John Lewis (1794-1852) was born and raised in the Welsh town of Bangor-On-Dee in Flintshire, where his father James and the family operated as maltsters and brewers, with a series of kilns across the area. His grandfather (also John) was considered ‘well to do’ by locals, so he and the family obviously had money. John Lewis moved to London in 1810, where, according to later accounts, he apprenticed in the grocery trade.
Thomas Boys Lewis (1869-1942), wrote a poem about his grandfather’s time in the capital, which gives us some useful research clues:
‘The Welsh Apprentice in London, 1810’
My grandsire’s barges float
The corn down to the sea;
They make it to the shires
From Bangor on the Dee
At counter all day long
I serve the rice and tea
to strangers, but I think of
Bangor on the Dee.
In dreams I walk the fields
Of Bangor on the Dee.
Between 1813 and 1817, a ‘Mr Lewis’ was reported in newspapers acting as a London grocer and as ‘grocer & tea dealer’, which explains the reference to ‘serving…tea all day’. During this period, his business address changed several times, all locations within the same few hundred square yards of central London – so it is possible that he was operating from a stall. The poem also raises questions about exactly what kind of commerce his family were involved in – particularly the line about his grandfather’s barges moving corn through the River Dee to the coast. In the eighteenth century, the Dee was a very busy route for transporting goods both around the UK and internationally. Although the Dee’s shallows made it more difficult to navigate than the Mersey, smaller, flat-bottomed boats (like barges) used the river to move considerable amounts of lead, iron, coal, cheese, corn, bricks, beer and timber. So, from the poem, it seems likely that alongside the brewery business, the Lewis family were shipping goods using the river from Bangor-On-Dee, and through the then busy port of Chester. This would have brought considerable wealth to back a young John Lewis when he set up business, first in London and then Blackburn.
By April 1817, John Lewis was reported as a ‘Blackburn resident’, when he married Mary Stones in the town. There’s no obvious reason why a Welsh grocer, who served his time in London, might move to Blackburn, other than by that point, the town’s textile manufacturing was growing rapidly, and probably offered opportunities to a budding businessman. Although listed as ‘grocer’ in directories of the time, Lewis developed a large wholesale food business (one of the first in the area) alongside retail stores, also purchasing several buildings in the town centre. So, he was either a very successful businessman, had family money to invest - or perhaps both. Mary and John Lewis had three daughters, Elizabeth (1822-1831), Mary (1827-1828) and Mary Anne (1828-1850) along with five sons: James (1818-1887), George (1819-1892), Thomas (1820-1884), John (1825-1906) and William (1830-1873). The boys attended Blackburn Grammar School, some going on to study at university, and they then followed John into grocery - John junior becoming a pharmacist, with a shop based in buildings owned by his father.
The brothers considered entering the cotton trade as early as the 1840s, but were cautioned against it by their father, due to a slump caused by over-production. When John Lewis died in 1852, his sons James and Thomas built weaving sheds in Daisyfield, while also maintaining the grocery business, but this was sold in 1859, to fund the building of Springfield Mill, one of twelve then in construction, due to a manufacturing boom. According to a later newspaper article, the company, which by then also included the other Lewis brothers, used only cotton imported from Egypt. However, as there are very few surviving records of Blackburn’s cotton industry from that era, it has not yet been possible to verify where their cotton was picked. So, although the business was impacted by the American conflict, it was reportedly less affected than many others and was well-placed to cash-in on the boom after the conflict. It is though important to note that Egyptian cotton was, at that point, picked by a combination of enslaved people and ‘state-enforced-labour’; the trade in and use of the African commodity as tainted by humanitarian concerns as cotton from the southern US states.
Further developing the large stone-built mill in Daisyfield, the Lewis Bros increased both its size and output, then adding a second mill and employing a very sizeable workforce, bringing them status in Blackburn. Both Conservatives, Thomas and James became substantial donors to the party and were elected as councillors, taking positions of power in the town’s administration (Thomas later becoming a member of the committee which oversaw the running of the library and museum), and as governors of the Grammar School and Technical College. In August 1862, during the early part of the US Civil War, Thomas was reported as being on the platform at a Town Hall meeting at which Conservatives (including several other leading cotton manufacturers) tried to vote through a motion asking Queen Victoria to recognise the Confederacy as a separate sovereign state. Although the proposal was soundly beaten, this illustrates the split then developing in Blackburn - between those who supported the south (many, but not all Conservatives, most mill and landowners) and others who backed the northern states, from differing socio-economic backgrounds.
Thomas Lewis married Ann Boys (1823-1894) and together they had five daughters and two sons. This included Thomas Boys Lewis (1869-1942) who was sent to Eton, gained a first in Classics at Kings College Cambridge, and then taught at public school Malvern College. On the death of his uncle James in 1892, TB Lewis and his brother Henry (1857-1915) inherited his company shares and TB gave up teaching, to work in the cotton business – although he continued to tutor Greek and Latin in a voluntary capacity at Blackburn Technical College. He became a governor of Blackburn Grammar School, endowed a university scholarship to its best achieving pupil and paid for six stained-glass windows to be constructed in the hall.
A reputedly charismatic and charming Justice of the Peace and councillor, Henry Lewis spent much of his time dealing with public rather than company matters, so although Henry was notionally the head of the business, it was TB who spent more time focused on textiles. When Henry passed away in 1915, Thomas Boys took over the running of the textiles business, which had become a public limited company, selling his controlling shares in 1920. Alongside cotton manufacturing, TB Lewis took a wide interest in the arts, writing poetry (e.g. ‘The Cotton Manufacturer’s Lament’, 1921) and literature; in 1899 marrying the successful artist Hillary Coddington (1871-1936), whose paintings had been exhibited in London and New York. Lewis also developed a fascination for local history, in 1925 spending over £5,000 (£265,000 in today’s terms) of his own money, to purchase and pay for the restoration of the then dilapidated Samlesbury Hall. He also donated another £5,000 to the ‘Cathedral Fund’, which supported the development of the Bishopric of Blackburn.
In 1934 Lewis opened a Textile Museum in Church Street, which contained working replicas of the main developments in cotton manufacturing. Its collections included early handlooms, the Spinning Jenny, the Mule and the Water Frame as well as related material, including a Blackburn Weavers banner. Since the closure of the original building in 2006, these exhibits have been housed at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery.
Sources:
Amelia Holt – The Blackburn Benefactor: Thomas Boys Lewis (1981)
Lancashire Archives: Land Conveyance 1873 – DDX 2668/42
Bill of Quantities PR 3081/4/48
Blackburn Directories
Newspapers and obituary cuttings held in the Local History Archives at Blackburn Central Library
Digitised Newspapers: The Blackburn Standard, The Preston Chronicle, The Preston Herald, The Blackburn Weekly Telegraph, Morning Post
Ancestry Website: www.Ancestry.co.uk
Find a Grave website: www.findagrave.com
Bruce Wilkinson, published February 2026.
William Whaley is known as one of Liverpool’s major slave traders during the second quarter of the eighteenth century. Having his own Wikipedia page is evidence of this (1). However, little is known of his background. This article will show that even though he was a grocer in Liverpool, he came from the Whalley family from the Blackburn area. During the middle of the eighteenth century, Whaley became one of the most important investors in ships that carried enslaved African to the Americas. This trade in human lives made fortunes for many Liverpool merchants but, from Whaley’s will and that of his son who predeceased him, Whaley gained no lasting wealth from his involvement.
Abram included the Whalley family in his History of Blackburn but does not include William Whaley or his father, Ralph (2). A document held by Lancashire Archives enables a positive identification of William and his father (3). In this document William states that his father, Ralph Whaley of Blackburn, was the brother of John Whaley, also of Blackburn. Also, he states that his uncle was John Sharples, and his grandmother was Esther Sharples. This is misleading. John Whaley married Anne Sharples at Brindle on 6 September 1698. John Sharples was Anne’s brother, and Esther was mother of both Anne and John. William had no direct relation to either John or Esther Sharples but there was a family connection through his brother’s marriage. Abram did include John Whalley in his section on the Whalleys of Rishton, Blackburn, Sparth and Clerk-Hill (4). This John Whalley is William’s uncle even though he has the extra l in his surname. John and Ralph’s father was Thomas Whalley of Sparth in Clayton-le-Moors. Abram lists several children of Thomas Whalley, but he did not include Ralph, but this receipt leaves no doubt he was Thomas Whalley’s son. William Whaley was of a family from the Blackburn area but as no record of his baptism has been found it is not certain he was born in Blackburn. Through marriage, Whaley had a further connection to Blackburn. In December 1722 he married Esther Baldwin at St Mary, Blackburn (5). Esther was the daughter of William Baldwin who along with William Sudell and Henry Feilden purchased the secular moiety of the Manor of Blackburn in February 1722 (6). Esther’s mother was sister of Anne, the wife of Whaley’s uncle, John. In 1752 the Whaley and Feilden families became linked when Esther and Whaley’s son, Ralph, married Catherine, daughter of Henry Feilden. Through family and marriage Whaley had connections to Blackburn.
By the time William entered his apprenticeship, he no longer lived in Blackburn, if he had ever lived there. In 1713, William was apprenticed as a grocer to Foster Cunliffe (1682-1758) of Liverpool (8). There are several errors in Find My Past’s transcription of the apprenticeship record: his place of residence is given as Eccleston in Derbyshire, not Lancashire, and his father is given as Ral, not Ralph. William did have connections to Eccleston near Preston because he bequeathed property in Eccleston juxta Croston in his will. Being apprenticed as a grocer prepared William for trading in large quantities of goods, particularly spices, preserved foods and from the early eighteenth-century tea, coffee and cocoa (9). Foster Cunliffe prepared Whaley for a trade in high-class foodstuffs but he did not introduce him to the trade of enslaving African people. Although Foster Cunliffe was one of the earliest slave traders from Liverpool, the first record of Cunliffe’s involvement in the slave trade on www.slavevoyages.org was in 1719 just as Whaley finished his apprenticeship. Although not comprehensive, the data on the Slave Voyages website gives an indication of Cunliffe’s involvement in the slave trade. It lists 69 voyages between 1719 and 1760 in which Foster Cunliffe was an investor. Although Cunliffe did not introduce Whaley to the business, he must have been aware of the financial rewards involved through his connection with Cunliffe.
Whaley did not begin trading in slaves until 1741, over 20 years after completing his apprenticeship. Fitting out the ships was expensive so Whaley probably needed to build enough capital by trading successfully as a grocer before entering the business. All that is known of Whaley’s business activity before his involvement in the slave trade is that he took George Bigland as an apprentice grocer in 1719 and Thomas Horsman in 1730 (10). Whaley must have been successful in business even from the beginning of his career as Bigland’s father paid Whaley a premium of £84 [approximately £18,000 in 2026] and Horsman’s £70 [approximately £15,000 in 2026]. Apart from the data on the Slave Voyages website the only record of Whaley’s business activity is through correspondence and business records left by William Davenport (1725-1794) (11). Davenport served an apprenticeship as a merchant under Whaley from 1741. Afterward he became Liverpool’s major slave trader in the second half of the eighteenth century (12). This account of Whaley’s business activity is taken from Nicholas James Radburn MA thesis on William Davenport.
Although Whaley served his apprenticeship under Foster Cunliffe, Cunliffe invested first in the slave trade in 1719, after Whaley had served his time (14). The first record of Whaley in the Slave Voyages database is from 1741 when he invested in the Saint George which transported 148 slaves from Africa to the Caribbean (15). This was over twenty years after he finished his apprenticeship. Over these twenty years, Whaley established himself among the senior Liverpool merchants. He was an experienced merchant after trading manufactured goods in exchange for tobacco imported from Chesapeake in North America. After dealing in luxury goods for over two decades, Whaley had the status and money to invest in the expense of fitting out a ship to carry enslaved people from Africa to the Caribbean and North America. A merchant needed to be amongst Liverpool’s elite traders to have the financial resources to invest in both fitting out a ship and to invest in importing tobacco. For example, it cost approximately £3,000 (approximately £600,000 in 2026] to purchase and fit out a 100 ton ship. In addition, the capital required to invest in importing tobacco was between £5,000 and £10,000 (£1-2 million in 2026). To be able to finance such ventures, Whaley formed partnerships with other Liverpool merchants. For example, he joined with John Knight and Edward Dean who traded as Messrs. Whaley, Knight and Dean. For most of the voyages in which he invested, Whaley was the leader or “ship’s husband”. In this role, Whaley was responsible for attracting investors, fitting out the ships, buying the cargo, instructing the ship’s captain and settling accounts and other financial matters at the end of the voyage. To have the resources and the specialist knowledge to invest in this business merchants had to be among Liverpool’s elite. It has been estimated that there were only 54 such merchants in Liverpool in 1753. Writing about a 1766 to 1774, shortly after the death of Whaley, David Richardson estimated only twenty Liverpool merchants managed 70 percent of voyages carrying enslaved people. Whaley was of a similar elite during the period 1741 to 1756 (16). According to the Slave Voyages database, Whaley invested in thirty seven voyages, for most of which he was the lead investor. Between 1756 and 1759, he invested in three more voyages, this time with his son, Ralph, but as a minor investor. In total, he was responsible for transporting 9,355 African men, women and children to be sold into slavery of whom 1,503 or approximately 16 percent died on the journey. Fortunes could be made trading human lives, but there were also risks.
The trade in enslaving Africans enriched many merchants but this was not the case with Whaley. Foster Cunliffe, under whom Whaley served his apprenticeship, was someone who made a fortune from enslaving Africans. According to the Slave Voyages database, Cunliffe invested in 69 voyages between 1726 and his death in 1758 transporting over 19,000 Africans to be sold into slavery in the Americas. Cunliffe had been Lord Mayor of Liverpool twice in 1716 and 1717 before becoming involved in the slave trade. He became Lord Mayor for the third time in 1736. His son, Ellis Cunliffe, became one of the MPs for Liverpool in 1755. His History of Parliament profile states that he disliked his father’s business and used his ill-health as an excuse to play no active part. However, the Slave Voyages database shows that he invested with his father between 1752 until his father’s death. When his father died in 1758, he inherited a great fortune. In 1759 he applied for then received a baronetcy. Through his sale of African into slavery, Foster Cunliffe gained a fortune that established the status of his eldest son and his ancestors.
Whaley left no such great fortune to his immediate family. He bequeathed his house in Orrell to his wife for her lifetime but no annuity or lump sum. His only monetary bequest was to his son-in-law, Ralph Garlick, who was to receive £300 (about £60,000 in 2026), a substantial sum but not a fortune. He left no money to his grandson who was also named William(18). Radburn offered an explanation (19). Edward Lowndes was declared bankrupt in May 1754 (20). Lowndes was a major Liverpool merchant who led a partnership, Edward Lowndes and Company. Whaley was the major investor in Lowndes’ company and was liable for the partnership’s debts. This financially crippled Whaley. The effect is shown in his major reduction in his involvement in the slave trade. Between 1747 and 1754 he invested in between two and four voyages a year but between 1755 and 1759 he invested in only six more voyages and in only two of which he was the major investor. Considering the long period needing to prepare for a voyage, it is probable that Whaley invested in these before Lowndes’ bankruptcy. In the last three voyages, Whaley’s son Ralph was a co-investor. Whaley may have made a fortune, but Edward Lowndes’ bankruptcy drained most of that fortune, leaving Whaley with little capital, none of which was bequeathed to his immediate family. Cunliffe is an example of the great fortunes that could be made in trading Africans, but Whaley shows that such fortunes could be lost easily.
It is not known if William Whaley was born in Blackburn, but he did come from the Whalley family of Rishton, Blackburn, Sparth and Clerk-Hill. As a young man, he moved to Liverpool to serve an apprenticeship as a grocer, trading in large quantities of high-quality foodstuffs such as spices and preserved foods. His master, Foster Cunliffe became one of Liverpool’s major traders in enslaved Africans but after Whaley had served his time. After building up sufficient capital from more than 20 years as a grocer, Whaley began to invest in transporting Africans to be enslaved in the Caribbean and North America. During the middle years of the eighteenth century, he joined Cunliffe as one of Liverpool’s major investors in the slave trade. In this Whaley led the partnerships in buying the ships, fitting them out, buying the goods and settling accounts. Fortunes were made but the business came with risks. Whaley’s master was one who made a fortune, ensuring the status of his family and his ancestors after his death. Whaley did not. After the bankruptcy of Edward Lowndes, with whom Whaley was a major investor, Whaley lost most of his capital. He was unable to bequeath a fortune to his family. Whaley was connected to Blackburn, but he is probably not better known because he left no fortune. He is only remembered for his involvement in trading enslaved Africans from Liverpool.
Appendix
Voyages in which William Whaley Invested (21)
| Arrived | Total embarked | Total disembarked | Start Voyage | Place Purchased | Place Disembarked | End Voyage | Notes |
| 1741 | 148 | 131 | Liverpool | Other Africa | Barbados, place unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1742 | 148 | 131 | Liverpool | Other Africa | Saint John (Antigua) | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1743 | 148 | 131 | Liverpool | Other Africa | Saint John (Antigua) | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1744 | 148 | 131 | Liverpool | Bight of Benin | Barbados, place unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1744 | 263 | 213 | Liverpool | Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands | Kingston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1745 | 148 | 131 | Liverpool | Other Africa | York River | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1746 | 259 | 215 | Liverpool | | Kingston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1747 | 238 | 198 | Liverpool | | Kingston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1747 | 0 | 0 | Liverpool | | | Saint-Malo | Captured by pirates or privateers - before slaves embarked. |
| 1747 | 240 | 197 | Liverpool | Other Africa | Saint John (Antigua) | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1747 | 331 | 283 | | Other Africa | Saint John (Antigua) | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1748 | 286 | 232 | Liverpool | | Kingston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1748 | 397 | 330 | Liverpool | West Central Africa and St Helena | Barbados, place unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1748 | 224 | 184 | Liverpool | Other Africa | Barbados, place unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1749 | 409 | 350 | Liverpool | Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands | York River | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1749 | 380 | 316 | Liverpool | Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands | Jamaica, place unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1749 | 273 | 221 | Liverpool | Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands | Kingston | | Shipwrecked or destroyed, after disembarkation. |
| 1750 | 331 | 283 | Liverpool | Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands | St Kitts, port unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1750 | 233 | 191 | Liverpool | Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands | Barbados, place unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1751 | 352 | 287 | Liverpool | Other Africa | Jamaica, place unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1751 | 222 | 190 | Liverpool | Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands | Barbados, place unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1751 | 120 | 106 | Liverpool | Senegambia and offshore Atlantic | Charleston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1752 | 352 | 287 | Liverpool | Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands | Saint John (Antigua) | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1752 | 322 | 263 | Liverpool | Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands | Barbados, place unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1752 | 120 | 103 | Liverpool | Senegambia and offshore Atlantic | York River | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1752 | 110 | 81 | Liverpool | Senegambia and offshore Atlantic | York River | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1753 | 424 | 346 | Liverpool | Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands | Barbados, place unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1753 | 230 | 197 | Liverpool | Senegambia and offshore Atlantic | Virginia, port unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1753 | 149 | 130 | Liverpool | Sierra Leone | Kingston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1753 | 171 | 151 | | Senegambia and offshore Atlantic | Charleston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1754 | 319 | 260 | Liverpool | Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands | Kingston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1754 | 171 | 151 | Liverpool | Senegambia and offshore Atlantic | Saint John (Antigua) | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1754 | 218 | 187 | Liverpool | | Barbados, place unspecified | | Voyage completed. |
| 1754 | 205 | 170 | Liverpool | Senegambia and offshore Atlantic | South Carolina, place unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1755 | 143 | 133 | Liverpool | Senegambia and offshore Atlantic | Charleston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1756 | 352 | 287 | Liverpool | Bight of Benin | Florida, port unspecified | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1756 | 135 | 120 | Liverpool | Senegambia and offshore Atlantic | Charleston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. |
| 1756 | 269 | 234 | Liverpool | Bight of Benin | Kingston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. Ralph Whaley invested |
| 1758 | 250 | 201 | Liverpool | Bight of Benin | Charleston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. Ralph Whaley invested. |
| 1759 | 117 | 100 | Liverpool | Senegambia and offshore Atlantic | Charleston | Liverpool | Voyage completed. Ralph Whaley invested. |
| Totals | 9355 | 7852 | | | | | |
Source 'The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database', https://www.slavevoyages.org/.
Sources
(1) ‘William Whaley’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Whaley [accessed 20 January 2026].
(2) Wm Alexander Abram, History of Blackburn (Blackburn, 1877), pp.405-7.
(3) Lancashire Archive (LA), Receipt for £236 15s 0d: William Whaley of Liverpoole, merchant, son and heir of Ralph Whaley, DDG 1/3, 7 January 1722/3.
(4) Abram, Blackburn, p.406.
(5) William Baldwin bequeathed his property in Blackburn to Esther and Wiliam’s son, Ralph (LA, Will of William Baldwin of Blackburn, Gentleman, WCW/Supra/C410/11, 12 August 1751).
(6) See my article on ‘Purchase of a Moiety of the Manor of Blackburn, February 1721/2’: https://www.cottontown.org/howweusedtolive/Pages/Early-History-Of-Blackburn.aspx.
(7) William Whaley in 1713, Britain, Country Apprentices 1710-1808 [accessed via www.findmypast.co.uk].
(8) LA, Will and Probate of William Whaley of Liverpool, grocer and merchant, DDHK 4/6/50, 1763.
(9) Oxford English Dictionary, ‘Grocer’, 1, 2a.
(10) George Bigland in 1719 and Thomas Horsman in 1730, Britain, Country Apprentices 1710-1808 [accessed via www.findmypast.co.uk].
(11) See Earle Family Papers, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool, England; Papers Relating to the Estate of Edward Chaffers, Liverpool Record Office, Liverpool England; The Papers of William Davenport & Co. (1745-1797), Keele University Library, Staffordshire, England; William Davenport Papers, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool England.
(12) William Davenport in 1741 Britain, Country Apprentices 1710-1808 [accessed via www.findmypast.co.uk]; David Richardson, ‘Davenport, William [1725-1797)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004): between 1748 and 1792 he invested £120,000 (approximately £20 million) in at least 160 voyagers carrying enslaved Africans to the West Indes and North America.
(13) Nicholas James Radburn, William Davenport, the Slave Trade, and Merchant Enterprise in Eighteenth-Century Liverpool, unpublished MA Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington (2009).
(14) Apprenticeship usually were for seven years but Whaley’s must have been shorter because he took on his first apprentice, George Bigland, in 1719 (Britain, Country Apprentices 1710-1808 [accessed via www.findmypast.co.uk])
(15) The first records of Whaley in the Slave Voyages database is doubtful because the Saint George is recorded three times in 1741, 1742 and 1743 transporting and landing the exact same number of slaves (see voyage numbers 90056, 90057 and 90058).
(16) David Richardson, ‘Profits in the Liverpool Slave Trade: The Accounts of William Davenport’, Liverpool, the African Slave Trade and Abolition, Roger Anstey and Paul Hair eds. (Liverpool, 1976), p.68.
(17) Mary M. Drummond, ‘Cunliffe, Ellis (1717-67), of Saighton Grange, nr. Chester, The History of Parliament, the House of Commons, 1754-1790, L. Namier and L. Brooks eds. (1964).
(18) LA, Will and Probate of William Whaley of Liverpool, grocer and merchant, DDHK 4/6/50, 1763.
(19) Radburn, William Davenport, p.25.
(20) Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 13 May 1754.
With thanks to David Hughes, published February 2026
