This section contains a list of court cases heard in Britain, relating to slavery in the British Isles. Some link to reports, documents or other explicatory material. More will be added in time.

These cases are of two types. First, there are those of some legal importance, their judgements collated in the English Reports. Then there are those cases found in archives, in newspapers,  or other print, that if not establishing any legal precedent, do give context and sometimes a richer background, and suggest how the law was interpreted.

Note that many other cases concerning slavery in the British colonies and on the high seas were heard at the Court of Admiralty in London. Reports of some can be found in volumes 161 to 167 of the English Reports. Many of the cases below have some foreign relation, but most are fundamentally about slavery in Britain or slavery in British law.

1569, Cartwright. (Not reported, quoted in John Lilburne’s trial)
1587, Hector Nunez
1667, Dinah, Bristol Court of Aldermen
1677, Butts v Penny
1677, Lowe v Elton
1690, Katherine Auker, Middlesex sessions.
1693, Chambers v Warkhouse
1694, Gelly v Cleve
1696, Chamberlain v Harvey
1701, Smith v Brown & Cooper (Holt, ER v90)
1706, Smith v Gould
1717, John Caesar, Middlesex Sessions
1732, Rex v Anne, Ux of Hannibal Cartor
1732, De Pinna v Henriques
1749, Pearne v Lisle
1750, Galway (Gallway) v Cadee (Caddee)
1757, Sheddan v Sheddan, aka Montgomery v Sheddan (Scotland)
1762, Shanley v Harvey
1767, Jonathan Strong, London Lord Mayors’ Court
1768, Hylas v Newton
1769, Dalrymple v Spens (Scotland)
1771, Nicolson v Nicolson
1771, Rex v Stapleton, aka King (Lewis) v Stapylton
1772, Somerset v Stuart
1773, Cay v Crichton
1774, Anonymous, London Lord Mayors’ Court
1777, Bell (Scotland)
1777, Boone v Eyre
1778, Joseph Knight, Knight v Wedderburn (Scotland)
1779, Amissa v Hughes
1783, Gregson v Gilbert (The Zong trial)
1785, Jones v. Schmoll
1785, Charlotte Howe, Rex v Thames Ditton
1792, Rex v Kimber
1793, Rex v Dowling, Rex v Devereaux
1795, Keane v Boycott
1797, Webster v De Tastet
1799, Forbes v Hamlet
1799, Alfred v Marquis of Fitzjames
1801, Shawe v Felton
1802, Williams v Brown
1802, Barclay v Cousins
1813, The Sturt v Isemonger
1824, Forbes v Cochrane
1827, Grace James
1843, Regina v Pedro De Zulueta
1860, Santos v Illidge