Researchers Identify Black Sailor in 1748 Reynolds Portrait as Boston Jersey, Who Served in Royal Navy

Researchers from the National Trust, London’s National Gallery and Royal Museums Greenwich have identified the Black boy depicted in an 18th-century portrait by Joshua Reynolds as a real person named Boston Jersey who served in the Royal Navy. The portrait of Lieutenant Paul Henry Ourry and the boy known as Jersey was completed around 1748.

In the painting the boy wears a navy-blue coat, red waistcoat, embroidered white turban and pearl earrings while gazing up at the young Royal Navy lieutenant.

Zoe Shearman, a property curator at the National Trust’s Saltram estate in Plymouth, told CNN on Friday that as tropes we can’t always be sure that the person of color, the Black sitter, is a real person. The team scoured British government archives, original letters, ship captains’ logs and documents relating to crew members to establish his identity.

The boy’s surname was Jersey and it might have replaced a former name.

His full name is recorded as Boston Jersey in a crew record book, according to historical geographer Mark Brayshay. Paul Henry Ourry was born in St Helier, the capital of Jersey, one of the Channel Islands. The boy might have been named Boston because he lived in Boston, Massachusetts before being in England.

Boston Jersey was baptized under the name George Walker on July 30, 1752, probably at a chapel in Westminster, London. The baptism certificate reads: A Certain Black Boy Called Boston Jersey Baptised by the name of George Walker aged fifteen. The boy was around age 11 in the portrait.

In the early 1700s it was routine to ship boys of African descent under 10 years of age to Britain to serve as domestic servants in affluent households. George Walker was a name that maybe perhaps he chose for himself or it was a name that he had used earlier on, Shearman said. Boston Jersey traveled for more than five years with Lieutenant Ourry on three different ships.

A crew list from 1751 shows that on the HMS Monmouth, which Jersey boarded in December 1748, he was promoted to the rank of able seaman from ordinary seaman. The last trace of Boston Jersey or George Walker was his discharge from the HMS Deptford in August 1753, probably in Port Mahon in Menorca.

X-ray scans, infrared reflectography, surface microscopy and analyses of paint samples were performed on the portrait.

Ourry’s head was marked out in the artwork before it was properly painted, while Jersey’s head was not. Reynolds initially sketched leafy branches but replaced them with a plain brown background. Jersey was carrying a piece of red cloth in the original composition.

Shearman said that it was absolutely amazing to see the original background of the painting and the changes Reynolds made. The painter made quite a lot of changes around where the two figures meet. The depiction of the boy is unlikely to be accurate, according to the National Trust.

The findings mark the start of further research into the life of Boston Jersey or George Walker.