Eliza Junor

Eliza Junor (c. 1804–20 April 1861) was a Scotswoman of mixed race, who was the daughter of a former slave owner, Hugh Junor, and a slave or former slave ("free coloured woman") whose name is not recorded.^[1][2][3]

Junor and her brother William were born in Demerara in the British colony of Guyana, where their father owned a timber estate with sixty enslaved people.^[4] In 1816, Hugh Junor returned with his children, though apparently not with their mother, to his native Scotland and settled in Fortrose, on the Black Isle,^[3] and had both children baptised at Rosemarkie.^[4] Her father died in 1823 and bequeathed his estate in Essequibo to his legitimate son Colin; his widow remarried and named one of her sons Hugh Junor Browne in honour of her first husband.^[5]

Junor went to school in Fortrose and won prizes for penmanship. She later lived in Edinburgh and Brixton, London, where she worked as a governess. She never married but had one daughter, Emma McGregor,^[3] who was baptised at St George Middlesex in 1838.^[4] She returned to Fortrose in the 1850s. Her brother William married a woman from Glasgow and emigrated to Argentina as a missionary for the Methodist Church.^[2] Junor died on 20 April 1861 and is buried in Rosemarkie churchyard.^[3][6]

Junor has attracted interest as an example of a black woman living in Scotland and England in the 19th century. Her life was researched by historian David Alston,^[2][3] and has been made into a short film in Gaelic by Fèisean nan Gàidheal, Eliza, with the title role played by Edinburgh-based actor Tawana Maramba.^[2][7] A song "Òran Eliza" was composed by Eilidh Mackenzie.^[7]

In October 2020, Fortrose Academy held the first Eliza Junor Penmanship Competition, to mark Black History Month.^[6]