March, in the same year, the Polly was attacked and attempted to be boarded by a French schooner privateer, which was repulsed with considerable loss, it being supposed that the privateer had twenty men or upwards killed and wounded. The places of residence of several of the Liverpool families will now be noticed; and the great changes which have taken place in the town, will appear very striking when the reader adverts to the situations in which some of the principal families resided, during some parts of the period between the commencement of the year 1775 and the termination of 1799; and it will be the most convenient course to mention the names of a few of the streets, squares, and places at present almost entirely occupied by shops, warehouses, manufactories, counting-houses, or taverns, in the heart of the town, and, in some instances, in what would now be considered most disagreeable situations for residences, where, however strange it may appear to the present generation, many persons of the first consideration and respectability, some of whom were of considerable opulence, and of the old families of Liverpool, then resided. The following is a list of some of the streets and squares, with the names of several of the principal inhabitants who resided in them: CASTLE-STREET. Mr. James Gildart, (one of the family of the town-clerk of that name,) a Virginia merchant, mayor in 1750; he inhabited the large house on the east side, which was afterwards the shop of Messrs. Parker and Swann, subsequently made into two shops, one of which Mr. Lathbury, the chemist and (1) Of course it is not pretended to give the exact year of the residence of each person, which would be impossible; but to state the fact, that at some time or other between the commencement of 1775 and the termination of 1799, each of the persons mentioned, resided in the street, square, or place indicated. druggist, occupied not many years ago; they are now pulled down, and the site is part of the Commercial Bank; Mr. Gill Slater, a merchant; and Mr. Clarke, the father of Mr. James Clarke, formerly the recorder of Liverpool. Messrs. Heywood, Sons and Company, bankers," had their bank there. THE OLD CHURCH-YARD. Mr. William Pole, mayor in 1778; he was, within the recollection of numbers who are now living, agent for several years to the commissioners of stamps; and Mr. Charles Goore, mayor, in 1754. DRURY-LANE. Mr. William Boats, one of the principal merchants of the town. WATER-STREET. Mr. John Parr, who had been mayor of Liverpool in 1773, and resided in Water-street when he served that office; Mr. Henry Blundell (afterwards Mr. Henry Blundell Hollinshead); he subsequently lived at the Canal basin; he was Mayor in 1791, 1793, and 1807; Mr. Jonathan Blundell; Mr. Hugh Hindley Leigh; Mr. Case, who succeeded the latter in the house which he had occupied; Mr. Jonathan Blackburne; Dr. Kennion; Mr. Thomas Tarleton, who has been mentioned in a former chapter, (2) (the brother of General Sir Banastre Tarleton, Baronet,) lived in the house (afterwards the King's Arms Inn, kept by Mr. Daniel Dale;(3) the site is now occupied by counting-houses), on the south side of the street, and at the north-east corner of Fenwick (1) At that time the street had not been widened; and foot-passengers had often, from its extreme narrowness in some places, to get upon the steps, in order to allow carriages to pass without risk to themselves. (2) Chapter V, page 376. The street was comparatively very narrow when Mr. Thomas Tarleton lived in it, but it has been subsequently considerably widened. (3) Mr. Thomas Tarleton must have left the house, and it must have been kept street; Mr. Thomas Parke, a merchant, afterwards a banker, father of Mr. Baron Parke; and Mr. William Leece, a merchant; he resided at a house, now pulled down, on the north side of the street, and at the east side of Tower-garden, and the next above the old Tower. Many of the readers must recollect his house, which was remarkable from the circumstance of the large Gothic arch before noticed," extending from it across Tower-garden to the east side of the Tower. The ancient Tower, which occupied the site between Towergarden and Stringer's-alley (now called Prison-weint), was purchased by the Corporation, as has been before mentioned,(2) in 1775. OLDHALL-STREET. Mr. Edward Falkner, afterwards of Fairfield; he was high-sheriff of Lancashire, in 1788, and was related, by marriage, to General Sir Banastre Tarleton, Bart. by having married the General's sister, Miss Bridget Tarleton; Mr. Thomas Falkner; Mrs. Stanley, noticed before; Mr. Jonathan Brooks, the grandfather of the venerable Archdeacon Brooks; the Rev. Thomas Maddock, one of the rectors of Liverpool; and Mr. Edward Nicols, a merchant; he succeeded to the estate of the ancient family of Trafford, of Swithamley, in Staffordshire (mentioned in a subsequent part of this chapter), under the will of one of that family, to whom, by the female side, he was nearly related.(3) by Mr. Daniel Dale as an inn and tavern prior to August, 1786, because an advertisement appears in a Liverpool newspaper of the 3rd of August, in that year, announcing that Mr. Dale had removed from George's Coffee-house "to that spacious mansion, lately occupied by Thomas Tarleton, Esq. in Water-street, now the King's Arms Inn and Tavern," and soliciting a continuance of the favours of the public.-Gore's General Advertiser of 3rd August, 1786. (3) Some of his descendants in Staffordshire many years afterwards took the name of Trafford. He was also related, by marriage, to the family of Leigh, afterwards Trafford, of Oughtrington, in Cheshire. |