"a coloured man" meaning?

[Mowsehowse]

Hi I was hoping someone could help me understand this meaning?
My whole family are white, I am very pale in colour, however upon my research I found an article about my ggggg grandfather being a mariner with flatboats in Chester around early 1800's. The sentence reads as;  John Potter, “a coloured man” born about 1778. Does this mean my ancestor was of black descent?

Thanks for any info or replies!

I am guessing the description “a coloured man” could cover everywhere through Africa to Egypt, Turkey and India etc.  Many Europeans from the Mediterranean area might also seem unusually dark to the British perhaps?

I have heritage from all over Europe, though not beyond so far as I am aware.  In the U.K. I was always considered "striking" with my olive skin and black hair, whereas in Malta, Cyprus, Turkey, Rhodes and Madeira the locals assumed I was local too.

I once had a total stranger ask me in Devon, if I had been visiting a particular place recently. When I said I had been there on a specific day, she replied that she recognised me due to me being of such dark colouring! 

[Ruskie]

It is difficult to speculate about the exact meaning of the phrase or the origins of your ancestor through reading one sentence.

What was the name and date of the publication that this article appeared in? Sometimes stories of interest would be picked up by other publications, so you may find similar articles about him which give more details.

Have you looked for other mentions of his origins or parentage in baptisms of his children, his marriage or his death?

[ShaunJ]

What was the name and date of the publication that this article appeared in?

Ruskie - here's the link again. I assume this is the publication in question. See page 2, paragraph 2.

http://www.chestercanalheritagetrust.co.uk/Documents/CCHT%20Newsletter%20June%202014.pdf

See reply #7

[Ruskie]

Thanks for the link Shaun.

It might be worth contacting the author of this article to see if you can find out what his sources. There could be further information in the original article they took the "coloured man" quote from.

[majm]

Australia circa 1810s ...
Or err ...actually the British penal colony of New South Wales .... 'Lascars' were referred to as 'men of colour' and 'coloured' in the  newspaper of that era.  The publisher was a 'coloured' man ... Robert HOWE, 'creole' from St Kitts ... (relying on grey cells,  I will check my offline resources tomorrow mornong)

The East India Co employed 'Lascars' on the ships to NSW and not on the return voyage ...

Try the trove digitised newspapers ...


JM

[deebel]

Come on Guys and Gals...

I quoted the source in the filename of the attachment.
The clip was from the Newspaper Archive which is a public record

I dont know where to dig up the author 

[ShaunJ]

We're not talking about the source of your attachment, Deebel.

[Ruskie]

We're not talking about the source of your attachment, Deebel.

Deebel, I was referring to the link supplied by Shaun at reply #11 to the 2014 article which appeared in the CCHT Newsletter. The article was written by Terry Kavanagh in which there was mention, in italics, of John Potter being a "coloured man".

As the words are in italics I wondered if this might be a quote from somewhere.

I suggested that rubymelia try to contact Terry Kavanah to see where he got this information from.

At the very least it looks like he and ruby are related.

Added: Apologies Shaun, Don't know how, but I seem to have overlooked your reply at #8 mentioning the CCHT article and suggesting ruby contact them. (I'm not concentrating very well I don't think) 

[youngtug]

https://www.birminghampost.co.uk/lifestyle/black-history-britain-began-way-3926855

and;
   https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/portchester-castle/history-and-stories/black-people-in-late-18th-century-britain/