Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Notes and Abbreviations
- Chapter One Origins of a Merchant Dynasty
- Chapter Two This Very Opulent Town
- Chapter Three Slave Ship Captain
- Chapter Four Slave Merchant
- Chapter Five Jack of All Trades
- Chapter Six Thomas Earle of Leghorn
- Chapter Seven Thomas Earle of Hanover Street
- Chapter Eight Privateering in the American War
- Chapter Nine Ralph Earle and Russia
- Chapter Ten Brothers in the Slave Trade
- Chapter Eleven The Last Years of Livorno
- Chapter Twelve New Horizons
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter Twelve - New Horizons
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Notes and Abbreviations
- Chapter One Origins of a Merchant Dynasty
- Chapter Two This Very Opulent Town
- Chapter Three Slave Ship Captain
- Chapter Four Slave Merchant
- Chapter Five Jack of All Trades
- Chapter Six Thomas Earle of Leghorn
- Chapter Seven Thomas Earle of Hanover Street
- Chapter Eight Privateering in the American War
- Chapter Nine Ralph Earle and Russia
- Chapter Ten Brothers in the Slave Trade
- Chapter Eleven The Last Years of Livorno
- Chapter Twelve New Horizons
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
‘As Commerce is what renders every Country rich and consequently powerful; so the Merchant may be said to be the most useful Member of the Society in which he lives.’
As the eighteenth century drew to a close, an advertisement appeared in the Liverpool Advertiser announcing the auction of ‘that commodious and convenient house, with the stables, coach-house and warehouse behind it, situated on the south side of Hanover Street, now in the possession of William Earle Esq.’ And, a week later, another notice announced the forthcoming sale of property in the same street belonging to his brother, Thomas: ‘a dwelling-house, counting house, warehouse and stables for five horses and a double coach-house.’ Also up for sale was a small adjoining dwelling house ‘very suitable for the residence of a principal clerk.’
Thomas was now 45 years old and William 39; both brothers were rich after two decades of successful trading and they were ready for the next stage in the progress of an achieving merchant, to acquire some of the trappings of a gentleman. One important feature of this was to purchase a country property and, for merchants of Liverpool, the most favoured places to do this were Toxteth and Wavertree to the south and south-east and Everton to the north, all very urban now but then still in the country, though not far from the hustle and bustle of the great port. Everton was the most frequented by rich merchants and was home to eight of the 20 leading slave merchants in 1800. ‘The village of Everton’, wrote John Aiken in 1795,
commands an extensive prospect of the mouth of the river … as well as of the opposite coast of Chester, and the northern part of Wales. This village has of late years become a very favourite residence, and several excellent houses are built along the western declivity of the hill.
The Earle brothers had been happy to live next door to each other in Hanover Street, but they decided to place the whole town between their country residences. Thomas purchased 88 acres of farming land in Toxteth in 1798 and on it built a large stone house called Spekelands.
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- Information
- The Earles of LiverpoolA Georgian Merchant Dynasty, pp. 239 - 262Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2015