Victorian juries called for jurymen from a restricted source – male, over 21, and a property owner. Juries were unpaid, and their tasks included attending coroner’s courts where there was uncertainty over the death of an individual. One inquest in Poplar, in east London’s inner-city docklands, was reported in English newspapers in January 1892, for a member of the jury objected to the coloured man who was also on the jury. “He is not a native of this country, and has no right here … I protest against his sitting as a juryman”. The foreman of the jury said “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 asked the coloured man “How long have you been in this country?” and was told sixteen years “and was married in this country. I am not sitting here from choice, but from necessity”.

The names of those serving on juries were not published, although at one time the electoral registers had a “J” next to the names and addresses of those men eligible for service.

This report in the Midlands newspaper the Lichfield Mercury of Friday 8 January 1892 (page 7) appeared the next day in the south London suburb of Croydon, in the Croydon Chronicle.

This is another small piece in the mosaic of Victorian racial beliefs and social attitudes.