You are here: Home > Family history > Black people in Wivenhoe

Black people recorded in the Wivenhoe parish registers

Although it was just a small riverside village, Wivenhoe had international connections through its sea trade. It was natural that Black people would be brought to Wivenhoe, almost certainly as servants.

The pages of the Wivenhoe parish registers give us a glimpse of these Black people who lived and died so far from their homes.

William ESSEX	A Black native of Madgascar, buried St Mary's Wivenhoe, on Thursday 18th February 1762, aged 22