Sir – In the pavement of Cowley Road, by Manzil Way, is a bronze ‘pavement jewellery’ ingot dedicated to Nelson Bean, inscribed 1881 with a plan of the Old Cowley Workhouse. Does any one know why this recognition of Nelson Bean was made?

Apart from documentary research, other enquiries have proven fruitless. Nelson Bean was born a slave in St Andrew, Jamaica, around 1812. Nelson and his mother were ‘owned’ by John Bean and registered in the Return of the Slaves, for 1817 and 1829. These records included in the Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834.

Nelson’s mother was Venus Chance Bean and described as an African negress, born around 1790. Nelson, aka Duke Bean, was listed as a creole. In a number of Caribbean localities, ‘creole’' means born there, rather than implying mixed ancestry. Slaves were emancipated in Jamaica in 1834. Nelson died, aged 69, in Temple Street, on 9.11.1881. The death certificate stating “Disease of the heart. Sudden.”, being described as a labourer with no address. Burial records in the Oxfordshire archives describe him as “Nelson, pauper, full age fell dead on the Cowley Road on leaving the workhouse,” and buried, November 12 in the SS Mary and John graveyard, Cowley Road, where there is no headstone or marker.

Interestingly, Nelson was not registered at Cowley workhouse on the April census nights of 1871 or 1881. When and how did Nelson get to England? A commemorative pavement implies somebody must know something. Oxfordshire has links to slavery and the slave trade and therefore Nelson Beans’ life could be a contribution to the Black social history of Oxford.

The story of Nelson Bean, born a slave in Jamaica, and who eventually lived, worked and died in Oxford, sadly still remains shrouded in mystery.

E. Edwards, Oxford