To serve on a Victorian jury you needed to be male and a property owner. There were various courts which dealt with legal matters, and the investigation into the sudden death of an individual in the eastern London, inner-city docklands district of Poplar was held at the coroner’s court. The inquest’s jury heard the evidence and duly came to a conclusion. But two non-local newspapers carried a report of an incident in the court room.

The text in the Midlands newspaper the Lichfield Mercury of 8 January 1892 (page 7) was repeated in southern London’s Croydon Chronicle of the following day – the source must have been a general press agency release. The article noted that a juryman had protested that there was a “coloured man” on the jury, saying “He is not a native of this country, and has no right here”. He added “I protest against his sitting as a juryman”. The foreman of the jury remarked that “He is under the British flag and can fulfil the duties of a British subject, and he has a perfect right to sit here”. The coroner (usually a medical man) asked the coloured man “How long have you been in this country?” and was told sixteen years “and was married in the country. I am not sitting here from choice, but from necessity”. He remained on the jury – an unpaid job seen as a civic responsibility.

Juries were and remain neutral – names are not publicized. The members are drawn from the local community, where a “J” after their name on the electoral registers indicated they qualified for this role. It will therefore be impossible to find out who this fellow was.