Thomas Parr (1769–1847) was a member of an extended family of Liverpool merchants, developing his business as an English

slave trader The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, and legal positions o ...

who profited from the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

to establish himself as "‘a merchant of great eminence in Liverpool".

Career

Thomas Parr was born on 4 November 1769, the son of John Parr, gunmaker of Frederick Street, Liverpool, by his wife Hannah Anderton. In subsequent years, he invested in at least 30 slave voyages. One of the

slave ships Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting Slavery, slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea ( ...

that he had built for the trade in enslaved people, , exploded on her maiden voyage. A street in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

where he built a warehouse is named after him.

Slave trade

Parr invested in at least 30 slave voyages, and was sole owner of several ships:

Personal life

Parr built a house at Colquitt Street in Liverpool in 1797, that has been described as "magnificent". The south wing of the house was a

counting house Counting is the process of determining the number of Element (mathematics), elements of a finite set of objects; that is, determining the size (mathematics), size of a set. The traditional way of counting consists of continually increasing a (men ...

. The house is flanked by pavilions, with one of them being used as a

coach house A ''carriage house'', also called a ''remise'' or ''coach house'', is a term used in North America to describe an outbuilding that was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and their related tack. Carriage houses were often two st ...

. There was also a courtyard, a

pleasure garden A pleasure garden is a park or garden that is open to the public for recreation and entertainment. Pleasure gardens differ from other public gardens by serving as venues for entertainment, variously featuring such attractions as concert halls, b ...

, a pond, and walks. The house was used between 1817 and 1948 as

Liverpool Royal Institution The Liverpool Royal Institution was a learned society set up in 1814 for "the Promotion of Literature, Science and the Arts". William Corrie, William Rathbone IV, Thomas Stewart Traill and William Roscoe were among the founders. It was sometimes ...

; many of the people that established the institution were former slave traders. Behind the house he built a warehouse that he used to store iron goods that were traded for slaves. The warehouse was five storeys high with a basement, with seven window bays to the south elevation and three to the east and west, each bay with ashlar lintels and stone sills. A passage led from the warehouse to the counting house.

Retirement

Parr sold his Liverpool home around 1805 and retired to a country house and estate called Lythwood Hall, near

Bayston Hill Bayston Hill is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is south of the county town Shrewsbury and located on the main A49 road, the Shrewsbury to Hereford road. Occupied continuously since before the Middle Ages, the village ha ...

in Shropshire. He became part of the

landed gentry The landed gentry, or the gentry (sometimes collectively known as the squirearchy), is a largely historical Irish and British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. It is t ...

and acquired a notable collection of rare coins. The acclaimed evolutionary scientist

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

met him in 1840, and described him as "an old, miserly squire".

Legacy

Parr Street in

is named after him. Both his former home on Colquitt Street, Liverpool and his warehouse on Parr Street are listed with

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

. His former home at Lythwood Hall in Shropshire was demolished but there is a memorial to him in Lythwood.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parr, Thomas 18th-century English slave traders 1769 births 1847 deaths