Hidden Histories: Cheshire, Slavery and the Slave Trade

Our "Hidden Histories" series of digital exhibitions aims to highlight some of the largely untold, and often difficult to tell, stories from Cheshire's past.

This particular exhibition focuses on Cheshire's relationship with slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. For a more detailed overview of the history of Black people living in Cheshire from the 17th century to the 1970s, please see our  Hidden Histories: Black History  exhibition.

This exhibition was produced using items from the collections held by Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, as well as historic newspapers and published books and journals. Links to any additional resources will be provided.

As with all of our Hidden Histories series, we recognise that this exhibition is not a full or complete picture but rather a work in progress. We will continue to add to the exhibition if or when new material is found.

Please note that this exhibition contains some terms which are racially offensive. These are only used when quoting directly from original documents and do not reflect the views or opinions of Cheshire Archives and Local Studies. 

The transatlantic slave trade began in the 15th century, after the Portuguese started exploring the coast of West Africa. The trade grew, and for more than 300 years European countries benefitted from the capture and sale of African people.

 European merchants exported goods to Africa in return for enslaved African men, women and children. Enslaved people were then taken across the Atlantic for sale in the West Indies and North America, where they would work on plantations and as domestics. Conditions on board the slave ships were appalling, and it’s thought that one in five Africans did not survive the journey.

With the money made from the sale of enslaved Africans, goods such as sugar, coffee and tobacco were bought from the plantations and carried back to Europe for sale.

Britain was one of the most successful slave-trading countries, and the enormous profits made on the backs of enslaved African workers provided the large sums of money needed for the rapid industrial expansion that took place in Britain.

The ports of London, Bristol and Liverpool dominated the slave trade in the 18th century, but other small ports, including Chester, also had a share in the trade.

Chester’s involvement in the shipping of enslaved people is documented in two articles published in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire: ‘ The Slave Trade from Lancashire and Cheshire Ports Outside Liverpool C. 1750 -C. 1790 ’ and ‘ Chester Slave Trading Partnerships 1750-56 ’. The following section is a brief overview of the findings of these two articles.

The involvement of Chester merchants in the slave trade consisted of two short-lived periods of operation, 1750-1756 and 1775-1777. During this time, a total of nine slaving voyages set sail from the port of Chester:

• St. George (three times)
• Duke
• Black Prince (twice)
• True Blue
• Juno (twice)

Of these ships, it is the St. George that we know most about. The St. George was built in Chester, and commissioned for a slaving voyage in 1750, when an Admiralty pass was obtained for her voyage from Chester to Africa and America. She carried eight guns, had a crew of 29, measured "90 tons burden", and was commanded by Joseph Seaman.

In 1750 the owners of the St. George were as follows:

·      John Bagnall

·      Robert Barnston

·      Henry Bushell

·      Lawrence Corless

·      William Goodwin

·      John Hincks

·      James Pardoe

·      John Penkett

·      Henry Perkins

·      William Whitfield 

All of these men other than John Bagnall were Freemen of the City of Chester. Bagnall died in Chester in 1766, and his will, held by Cheshire Archives, has no mention of mercantile activities. 

The St George picked up enslaved people from Bonney (now southern Nigeria) and delivered them to the Caribbean. The Colonial Naval Officers' Lists held at the National Archives show that she entered at Barbados from Africa on 19 February 1753 with "208 slaves".

In 1756 the ship was advertised in the Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser as being up for sale (as was another Chester ship, the Black Prince).

By the 18th century Chester was already declining as a port, and the final Chester vessel employed in slaving, the Juno, returned to Chester some time after 1775.

Chester's participation in the Transatlantic Slave Trade may be negligible compared with that of Liverpool or Bristol, but it still played a part and benefited from the transportation and sale of African people.

Probably more significant than the county’s involvement in the slave trade was the wealth generated by Cheshire slave-owners in the British Caribbean.

Plantation owners used slave labour to grow their crops, with vast profits being made by using unpaid workers. They even benefitted once slavery had been abolished. The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 formally freed 800,000 Africans who were then the legal property of Britain’s slave owners. The owners of those enslaved people were compensated by the British taxpayer for the loss of their “property”. The amount of money borrowed for the Slavery Abolition Act was so large that the debt wasn't fully paid off until 2015.

The University College London  ‘Legacies of British Slave-ownership’ database  identifies all of the slave-owners in the British colonies at the time slavery ended, listing the names of those that received financial compensation as well as those that applied for compensation but had their request denied. In total, more than 40,000 awards to slave owners were issued.

There are 50 individuals listed on the database as living in Cheshire or having lived in Cheshire previously.

Entries range from individuals who owned small numbers of enslaved people, such as Susannah Lynch Harper who owned seven enslaved people in Jamaica valued at £124, to those who owned large numbers of enslaved people worth huge amounts of money.

The below list, compiled by Cheshire Archives and Local Studies in 2020, shows ten of Cheshire's most notable beneficiaries of the slave trade, each being sufficiently prominent to have been memorialised or to have left some physical legacy.

1) JOHN TOLLEMACHE (1805-1890)

High Sheriff of Chester (1840), later Conservative MP for Cheshire and (1841-1868) and Cheshire West (1868-72), created Baron Tollemache in 1876.

Tollemache was awarded £12669 compensation for "703 slaves" across six estates in Antigua as owner-in-fee, some of which went towards building Peckforton Castle (begun 1842).

All that Sugar and Cotton Plantation of him the said John Delap Halliday …. being in the Parish of Cayon in the Island of Saint Christopher in the West Indies… Together also with all and every the Negros and other Slaves of both sexes Horses Mares Mules and meat Cattle kept in and upon the same Plantation and Premises being in any wise the right or Property of him the said John Delap Halliday And the Offspring Issue and Increase of all such Slaves and Cattle.

2) STAPLETON COTTON (1773-1865)

Army officer. Baron Combermere (from 1814); Viscount Combermere (from 1827).

Combermere was awarded £7275 in compensation estates on Nevis and St. Kitts. He remodelled his home at Combermere Abbey, and is commemorated by a statue in Chester.

There is an article in the  Anti-slavery Reporter  on the treatment of Lord Combermere’s slaves, with a particular investigation into John Walley, who was manager for several years at Lord Combermere’s plantation.

The report revealed that the enslaved workers on Stapleton’s Estate were under-nourished, frequently and violently punished, and that the sick were not attended to properly.

One enslaved person, William Noble, had a wooden collar fastened around his neck so tightly that he cried out in pain, and within three hours of the collar being removed he died. A female enslaved worker, Frances, was put in the stocks for three days and three nights. Her cries of pain and her complaints of a fever were ignored by Walley, and she too died.

Flogging was not uncommon on the plantations, and Walley’s overseers flogged the enslaved workers so violently that they often later died. Innis, one of the firemen, was flogged by Walley himself four times in one day with a cat o’ nine tails.

Within just two and half years 44 enslaved people died on the Stapleton Estate under Walley’s watch. The results of this investigation led to six indictments being preferred against Walley: one for murder, one for manslaughter, and three for maltreatment. All were thrown out by the Grand Jury, with the evidence of the enslaved workers being described as ‘frivolous and vexatious’.

Below is an extract from a letter dated 1828 addressed to Viscount Combermere from Thomas Moody, his former aide-de-camp and one of the British Colonial Office's foremost experts on Colonial Government, stating:

“Respecting West India politics I have little to say. The credit of the Colonies has been ruined by the measures adopted for preparing the negros for emancipation, that event will render the Colonies of no value to the parent state"...

3) SAMUEL GREG (1758-1834)

Industrialist, builder of Quarry Bank House and Mill near Wilmslow (1796-97).

The UCL site notes that "Although Greg did not rely on Caribbean estate earnings to finance entry into cotton spinning, his interest in plantations formed part of a wider family engagement in commerce that included significant slave-related business."

Samuel's son, Thomas Greg (d. 1839), received £2541 in compensation for estates inherited from his father at Dominica and St. Vincent.

4. JOHN HOSKEN HARPER (1781-1865)

Deputy Lieutenant for Cheshire for 43 years.

John Hosken Harper received £714 in compensation for estates at Montserrat, which he inherited from his father-in-law William Harper (1749-1815). He rebuilt his home at Davenham Hall (c.1822). There is a Grade II listed fountain at Davenham inscribed 'In memory of John Hosken Harper of Davenham Hall' with a biblical quotation.

5. PETER LANGFORD BROOKE (1793-1840)

 Awarded £10405 in compensation for 4 estates on Antigua (inherited from his father-in-law), some of which was used to build his home at Mere New Hall (now Mere Golf Club).

6. RICHARD PENNANT (1737-1808)

Industrialist, Chairman of the Standing Committee of West India Planters and Merchants in London (1785-1808), later 1st Baron Penrhyn. 

Pennant was the owner of at least 6 estates in Jamaica (value unknown). He lived at Winnington Hall near Northwich (which he partially rebuilt) from 1771 until his death in 1808.

7. ROBERT HIBBERT (1750-1835)

Merchant.

Hibbert moved to Birtles Hall near Macclesfield in 1791, demolishing the original house and rebuilding it (now a Grade II listed property). He received £15554 in compensation for 2 estates at Jamaica. He was the brother of William Hibbert (see below).

8. WILLIAM HIBBERT (1759-1844)

William Hibbert was a partner in the firm Geo, Rob. & Wm. Hibbert (see also above), which was involved with the shipping, insurance and distribution of colonial commodities (particularly sugar). Hibbert was awarded £48120 in compensation for 12 Jamaica estates.

The Hibbert family owned Hare Hill near Macclesfield, from 1797 to 1879, whose gardens are now part of the National Trust (house remains in private ownership).

George Hibbert, the brother of William and the cousin of Robert, was a prominent defender of slavery during the abolition campaign.

9. EDWARD OWEN (1808-1848)

Anglican clergyman, curate of Gawsworth parish at his death in 1848.

Edward Owen was the son of Edward Owen of Jamaica. He was awarded compensation of £5705 for three estates in Jamaica inherited from his father.

10. LUKE THOMAS CROSSLEY (1788-1857)

Luke Thomas Crossley received £12075 in compensation for 6 Jamaica estates inherited from his brother Benjamin (d. 1820). Originally from Olive Mount, Liverpool, Crossley spent the last years of his life at Hankelow Hall, near Nantwich.

There are other cases where the details are less clear-cut, with people acting as trustees, or the full extent of their involvement is less clear.

Wilbraham Egerton, landowner and politician of Tatton Park in Knutsford, was named in the compensation records as a trustee and executor for Mrs L.W. Boode, whose estate listed "185 slaves" in British Guiana.

During his time as MP for Cheshire, Egerton received strong criticism on his political opinion that advocated a ‘gradual abolition of slavery, without injury to private interests’.

His son, William Tatton Egerton, was named in the Chester Courant as voting against the Bill for the Abolition of Negro Apprenticeship in 1838.

Within the collections held by Cheshire Archives & Local Studies is the will of William Sandbach’ of Tarvin. Sandbach was an absentee slave-owner, and his will, proved in 1829, states the following:

And I give and devise all that my estate called Resources situate in the Island of Grenada in the West Indies together with the negroes utensils stock and all other things relating or belonging thereto unto and to the use of the said Samuel Sandbach and William Sandbach...

William may have been a relative of the merchant Samuel Sandbach, who was a partner in the firm Sandbach, Tinne & Company, which exported coffee, molasses, rum and sugar from the West Indies. The partnership owned ships and plantations, and engaged in both slavery and transport of indentured labour.

As you can see, slave-owners often used their profits to build grand country houses back in Britain. For more information on this, please see the National Trust’s ‘ Interim Report on the Connections between Colonialism and Properties now in the Care of the National Trust, Including Links with Historic Slavery' . Cheshire properties listed in the document include Dunham Massey, Hare Hill and Quarry Bank Mill. Another useful resource is English Heritage’s ‘Slavery and the British Country House’, which can be read online  here .

The factory owners of Britain also benefited from the slave trade, whether wittingly or unwittingly. Cheshire merchants who traded with the West Indies and the Americas were probably trading commodities that had used slave labour (such as sugar, tobacco and rum). Some products manufactured in Cheshire were exported to Africa as part of the Triangular Trade.

The movements of trader vessels from Liverpool to Chester with colonial goods is amply documented in the Chester newspaper Adams Weekly Courant. For example, rock salt from Cheshire gained access to markets through the in-land waterways leading to the port of Liverpool. Ships leaving Liverpool for America used salt as ballast, and then picked up cotton and other imports for use in British industry. Ships heading to Africa to collect enslaved people also used Cheshire salt as outbound cargo.  

Gunpowder, such as that produced by the factory in Thelwall, was also supplied to the slave traders in Liverpool.

Some parts of the African coast required copper and brass, and this industry was well established in the early eighteenth century at Warrington and later at Macclesfield. The Patten family of Warrington owned smelting works at Bank Quay which produced copper bangles ("manillas") traded for enslaved Africans and coppers used to boil sugar and distil rum. They also dealt in a range of commodities including tobacco, sugar and tea. The Patten family built Bank Hall, which is now Warrington Town Hall, in 1750.

Cotton spinning and weaving also took place in Cheshire. Early cotton came from India, but any American cotton was imported at a time when enslaved people were still working on the plantations of the southern United States.

Sugar harvested by enslaved workers in the Caribbean was usually shipped to Europe to be refined. There were sugar refining factories in Cheshire, including Cuppins Lane Sugar House in Chester which was operated by Benjamin Wilson, a sugarbaker from Liverpool. Anyone buying and consuming sugar in the 18th century and early 19th century was probably buying slave sugar.

Tobacco was another important crop grown on the slave plantations in the 17th century, primarily being produced in the southern states of America but also in small amounts in the Caribbean. Tobacconists could be found in in the 18th and early 19th century in Chester:

The Transatlantic Slave Trade provided many jobs for people back in Britain. Shipbuilders, port workers, sailors, factory workers and merchants all made money from slavery, and the British public also benefited from the products harvested by enslaved workers such as sugar and cotton.

There were a wide range of powerful vested interests in protecting the slave trade, making its abolition a long and drawn out battle.  

As early as 1776, the House of Commons debated a motion 'that the slave trade is contrary to the laws of God and the rights of men'. As the slave trade reached its peak in the 1780s, more and more people began to voice concerns about the moral implications of slavery and the brutality of the system.

In 1783 Beilby Porteus, Bishop of Chester, preached a sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in which he urged them to take steps to ensure the Christianization of the slaves the Society owned in Barbados:

“Britain has a particular duty to alleviate the misery of the African slaves because of her leading role in the slave trade; newly imported slaves infect the others with ‘heathenish principles’ from Africa”.

When Porteus became Bishop of London in 1787, he assumed ecclesiastical authority over all British colonies. Porteus took an active interest in the Anglican Church in the British West Indies, and consistently pressed for greater efforts to Christianize the enslaved population.

He spoke and campaigned against the slave trade and took part in many debates in the House of Lords. However, even after abolition in 1807 Porteus did not envisage that emancipation could take place until the enslaved people had been prepared for it by a process of education and religious instruction.

The abolition of slavery was championed in Britain by William Wilberforce, a Member of Parliament and philanthropist. Other anti-slavery activists were persuaded to join Wilberforce, leading to the foundation of the Anti-Slavery Society in 1787. The Society arranged meetings and speeches, and published posters and newsletters to bring the cause into the public and political spheres.

In 1788, a number of petitions in favour of the regulation of the slave trade were received by Parliament. However, they were up against a powerful federation of planters, merchants, manufacturers and ship owners.

A reader of the Chester Chronicle wrote this poem, which was published in the newspaper in September 1799:

By 1807, with slavery garnering great public attention as well as in the courts, Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act. The Act effectively ended the British transatlantic slave trade.

A meeting was held at Chester Town hall in 1814 on the subject of the African Slave Trade. Convened by the Deputy Mayor, the meeting saw a unanimous decision reached in favour of petitioning for the immediate abolition of the slave trade in Europe.

By 1824 there were more than 200 branches of the Anti-Slavery Society in Britain - an indicator of increasing support for the fight against slavery. The Chester Anti-Slavery Society was formed in 1823. They held various meetings across the city over the next few years, as well as publishing posters and flyers.

 The reaction was not all positive. An article in the Macclesfield Courier (27 March 1824) described the local abolitionists as the destroyers of liberty:

'They have converted a most useful engine of influential control over the government, into a mere fool's bauble, which any impudent mountebank may shake at his pleasure; and by prostituting an instrument which should convey the grave opinions of the people of England, by employing it upon every paltry occasion, by rendering it the organ of every silly speculation, they have done all in their power to divest us of one of the best securities for our liberties. They have, in short, made such indiscriminate use of this right, that in nine cases out of ten, when the Sovereign has opened his ear to what has been called the "voice of the people," he has been stunned by the braying of an ass!’

Joshua Thorley, a grocer and leader of the local Methodists, responded:

“Unaccustomed as I am to address the public through the medium of the press, I should probably have borne in silence the unprovoked violence and scorn with which I, and others, have been assailed in the official article of your two last papers, if you had abstained from using the envenomed weapons of calumnious misrepresentation.”

The debate continued in the Macclesfield Courier, Chester Guardian and the Stockport Advertiser. The articles in the Cheshire newspapers were collected in a pamphlet entitled ‘The Anti-slavery Meeting versus the Macclesfield Courier’, printed in 1824.

In 1826 the City of Chester’s petition against slavery was presented to the House of Lords by Earl Grosvenor. An article in the Chester Chronicle dating the 10th March claimed that the number of signatures exceeded fifteen hundred, greater in amount than any previous city of Chester petitions. 

In 1833 the Slavery Abolition Act was passed, coming into effect on 1st August 1834. The Act abolished slavery in most British colonies and freed more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa (although many of the enslaved people were reassigned as “apprentices” for up to 8 years before being freed, doing the same jobs for their former owner but with a small wage).  

Anti-slavery campaigners continued to fight for the abolition of slavery in the United States. You can read about how Warrington campaigners fought against slavery in this  blog post  on the Culture Warrington website.

As mentioned earlier, slave owners sought compensation for their loss of investment. The British government distributed around £20 million to pay for the loss of enslaved workers, the largest bailout in British history until the bailout of the banks in 2009. The enslaved people received nothing. 

This exhibition gives only a brief overview of Cheshire's relationship with slavery and the slave trade, using evidence from the collections at Cheshire Archives and Local Studies. The full impact of slavery on Cheshire is impossible to quantify, but we do know that its legacy is still felt today.

If you have any comments or questions about this exhibition please email them to recordoffice@cheshiresharedservices.gov.uk.