header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us
21 October 2016 / LW Blake
Issue: 7719 / Categories: Features
printer mail-detail

A footnote in history

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.
nlj_7719_blake

After Lord Mansfield’s judgment: whatever happened to James Somerset, asks LW Blake​

James Somerset (or Somersett, or Sommersett,or Summersett) is the most famous freed slave in English legal history. He and his erstwhile slave-owner Charles Stewart were the two litigants who stood before Lord Mansfield CJ in July 1772, in the case of Somerset v Stewart (1772) Lofft 1, 20 State Tr 1. The mystery is: what happened to James Somerset after Lord Mansfield’s judgment in his favour? It is also a mystery about how an unhelpful footnote (which purports to explain the future fate of James Somerset) ever found its way into a standard textbook on constitutional law.

This is a mystery worthy of an MR James ghost story. A Warning to the Curious would have been a good title for this investigation, if he (James) had not already used that title and made it the underlying theme of all his short stories.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

According to Ruth Paley, in her valuable biographical entry for James Somerset in the Oxford Dictionary

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: Divorce ‘nuclear weapon’ freezes assets but entangles outsiders
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
NLJ this week: What counts as ‘rent’? Court says labour alone won’t do
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Your magistrates’ court needs you!
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
NLJ this week: Freed but failed—justice system leaves the innocent empty-handed
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
NLJ this week: Clarity on whistleblowing, settlements and tribunal limits
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll