Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Confirmed users, Interface administrators, Rollbackers, Administrators
3,031
edits
Coat of Arms: Difference between revisions
→Titherington's Crimenote added by Peter Elliott
| (12 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
Line 26:
The Society would be interested to learn of the existence of any other examples of its use e.g. as a letterhead, in publications or even on a celebration mug or local medals?
===Titherington's Crime
see note <ref>note added by Peter Elliott</ref>
Dee Hills at Boughton was developed in 1850s when William Titherington, the owner of a 10 acre estate there, broke up his land to build Sandown Terrace, three Italianate houses and Deva Terrace. In 1873 Dee Hill had extensive grounds with pleasure gardens above the river and a tree-lined drive from The Bars, flanked by paddocks to the north and allotment gardens to the south-east. More estate land was being sold for development and in the 1880s Beaconsfield Terrace had been built on the northern part of this land. The drive was now named Dee Hills Park and was lined with larger houses, including the largest: Uffington House, built for Thomas Hughes (the author of "Tom Brown's Schooldays"). By 1892 Dee Hills House and the remaining gardens had been sold to the government and was being used as the residence of the Army’s district commander.
In 1866 Titherington's name appeared at the head of a list of firms that had been run by past Presidents of the Liverpool Cotton Brokers Association. On the 1867 and subsequent lists his name vanishes.
Line 32 ⟶ 36:
[[File:TitheringtonList.jpg|600px|thumb|center| The LCBA removed Titherington from its list of past presidents<ref>Cotton and the Civil War, Jim Powell</ref>.]]
In Thomas Ellisons noted book "The Cotton Trade of Great Britain: Including a History of the Liverpool Cotton Market and of the Liverpool Cotton Brokers' Association" (a standard work dating from 1886) a list of
* '''"..in respect of the joint speculations of of Mr Titherington, Messrs Mozley, Mr Price Edwards, and Mr Atwool"'''<ref>Liverpool Mercury 27 May 1868</ref>
Mozley was another bankrupt, chairman of a failed bank (Barneds) and a son of the mayor of Liverpool. Price Edwards was the Collector of Customs at Liverpool Docks and believed to have been involved in the escape of the Laird-built Confederate commerce-raider ''CSS Alabama''. Atwool had been the tennant of a warehouse at Liverpool Dock, and the investment was made under his name because:
* '''"..Messrs Mozley, as bankers .. and Mr Titherington as a broker .. did not wish it divulged .. that they were engaged on their private account in extraordinary cotton speculations"'''<ref>Liverpool Mercury, 4th June 1868</ref>
Titherington's story (and the Coat of Arms) is worth further exploration. There are some clear suggestions that he was acting as a broker for cotton speculation during the American Civil War: in 1867 Titherington, Gill & Co. had sued Samuel Price Edwards who said in court that:
* '''"I should think Titherington has been speculating in cotton from the earliest period of his existence as a cotton broker"'''
This may have involved buying cotton from the then recently defeated Confederacy - a trade which during the Civil War was frowned upon on some circles, and much hampered by blockade. At the time of the Civil War, cotton had become the most valuable crop of the South and comprised 59% of the exports from the United States, most of which went to Britain. During the war, the quantity of raw cotton coming into Liverpool plummeted, which meant that prices soared. At its lowest, the annual volume of cotton dropped by seventy percent. In Manchester, the massive reduction of available American cotton caused an economic disaster referred to as the "Lancashire Cotton Famine". Prices, at their highest, became five times higher than their pre-war norm. Throughout these fluctuations, Liverpool’s brokers not only continued to receive their one percent combined commission on this inflated value, they often received it several times over. Due to the escalation and the volatility of prices, much of the wartime cotton was bought and sold by speculators who gambled when the prices would rise or fall. Speculators then sold to other speculators. The same consignment of cotton could be bought and sold up to ten times before it reached the hands of a spinner. The brokers took multiple commissions and often made considerable profits through these speculator transactions. In addition private British blockade runners sent munitions and luxuries to Confederate ports in return for cotton and tobacco, which were returned to Britain and sold - it could make a healthy profit. A broker could ensure that an investor could speculate and remain anonymous - and Titherington had good connections in Chester with the local wealthy. The war years themselves also saw a substantial development of futures trading and price hedging, beginning with the cotton trade. People with no connection to cotton were caught up in the speculative process, prompting one visitor to the Liverpool Exchange to observe that the brokers are
* '''"busy selling what they have not got to people who don't want it."'''
The Society would welcome further exploration into this potential "dark side" of the history of Hoole and Boughton.
===Pickering and the Cable===
There is another peculiar connection between Liverpool cotton and Hoole. When the first successful Transatlantic Cable was established (1866 - with the assistance of Thomas Brassey), Liverpool cotton broker John Rew saw the possibilities inherent in the idea of the simultaneous deal. By using the cable, he could get quotations from the Cotton Belt in the USA and buy the cotton at almost a moment's notice. He could then "hedge his bet" by a complex set of contracts - effectively inventing the "hedge fund" - although the practice had been common (on a local level) during the war years.
The cable which enabled John Rew to do this was in part funded and greatly supported by Charles W. H. Pickering (1815-1881). He was the husband of Elizabeth Walker (1818-1895), who was the daughter of Thomas Walker (1782-1857) of [[Flookersbrook]] and his wife Katherine Lightfoot (1784-1840). Pickering was present when the first official Transatlantic Telegraph message was transmitted - on the first (unsuccessful) cable. It was to be the message from Queen Victoria to the US president but Charles Pickering made a change and just before the Queen's message on August 5, 1858. The story of Pickering's message is reported by his son (in his memoirs) who wrote:
* '''"The message from Queen Victoria to the president was handed to the telegraph operator, a Mr. St. John .. The telegraph operator told me later that my father put his hand on Mr. St. John’s shoulder and told him to stop. My father told him there was a message to be sent before the queen’s telegram."'''
Pickering sent: "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will towards men" - which is still recorded as the first official cable across the Altantic. That cable lasted for three weeks before it failed. The second cable was laid by the converted Great Eastern in 1865. The names of [[Walker Street]], [[Lightfoot Street]], Pickering Street (and even Thomas Brassey Close) reflect these people: but while there is a [[Hamilton Street]], nothing in Hoole is named after Titherington.
===References===
| |||