New Clues Help Solve the Mystery of an Enslaved Boy Pictured in a Portrait by a Leading English Artist

An oil painting by Joshua Reynolds features a named naval officer and a Black child whose life story was unknown until researchers searched through captains’ logs, letters and admiralty records

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

May 11, 2026 5:57 p.m.

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For centuries, the portrait of Paul Henry Ourry, an 18th-century parliament member and lieutenant in the British Royal Navy, held a mystery.

The oil painting, displayed in the saloon of Saltram, a Georgian mansion in Plymouth, depicts a second figure whose real identity was unknown: a Black child, wearing a white turban and pearl earring.

Who this boy, known simply as “Jersey,” may have been was a subject of intrigue for art historians. Perhaps, some thought, the boy may not have actually existed. Portraits from the 1700s of wealthy white elites sometimes included people of color to highlight the primary sitter’s status in society. It was not uncommon for painters to imagine these people on the canvas, rather than base their likenesses on a specific individual.

“As tropes, we can’t always be sure that the person of color, the Black sitter, is a real person,” Zoe Shearman, a property curator at the National Trust’s Saltram estate, tells CNN’s Amarachi Orie. “So it’s really important to just begin this process of trying to evidence that, to forefront those stories.”

Researchers pored over old admiralty records, letters and captains’ logs and found mention of the boy in writing. References to “Boston Jersey” appeared on documents for ships associated with Ourry’s service. A baptismal certificate revealed that “Jersey” received the Christian sacrament as a 15-year-old in July 1752, likely in a Westminster chapel, meaning that he was probably 11 years old when depicted in the portrait, painted circa 1748.

The certificate also identifies the boy by the name George Walker. The “Boston” moniker may indicate that he once lived in Massachusetts. These were key finds, historians say, but they wanted to learn more.

“A key motivation for our research was to explore whether more could be discovered about Jersey than merely his supposed name,” Mark Brayshay, a historical geographer affiliated with the University of Plymouth, says in a National Trust statement. “Could we acknowledge and honor him as a distinct individual, and affirm his life as a person with hopes, potential and aspirations?”

A rough biography of Walker’s life, which suggests an upward climb through naval ranks, can be mapped from additional archival discoveries. He traveled for more than five years with Ourry on three different ships, per CNN. He was promoted to the rank of “able seaman” when he got on the HMS Monmouth in December 1748.

By the end of 1748, he was considered an able seaman aboard a vessel called the HMS Monmouth. In 1751, he was identified as a member of the crew, rather than as Ourry’s servant. In August 1753, he was discharged from the HMS Deptford in Menorca, an island in the Mediterranean Sea. This is where Walker’s paper trail ends.

“To tell Jersey’s story is to confront the silences within our history, and to recognise the individuals whose lives have too often been hidden from view,” David Olusoga, a historian, and National Trust Ambassador, says in the statement.

Ourry’s portrait was painted by leading English portraitist Joshua Reynolds, who also included representations of Black people in other artworks. The artist’s household had a Black servant, and Reynolds reportedly gave “his unqualified approbation of the abolition of this cruel traffic” in enslaved humans to Thomas Clarkson, a leading English abolitionist, according to research at the National Gallery, London.

Many of Reynolds’ works today are not perfectly preserved, and the recent restoration of Ourry’s portrait shed additional light on the artist’s process. Whereas Ourry was painted with several layers, suggesting detailed preparation and a dedication to depicting his likeness accurately, Walker was painted more swiftly. Technical examinations—including infrared reflectography, paint sample analyses and surface microscopy—support a theory that the Walker immortalized on the canvas may bear little resemblance to the actual boy, because he was not painted during sittings.

The newly restored painting was put back on display at Saltram, accompanied by another Reynolds portrait, this one depicting Captain George Edgcumbe and the HMS Salisbury, a ship on which Ourry and Walker served. Later this month, a short film called Jersey’s Story will debut in a new mansion exhibit.

Christian Thorsberg | Read More

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.