Edward Parr (born 26 February 1718; died February 1768 [1] ) was an English slave trader, apothecary and merchant of Liverpool. [2] He was involved in 51 slave voyages, [3] operating out of the Port of Liverpool between 1750 and 1768. [3] Parr owned a slave ship called Briton, whose captain employed an African pirate called Captain Lemma Lemma to capture and enslave people with his war canoes. Parr was a member of the African Company of Merchants.
Parr was born in Liverpool, the son of Jonas Parr, apothecary, of Castle Street. His grandfather was also Edward Parr, of Haysom in Rainford, of a family settled there as small landowners in the 15th century, established in Liverpool as merchants and shipowners by the late 17th century. [4] [5] He was a first cousin of the merchant and mayor of Liverpool John Parr. [4]
Edward Parr continued his father's business as an apothecary and general merchant in Castle Street, Liverpool. [6] He became a slave trader with West Africa, the Caribbean and Chesapeake Bay, and reputedly became the second richest man in Liverpool, as documented in the letter books of his assistant, Joshua Dixon. [7] He was involved in 51 slave voyages between the years of 1750 and 1768.
Parr and John Welch owned a slave-ship called Briton and in 1762 it was sent on a slave voyage to the Kingdom of Whydah in West Africa. [8] One day in 1763, the Briton was moored in the Bight of Benin being surrounded by 10 war canoes. [2] The war canoes were owned by Captain Lemma Lemma, an African pirate leader who captured people and sold them to the slave traders. The captain of the Briton, William Bagshaw, had been entertaining Lemma Lemma for 10 days while he and his men captured people. Bagshaw had been offering food, drink, hospitality and gifts in order to encourage Lemma Lemma. [2] Three people in a canoe came sailing down the River Formosa, oblivious to the danger they were in. Upon sighting them, Lemma Lemma ordered his crew to hunt them down and bring them to the Briton. The three people captured were an elderly father and his adult son and daughter. Bagshaw agreed to buy the two younger people but refused to buy the old man. Upon completion of the sale Lemma Lemma sent the old man back to his war canoe and ordered that "his head was laid on one of the thwarts of the boat, and chopped off". Thereafter his head and body were thrown overboard, his son and daughter were taken to Rappahannock in Virginia, where they were sold into slavery. [2]
Parr was a member of the African Company of Merchants [9] whose purpose was to lobby in favour of the slave trade. The first meeting of the company took place in Liverpool, on 14 July 1777. The Committee meeting took place every Monday morning in Liverpool Town Hall. The other members included William Gregson, John Dobson, his cousin John Parr (merchant), [4] Thomas Hodgson, Thomas Staniforth, George Case, Samuel Shaw, John Backhouse and James Caruthers. [9]
On 13 February 1759, Edward Parr and forty-four other Liverpool merchants and shipowners wrote a letter to Robert Williamson of Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser . Britain was involved in the Seven Years' War and they were asking him not to print a list of ships sailing from the port. They remarked they had "too much reason to apprehend" that it had "been of very bad consequence this war." [10]
In 1749, a French vessel called Le Lion D'Or was captured by a Liverpool privateer. It was then converted into a whaling vessel and renamed the Golden Lion. She became Liverpool's first whaling vessel. [11] In 1750, Golden Lion sailed from Liverpool to a fishery off Greenland on its first whaling voyage. Edward Parr and other slave traders took a share of the vessel. [11] Gomer Williams opines "for one whale's blubber melted by their agency, they might have counted thousands of human hearts either stilled for ever, or crushed by lifelong slavery." [11]
He had married Catherine Serocold in 1740, by whom he had two daughters, [12] [13] and was buried at St Nicholas, Liverpool, on 21 February 1768.
Port au Prince was built in France in 1790. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1793 off Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her original name was General Dumourier; her new owners named her for her place of capture. She became a letter of marque, slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people, and privateer cum whaler. In 1806 she anchored at a Tongan island where the local inhabitants massacred most of her crew and then scuttled her.
Joshua Dixon was an English physician and biographer.
Chardon was a whaler that Aget, Kenny, and Coffyn purchased in 1787 and commissioned at Dunkirk that same year. Benjamin Hussey purchased her in 1789 and renamed her Judith. Judith made four whaling voyages as a French ship. The British captured her but her crew recaptured her. She then sailed to New Bedford.
The British East India Company (EIC) had Whim built for use as a fast dispatch vessel. She was sold in 1802 and became a whaler that a French privateer captured and released, and then a merchant vessel. She is no longer listed after 1822.
Several vessels have borne the name Kitty, a diminutive for the name "Catherine", and a name in its own right:
Othello was launched in 1786 at Liverpool for the African slave trade. She made some five voyages before she burnt off the coast of Africa in 1796. During her first voyage her master fired on another British slave ship, which gave rise to an interesting court case. As a letter of marque she recaptured a British ship in 1794.
Robust was built in France in 1779. The British captured her in 1781 and she was registered at Liverpool in 1783. She first entered Lloyd's Register in 1789 as whaler in the northern whale fishery. Then in December 1788 she left on the first of three voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. On her third voyage as a slave ship Robust captured a French slave ship and recaptured two British slave ships that a French privateer had captured earlier. After her third voyage as a slaver owners shifted her registry to Bristol and she then made two voyages to the southern whale fishery. She returned from the second voyage in 1797 and is last listed in 1798.
Allison was launched in France in 1776, almost certainly under another name. The British captured her in 1795. Between 1796 and 1799 she made two whaling voyages to the British southern whale fishery. Then between 1799 and 1807 she made three voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Between the first and the second a French privateer captured her, but British letters of marque recaptured her. The British slave trade was abolished in 1807 and thereafter Allison traded primarily as a coaster. After about 1840 she began to trade to America and Africa. She was lost c.1846.
African Queen's origins are uncertain. She was a foreign vessel, launched in 1789 or 1790, presumably under another name. She was taken in prize in 1796 and by 1797 she was sailing out of Bristol. She made one voyage to Africa during which she was captured and recaptured and then became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made one voyage to the West Indies as a merchant ship, and one voyage as a whaler, but was damaged in 1801 as she returned home from that whaling voyage and apparently never sailed again.
Sally was launched in 1782 at Liverpool as a West Indiaman. She made one voyage as a whaler and one as an East Indiaman sailing to Bengal under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). After a storm damaged her in 1805 as she was on her way in 1805 from Liverpool to Africa as a slave ship she had to put into Barbados where she was condemned.
Fame was launched in India in 1786. She was sold to Portuguese owners. A French privateer captured but the Royal Navy recaptured her in 1794. She then became a West Indiaman, sailing from Liverpool. Between 1796 and 1804 she made three voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She then returned to the West Indies trade. From 1818 on she was a whaler in the Greenland whale fishery, sailing from Whitby and then Hull. She burnt in 1823 while outward bound on a whaling voyage.
Harriot was launched in Spain in 1794, almost surely under another name, and taken in prize in 1797. She made two voyages as a London-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Under new ownership, she then made three voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. A privateer captured her as she was returning from her third whale-hunting voyage but the British Royal Navy recaptured her. After her recapture she became a merchantman. The Spanish seized her in the Pacific; she was condemned at Lima, Peru in March-April 1809, as a smuggler.
Nimble was built in Folkestone in 1781, possibly under another name. In 1786 Nimble was almost rebuilt and lengthened. Between 1786 and 1798 she made nine voyages as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. Between 1799 and 1804 she made four voyages from Liverpool as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. On her first voyage as to gather captives she detained a neutral vessel, an action that resulted in a court case. On her second voyage to gather captives, a French privateer captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. She was wrecked in 1804 or so after she had delivered her captives to St Thomas.
Walton Hall was a 17th-century historic country house, set in a 300-acre (1.2 km2) estate, which was demolished in the early 20th century. Sometimes referred to as Walton Old Hall, it was situated at the centre of the Walton Hall Park in Walton, Liverpool. Its former residents were Liverpool merchants and the last two families to reside at Walton Hall profited from the Atlantic slave trade. In the 19th century it was the home of Thomas Leyland during his second and third term as Lord Mayor of Liverpool.
Francis Ingram (1739–1815) was an English slave trader and privateer.
Thomas Foxcroft (1733–1809) was an English slave trader. He was responsible for at least 91 slave voyages in the years between 1759 and 1792. A contemporary set of financial accounts for one slave voyage by his slave-ship Bloom has been preserved. Captain Robert Bostock, Bloom's master, bought 349 enslaved people in Africa; 42 captives died and 307 captives were sold in the West Indies for £9858. The net profit on the voyage to the owners amounted to £8,123 7s 2d, or £26 9s 2d per captive sold.
Thomas Parr (1769–1847) was a member of an extended family of Liverpool merchants, developing his business as an English slave trader who profited from the Atlantic slave trade to establish himself as "‘a merchant of great eminence in Liverpool".
True Briton was launched at Liverpool in 1775. She made two voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. During the second of these voyages there was an unsuccessful insurrection by the captives she was carrying. Then in 1777–1778 she made another enslaving voyage, this time under the name John. On her return to Liverpool, she became the privateer Bellona, and succeeded in taking several prizes. Bellona then made three enslaving voyages. In 1786 her ownership changed, and so did her name. She became Lord Stanley, and under that name proceeded to make 11 more enslaving voyages. In 1794, at Havana, a deadly fever spread through the vessel, apparently after she had landed her captives. On her last voyage the captain acted with such brutality towards a black crew member that the man, who providentially survived, sued the captain when the vessel arrived at Liverpool and won substantial damages.
John Parr was an English merchant and shipowner. He was bailiff and mayor of the Borough of Liverpool in 1773.
Golden Age was launched at Havana in 1779, almost certainly under another name. She was taken in prize circa 1783. From late 1783 she sailed from Liverpool as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made four complete voyages. On her third her captives rebelled, but were unsuccessful. A French private frigate captured her in 1793 after she had disembarked her captives from her fifth enslaving voyage. Her captors took her into Philadelphia where she was sold to a French owner who named her Republican, and sailed her to France.