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Liverpool’s Catholic Mercantile and Maritime Business Community in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, Part Two

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

David J. Pope
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Extract

Another Catholic who for a number of years was in business as a timber merchant, was Robert Watmough, who was born in 1762 or 1763, the son of Thomas Watmough, husbandman of Litherland, a village five miles north of Liverpool. Though much of Watmough’s career as a timber merchant falls into the early nineteenth century, he is mentioned here as he provides a link with another business connected with the operation of the port, namely shipbuilding. He was a partner for a number of years of John Dwerryhouse, who was possibly the leading local Catholic shipbuilder of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , May 2005 , pp. 383 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 2005

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References

1 Return of Papists 1767, p. 43.

2 Ibidem, p. 12. In 1767 Cross may have been living in the ‘new built house fronting the South West Corner of the Old Dock Quay, now in the possession of G. Cross, Shipwright . . . held by Lease under the Corporation of Liverpool . . .’, the private sale of which was advertised in July 1761 (Wmson’s Lpl Adv 3 July 1761).

3 Stewart-Brown, R., Liverpool ships in the eighteenth century . . . (Liverpool and London 1932), p. 118 Google Scholar; Wmson’s Lpl Adv 20 March 1767.

4 Wmson’s Lpl Adv 15 July 1768, where he is erroneously named as ‘Mr. John Cross’; Cross was buried at St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 13 July (LRO 283PET 1/4).

5 Gore’s Gen Adv 20 May 1777; Wmson’s Lpl Adv 23 May 1777. Though his partnership with Breckell was dissolved in 1777, James Charnley still held a half part of ‘two houses and Premises ... in Liverpool . . . which I hold jointly with Robert Breckel of Liverpool’, when he made his will on 7 July 1788 (Lanes RO WRWA 1790).

6 R. and F. Dickinson (transcribed) and Irene Foster (ed). The Register of the Parish of Childwall, Pan 2, 1681–1753, pp. 201 and 209; Return of Papists 1767, p. 4; will of William Dwerryhouse of Garston, husbandman, proved 1776 (Lanes RO WCW). For William’s death ‘in the 94th year of his age’ see Gore’s Gen Adv 2 Feb 1776. William Dwerryhouse like his son George appears to have been engaged in the maltmaking business; in his will dated 16 October 1764, he left to his son his ‘Lead Cistern used for the making of malt and all other the utensils and materials used in and about the maltmaking Business’.

7 PRO IR 1/57 Board of Stamps: Apprenticeship Books—Country Registers, June 1769-October 1771, fol. 165; the stamp duty was paid on 28 August 1769.

8 Messrs Dwerryhouse & Co. in September 1787 took as apprentices George Collins on the 1st, Israel Gerrard on the 11th and Ralph Leigh on the 24th (PRO IR1/64, Board of Stamps: Apprenticeship Books—Country Registers, August 1786-February 1789, fol. 120; the stamp duty was paid on 27 September (Collins) and 30 October (Gerrard and Leigh)).

9 Liverpool Shipping Register No. 32, 20 January 1787, and No. 93, 21 August 1792.

10 R. Stewart-Brown, Liverpool ships in the eighteenth century . . ., p. 131; Wmson’s Lpl Adv 4 Nov 1793; Gore’s Gen Adv 7 Nov 1793.

11 Gore’s Gen Adv 28 Feb 1793.

12 On 8 April 1794 a George Thompson was apprenticed to John Dwerryhouse of Liverpool, ship-wright (PRO IR1/67 Board of Stamps: Apprenticeship Books—Country Registers, August 1790-February 1796, fol. 109; the stamp duty was paid on 23 March 1794). Earlier apprentices—in 1787— had been bound to Dwerryhouse and Co. (see above note 148).

13 In 1796 the firm of Dweryhouse (sic) & Watmough of Liverpool, shipwrights, is known to have taken two men as apprentices—James Redhead on 14 July and John Weatherby on 14 September (PRO IR1/68 Board of Stamps: Apprenticeship Books—Country Registers, February 1796-June 1798, fol. 74; the stamp duty was paid on 1 October 1796).

14 Wmson’s Lpl Adv 8 June 1789.

15 LRO 283PET 3/5; Liverpool Muster Rolls 265/1794 (PRO BT98/54); the Lord Stanley arrived at Havana from Ambreez, Africa, with 388 slaves on 3 March 1794 and left the West Indies on 5 May (House of Lords RO Return to an Order of the Right Honourable the House Lords dated the 10th of July 1799 directing that the Clerk of the Parliaments do cause to be extracted from the several Log Books & Journals of Ships employed in the Slave Trade in each Year from 1791 to 1797 both inclusive distinguished under the following Heads . . .). Probate of Dwerryhouse’s will made on 11 May 1793 on board the Lord Stanley ‘going out on a Cruize or Voyage’, was granted on 22 October 1795 to his widow Ann then the wife of Jonathan Wilkinson; the value of his estate was ‘above E50 & under E100’ (Lanes RO WCW). Another of Dwerryhouse’s brothers, George, was also a shipwright (Return of Papists 1767, p. 12).

16 Liverpool Mercury 18 May 1821.

17 Lanes RO QDF 2/161 (1811), 167 (1812), 179 (1814) and 185 (1815); for these and other references to Little and Much Woolton jurors I am grateful to Miss Joan Borrowscale of Little Woolton; under the Childwall and Woolton Waste Lands Inclosure Act of 1805 Dwerryhouse was allotted ten acres and one rood land in Little Woolton (Plan of the allotments on Little Woolton Common 1813 (LRO Hf 912WOO)).

18 LRO 282PAT 3/1; a total of 24 people were interred in the grave with the same plot and grave numbers as that in which Dwerryhouse was buried.

19 Return of Papists 1767, p. 15. This entry appears to be inaccurate; Magee’s wife is listed as Mary aged 35, and not as Agnes. At her burial at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 17 January 1782 Agnes Magee was said to have been 74 (LRO 283NIC 1/6); this would have made her about 48 or 49 in 1767. This, however, seems unlikely, since John and Agnes Magee’s youngest child Agnes was baptised at St. Mary’s Catholic Chapel, Liverpool, on 13 November 1771, though the child may not have been a new-born baby when baptised (CRS, 9, p. 323). It seems probable that Magee’s wife Agnes was younger than 74 at her death but older than 35 in 1767; she in fact appears to have been the daughter of George Anyon, cooper, whose wife Martha was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 6 July 1726 and who himself was buried there on 9 November 1752 (LRO 283NIC 1/3).

20 Lanes RO WCW 1772; Gore’s Gen Adv 24 Jan 1772. John Magee married at St. Mary’s Catholic Chapel, Liverpool, on 15 January 1754; he was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 24 Jan 1772 (CRS, p. 204; LRO 283NIC 1/5). In 1765 there were several roperies in the immediate vicinity of Fall Well, though conclusive evidence that Magee owned one of them has not been discovered (John Eyes, Plan of Liverpool 1765).

21 She was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 17 January (LRO 283NIC 1/6).

22 Will of Thomas Lawrence of West Derby, yeoman, proved 1748 (Lanes RO WCW). Thomas Lawrence of Fazakerley was buried at St. Mary’s Church, Walton-on-the-Hill, on 18 May 1748, when he was described as a husbandman; his widow Christian also of Fazakerley was buried there on 2 July 1775 (LRO 283SMW 1/5 & 6).

23 LRO 283NIC 3/1. Elizabeth Renshaw, born on 2 October 1725, was baptised at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 12 October 1725 (LRO 283NIC 1/3).

24 Return of Papists 1767, p. 22.

25 CRS, 9, p. 259; Wmson’s Lpl Adv 30 Aug and 6 Sept 1790; the latter contains a eulogy of Lawrence. Lawrence was buried at St. Mary’s Church, Walton-on-the-Hill , on 28 August 1790 (LRO 283SMW 1/8).

26 The slave ship which Lawrence partly owned, was the Crescent, commanded and partly owned by the Catholic James McGauley (Liverpool Shipping Register No. 48, 5 June 1794; Liverpool Muster Rolls 208/1795 and 312/1796 (PRO BT98/54 and 55); House of Lords RO . . . [extracts] from the several Log Books & Journals of Ships employed in the Slave Trade . . . 1791 to 1797 . . .).

27 Liverpool Muster Rolls 265/1790, 81 & 197/1791, 2 & 278/1792, 96 & 249/1793, 86 & 218/1794, 32 & 192/1795, 91 & 202/1796 and 93 & 312/1797 (PRO BT98/50–7). Thomas Lawrence died on 22 March 1794 (Billinge’s Lpl Adv 24 March 1794; Gore’s Gen Adv 27 March 1794) and was buried at St. Mary’s Church, Walton-on-the-Hill, on 25 March (LRO 283SMW 1/8).

28 Freeman’s Committee Book 27 May 1802 (LRO 352CLE/REG/1).

29 LRO 283NIC 3/7.

30 Lanes RO WCW 1820; Return of Papists 1767, p. 133.

31 Lanes ROWRWA 1764.

32 LRO 283PET 3/3; Liverpool Corporation Lease Registers (LRO 352 CLE/CON 3/3); the lease was regranted to the same partnership less Denison on 25 March 1780; Adamson retained his interest in this lease into the nineteenth century and the site was probably part of Adamson’s property to which reference is made in his will (see below).

33 Return of Papists 1767, p. 14; will of Joseph Simpson of Liverpool, painter, proved 1784 (Lanes RO WCW).

34 Simpson was baptised at St. Mary’s Catholic Chapel, Liverpool, on 18 Sept 1763 (CRS, 9, p. 276).

35 Return of Papists 1767, p. 17. Joseph Ainsworth was baptised at St. Mary’s Catholic Chapel, Liverpool, on 30 December 1761; letters of administration of his father’s estate were granted to him on 20 December 1784 (CRS, 9, p. 268; Lanes RO WCW). For Joseph’s apprenticeship see PRO IR 1/59, Board of Stamps: Apprenticeship Books—Country Registers, April 1774-November 1776; the stamp duty was paid on 16 May 1776. Ainsworth later became a freeman of Liverpool on 29 March 1784 (Freeman’s Committee Book (LRO 352CLE/REG/1)), raising questions about his Catholicism similar to those raised about Thomas Beetham’s, freedom of the borough being the parliamentary voting qualification in Liverpool (see Part 1 of this article, n. 119). A Richard Ainsworth, possibly Joseph’s brother, was apprenticed to John Tarleton of Liverpool, cooper, on 4 April 1773 (PRO IR 1/58, Board of Stamps: Apprenticeship Books—Country Registers, October 1771-April 1774, fol. 160; the stamp duty was paid on 3 June 1773).

36 Robert Birdsall, son of Thomas, of Yorkshire, was admitted a pensioner at Jesus College, Cambridge, on 9 May 1682; matriculating in 1682, he became a Scholar in 1684 and was awarded his BA in 1685–6; he was buried on 4 July 1730 at Bilton Ainsty ( John, and Venn, J.A., Alumni Cantabrigienses . . . , Part 1, From the earliest times to 1751, Vol. 1, Abbas-Cutts (Cambridge 1922), p. 156 Google Scholar; registers of Bilton Ainsty (Borthwick Institute, University of York, PR/BILS)).

37 Aveling, J.C.H., Catholic recusancy in the City of York 1558–1791 (Catholic Record Society 1970), p. 374 Google Scholar.

38 LRO 283NIC 3/2.

39 Return of Papists 1767, p. 20.

40 PRO IR 1/59 Board of Stamps: Apprenticeship Books—Country Registers, April 1774-November 1776, fol. 46; the stamp duty was paid on 13 September 1774. Osborne, the son of Jacob and Ann, was born at Wigton in 1732 (PRO RG 6/1542 Holme Monthly Meeting Births).

41 LRO 283NIC 1/6; J. C. H. Aveling, Catholic recusancy in the City of York 1558–1791, pp. 374–5. Despite leaving Liverpool, Birdsall retained property there; in his will dated 15 March 1820, he left to his two daughters Elizabeth Birdsall of Richmond and Sophia Fisher his ‘dwelling House with all the appurtenances fixtures and Heirlooms thereunto appertaining situte (sic) at the south east Corner of King Street in the township of Liverpool . . . And the reversion of the House and premises which adjoins to it on the Westerly side with all the appurtenances and ground rent or Lords rent . . . ‘ (West Yorkshire Archives Service Leeds RD/AD1/172/118).

42 J. C. H. Aveling, Catholic Recusancy in the City of York 1558–1791, p. 374; Liverpool Mercury 3 April 1818 and 22 May 1829; Joseph S. Harrison, Obituaries from the “Laity Directory’•, 1773–1839, pp. 143 and 187. Cottam Birdsall of ‘the Parish of Aberford in the County of York Gentleman’, was one of the bondsmen, when on 27 October 1797 letters of administration of the estate of Ann Barr of Liverpool, widow, were granted to her daughter, Birdsall’s wife Elizabeth (Lanes RO WCW). Ann Barr was the widow of Edward Barr, mariner, whom she had married, as evidently her third husband, at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 14 November 1760 (LRO 283NIC 3/1); nine years previously on 16? (sic) September 1751 she had married James Bouchard or Butchard at St. Mary’s Catholic Chapel, Liverpool (CRS, 9, p. 202). Neither her maiden name nor the forename of her first husband Danson has yet been identified.

43 LRO 283NIC 3/5.

44 Gore’s Gen Adv 9 Dec 1819.

45 CRS, 9, p. 243; Boney, Knowles, Liverpool porcelain makers of the eighteenth century and its makers (London 1957)Google Scholar and Richard Chaffers: a Liverpool potter (Liverpool 1960).

46 Wmson’s Lpl Adv 12 Jan 1769 and 1 Sept 1775.

47 James Lynch married Christian’s daughter Jane at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 20 April 1773 (LRO 283NIC 3/4).

48 Knowles Boney, Richard Chaffers . . . , p. 16.

49 Messrs William Smith and co., A list of bankrupts . . .

50 Richard Chaffers was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 4 March 1800 (LRO 283NIC 1/7); for his marriage see LRO 283JOH 3/1 and Gore’s Gen Adv 22 Feb 1787 and for his widow’s death see Liverpool Courier 3 June 1840.

51 Return of Papists 1767, p. 26.

52 LRO 283NIC 3/4 and 283ANN 1/1.

53 Billinge’s Lpl Adv 22 May 1797 and 10 Dec 1798. In her will dated 27 October 1798 and proved on 4 April 1799, Catharine Lupton explained that she had ‘duly administered the Effects of’ her ‘said late Husband and’ had ‘since his Decease carried on the Trade of a White Cooper as he exercised the same’ (Lanes RO WCW).

54 Billinge’s Lpl Adv 15 Feb 1802. The Luptons were buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, Henry, aged 47, on 18 May 1797, his widow Catharine (in the burial register Margaret), aged 46, on 4 Dec 1798, and William, aged 25, on 15 Feb 1802 (he died on the 12th) (LRO 283NIC 1/7; 352CEM 1/ 14/4 No. 92 (MI)).

55 J. P. Smith (ed), Lancashire registers, 3, Northern part, p. 131; the couple were also married at St. Mary’s Parish Church, Lancaster (IGI); Edward Baines, History, directory, and gazetteer of the County Palatine of Lancaster; . . . , Vol. 2 (Liverpool 1825, reprinted Newton Abbot 1968), p. 34.

56 Return of Papists 1767, p. 126.

57 Jarvis, Rupert C. (ed), Customs letter-books of the port of Liverpool 1711–1813 (Manchester: Chetham Society Publications, Third Series, Vol. 6, 1954), p. 132 Google Scholar. The Return of Papists 1767 lists five tobacconists in Liverpool—Hugh Barton, George Estwood, Cornelius and Thomas Saxton (father and son) and James Tevenant (pp. 13, 18 and 20). Whether Estwood and the two Saxtons had their own manufactories is unknown, possibly not, as none of them is listed in the contemporary directories.

58 Return of Papists 1767. p. 19; Charles Barton was buried at St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 7 December 1788 (LRO 283PET 1/5; 352CEM 1/16/3, No. 951 (MI)).

59 Thomas Roscoe (sic) cooper of Finney Lane was buried at St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 19 May 1787 (LRO 283PET 1/5); for his widow’s death see Liverpool Mercury 1 Jan 1813; aged 78, Agnes Roscow was buried at St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 31 December 1812 (LRO 283PET 1/7).

60 Lanes RO WCW; Dorothy Barton married William Roscow at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 25 April 1780 (LRO 283NIC 3/5).

61 Estcourt and Payne, English Catholic Nonjurors of 1715, p. 130.

62 Return of Papists 1767, pp. 18 and 19.

63 CRS, 9, pp. 279, 306, 312 and 314.

64 Gore’s Gen Adv 12 May 1775; Barton was buried at St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 4 May 1775 (LRO 283PET 1/4). According to the inscription on the grave in which Barton was buried, he died on 4 May (LRO 352CEM 1/16/3 No. 720).

65 LRO 283PET 3/4.

66 At his burial at St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 16 January 1825, Musgrave was said to be 80 (LRO 283PET 4/2).

67 LRO 283PET 1/5 & 6.

68 LRO 283PET 1/6; Jonathan Musgrove died on 8 September, aged 19, according to the inscription on his grave, the same as that in which Charles Barton was interred (LRO 353CEM 1/16/3 No. 951).

69 Return of Papists 1767, p. 22; wills of William and Robert Bullen, both of Dalton, yeomen, proved in 1798 and 1808 (Lanes RO WCW).

70 Estcourt and Payne, English Catholic Nonjurors of 1715, p. 108; France, R. Sharpe (ed), The Registers of Estates of Lancashire Papists 1717–1788, Vol. 1, p. 75 Google Scholar.

71 Bush, Adrian Rockliff Lubé, A history of the Rockliffe family of Liverpool (Liverpool 1984), pp. 11–14 Google Scholar; Joseph Bullen died on 8 November 1823 (Gore’s Gen Adv 13 Nov 1823; Liverpool Mercury 14 Nov 1823; Billinge’s Lpl Adv 18 Nov 1823).

72 Gore’s Gen Adv 12 March 1829.

73 Return of Papists 1767, p. 17; Hardman was buried at St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 28 May 1774 (LRO 283PET 1/4; a notice of his death without its date was published in Wmson’s Lpl Adv 3 June 1774).

74 Lanes RO WCW.

75 Return of Papists 1767, p. 20.

76 He was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 6 February 1774 (LRO 283NIC 1/5).

77 Bushell may have been born in Scarisbrick, where in 1767 there was living a 53-year old widow Mary Bushell with her family ‘All Born in Town’, three daughters and two sons, the latter including a Joseph Bushell aged 18 (Return of Papists, p. 29). However, whether this Joseph was the same as the tobacconist in Liverpool is not certain, as, if accurate, his age would give a date of birth of either 1748 or 1749, whereas the tobacconist’s age, 47, recorded at the time of his burial in 1793, if accurate, would give a date of birth of 1745 or 1746.

78 Gore’s Gen Adv 22 Aug 1793; Bushell was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 18 August 1793 (LRO 283NIC 1/6).

79 Wmson’s Lpl Adv 30 Nov 1789; Gore’s Liverpool Directory 1790 lists the address as 30 Lord Street. Under The Liverpool Improvement Act passed in 1786 (26 Geo. 3 c.12), Castle Street, Liverpool, was widened and improved primarily on its western side; the alterations on the eastern side of the street were presumably a further development of the changes authorised by the legislation (see Brooke, Richard, Liverpool as it was during the last quarter of the eighteenth century; 1775 to 1800 (Liverpool and London 1853), pp. 119 and 386–7)Google Scholar.

80 Lanes RO WCW.

81 For Bridget Green’s date of death see her will (Lanes RO WCW 1807); she was buried at St. John’s Church, Liverpool, on 14 February 1807 (LRO 283JOH 1/4).

82 Return of Papists 1767, p. 16.

83 IGI; the announcement of this marriage in Gore’s General Advertiser of Friday 17 Nov 1775 reported that this marriage took place at Preston on ‘Monday last’ i.e. 13 November, perhaps this was the date of a Catholic ceremony before the official’ marriage in the Church of England.

84 LRO 283PAU 1/1.

85 Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 46, pp. 18–19; for Archbishop Polding see also Suttor, T. L., Hierarchy and democracy in Australia 1788–1870 (Melbourne, London and New York 1965)Google Scholar.

86 Return of Papists 1767, p. 7; see also the wills of James’s father Peter Polding of Torbock (sic), yeoman, proved 1771, and his brothers John Polding of Torbock (sic), yeoman, proved 1773, and Henry Polding of Melling, husbandman, proved 1773 (Lanes RO WCW).

87 CRS, 9, p. 249.

88 No baptism of Henry Billinge has been found but his ancestry is evident from the inscription on his grave in St. Peter’s Churchyard, Liverpool, as well as from his will with his family connections therein mentioned; see also his father’s will (Lanes RO QDP 1775).

89 Wmson’s Lpl Adv 17 Dec 1762. An earlier issue of the same newspaper, that of 4 June 1762, contains a notice that the creditors of Lawrence Holme of Liverpool, watchmaker, were to meet at the house of Henry Billinge, the Wheat Sheaf, on Tuesday, 10 June, at 3 pm. The entry of the burial of his daughter Anne in the registers of St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 14 May 1734, describes Billinge as a house carpenter; that of his son John in the registers of the same church on 21 July 1748 describes him as an aleseller; entries of the burials of his children Christopher on 28 July 1752 and Ann on 27 May 1753 in the registers of the same church describe Billinge as an innkeeper (LRO 28PET 1/1 & 2).

90 Return of Papists 1767, p. 12. Billinge died on 31 October 1774 and his widow Ann on 10 November 1776 (Gore’s Gen Adv 4 Nov 1774 and 15 Nov 1776); they were buried at St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 1 November 1774 and 12 November 1776 respectively (LRO 283PET 1/4 & 5; 352CEM 1/16/3 No. 398 (MI)).

91 Liverpool Mercury 9 March 1821; Billinge was buried at St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 10 March (LRO 283PET 4/2). Billinge’s sister Jane married Guy Green, china manufacturer and partner of John Sadler, the pioneer of transfer printing on porcelain.

92 Liverpool Town Boob 7 Dec 1748 (LRO 352MIN/COU I 1/10); Gore’s Gen Adv 31 Dec 1779; Bullen was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 2 January 1780; the entry in the burial register describes him as a mug dealer (LRO 283NIC 1/6).

93 Return of Papists 1767, p. 16, where Charles’s father is named as John; however, Charles’s obituary notice describes him as the ‘son of Mr. Tho. Whitfield, late of Betisfield (sic), Flintshire . . . ‘ (Gore’s Gen Adv 30 Jan 1783). Thomas Whitfield died in his sixties on 15 December 1779 and was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on the seventeenth; his widow Ann, died on 21 November 1786, aged 79, and was buried at the same church on the 24th (LRO 283 NIC 1/6; 352CEM 1/14/4 No. 68 (MI)). Charles and James Whitfield were probably descended from Thomas Whitfield, a ‘Papist from Bettisfield’, who was buried at Hanmer on 21 August 1731; James, the son of the last, a papist and yeoman, and his wife Mary of Bettisfield, was buried there on 14 December 1724; though a papist, James had been baptised at the same church on 5 October 1718. Thomas may have been the son of Jerome Whitfield of Bettisfield, who was buried at Hanmer on 4 December 1689. An unnamed sibling of Charles and James Whitfield was buried there on 14 December 1745 (Cheshire RO EDB 102).

94 Wmson’s Lpl Adv 10 Sept 1787; Gore’s Gen Adv 13 Sept 1787; Whitfield was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 11 September 1787 (LRO 283NIC 1/6).

95 In 1767 Charnock was aged 30 and had resided in Liverpool for one year; he was the brother of Thomas Charnock, ‘Clark’, then aged 22, and of Margrett (sic), then aged 29 and the wife of Richard Craven, a 26-year old miller, all of them resident in Liverpool for the same period of time (Return of Papists, p. 14; see also the will of Richard Charnock (of Wavertree, gentleman), proved 1790 (Lanes RO WCW)).

96 Gore’s Gen Adv and Wmson’s Lpl Adv 29 Sept 1785.

97 Return of Papists 1767, p. 17; Finagan was buried at St. Mary’s Church, Walton-on-the-Hill, on 16 January 1768 (LRO 283SMW 1/6).

98 Will of James McGauley of Knotty Ash, merchant, proved 1811 (Lanes RO WCW); McGauley was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 19 June (LRO 283NIC 1/9).

99 Where a vessel in which shares were held, was registered more than once, only the year of the first registration is listed.

100 A certificate of plantation registry for the Cicilia was granted at Liverpool on 6 October 1752 and a Mediterranean Pass for her was issued on 5 October (PRO Adm 7/88, No. 582). The two vessels partly owned by Cowper, were the Racehorse (certificate of plantation registry at Liverpool 7 July 1758 and Mediterranean Pass 11 July (PRO Adm 7/90, No. 692)) and the Prince Bevern (certificate of plantation registry at Liverpool 11 Jan 1760). For an account of the capture of the Prince Bevern by the French see Wmson’s Lpl Adv 3 July 1761.

101 As well as not appearing as a ship’s captain in the Liverpool Plantation and Wool Registers and the Registers of Mediterranean Passes, Green is not listed in the ‘LIST of all the SHIPS belonging to LIVERPOOL, with their Names, their present Commanders’ Names, and in what Trade employ’d’, dated 30 October 1752 (Richard Brooke, Liverpool as it was during the last quarter of the eighteenth century . . . , pp. 510–13).

102 CRS, 9, p. 184.

103 The three vessels were the Viana, for which a certificate of plantation registry was issued at Liverpool on 24 May 1757, the Ford for which a similar certificate was issued at Kinsale on 28 May 1759 and the Wolfe for which a certificate of plantation registry was granted at Liverpool on 11 December 1759. For their Mediterranean Passes see PRO Adm 7/89, No. 2762 (Viana), 7/90, No. 1875 (Ford) and No. 1958 (Wolfe). Sherlock was captain at the time of registration of four vessels, for which certificates of plantation registry were granted at Liverpool in the period 1744—50, the Clinton, 11 December 1744, the Graham, 4 August 1746, the Rose, 25 August 1747, and the Mercury, 13 August 1750. The owner of the first of three vessels was James Clinton, himself a Catholic merchant, who has been excluded from the present discussion, as he died in 1745, his will being proved in the Chester Consistory Court on 14 May 1745 and inrolled with the Quarter Sessions on 15 June (Lanes RO WCW 1745 and QDP). There were probably other Catholic merchants and shipowners in Liverpool during the first half of the eighteenth century, though how numerous they were, is as yet unknown; probably their number was small. In 1748 Sherlock described himself as a merchant when he subscribed to Lewis Morris’s Plans of Harbours, etc. published in that year (R. Stewart-Brown, The inhabitants of Liverpool from the 14th to the 18th century, p. 25). The entry of his burial on 27 April 1760 at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, also described him as a merchant, of Lord Street (LRO 283NIC 1/4).

104 ‘Family notes of Wilks, Sherlock, Lewys etc’ (London: Publications of the Catholic Record Society, Vol. 1, 1905, pp. 143–7; see also Hollinshead, Janet E., ‘Lancashire dancing masters in the 18th century: their identification from local sources’ in Hollinshead, Janet E. & Pogson, Fiona (ed), Studies in northern history (Liverpool 1997), p. 59)Google Scholar. Lawrence Sherlock was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 10 October 1731, and his widow Alice was buried there on 23 November 1752 (LRO 283NIC 1/4).

105 Lanes RO WCW; by his will all Sherlock’s property was to be divided amongst his four children, or if any of them were dead but with issue, the deceased’s children; in the event of his surviving all his ‘lawful issue’, his property was to be inherited by his sister Alice Sherlock, or, if she were dead, his sister Elizabeth Jump; if she were no longer alive at the time of her brother’s death, the property would pass ‘Share and Share alike’ to his four nieces Judith, Bridget, Elizabeth and Nelly Doran, the children of his sister Eleonora, or, if any of them were dead, her or their survivor(s).

106 PRO Adm 7/88, Nos. 525 & 1596, and 7/89, Nos. 167 & 1723. Certificates of plantation registry for these vessels were granted at Liverpool on 22 September 1752 (Willoughby), 30 March 1753 (Kitty) and 25 June 1754 (Neptune).

107 PRO Adm 7/87, No. 1358; Liverpool Plantation Registers 18 Jan 1752; the Hothersall was captured during the Seven Years War on a voyage from Liverpool for Antigua, though whether the vessel were still partly owned by Cowper, Green and Leckonby, is unknown; retaken by the Knight, she was sold by auction, re-named the Jane, taken again on her passage to St. Petersburg, and ransomed for 400 guineas (Gomer Williams, History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque with an account of the Liverpool Slave Trade, p. 667; see also Wmson’s Lpl Adv 25 July 1760).

108 PRO Adm 7/88, No. 1984; Liverpool Plantation Registers 3 Aug 1753.

109 Henry Fishwick, The history of the parish of St. Michaels-on-Wyre . . . , pp. 188–9; Clayton, Albert J. (transcribed), The registers of St Michael’s on Wyre 1707–1765 and of Copp Chapel 1728–1837 (Lancashire Parish Register Society, Vol. 143, 1998), p. 135 Google Scholar. The name of the vessel which Leckonby partly owned, the Hothersall, confirms Leckonby’s origins, the mother of William Leckonby of Elswick and Liverpool being Anne, the daughter of Thomas Hothersall of Hothersall Hall (Fishwick, facing p. 189). Fishwick claimed that William Leckonby of Elswick and Liverpool died on 24 January 1784; however, this appears to be an error, as there is no record of a burial of a William Leckonby either in Liverpool or at St. Michael’s-on-Wyre, his native parish, at about this date ( Clayton, Albert J. (transcribed), The registers of St Michael’s on Wyre 1766–1837 (Lancashire Parish Register Society, Vol. 150, 2001)Google Scholar. The only burial of a William Leckonby recorded in the registers of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre in the second half of the eighteenth century, is that of 21 May 1762; moreover, some four years previously, on 8 January 1758, Ann wife of William Leconby (sic) of Liverpool was buried at St. Michael’s (p. 133).

110 Wmson’s Lpl Adv 17 July 1761; Return of Papists 1767, p. 20; Gore’s Gen Adv 27 May 1768; Thomas Brownbill was buried at St. Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool, on 27 May 1768 (LRO 283NIC 1/ 5).

111 CRS, p, p. 184; they may also have been related to James Brownbill, maltster, who was buried at St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 1 June 1733, to John Brownbill of Liverpool, mariner, letters of administration of whose estate were granted to Elizabeth Brownbill, spinster, his only sister, on 4 August 1755, and to Margaret and Mary Brownbill, natives of Liverpool, who, aged 28 and 26 respectively, were resident in Princes Street, Liverpool, in 1767 (LRO 283PET 1/1; see also 352CEM 1/16/3 No. 91 (MI); Lanes RO WCW; Return of Papists, p. 13).

112 CRS, 9, pp. 181 and 229; for the Gillibrands see also Gillow, Joseph, A literary and biographical history, or bibliographical dictionary of the English catholics. From the breach with Rome, in 1534, to the present time, Vol. 2 (London and New York), p. 467 Google Scholar; Return of Papists 1767, p. 77; Edgar E. Estcourt and John Orlebar Payne, The English Catholic Nonjurors of 1715 . . . , p. 99; and R. Sharpe France (ed), The Registers of Estates of Lancashire Papists 1717–1788, Vol. 1, p. 31–2, and Vol. 3, p. 102.

113 Gore’s Gen Adv 2 Feb 1786; Wmson’s Lpl Adv 6 Feb 1786.

114 J. C. H. Aveling, The Handle and the Axe . . . , p. 288. For fuller discussion of the antecedents of the Liverpool Catholic businessmen discussed in this article, see my article, ‘The geographical origins and socio-economic backgrounds of the Liverpool Catholic mercantile and maritime business community in the second half of the eighteenth century’, in North West Catholic History, Vol. 30, 2003, pp. 28–56.

115 Ibidem.

116 Return of Papists 1767, pp. 61, 118 and 147.

117 Ibidem, p. 32. William Unsworth’s will refers to a messuage, tenement and lands in Windle leased from Sir Robert Gerrard of Garswood Baronet and in possession of Mr. John Rigby or his undertenants (Lanes RO QDP). This land may well have been the property of 16 acres held by Thomas Unsworth of Windle, yeoman, ‘from Sir William Gerard of Garswood, bart., 9 Feb. 1702/3, for lives of Bridget and William Unsworth at £1 6s. lid. rent’ and ‘a cottage let to Timothy Rigby for the year at 16s. rent’ ( France, R. Sharpe (ed), The Registers of Estates of Lancashire Papists 1717–1788, Vol. 1, p. 29)Google Scholar.

118 On 13 April 1741 Thomas Lawrence leased a piece of land of 55 acres 5 perches in West Derby from Caryl, Lord Molyneux (LRO 920MD 388). In addition to this land Thomas Lawrence’s will, made on 11 May 1748 and in which he describes himself as a yeoman, refers to his ‘Estate of Inheritance lying and being in Fazakerley now in possession of one John Melling as Tenant or Farmer thereof’, his ‘Messuage or Dwelling house and Lands thereunto belonging ... in Fazakerley aforesaid containing four acres of land or ground or thereabouts . . .being also land of Inheritance now in possession of one Joseph Heward as Farmer thereof . . . ‘ (Lanes RO WCW 1748).

119 Unless otherwise stated, all the wills were proved and all the letters of administration were granted in the Chester Consistory Court.

120 The relevant Acts of Parliament are 19 Geo 3 c.66 (1779), 23 Geo 3 c.58 (1973), 29 Geo 3 c.51 (1789), 35 Geo 3 c.30 (1795), 44 Geo 3 c.98 (1804), 48 Geo 3 c.149 (1808) and 55 Geo 3 c.184 (1815).

121 In 1780 the executors of Richard Kaye ‘owned’ houses in High Street (tenanted by his son John), Earle Street, Ormond Street, Plumbe Street, Tempest Hey and Virginia Street (Assessment for rates 28 April 1780 for north side [of parish] only (LRO 353PAR 1/3/5)).

122 Ryan’s copyhold estate in West Derby was presumably the estate which according to a codicil to his will dated 12 February 1808, Samuel Hawarden Fazakerley, a Lieutenant Colonel in the 3rd Regiment of the Royal Lancashire Militia, had lately purchased from Hannah Margaret Ryan (Will of Samuel Hawarden Fazakerley, formerly of Fazakerley but last of Liverpool, esquire, proved 11 August 1813 (Lanes RO WCW)).

123 Liverpool Courier 10 Sept 1845; Liverpool Mercury 12 Sept 1845. Simpson’s death was recorded in the register of deaths of St. Mary’s Catholic Chapel, Woolton, but he was buried at All Saints’ Church, Childwall, on 11 September 1845 (LRO 282MAR 1/3 and 283CHL). Simpson’s aunt Elizabeth, ‘a Nun of the third order of St. Francis at Paris’, forced to flee the French Revolution, died at her nephew’s house at Much Woolton on 20 March 1822, aged 80 (Gore’s Gen Adv 28 March 1822). Both Bullen and Simpson appear in the lists of jurors of Much Woolton Township, the former from 1802 to 1824 and the latter from 1810 to 1824 (Lanes RO QDF 2/89 (1802), 96 (1803), 102 (1804), 118 (1806), 149 (1809), 155 (1810), 167 (1812), 179 (1814), 185 (1815), 191 (1816), 197 (1817), 1818 (205), 212 (1819), 218 (1820), 224 (1821), 236 (1823) and 242 (1824)); Bullen was allotted land under the Childwall and Woolton Waste Lands Inclosure Act of 1805 ( Lally, John E. and Gnosspelius, Janet B., History of Much Woolton (Woolton 1975), p. 34 Google Scholar; the map on this page also depicts the property which was purchased by Cuthbert Simpson).

124 Kaye’s property in Little Woolton qualified him to serve as a juror ‘at the Assizes at Lancaster or the Quarter Sessions of the Peace’ (Lanes RO QDR 2/6 1776).

125 Gore’s Gen Adv 4 Jan 1771. For an indication of the lifestyle of a person of comfortable but moderate means see the inventory attached to the Tuition Bond of Jane and Esther Rose of Liverpool and letters of administration of the estate of Gilbert Rose of Liverpool, master mariner and widower, both 10 October 1810 (Lanes RO WCW); Rose’s personal effects were valued at under E450 and his household effects at £209.

126 In the original the items bequeathed to each child, are listed in columns, headed by the name of each child (Lanes RO WCW 1761).

127 The phrase ‘under £20,000’ indicates an estate valued at £17,500 and under £20,000 under the Schedules of duties laid down in 1804 and 1808, and at £18,000, and under £20,000 under the Schedule of 1815 (44 Geo 3 c.98. Schedule (A); 48 Geo 3 c.149, Schedule, Part III, and 55 Geo 3, с.184, Schedule, Part III).

128 Richard Brooke, Liverpool as it was during the last quarter of the eighteenth century . . . , pp. 177–8, Picton, J. A., Memorials of Liverpool historical and topographical including a history of the Dock Estate, Vol. 2, Topographical (2nd ed London 1903), pp. 95–6Google Scholar, and Smithers, Henry, Liverpool, its commerce, statistics and institutions; with a history of the cotton trade (Liverpool 1825), p. 427 Google Scholar.

129 Baines, Thomas, History of the commerce and town of Liverpool, and of the rise of manufacturing industry in the adjoining counties (London and Liverpool 1852), p. 501 Google Scholar; Billinge’s Lpl Adv 12 June 1797; Roger Leigh was a Lieutenant in Captain Doran’s Company.

130 For Ingram see Taylor, Thomas, The history of Wakefield in the County of York . . . (Wakefield 1886), pp. 189–93Google Scholar, Walker, John (ed), Hunter’s Pedigrees: a continuation of Familiae Minorum Gentum (London: Publications of the Harleian Society, Vol. 88, 1936), p. 96 Google Scholar, and Walker, J. W., Wakefield its history and people, Vol. 2 (2nd ed; Wakefield 1939), pp. 534–6Google Scholar. See also D. J. Pope, ‘Liverpool Catholic Shipowners in the second half of the eighteenth century’, pp. 29–30. Another example of a business partnership which included both Catholics and Non-Catholics, is the brewery partnership which as well as the Catholic Hugh Adamson and James Morton included two Quakers William Barnes and James Kenyon and a ‘member’ of the Church of England William Denison; the religion of James Leigh, the other partner, has not been identified, though he was possibly a relation of Roger Leigh.

131 Gore’s Gen Adv and Wmson’s Lpl Adv 4 July 1782.

132 Further research may reveal a few more such businessmen; also further investigation of the non-Catholics amongst them may lead to the exclusion of a small number of these businessmen. However, it is doubtful that any ‘re-calculation’ of the overall number would significantly alter the overall conclusion. Even with a total of 1,700 businessmen the 81 Catholics would still account for only 4.8% of the total. A greater reduction of the total to 1,500 would still leave only 5.4% of the total as Catholics.

133 Bossy, John, The English Catholic community 1570–1850 (London 1975), p. 424 Google Scholar, and Danson, J. T., ‘Liverpool: memoranda touching its area and population, during the first half of the present century’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Vol. 8, 1855-6, p. 23 Google Scholar. Danson obtained his eighteenth-century figures from the Appendix to the Report of the Commissioners, appointed in 1833 to enquire into the state of the Municipal Corporations of the country, published in 1835. His figure for 1801 he took from the National Census of that year.