Black History Month Part 1: Meet Victor the Moor, the Ivory Bangle Lady and William Wandoe

No 1: Victor the Moor
3rd or 4th Centuries, groom

THE first black people in the North East were probably Roman soldiers garrisoned on Hadrian’s Wall during the 3rd Century.

The first known black African community in Britain was the Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum, or the Unit of Aurelian Moors, which was a 500-strong unit raised by the Emperor Aurelius in the area of Morocco and Algeria. They were stationed at the Aballara fort near Burgh-by-Sands at the western end of the wall.

In the Arbeia fort at South Shields there is an elaborate headstone dedicated to Victor, a Moorish tribesman who had been a groom to Numerianus, a trooper of the First Cavalry Regiment of Asturians.

Victor, who was 20 when he died, had originally been Numerianus’ slave but is described on the stone as a “freedman” – the two of them must have been very close for Numerianus to create such an expensive monument to Victor.

Victor the Moor's remarkable carved tombstone, from the 3rd or 4th Centuries, is on display at the Arbeia Roman Fort in South Shields. Picture courtesy of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

No 2: Ivory Bangle Lady
Late 4th Century, upper class lady

A reconstruction of Ivory Bangle Lady's face from her skull by Aaron Watson of the University of Reading

RAILWAY workmen found a stone coffin near Sycamore Terrace in the centre of York in 1901. It contained a female skeleton and several high status items, including jewellery made from Whitby jet and elephant ivory – that’s why she was called the Ivory Bangle Lady.

An ivory bangle and a jet bangle discovered with the Ivory Bangle Lady

Modern analysis discovered that she was 5ft 1ins tall and aged between 18 and 23 when she died in the second half of the 4th Century. She appeared to have lived a life without great physical exertion, which added to the idea that she was a high status individual.

Analysis of her skull showed that she was of North African descent. Nearly all other black people from Roman times were male and working class or slaves – like Victor. The Ivory Bangle Lady, who is now in the Yorkshire Museum, shows another side to the story.

An item found buried with the Ivory Bangle Lady in York

No 3: William Wandoe
Buried March 6, 1716, man servant

WILLIAM is the first known modern black burial in the North East. He was brought over by Captain Roger Carnaby, of Hexham, who made four slave runs from Nigeria to America between 1702 and 1707. He probably selected William as his servant, and named him after the River Wando in South Carolina.

When Carnaby died in 1713, he left £10 to his “man-servant”, and when William died in Hexham, it is noted in the parish registers that he was a “negro”.

• Three more life stories tomorrow