Thomas Parke (merchant) explained

Thomas Parke (1729/30 – 1819)[1] was a Liverpool slave trader, merchant, banker and privateer.[2] He was part of the complex network of business interests and finance behind the African and Atlantic slave trade of the later 18th century.

Early life

He originally from Swaledale, Yorkshire, the son of Thomas and Hannah Parke of Low Row; his father was a hosier and lead miner. He went into business as a linen merchant, initially with his brother John. His brother-in-law Christopher Wilson I of Kendal was another hosier, and Thomas Parke's merchant ventures included exporting Wilson's goods to North America.

Slave trade

Parke invested in the Atlantic slave trade through many ventures; he withdrew from it in 1792. Another business partner was Wilson's son, Christopher Wilson II, of the Low Wood Gunpowder Company, gunpowder being part of the West Africa trade.[3]

Parke was a member of the Company of Merchants trading to Africa, of Liverpool.[4] He was in business with Arthur Heywood.[5] Parke & Heywood were involved in two slaving ventures in 1783/4, and in all in 50 journeys in the "triangular trade". The firm was significant as a major player in the local insurance trade, and its business had many dealings in common with the partnership of Thomas Staniforth and Joseph Brooks (junior).[6] Heywood & Parke became one of the ten largest Liverpool firms (period 1783 to 1793) responsible for the trade of West African slaves to the West Indies.[7] Their ventures employed the slaver Captain Joseph Fayrer.[3] [8]

Among Parke's clients for slaves were Rainford, Blundell & Rainford of Kingston, Jamaica.[9] The percentage of Liverpool's slave trade in 1790 attributable to Thomas Parke and Co., of five partners, has been given as 1.1%. Parke reduced his investment in the direct trade, and concentrated more on the production of cotton goods for it, a business in which one of his sons was involved.

Parke was a director of the Liverpool fire insurance office established in 1777.[10] He was a partner in Heywood's Bank.[11]

Personal life

Parke married Anne, daughter of William Preston.[12] [13]

Their sons included:

Their daughter Alice married Sitwell Sitwell.[21] Another daughter Anne married John Croome Smythe.[14]

Parke lived in Water Street;[22] later he moved to Duke Street, and resided at Highfield House, West Derby, Liverpool, previously owned by Charlotte Murray, Duchess of Atholl, which he bought about 1781.[23]

References

Sources

Notes and References

  1. David Richardson, Anthony Tibbles, Suzanne Schwarz, Liverpool and Transatlantic Slavery (2007), p. 202.
  2. Web site: Liverpool chamber of commerce 1774-96, members . geog.cam.ac.uk . 14 May 2023.
  3. David Richardson, Anthony Tibbles, Suzanne Schwarz, Liverpool and Transatlantic Slavery (2007), p. 130; Google Books.
  4. Book: Gomer Williams. History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque: With an Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade. 3 August 2012. 3 February 2011. Cambridge University Press. 978-1-108-02627-7. 679.
  5. Web site: The Heywood family of Manchester Revealing Histories. www.revealinghistories.org.uk. 2019-07-10.
  6. Pearson. Robin. Richardson. David. Business Networking in the Industrial Revolution. The Economic History Review . New Series. November 2001. 54. 4. 670–1. 10.1111/1468-0289.00207. 3091626.
  7. Inikori. J.E.. The Import of Firearms into West Africa 1750-1807: A Quantitative Analysis. The Journal of African History. 1977. 18. 3. 180637. 353. 10.1017/S0021853700027304. 161693017.
  8. Morgan. Kenneth. Remittance Procedures in the Eighteenth-Century British Slave Trade. The Business History Review. 2005. 79. 4. 736. 10.2307/25097112. 25097112. 154338547.
  9. Book: Sheryllynne Haggerty. 'Merely for Money'?: Business Culture in the British Atlantic, 1750-1815. 3 August 2012. 15 November 2011. Liverpool University Press. 978-1-84631-817-7. 181.
  10. Book: Thomas Baines. History of the commerce and town of Liverpool: and of the rise of the manufacturing industry in the adjoining counties. 3 August 2012. 1852. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. 453–.
  11. [Eric Williams]
  12. 21283. Gareth H.. Jones. Parke, James, Baron Wensleydale.
  13. Book: Edward Foss. Biographia Juridica: A Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England from the Conquest to the Present Time, 1066-1870. 30 January 2000. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.. 978-1-886363-86-1. 497.
  14. Jeremiah Finch Smith (editor), The Admission Register of the Manchester School, vol. II, Chetham Society Miscellanies vol. 73 (1868) p. 91; archive.org.
  15. [Ernest Axon]
  16. Book: Sir Richard Phillips. Monthly Magazine and British Register. 27 February 2013. 1804. R. Phillips. 456.
  17. Book: Transactions. Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. Liverpool. Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. Liverpool Proceedings and papers. Liverpool [etc.]. Robarts - University of Toronto.
  18. Web site: M - Q. liverpool-schools.co.uk. 2019-07-10.
  19. http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/16864/pages/497/page.pdf Issue 16864
  20. http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/15940/pages/943/page.pdf Issue 15940
  21. Book: R. G. Thorne. The House of Commons. 27 February 2013. 1986. Boydell & Brewer. 978-0-436-52101-0. 187.
  22. Book: Richard Brooke. Liverpool as it was during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. 1775 to 1800. 1853. J. Mawdsley and son. 465–6.
  23. John Hughes, Liverpool Banks and Bankers, 1760-1837 (1906), pp. 111–2; archive.org.

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