S.S. Toddings’s Black ancestry may have been an open secret, but it was a secret just the same. Documents housed in the Bermuda Archives confirm that his mother and grandmother were formerly enslaved, which he managed to keep out of the public arena during his lifetime.

Toddings’s grandmother, Rebecca, makes her first appearance in the public record in the 1827 Slave Register. She was age 27 and described as Black. A child, Charlotte, aged 5, and described as Coloured, was a member of the same household. Rebecca and Charlotte were among nine enslaved persons belonging to the estate of Samuel Spencer, a Smith’s Parish shipwright.

Several years later, Rebecca and Charlotte make their second appearance. This time they have the last name of Outerbridge. The records are their manumission papers, documents which granted them their freedom. Charlotte was manumitted on November 26, 1831 and Rebecca was manumitted the following year, on July 3, 1832. They were freed by Deputy Postmaster General James Taylor. An opponent of slavery, he purchased them from Samuel Spencer’s daughters, Mary and Melicent, and set them free.

Rebecca apparently never married, but she lived to the age of 100. Her will confirms her connection with Charlotte, as it names Charlotte Elizabeth Toddings as her daughter.

Charlotte married Thomas Toddings on April 21, 1846. At the time of her marriage, she had taken the surname of Musson. Because Charlotte was a beneficiary in the will of Samuel Paynter Musson, the name change suggests she may have been his daughter.

Charlotte and Thomas’s marriage record does not give their race. But Thomas’s baptismal record lists him as White. They had five children: Samuel Seward (“S.S.”), Lindsay, Thomas, Charles and Annabelle.

Samuel Seward was born in St David’s, but the family later moved to St George’s, where Thomas held a variety of occupations including parish clerk, grocer and auctioneer.

He initially ran a school in St David’s. He received a grant from the Board of Education for the school, which had Black and White students. A Royal Gazette article about the school said 16 of the 51 students were White. He was a respected member of the St George’s community. His obituary in The Royal Gazette noted his work with the parish: he was a clerk at St Peter’s, an Overseer of the Poor and a St George’s common councillor.

Charlotte Toddings outlived her husband. She died on May 9, 1912. The woman who was described as a mulatto slave was somehow reclassified as White after her death. Charlotte’s death record shows the description m…(likely for mulatto) has been rubbed out and replaced with “White”.

Researcher LeYoni Junos has encountered instances where a person’s race was officially changed from Black to White.

But Charlotte’s race change was not initialled by the Registrar General, she said.

There is no ambiguity with regard to Rebecca’s race. She died on August 8, 1900 and her death record describes her as “Coloured.”

S.S.Toddings is described as White on his death record.

While Blacks passing for White was a common occurrence, both in the United States and Bermuda, becoming a part of the White world meant cutting ties with their Black relatives.

Toddings, however, remained close to his mother and grandmother. Rebecca Outerbridge lived with his parents at Barry Cottage, St George’s.

Charlotte’s death was noted on the front page of the Mid-Ocean. The obituary described her as “the revered mother of the Editor of the Mid-Ocean”.

There are no known Toddings descendants living in Bermuda. S.S. Toddings’s elder son and namesake Seward (1892-1961), who succeeded his father as Editor and publisher of the Mid-Ocean News, spent most of his life in Bermuda. He married four times, but had no children.

His younger brother, Thomas, moved to the US.

Reports in The Royal Gazette indicate that S.S.Toddings’s brothers, Lindsay, Thomas, Charles and sister, Annabella Corona, all moved to the U.S.

Genealogical websites suggest their descendants are White Americans, who likely have no idea that their family’s founding matriarchs were formerly enslaved.