by MDarly. [1772] (Vol.4)|website=British Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-11-04}}</ref> He was known to wear large powdered wigs, fine fabrics such as silk, and styles fitted tightly to his body. There are also accounts of him wearing diamond-buckled shoes with red heels.<ref name=":03"/> Such styles meant that Soubise and other fops were associated with effeminacy and excess, supported by the caricatures, but Soubise also assumed a unique black identity that could be associated with extravagance.
==See also== *Black British elite, the class that Soubise belonged to
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== {{refbegin}} * [http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/2009/10/julius-soubise/ Julius Soubise] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100831074659/http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/2009/10/julius-soubise/ |date=31 August 2010 }} * Edwards, P., and Walvin, J., ''Black Personalities in the Era of the Slave Trade'', London, 1983. * Shyllon, Folarin, ''Black People in Britain 1555–1833'', London, New York and Ibadan: Oxford University Press and the Institute of Race Relations, 1977. {{refend}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soubise, Julius}} Category:1750s births Category:1798 deaths Category:British Saint Christopher and Nevis people Category:Slaves in the British West Indies Category:People from the British West Indies Category:People from the Bengal Presidency Category:English people of Saint Kitts and Nevis descent Category:English people of Jamaican descent Category:Black British musicians Category:Black British male actors Category:British former slaves Category:18th-century slaves Category:Accidental deaths in India Category:Deaths by horse-riding accident in India Category:18th-century British male actors