Edward Juba (c.1724-1774):
All Saints, Church Road, Kirkby Mallory LE9 7QE
Edward Juba was probably born in Juba, in what is now South Sudan. It is not clear how he came to Britain or when he entered the service of Lord Wentworth of Kirkby Mallory, Leicestershire. A baptism record places him there in 1734, when he would have been around ten years of age.
He was clearly very well-thought of by his employers. Surviving records tell of an apprenticeship in 1747, followed less than a month later by marriage to a local woman, Anne Mugglestone. The couple and their growing family moved to Leicester in 1754. In 1768, he became the first black ex-slave to be made a Freeman of the Borough of Leicester. He died in late 1774, and was buried at Kirby Mallory. The condition of his grave is unknown.
