Slavery Links to St Michael-in-the-Hamlet by keith.hitchman

Slavery links at St Michael in the Hamlet. Misses Backhouse

St. Michael’s Old Hall, which was in the possession of the Misses Backhouse, has now disappeared to make room for the present shops. Jane Backhouse died there aged 69 in 1846. She was buried by The Reverend William Hesketh. The Backhouse’s lived at the Old Hall until 1857. the only people exempt from paying toll (Otterspool toll Gate and Bar) were the occupiers of the Three Sixes and the Backhouse family, who lived in a house even older than the Three Sixes. “Tarleton’s & Backhouse” was the third largest slaving company in Liverpool (worth £85,000 in 1780). Tarleton came from a long line of Slave traders and was in partnership with his brothers John and Clayton, and Daniel Backhouse. In March 1790, investment at Liverpool in ships and their outfits and cargo for Africa totalled over £1 million, of which the firm of Tarleton & Backhouse accounted for £85,000.38 In terms of investment Tarleton & Backhouse was the third largest firm engaged in the Liverpool slave trade at this date. LRO Daniel Backhouse married Elizabeth Drinkwater27 August 1765 St. George’s Church, Derby Square Liverpool Bride’s age 22 Bride’s residence Liverpool Bride’s marital status Spinster Groom’s age 22 Groom’s residence Liverpool, Groom’s occupation Merchant Groom’s marital status Bachelor Witness: Geo. Drinkwater; John Wright. Married by Licence: Thos. Maddock, Chaplain Daniel Backhouse: proprietor Athenaeum 92

Elizabeth Drinkwater

Liverpool slave-trader, former partner of John Tarleton and Thomas Tarleton (both of whom q.v.). Erstwhile creditor on Rabot estate in St Lucia. In the case of Hornby and others v Tarlton [sic] and others at the Lancaster Assizes in 1819, a charge of fraudulent conveyance against John Tarleton was upheld. The account of the case shows that Thomas Tarleton (q.v.) had been paid £68,000 on his withdrawal from the slave-trading and West India mercantile partnership with John Tarleton and Daniel Backhouse [at a date not given], and that subsequently Daniel Backhouse was to be paid £53,000 for his share in the partnership, later reduced to £40,000 in 1808, to be paid over 12 years. Backhouse died in 1811. Will of Daniel Backhouse merchant of Everton Liverpool proved 15/02/1812. Of his reported personality at death of £70,000, about half appears to have been constituted by debts from John Tarleton. Under his will he left: 'all and singular my plantations unspecified]...negroes...cattle...in...the West India colonies and in and upon the colonies of Demerara and Essequibo' and his property in Britain in trust [his trustees included his three sons-in-law and his daughter Elizabeth Backhouse] to secure £2000 each to his four unmarried daughters, with his residual estate divided into 1/8ths to each of his children or their issue. The will authorised his executors to settle with 'William Postlethwaite of the island of Grenada and also of Demerara heretofore agent of the late firm of Tarleton’s and Backhouse’ and referred to his own 1808 settlement with his former partner John Tarleton. Sources The Times 13/09/1819 p. 3, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4070569/daniel_backhouse_slave_trader/

Liverpool Mercury 1857, Sale of the Old Hall Estate on the death of Miss Backhouse. Including nine other plots of land, each command beautiful views of the river, …a portion of the dell which runs through the property. 2

Amongst other areas of business, Neilson and Backhouse were both involved with the Slave trade 1840: Nov 28th Mrs Dobham for a grave £5 Mr Backhouses Vaults Elizabeth 35,36,37 Mr Dobham 19 May Nicholas Bourne -ship General Kempt William Brookfield The Hollies Aigburth Vale Ashton Byrom: sugar refiner Matthews Dale Street Ashton Byrom crops up several times in the records of St James. At least 3 of his children were baptised at St James: Henry was baptised in 1795; daughters Harriot in 1797 and Valentine in 1799. Their entries in the registers tell us a little about their father. He was married to Elizabeth, described as a sugar refiner and a sugar baker and the family lived in Toxteth Park. Currie: Mr Currie was one of the directors of the Liverpool Manchester Railway and in 1830 became 1st Mayor of Liverpool under the municipal bill. He paid 10 pounds to the church as his share of the expense towards enclosing the cemetery. Of the original committee, established in 1824, the chairman, Charles Lawrence and three of the four deputy chairs: Lister Ellis, Robert Gladstone and John Moss (Moss had also been elected chairman of the provisional committee in 1822), were all large-scale slave plantation owners. Ironically, although some of the other 22 ordinary members of the committee were supporters of abolition, they were also some of the most important cotton merchants in the town, thereby directly supporting slavery by the purchasing of slave-produced crops. One of the members of the committee, James Cropper, was a founder member of the Liverpool Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, even encouraged a boycott of slave-produced West-Indian sugar in favour of sugar harvested by free labour in India, but did not extend that boycott to the trade in slave-produced cotton which he traded in himself. Much of Britain's industrial infrastructure, including the railway network pioneered by Liverpool's slave merchants, was financed by wealth accrued through slavery.

Duncan Gordon Garnett Edwards Tinne. Garnett: This Trustee owned the land now known as the Shore fields. He was a business associate of John Cragg and lived at Parkhill House, his country house in Dingle Lane. It was a large mansion with fine views of the river. William Evans merchant Gibbons: Joseph Gibbons is recorded as a merchant in 1816. By 1835 he is a corn merchant in Lark Lane with business premises at 26 South John Street in 1841.

Robert Gladstone: proprietor Athenaeum 106 Madeira main stopover on route from Liverpool to Demerara. Gladstone records S M H Mr Robert Gladstone, who resided on the Parkfield Estate in 1815, was one of the original Trustees of the church and was mentioned in the Act of Parliament which sanctioned the setting up of the church. “He was the uncle to the Right Honourable William Gladstone M.P. and grandfather of the present Mr Robert Gladstone of Woolton” (written in 1915)” His death in 1835 at Fasque, the residence of his brother in Kincardineshire is recorded on the Gladstone graves in St. Michael’s churchyard. Catherine Gladstone, his wife, died in 1818 and was there. Their sons, Murray and Montgomery, were baptised at St. Michael’s. Their granddaughter, Catherine Steuart Gladstone, eldest daughter of Thomas Steuart Gladstone of Capenoch, Dumfriesshire and the sister of Mr Robert Gladstone died in Cheltenham in 1853 at the age of seventeen and was brought for burial to St. Michael’s church. Another name from the Gladstone family is that of Frances Georgina Gladstone, the wife of Robert Gladstone of Broughton, Manchester who was buried at St. Michael’s in 1850. Others buried in the family grave include Thomas and Janet Gladstone in 1844 and 4

1846; Agnes the daughter of Lawrence Gladstone aged 11, who was drowned in the wreck of the SS Orion in 1850. The last burial for the family was that of Helen Neilson Gladstone in1881. The Grave record of the Gladstone family: St. Michael in the Hamlet 1841: April 14 Tho. Gladstone 3 graves £10 Catherine Gladstone: Front: In this grave are deposited the remains of Catherine, the wife of Robert Gladstone of Liverpool, merchant, who died the 23rd February 1818 Aged 39 years. Also the remains of Elizabeth Macadam who departed this life on the 11th February 1826. Aged 73 years. Also the remains of Frances Georgina, the wife of Robert Gladstone esquire of Manchester who departed this life on the 30th day of April 1830. Aged 36 years. Left hand side: In memory of Catherine Steuart Gladstone eldest daughter of Thomas Steuart Gladstone Esq of Carenoch Dumfriesshire who departed this life at Birdhop, near Cheltenham the 1st of July 1833 Epitaph: West side. John Gladstone proprietor 172 Athenaeum Sacred to the memory of John, son of Thomas and Janet Gladstone who died at Leith 21 February 1808. Aged 2 years. Catherine Stewart died at Liverpool 21 March 1818 Aged 2 years. Ann Robertson died at Liverpool 1st October 1818 Aged 3 years. Robert died on board the H E I C ship Lady Melville on her passage to China 3rd July 1829 Aged 21 years Thomas died at Demerara 1st July 1852 Aged 29 years. Barbara died at Madeira 10th March 1835. Aged 22 years. North side. Sacred to the memory of Thomas Gladstone who died 10th April 1844 Aged 72 years. Janet Gladstone died 9th October 1846 Aged 75 years Elizabeth, daughter of the above, died 29th March 1835 Aged 26 years. Susannah died 18th October 1853 Aged 23 years. Janet Forrest died 21 August 1850 Aged 19 years. James died 17th February 1855 Aged 13 years Helen Neilson Gladstone died 11th April 1881 Aged 79 years Burial ground; St Michael in the Hamlet Epitaph: South side. Agnes Gladstone Sacred to the memory of Agnes Gladstone Aged 12 years and Thomas Gladstone Aged 10 years Children of Lawrence Gladstone Esq who were lost in the wreck of the Steamship Orion off Port Patrick Wigtonshire June 18th 1850. East side. Sacred to the memory of Robert Strong merchant of Leith who died at Liverpool 7th July 1840 Aged 52 years. Robert Gladstone Profile & Legacies Summary 1773 - 31st Aug 1835 CLAIMANT OR BENEFICIARY Robert Gladstone, brother of John Gladstone (q.v.) and uncle of William, and original claimant as the owner-in-fee of Great Valley in Manchester Jamaica, who died 31/08/1835. The compensation was awarded to his executors (Robert Gladstone, Thomas Steuart Gladstone and William Gladstone, each of whom q.v.). His three executors and trustees were his sons and made responsible for dividing the estate equally between all children.

Merchant of Liverpool, 1773-31 August 1835. Married Catherine (d. 1818), daughter of Adam Steuart of Liverpool. Sons included Adam Steaurt Gladstone (East India merchant in Liverpool, who left £140,000 in 1863) and his executors Thomas Steuart, Robert and William Gladstone. Absentee? British /Irish Spouse Catherine Steuart Children Adam Steuart; Thomas Steuart, William, Robert Will A will but no further details Occupation Merchant and plantation owner Associated Claims (1) Jamaica Manchester 65 (Great Valley) £9,225 16s 5dDeceased claimant successful Jamaica Manchester 65 (Great Valley) Claim Details, Associated Individuals and Estates 2nd Nov 1835 | 468 Enslaved | £9225 16s 5d CLAIM DETAILS Claim Notes Parliamentary Papers p. 23. T71/915 p. 74: claim from Robert Gladstone, of Manchester, as owner-in-fee. T71/860: supplemental claim received on 26/10/1835 from Thomas Steuart Gladstone, Wm. Gladstone and Robert Gladstone, as 'executors of claimant who died on 31st August 1835'. Includes Canoe Valley. Jamaica Parish Manchester Claim No.65 Estate Great Valley Collected by Turner, James Associated Individuals (4) Robert Gladstone Deceased claimant successful Thomas Steuart Gladstone Awardee (Executor or executrix) William Gladstone Awardee (Executor or executrix) Robert Gladstone the younger Awardee (Executor or executrix) Associated Estates (2) Great Valley [Jamaica] Canoe Valley [Jamaica] © Copyright Legacies of British Slave-ownership - UCL Department of History 2020

Thomas Headlam Insurance broker Arnold Harrison was a merchant of Bold Street in 1816. He lived in Aigburth from 1818 – 1835 and was an avid collector of orchids. Charles Harrison Aigburth Hall John Hopkinson of Aigburth Hall proprietor Athenaeum 160 Hopkinson with his brother Benjamin had interests in ten plantations, John had two nine illegitimate children from two women “of colour” or “mullato” (historical and derogatory term for mixed race) one of these families (Rebecca Rogers) lived at Aigburth Hall (1817). Rebecca herself was the daughter of a plantation owner and servant to John Hopkinson. Rebecca Rogers died c. 1809 and was the sister of Elizabeth Rogers. They were the daughters of Thomas Rogers, a neighbouring plantation owner. The same source gives James, Joseph, Thomas and Elizabeth as the children of Rebecca Rogers and Jonas, Jonathan, Hugh, Benjamin, David, Rebecca and Samuel as the children of Elizabeth Rogers. Two consecutive notices of intention to leave the colony appeared in the Demerara and Essequebo Gazette of 20/04/1816: ‘John Hopkinson and two servants, in 14 days or six weeks, from April 17’; ‘Elizabeth Rogers, and six children, in 14 days or six weeks, from April 17’.” https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/-709856825 “In 1817 John Hopkinson ‘late of Demerara but then of Liverpool’ bought Aigburth Hall for £14,652. He died in September 1821, aged 60, leaving his estates ‘in Demerara and elsewhere’ to his nine natural [illegitimate] children, seven sons and two daughters. These children were the offspring of two women of colour, one of whom lived in Aigburth Hall, the other in London.” Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Volume 20. “Benjamin and John Hopkinson were brothers who by 1798 had an interest in ten plantations in Demerara. They owned Bachelors’ Adventure and Enterprise jointly; Benjamin owned Rotterdam, Oranje Nassau, Cove and two others; John owned one; and on two estates, Taymouth Manor and the adjoining plantation, they were in the partnership Campbell, Baillie & Hopkinson. Former owner of Bachelors Adventure and Enterprise in British Guiana, brother of Benjamin Hopkinson the elder, father of David, Jonathan, Thomas, Elizabeth and others, and uncle of Benjamin James Hopkinson and John Thomas Hopkinson Will of John Hopkinson 'formerly of Demerara and then Aigburth Hall nr Liverpool’ John Hopkinson left £100,000. John Hopkinson bequeathed his estates in Demerara and elsewhere in trust for his nine natural children, seven sons (Thomas, the son of Rebecca Rogers 'a mulatto woman', and Benjamin, Hugh, David, Jonathan, Jonas and Samuel Hopkinson, sons of Elizabeth Rogers) and two daughters (Elizabeth, daughter of Rebecca Rogers, and Rebecca, daughter of Elizabeth Rogers), as tenants in common. (The children's mothers were sisters, women of colour, both of whom had resided in Demerara, with Elizabeth Rogers subsequently moving to Liverpool In his will dated 27/11/1835 and proved in London 22/02/1837, Joseph Hopkinson "formerly of Aigburth Hall in the County of Lancaster and now residing in Sloane Street, Middlesex Esquire now about embarking for New South Wales" left everything including property in Demerara and Esequibo to his brother Thomas Hopkinson, and if Thomas should predecease him without issue, then to Anne Joahanna Hopkinson and Emma Roberta Hopkinson, spinsters of Liverpool, daughters of his late brother John Hopkinson. Benjamin Hopkinson [d1801] Benjamin, who had been in Tobago before moving to Demerara, died in Bath in 1801. He had married in Bath but already had four children by the ‘mulatto’ woman Johanna Hopkinson – Benjamin James, Elizabeth Ann, Jonathan and John Thomas. His executors were his brother John and Thomas Cuming.

His son Benjamin James was born in Tobago in November 1785, baptised in London in 1798 and attended Oriel College, Oxford (1802) and Trinity College, Cambridge [1804]. By 1816 he was established as a merchant in Throgmorton Street, London [Guild Hall records, MS 11936/466/922569] and later went to Demerara, where, in 1823, he owned plantations Cove and John. He later became a member of the Court of Policy of the colony and died there in 1839. His son John Thomas was born in Demerara on 14 Feb 1787 and baptised in London in 1798. By 1841 he had been confined to a private mental hospital at Much Hadham Palace, Herefordshire and died in 1869. John’s brother and business partner Benjamin’s wife, Johanna Hopkinson, was also of mixed race and herself a slave owner: “Run Away from the Subscriber, about Ten Days ago, a young Negro Woman, named Sophia, yellow complexion, about 4 feet 10 inches, or 5 feet high, of the Congo Nation is well known in Kingston. Whoever will apprehend the said Girl, and bring her to the Subscriber, or lodge her in the Barracks, shall receive Two Joes Reward. Johanna Hopkinson. Demerary, April 2, 1807.” The grave of John Hopkinson, St Michael in the Hamlet Tombstone inscription for John Hopkinson in St Michael in the Hamlet. The grave mentions John, his sons James, Hugh and Samuel, his daughters Rebecca and Elizabeth, and his grandson and his wife. Here lies the remains of James HOPKINSON Son of John Hopkinson Who departed this life on the 15th of May 1818 Aged 18 yrs. John Hopkinson of Aigburth Hall died 25th September 1821 Aged 60 Also Samuel, son of the above John Hopkinson who died June 11th 1824 Aged 4 years Also Hugh Stephen Hopkinson Son of Hugh Hopkinson and Aigelle his wife, grandson of the above John born at Marseille 14th July 1836 Died in Liverpool 11 August 1838 In memory of Rebecca, the wife of John Joseph Gunning and daughter of the above John Hopkinson who died January 16th, 1841 Aged 22 years Sacred to the memory of Elizabeth Hopkinson Who died at Wavertree on 4th of December 1859 Aged 70 years. John Hopkinson Profile & Legacies Summary British Guiana 568A&B (Bachelors Adventure and Enterprise) Claim Details, Associated Individuals and Estates 12th Dec 1836 | 713 Enslaved | £36270 18s 2d CLAIM DETAILS Claim Notes Parliamentary Papers p. The award was split 568A: £4533 17s 3d went to each of the three Hopkinson’s (Benjamin, David and Jonathan). 568B: £22669 6s 4d went to Grant, Chichester, and T. Hopkinson. T71/885: J. Grant, W. Chichester and T. Hopkinson claimed as the executors of John Hopkinson. Counterclaim from Hugh Hopkinson, of Liverpool, as owner in fee of 1/8th part under the will of John Hopkinson. Counterclaim from Eliz., Benj., David, and Jonathan Hopkinson, as owners in fee of 1/8th part each under the will of John Hopkinson. Counterclaim from J. Grant, as one of the executors of John Hopkinson and as an executor substituted by Wm. Chichester, under 1st mortgage (dated 05/11/1828) with £6000 still due (against only 1/8th?). Counterclaim from John Philip Beavan, of Sackville St., by virtue of a mortgage for £5479 17s 4d. Replication by J. Grant, stating that John 8

Philip Beavan's mortgage is only a second mortgage and 'therefore posterior to the 1st mortgage which amounts to more than 1/8th of the compensation money claimed'. T71/1594 p. 320, 15/06/1840: shows Jonathan Hopkinson as a West India merchant, of 113 Fenchurch Street. T71/1593 p. 322: letter, dated 11/11/1836, to Thos. Hopkinson, 30 Sackville Street. See also British Guiana claim no. 572 for another Hopkinson claim. Times 11/08/1828 p. 3: story involving a fraudulent man of colour from Demerara named George Barrow, alias John Thomas Hopkinson, who appears to have had some knowledge of the Hopkinson family, including 'Thomas Hopkinson of Cambridge College'. The story alludes to 'Mr Hopkinson, the banker' (Times 14/08/1828 p. 3) and 'the respectable banker in Regent-street' (Times 25/08/1828 p. 4). Times 17/09/1828: states that Thomas Hopkinson, of Trinity College, now in Demerara, was himself a man of colour possessed of estates in the West Indies. See also British Guiana claim no. 616 for John Thomas Hopkinson and British Guiana claim no. 572 for Benjamin James Hopkinson. T71/1256: agreement over the compensation of Benj., David and Jonathan Hopkinson, all signing in London. J.J. Cheveley's Journal p. 147: the author states that, outside Georgetown in 1821, 'I came to "Bachelor's Adventure", a large cotton estate owned by the family of John Hopkinson, Ben's (= Benjamin James Hopkinson) white father's brother, both having left a coloured race behind them'. John Grant is referred to as the 'old Manager'. British Guiana Claim No.568A&B Estate Bachelors Adventure and Enterprise Contested Yes Associated Individuals (9) John Phillips Beavan Unsuccessful claimant (Mortgagee) Hugh Hopkinson Unsuccessful claimant (Legatee) Benjamin Hopkinson Awardee John Hopkinson Previous owner (not making a claim) John Grant Awardee (Executor or executrix) Jonathan Hopkinson Awardee David Hopkinson Awardee William Chichester Awardee (Executor or executrix)

Hughes John Jones Demerara proprietor Athenaeum 314 Ker John McIntyre merchant Menzies John Montgomery 65 Mill Street Merchant John Moss Profile & Legacies Summary proprietor Athenaeum 226 18th Jan 1782 - 3rd Oct 1858 CLAIMANT OR BENEFICIARY Liverpool banker and slave-owner, and an important figure in early railway schemes. Son of Thomas Moss, brother of Henry Moss (q.v.) and founder of the Liverpool bank Moss & Co. (q.v., under Moss, Dales, & Rogers). He has an entry in the ODNB as 'banker, railway pioneer and slave-owner.' 9

He joined his father's merchant firm in 1803 and founded the banking firm of Moss, Dales & Rogers in 1807. Thomas Moss & Sons held a small cotton estate called Craig Miln (abandoned by 1827 but then apparently added to Cove by the Hopkinson family) in 1822. Moss's deepened involvement in slave-ownership was triggered when with his brothers Henry and James (20/03/1783-24/09/1847), he inherited 1000 people in the Bahamas from his uncle James, who was in the process of moving them from his plantation on Crooked Island in the Bahamas when he died in October 1820. John and Henry Moss bought Anna Regina (and the Lancaster cotton estate) in 1823 for £10,000 in cash and a balance of £40,000 to be paid in crops to utilise these enslaved people as a condition of the license to move them from the Bahamas. The extent of the dependence of the family fortunes on slavery is unclear, but the family appears to have been embedded in slave-trading and slave-factoring. Thomas Moss (1748-1805) was a 'timber/general merchant and shipowner' who left his business to John and £10,000 to each of his 3 sons. He does not feature in David Pope's lists of Liverpool slave-traders, and Trust cites only the ownership of the slave-ship Ellen between 1787 and 1790. However, the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database shows 14 voyages for Thomas Moss between 1784 and 1803 (12 of them between 1796-1803); 3 voyages of Thomas and William Moss (1804-5) and 2 for Thomas William and James Moss (1798-1799). In addition William Moss appears in 1 voyage in 1790; there are also 4 voyages for Thomas Moss between 1771-1775 and one for William Moss in 1766 that appear too early to be the same generation of the family but might be an earlier one. Between 01/01/1821 and 13/12/1825, 1762 enslaved people (927 men and 835 women) were recorded as imported under licence into Demerary and Essequibo: 603 of these were exported from the Bahamas by John, Henry and James Moss, with the consignee shown as M'Inroy & Co. John Moss was a significant investor in railways, becoming Deputy Chairman of the Liverpool & Manchester board in 1824 and Chairman of the Grand Junction board in 1834. See Commercial legacies for sums invested; other investments included the London & Birmingham, the London & Southampton, the Great North of England, and North Midland railways. Sources T71/887 British Guiana claim no. 2455 (Anna Regina); Graham Trust, ‘Moss, John (1782–1858)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2016 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/107414, accessed 19 Oct 2016] Otterspool Park was the property of John Moss (pictured below), a banker and Caribbean plantation owner whose father, Thomas Moss, had also been a timber merchant, slave trader and planter. He left his sons a substantial inheritance, which John used to increase his slave holdings in the Caribbean, buying plantations in Demerara. When slavery was abolished, he received £40353 in compensation for the 805 enslaved people he had to free. In 1837, along with three other West Indian planters, Josias Booker, John Tinne and Charles Parker, he contributed to the building of the Grade II listed St Anne’s Church, which was built on land he donated on his Otterspool estate. Moss also invested heavily in railways. He became Deputy Chairman of the Liverpool & Manchester board in 1824 and Chairman of the Grand Junction board in 1834. He invested considerable sums in the London & Birmingham, the London & Southampton, the Great North of England and North Midland railways. Moss is buried in the grounds of St Anne's church. His former home is now one of Liverpool’s finest public green spaces, but unfortunately, the house (see below) in which he lived was demolished in 1931. Many of Liverpool's finest public parks were once the country estates of local slave traders.

Graham Trust, John Moss of Otterspool (1782-1858) Railway Pioneer - Slave Owner - Banker (Milton Keynes, John Moss of Otterspool: slave owner, railway pioneer but also builder of St Anne’s Church. Again, this is bringing Roscoe into conflict with the Liverpool business community, one of whom, John Moss, a slave owner is related to Roscoe through marriage and is living in splendour on the banks of the Mersey at Otterspool House. John Grant Morris Industrialist William (Billy) Neilson proprietor Athenaeum 138 Opposite Lark Lane was a footpath through the fields to St. Michael’s Church, just built (the Hamlet had not then appeared). At the corner of this footpath stood ST. MICHAEL’S OLD HALL, built, probably, early in the seventeenth century. The occupier of this house was exempt from paying tollage at the Otterspool tollbar. Near the Old Hall stood Mr. Neilson’s house, then came Mr. Hughes’ house; after that “Dingle Cottage,” now Ivy House, then “Fulwood Lodge” and the “Three Sixes.” …St. Michael’s Old Hall, which was in the possession of the Misses Backhouse, which stood on the opposite corner, has now disappeared to make room for the present shops.…the only people exempt from paying toll (Otterspool toll Gate and Bar) were the occupiers of the Three Sixes and the Backhouse family, who lived in a house even older than the Three Sixes. Aigburth was not the only area of Liverpool where slave-ship and plantation owners lived of course but Neilson, Backhouse and some other merchants who owned large houses in the area were involved in it. Most of these merchants were from other areas of Britain who had moved to Liverpool as its status as a major port grew. Robert Griffiths, The History of the Royal and Ancient Park of Toxteth

Mr Neilson’s house is near Old Hall walking east after Parkfield and opposite Lark Lane. He probably took this information from James Sherriff’s 1816 map (see above) House. me to believe that Mr Neilson’s house and the Old Hall may have been the same building. To the west of the Old Hall ran Dickenson’s Dingle, the path of this dried up stream became Neilson Road. (School is built on Neilson road) As we know Old Hall was later owned by Misses Backhouse what was the connection between Neilson and Backhouse: The records for Marriages at St Mary in the District of Walton on the Hill, Liverpool on 29 May 1798 William Neilson, Esq – Liverpool married Fanny Backhouse – Neilson, Backhouse and the Slave Owners on Aigburth Road In the “History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque With an Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade” both names appear: William Neilson, Ellis and Robert Bent and indeed the uncle of Samuel Greg, had connections with the slave trade and slavery.”

Roscoe, a famous abolitionist, historian, poet, botanist and politician lived at the Dingle close to Old Hall, and “The Roscoes of Liverpool” there is mention that Roscoe had a group of friends: “this band of disaffected, frustrated youths on the make” One of which was William ‘Billy’ Neilson. “These young men were eager for self-improvement, but they also liked to enjoy themselves in less passive pursuits. They wandered country lanes declaiming poetry, they huddled in pubs to complain about apprenticeships, clerkships, religious toleration, celibacy and low wages, and at the end of the evening they liked to sing, accompanied by Holden on guitar and Neilson on flute They played absurdist word games based on Lawrence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (175966), but their bible was Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s best-selling Julie ou la nouvelle Heloise (1761), a novel was set in the Romantic landscape of the foothills of the Swiss Alps.” Roscoe and Neilson worked together at the stationery shop of John Sibbald in 1790.There was a complex relationship between the abolitionists and their slave owning friends in the then close-knit merchant community of Liverpool. A list, compiled in 1752, of 101 Liverpool merchants trading to Africa included 12 who had been, or were to become, mayor of the town,19 and 15 who were pewholders in the fashionable Benn’s Garden Presbyterian chapel. At least 26 of Liverpool’s mayors, holding office for 35 after years from 1700 to 1820, were or had been slave-merchants or close relatives. By 1795 though there was still ample scope for the small investor, ten firms had secured control of more than half the port’s slaving fleet and accounted for almost two-thirds of the cargoes; in the years 1789-91 over half the total number of slaving ventures were accounted for by the seven largest firms, The leading names were now William Neilson, John Shaw, William Forbes, Edward Philip Grayson, Francis Ingram, Thomas Rodie and, above all. Thomas Leyland.” 13

Elizabeth Backhouse, Elizabeth Neilson 1841 census Old Hall William Neilson: Merchant = Fanny Backhouse 1798 Walton On The Hill, Lancashire, England Probate year 1819 County Cheshire William Neilson Birth Date: 28 February 1800 Christening Date: 01 May 1800 St. Thomas’, Liverpool, Robert Neilson Birth Date: 09 April 1801 Christening Date: 27 October 1803 St. Thomas’, Liverpool Fanny Neilson Birth Date: 22 August 1802 Christening Date: 27 October 1803 St. Thomas’, Liverpool Jamaica St Mary 455 Claim Details, Associated Individuals and Estates Enslaved | £153 16s 5d

11th Jan 1836 | 7

Salisbury James Sothern the priory James Storey (Story) William Tinne Turner Joseph Ward Demerara

Daniel Willink: Barn Hey and The Baronets, of Dingle Bank Proprietor Athenaeum 19. Born Amsterdam. This house was on the site from the HSBC bank on the corner of Dalmeny Street to the Turkish barber’s 2020 The house was named after the land it was built upon and the name appears on earlier maps. It may of been built after 1835 as it doesn’t appear on Bennison’s map of that year but it does on the Tithe Award map of 1845. The house and gardens can be seen on the Ordnance Survey map of 1864. Barn Hey belonged to the Willink family. In the 1870s, Barn Hey was the home of the Liverpool brewing magnate, Robert Cain. He had 11 children 6 living at home and known as ‘The King of Toxteth’.

Barn Hey

2014 Barn Hey belonged to the Willink family. Daniel Willink was a Liverpool (originally London) merchant and Consul for the Netherlands. He married Anne Latham 16/03/1808 and moved to Liverpool around 1815. Amongst other business ventures he owned slaves and plantations. Although in 1807 Britain passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act which outlawed the British Atlantic slave trade, slaves continued to be used in the colonies. In 1832 Willink was paid £33,000 for mortgages owned in a slave plantation in Demerera: John Turnbull and John Forbes (the bankrupts), of the second part; Daniel Willink, or the third part and the Secretary of the colony of Demerara, of the fourth part; the said two third parts or shares of the said plantation and slaves were conveyed to Willink, in pursuance of the indenture of tile 1st of August 1807. In the year 1826. the appellants under the will of the survivor of the Dentincks, who had been parties to the preceding indenture, became owners of the said two third parts of the said plantation and slaves. Daniel Willink, by bis attorney, was in possession of these two third parts of the estate and slaves from the year 1807 until 1829; and in the year 1818, and three or four following years, at an expense of upwards of 20,000 l., converted the estate from a coffee and cotton into a sugar plantation. Reports Cases Argued Determined Before Committees His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council Great Britain 1831-1836. Google books In 1827 his name appears alongside John Moss of Otterspool, railway pioneer, banker and owner of 1,000 inherited slaves and John Gladstone (father of W. E. Gladstone) in the petition to the Privy council entitled “Proceedings Before the Privy Council, Against Compulsory Manumission in the Colonies of Demerera and Berbice. This was to seek compensation for slave owners if they were to get their freedom.

Golden wedding of Daniel Willink. (auction catalogue) In 1823 James Cropper (Dingle Bank) formed ‘the Quaker Confederation’ to specu1ate on the rising price of cotton. The members of this loose group, apart from Cropper Bensons, were Rathbone Bros and Isaac Cooke of Cooke &; Coma, an American-based Quaker firm of cotton brokers that had succeeded Waterhouse as the first in Liverpool. 17

They drew in Daniel Willink, the son of an Amsterdam merchant and himself Dutch Consul in Liverpool, and Hottinguer of Le Havre, a member of the Parisian banking family who had been trained for a period with Cropper, Benson and Co. Willink was supported by Barings of London, the leading merchant banker of the day, and Hopes of Amsterdam, partners of Barings in numerous ventures and probably the best-known bank in that city.” The son of a plantation owner marries the daughter of an abolitionist Daniel’s son Arthur Willink was born on 27 March 1824. He married Sarah Wakefield Cropper, daughter of John Cropper, on 6 September 1849. John Cropper (1797–1876) was a philanthropist and abolitionist and known as “the most generous man in Liverpool”. The Croppers were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and their home was Dingle Bank. John Cropper’s father, James, started a business with Daniel Willink and the Rathbone Brothers. This group of Quakers speculated on the rising cost of cotton due to the abolition of slave trade. In 1825 the market collapsed and Willink, along with others, was bankrupt. Daniel Willink’s daughter Hester married William Robertson Sandbach the Liverpool and British Guiana merchant, in 1837. He was son of Samuel Sandbach, another plantation owner and Mayor of Liverpool 1831-2. William Edward Willink was born on 17 March 1856, son of Rev Arthur Willink and Sarah Wakefield Cropper. Arthur died 1862 in Madeira. William’s subsequent childhood was spent with his widowed mother and the Cropper family at Dingle Bank, Toxteth Park. William married Florence McCann Urmston in 1893. Willink and Thicknesse William, Grandson of Daniel, was an architect and founded Willink and Thicknesse with Philip Coldwell Thicknesse. They designed some of Liverpool’s famous buildings and monuments including Cunard Building; The Florence Nightingale Memorial; Bank of Liverpool, 301 Aigburth Road (corner of Ashfield Road, Aigburth Vale.); National Westminster Bank in Castle Street. Willink Baronets of Dingle Bank The Willink Baronetcy, of Dingle Bank in the City of Liverpool, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1957 for the Conservative politician Henry Willink, Minister of Health from 1943 to 1945. As of 2010 the title is held by his grandson, the third Baronet, who succeeded in 2009. Sir Henry Urmston Willink, 1st Baronet (1894–1973) Sir Charles William Willink, 2nd Baronet (1929–2009) Sir Edward Daniel Willink, 3rd Baronet (born 1957) Jacob Willink - must be one of his sons. In 1851 he lived in one of the houses called 'the Dell' at the bottom of Beechwood Road, Grassendale (on the right) with his wife Christina and son Daniel. He's down as a 'general merchant'. Thanks to:- Glen Huntley for his help with this research: https://theprioryandthecastironshore.wordpress.com/2014/10/18/robert-griffiths-toxteth-park-the-mystery-of-theold-hall-and-the-slave-owners-of-aigburth-road/ Laurence Westgaph The Archives of St. Michael in the Hamlet Church.