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Barton, Irlam and Higginson, earlier Barton & Co, was a noted Liverpool firm of shipowners specializing in the trade with Barbados in the first half of the 19th century. The three partners were William Barton, George Irlam, and John Higginson. The firm made a practice of naming several of its vessels after the partners.
The firm grew out of the operations of Thomas Barton (1753-1799) [1] and William Barton (1755-1826) [2] with George Irlam (1771-1832) [3] and John Higginson (1776-1834) [4] initially commercial assistants to Thomas Barton later becoming full partners. Thomas Barton of Liverpool and William Barton of Barbados appear as the junior joint owners with John Allanson of the Speights Town, launched in Liverpool in 1784. They subsequently took full ownership in 1792. [5]
Thomas Barton died in 1799. In his will. Barton appointed George Irlam and John Higginson "both clerks to me" to be his trustees and executors, along with Barton's wife and the broker William Ewart. [6] William Barton returned from Barbados and took on for a time the house Thomas had had built at Sleepers Hill, Everton. [7] Under the terms of Thomas's will, William received a one-quarter share of the value of all Thomas's business assets, and the right of first refusal to purchase any or all of Thomas's ships and vessels at a fair valuation. [6]
Higginson took over in Barbados, and may have joined the partnership fully around 1808. In that year the ownership of the ship Maxwell changed from Higginson to Barton & Co., and her master changed from J. Edwards to J. Irlam. [8]
Sir William Barton, then head of Barton, Irlam and Higginson, died aged 70 in 1826. He had been knighted in 1816 when Mayor of Liverpool on presenting an address of congratulation to the Regent on the marriage of Princess Charlotte of Wales. [9] When Barton died, Irlam and Higginson took up his shares in the vessel Higginson. George Irlam died before John Higginson, who died in 1834. Higginson's son Jonathon succeeded him as a partner in the firm.
Bartons specialised in the import of sugar, cotton, and spirits from the island of Barbados to Liverpool. Like other Liverpool merchants of the period, they operated primarily on a commission basis, accepting shipments from plantations in Barbados on consignment, and arranging for their sale in Liverpool to interested parties, remitting the proceeds back to Barbados less their commission—usually between 2½ and 4 percent—and less a variety of deductions and charges: for duties payable, for port and handling charges, for shipping and insurance, for warehousing and other costs; as well as for any credit advanced or financial transactions facilitated. [10] Krichtal (2013) includes a sample account from 1798, showing a typical example of the charges and commissions made. [11] The firm also bought goods outright for cash on its own account; but the commission system allowed it to be much less exposed to price and demand fluctuations; and to operate with rather less up-front capital. [12]
Sugar was the mainstay of the Barbados economy, accounting (with its byproducts) for 98% of the value of the island's exports even as late as the early 1830s. [13] But Bartons also built up a strong business in cotton. Based on a detailed analysis of weekly shipping and commodities reports in the Lancashire newspapers, Krichtal finds that Allanson & Barton were the third largest cotton importer into Liverpool from all sources in the 1780s; Thomas Barton & Co the largest importer in the 1790s; and Barton, Irlam and Higginson the second largest importer in the first decade of the 1800s. [14] Bartons was one of only two houses to make this top ten in three of the four decades from 1770-1810; no importer remained in the list for all four decades. [14] In respect of cotton specifically from the West Indies, Bartons was comfortably the largest importer in the period 1768-1815, shipping more than twice the volume of the next largest group. [15] Krichtal notes that this was more cotton that the island itself could generate, and Bartons were likely also receiving cotton at Barbados from Guyana and elsewhere for trans-shipment and onward transport to Liverpool. [16]
After the declaration of war with France in February 1793, Allanson and Barton were quick to obtain letters of marque for their captains, authorising them to attack and try to capture French vessels.
Allanson and Barton's ship Harriot under Captain Caitcheon in April became the first to send a prize into Liverpool. Agreeable, a "fine Bermuda-built brig... laden with coffee, sugar, indigo, and cotton", was taken on its way from Port-au-Prince to Bordeaux. [17] Thomas and William Barton acquired the ship when it was auctioned by Ewart & Ruston, ship and cargo together having been estimated at between £6,000 and £10,000. [17] Even before this in March Harriot and Speights Town, another Allanson and Barton ship, had re-captured Camilla, which had been taken by a French privateer while sailing from Salonica to London with cotton, sponge, figs and valonia. [18]
In May 1793 another ship, Pilgrim, in which Thomas Barton was a shareholder along with Thomas Birch, captured the 800-ton La Liberté and brought her into Barbados. The ship, sailing from Bombay to Lorient in France, had a particularly fine cargo, including silks and spices, fabrics, china, and mother-of-pearl, which realised £190,000. So valuable was the prize that Barton renamed an estate "Pilgrim" to celebrate, that he had bought in Everton. [19]
Bartons' 1794 ship Barton was also involved in a number of actions, even making a practice of sailing along the French coast for several weeks looking for prey, before sailing on to Barbados. Traffic was not all one-way however, and Barton ships could also be on the receiving end of such attentions. Agreeable was captured in March 1796 on her way to Barbados, but re-captured by a British naval squadron; Harriot was captured off Barbados in 1796, but recaptured by HMS Pelican; while Agreeable was captured again in 1798, but re-captured after Royal Navy ships were sent specifically to regain her. [20]
Following the renewal of hostilites in 1803, the Barton ship Irlam made further captures including Adolphus from Mauritius (1803); the brig Batavia (1809, but taken back by her crew); a French brig carrying sugar (1809); and Nelly (recapture, 1810). Barton ships Maxwell and Tiger also jointly captured three American merchant vessels in 1813 after the American entry into the conflict.
Although Liverpool was an important centre for Britain's slave trade, and Barbados an important destination for slave ships, Bartons' primary focus was on the direct West Indies trade, relying on filling their ships with plantation supplies and luxury items for the return leg, for transport straight to the island, rather than voyages via the triangular trade. Pope (2007) identifies Thomas Barton as not "one of the cohort of leading slave merchants of the second half of the eighteenth century" (criterion: those who had financed or part-financed 18 or more voyages), despite having amassed significant property outside the Borough of Liverpool, [21] while Krichtal (2013) classifies the firm as not a "major slave trader" (criterion: a firm which had backed twenty or more voyages). [15]
However, the principals of the firm were not uninvolved. According to Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, Thomas Barton was one of the co-owners of Rose Hill, when she made a voyage in 1784 transporting enslaved people; Nelly, built for and owned by Thomas Barton and John Allanson, made three voyages transporting enslaved people, one in 1784 and two in 1785; four such voyages each were made by Agreeable and Elizabeth while owned by Thomas and William Barton (1794, 1795, 1798, 1800; and 1797, 1798, 1800, and 1801, respectively); and one such voyage was made by Tyrone (in 1802). [22] In all, according to the database, 3264 captives were trafficked by these voyages. [22] Two further vessels the partners later bought (Tiger and Bootle) had also previously transported enslaved people, but not while the partners owned them (which was after Parliament had abolished the trade). Captain John Gillespie (or Gilespy) of Barton, the ship the partners purchased in 1810 and trading between Liverpool and Bridgetown, was involved in 43 transactions involving manumissions of enslaved people in Bridgetown between 1806 and 1818. [23]
Enslaved people were also at the heart of all the Barbados plantations the firm traded with; and which the firm increasingly also lent to, as the 1800s progressed. A steady long-term decline in sugar prices from the 1790s onwards, often accompanied by unavoidable legal charges in the form of legacies, settlements, or annuities from the estates, led to a large proportion of the plantation estates becoming increasingly indebted by the 1820s. [24] Merchants such as Bartons who had previously offered trade finance and managed bills of exchange for estates now increasingly found themselves offering mortgages, secured against plantations and slaves, to enable the proprietors to continue production—and even taking on whole estates themselves, bought either directly or out of the Chancery Court following bankruptcy proceedings, as mortgagees found their debt burdens become unsustainable. [25]
Between 1823 and 1834 Barton, Irlam, and Higginson issued mortgages worth at least £60,500 to at least eleven different estates. [26] In 1823 William Barton bought the Sandy Lane plantation for £19,718, including 106 enslaved people; [27] [28] while by the time of John Higginson's death in 1834 Higginson had become the owner of seven estates (Joe's River, Foul Bay (also known as Grettons), Rowans, Congo Road, Sandy Lane, Cane Garden, and Castle Grant) with the services of 867 "apprentices" (as former slaves, freed by the 1833 Act, but still bound to the estates, became known). [29] Under the Slave Compensation Act 1837 the freeing of these former slaves netted Higginson's estate about £18,500 in government compensation, [30] (enough to buy goods worth about £1.8 million in 2021, or labour worth £16.5m at 2021 prices). [31] Higginson's executor also collected the slave compensation money for some further estates, against which Higginson had judgments for failure to repay their debts. The total, based on compensation for 1,232 enslaved people, made the firm one of the biggest slave-owners on the island. [32]
Fiat in Bankruptcy was issued on 13 November 1847 against Jonathan Higginson and Richard Deane of Liverpool carrying on business at Liverpool under the firm of Barton, Irlam and Higginson, and at Barbadoes under the firm of Higginson, Deane & Stott. [33]
Barton, Irlam and Higginson meet with considerable opposition in the Liverpool District Court of Bankruptcy. Reportedly, they had received a large quantity of sugar from Mr Hinds, of Barbadoes, in June 1847, pledged it in July for £20,000, and in August got a further advance of £30,000, at the same time owing Mr Hinds a large balance. [34]
When Barton, Irlam and Higginson failed it had liabilities of £850,119, of which the Royal Bank of Liverpool held £545,791. [35] (The bankruptcy occurred during the great railway panic of 1847 and the Bank suspended operations between 18 October and 1 December. It then operated until it finally failed in 1867. [36] The bank's failure resulted in the failure of the White Star Line.)
The Official Assignee announced in 1851 a dividend of 20s (sic) on the pound. [37] Actually, the dividend amounted to 17s 6d in the pound. [35]
The bankruptcy was still underway in 1870. [38] In 1895 the Official Receiver was still negotiating with Jonathan Higginson's widow Charlotte over stock of the North-Eastern Railway Co. [39] Jonathon, who had died in 1859, had on his own account purchased shares in the Leeds and Thirsk Railway, with which the North-Eastern Railway Company later merged. [35] At the time of the merger the value of the new shares in the merged railway was £3087. However, the railway never paid out the dividends accruing to those shares with the result that by 1895 the shares and accrued dividends were worth about £7000. Charlotte Higginson and the Receiver agreed to divide this amount, with Charlotte getting £3087 plus the last six years of accrued dividends, and the Receiver the remainder. [35]
The accounts of the Assignees were last reported audited in 1897. [40]
| Vessel name | Tons (bm) | Launched | End year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barton | 212/222 | 1794 [41] | 1810 | Sold c. 1810. Captured and burnt by USS Syren on 28 May 1814 [42] |
| Barton | 440 | 1810 | 1836 | Wrecked |
| Bootle | 401 | 1805 | 1813 | Former slave ship; Barton & Co. owned between 1809 and loss in a hurricane [43] |
| Cicero | 429 | 1796 | 1802–1803 | West Indiaman. Sold. |
| Higginson | 454 | 1814 | 1856 | Sold in 1848 after the company's bankruptcy in 1847; last listed in 1856 [44] |
| Irlam | 380 | 1800 | 1812 | Wrecked |
| Irlam | 407 | 1813 | 1824 | Wrecked |
| Irlam | 299 | 1825 | 1831 | Wrecked in the Great Barbados Hurricane of 1831 [45] |
| Maxwell | 326 | 1798 | 1814 | Launched in America; Higginson owned to 1808, then Barton & Co. until 1813; lost off Borcum on 16 January 1814 while sailing from Liverpool to Bremen. [46] [47] |
| Tiger | 371/386 | 1800 | 1819 | Launched at Liverpool; Barton & Co.-owned from 1807; lost on 30 September 1819 near the Saltee Islands returning to Liverpool from Barbados. Only four of the 30 crew and passengers aboard survived. [48] |
Note: SlaveVoyages.org gives 22 March 1752 for Thomas Barton's date of birth; but that was a different Thomas Barton, baptised in Liverpool on 16 April 1752 after the death of his father -- ie not the Thomas Barton who had a younger brother William. The Thomas and William Barton of this article were originally from Lower Peover in Cheshire.
Christopher was built in America and taken in prize in 1780. She first appears in British records in 1786. Liverpool merchants purchased her before then, probably in 1785. Thereafter she made eight voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She sank in 1794 in the harbour at Saint Croix.
Kingsmill was a French vessel launched in 1793 under a different name, captured in 1798, and sold to British owners who renamed her. She then became a slave ship, making three voyages from Africa to the West Indies in the triangular trade in enslaved people. A French privateer captured her in 1804, but she returned to her owners within the year. In 1807, after the end of British participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Kingsmill became a West Indiaman. In 1814 she became the first ship to trade with India under a license from the British East India Company (EIC) after the EIC lost its monopoly on British trade with India. She was badly damaged in 1821 and subsequently disappears from the registers.
Elliott was launched at Liverpool in 1783. She made ten voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade, carrying enslaved people from West Africa to the West Indies. Next, she made one voyage as a whaler. She then became a merchantman, sailing between England and South America. In November 1807 French privateers captured her.
Irlam was launched in 1800 at Liverpool as a West Indiaman, sailing between Liverpool and Barbados. Although a merchantman and not a privateer, she made an unusually aggressive use of her letter of marque, capturing or recapturing four vessels. She wrecked on Tuskar Rock in 1812.
Irlam was a West Indiaman launched in Liverpool in 1813 for Barton & Co., which had lost an earlier Irlam in 1812. The current Irlam was of the same burthen as her predecessor, and was employed in the same trade, Liverpool to Barbados. She was wrecked in January 1824.
At least four ships have borne the name Irlam.
Barton was launched in 1794 as a West Indiaman, sailing primarily to Barbados. She was of average size for vessels launched at Liverpool at that time. She sailed under letters of marque and several times repelled attacks by French and Spanish privateers in single ship actions. The United States Navy captured and burnt her in 1814.
Barton was launched at Liverpool in 1810 as a West Indiaman, trading primarily between Liverpool and Barbados. Her owners, Barton, Irlam and Higginson, had just sold another Barton and their new vessel was almost twice the size of her predecessor. One of her captains was involved in the manumission of over 40 slaves at Barbados. She was wrecked at Charleston, South Carolina, in December 1836.
Bootle was launched in 1805 at Liverpool as a slave ship. She made two voyages delivering slaves to the West Indies before her owner sold her. She then became a West Indiaman. In 1811 the Liverpool partnership of Barton, Irlam and Higginson purchased her and sailed her between Liverpool and Barbados. A hurricane at Bridgetown, Barbados wrecked her in 1813.
Maxwell was launched at Boston in 1798. She came into British hands in 1804 as a West Indiaman, trading between Liverpool and Barbados. She wrecked in January 1814.
Tiger was launched at Liverpool in 1800 as a West Indiaman. She made one voyage in 1806-1807 as a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. After British participation in the trans-Atlantic enslaving trade ended in 1807, she returned to the West Indies trade. She also captured three American merchant vessels in 1813. She wrecked on 30 September 1819 with loss of life.
Robert was built in Brazil in 1797 and first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1805. She made two slave trading voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. A French privateer captured her in a single-ship action in 1808 on her second voyage.
Cicero was launched at Sunderland in 1796 and initially sailed as a West Indiaman. She was briefly captured in 1799 in a single-ship action with a French privateer. Later, she went whale hunting both in the northern whale fishery (1803-1808), and the southern whale fishery (1816-1823). She capsized at Limerick in September 1832 and was condemned there.
Vulture was built in France 1777 and captured. By early 1779 she was sailing as a privateer out of Liverpool. She then became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made 10 voyages transporting enslaved people and was captured in 1795 on her 11th such voyage.
Several ships have been named Sally:
Harriot was launched in Liverpool in 1786. For many years she was a West Indiaman, sailing between Liverpool and Barbados. In 1796 a French frigate captured her, but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. At the beginning of her of her first slave trading voyage a French privateer captured her, and again the Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She made five slave trading voyages in all. Thereafter she traded with South America. She was last listed in 1814 with stale data.
Agreeable was launched at Bermuda in 1786, probably under a different name. French owners acquired her at some point and sailed her as Agréable. In 1793 the British captured her. Subsequently, between 1793 and 1808, she made six voyages as a slave ship, alternating between the triangular trade in enslaved people, and sailing as a regular West Indiaman. French privateers captured her between the second and third voyages, and the third and fourth voyages, but each time the British Royal Navy recaptured her. In the case of the second capture she was in French hands long enough for them to send her out as a privateer. She herself captured an American vessel in 1808 as she was returning to Liverpool from her last enslaving voyage. After the end of British participation in trans-Atlantic enslaving trade, Agreeable traded more widely, particularly to South America. She was condemned at Buenos Aires in 1814 after running aground in the River Plate. She was repaired and continue to sail to Brazil until she returned to Liverpool in June 1819.
Speights Town, was launched at Liverpool in 1784 as a West Indiaman, sailing between Liverpool and Barbados. She was wrecked in late 1794.
Dart was launched at Plymouth in 1787. Dart initially traded with Newfoundland and then the Mediterranean. From 1797 she made four voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was condemned at Barbados in 1802 as she was returning to London after having delivered captives to Demerara.
Doe was built in 1780, in the Thirteen Colonies, possibly under another name. She was taken in prize. Between 1783 and 1786 Doe made three complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. New owners in 1787 renamed Doe to Ellen. Ellen was registered in Liverpool in 1787. Between 1789 and 1792, she made two complete enslaving voyages. A French privateer captured her in 1793 as she was on her way to the West Indies having embarked captives in Africa on her sixth slaving voyage.
