Mary Sarah Oates

Mary Sarah Oates (married name Blathwayt, 1833–1925) was a Jamaican-British estate owner. Born in Jamaica to a white father and black mother, she was raised in Bath and became the lady of Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire, in 1899.

Early life in Jamaica

Mary Sarah Oates was born in Hanover, Jamaica in 1833 to George Hibbert Oates, manager of a sugar plantation called Georgia. Oates' family had long been involved in Jamaican sugar plantations and his uncle was the slave trader George Hibbert. In 1824, Oates had been accused by Unitarian minister Thomas Cooper of poorly treating the black enslaved people on his estate, and of cohabiting with and impregnating a sixteen-year-old ‘quadroon’ girl.

Mary Sarah’s mother was a free black woman called Margaret Cross, with whom Oates had five children. His children were considered slaves until the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. A travel journal survives in which Mary Sarah writes about a trip she took to France in 1867, and includes watercolour paintings by her.

When Anna Maria died in 1870, the executor of her will was Rev. Wynter Thomas Blathwayt. Mary Sarah Blathwayt thus became lady of the house, and appears in several photographs and a silhouette held by the National Trust there. The house was managed by Wynter’s eldest son Robert Wynter Blathwayt, who sold some of the collection to fund the installation of electricity.

Surviving her husband by 16 years, Mary died on 24 March 1925, and is buried with her husband in the churchyard of Dyrham, which adjoins the estate.