HENRY BROWN:

A LIVERPOOL ATTORNEY OF THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

By George T. Shaw.

Read 29th March, 1900.

THE

HE prominent part Liverpool played in the slave traffic, has led men of the present time to regard life in our town at the end of the eighteenth century as one long struggle to amass wealth, and that not in a particularly scrupulous manner. I know of no better way to correct this erroneous impression than by a study of the characters of the men who were active and prominent townsmen at that time. If you can persuade fairly well-read men to admit that Liverpool in the eighteenth century was not entirely absorbed in the buying and selling of slaves, the admission is generally followed by the remark

O yes! Roscoe formed a literary set." But Roscoe's set did not include all the learning and wisdom in the town, and there must have been other literary sets beside Roscoe's. It was a time when difference of opinion did affect friendships. Many of you may remember the story of the Liverpool lady who, at a London dinner-table, led

the conversation on literary subjects until someone started on the writings of Roscoe, when she instantly became silent. The cause of the silence was, that the lady was a member of an ultra-tory family, with large estates in the West Indies. "In "her home-circle she had always heard Roscoe spoken of, not as a great philanthropist, not as a "first-rate scholar, not as a writer of books, but "as a mischief-monger, whose wish and object "were to injure and destroy the town and trade of Liverpool."

What strikes one in considering this period is the number of Liverpool men who contributed to the poetical and prose literature of their day. Bearing in mind that the population of the town was only 77,000, compared with our own day the number of authors was very large. All classes appear to have dabbled in poetry, while the number of pamphleteers was legion. These writings are now almost all forgotten, and the librarians of your local libraries are about the only people who come into daily contact with them. Another prominent feature of the period I am referring to was the accumulation, by private individuals, of large collections of books. In the present day we think so much of our great libraries-public, proprietary, and subscription-and are so dependent upon them, that we are almost tempted to pity the people of the time when public libraries did not exist. forget that prior to the establishment of public libraries and for some time after-books were bought, not borrowed. In the first half of the present century ten libraries were sold, all of them the property of local men except one, and he was officially connected with our town-I refer to

1 Aspinall's Liverpool a few years since, pp. 59-60.

We

Francis Hargrave, Recorder of Liverpool, 17971820, whose books and MSS. were bought by the nation for £8000. The other libraries were sold by auction, and belonged to

Nearly all these libraries must have dated back to the eighteenth century, and the extent of them may be gathered from the fact that only one was sold in 3 days (Henry Roscoe's). Of the others, four took 7 or 8 days, while the library of Fletcher Raincock took 12 days to sell, with a further 3 days for the disposal of his law books, and 7 days for the sale of his prints and drawings. Roscoe's library took 15 days to sell, and his prints and drawings an additional 21 days. The library of Henry Brown was sold in 14 days. These libraries probably attracted the most attention at their dispersal, as copies of the sale catalogues have been retained in our local libraries.

It is interesting to note, in passing, that of the libraries named five were collected by lawyers, and that four of the libraries were the collections of men who had risen from humble parentage. Roscoe was the son of an innkeeper; Matthew Gregson was, at an early age, apprenticed to a paperhanger and stationer; Dr. Shepherd was the son of a shoemaker, who lived at the corner of Cable Street and Paradise Street while from a

barber's shop in the latter street came the subject of this paper-Henry Brown.

I have taken this somewhat circuitous method of introducing Henry Brown to your notice, because it was the books which formed part of his library that first attracted me to the man. The Athenæum and the Liverpool libraries contain many volumes which were originally in Brown's library. These volumes are easily recognised, for they bear on their title-pages the inscription,

66

66

Henry

Brown, Liverpool.' They are books which appeal principally to scholars and seekers after original information, consequently the number of references to them is limited. Still it is a fact that few people can do much thorough work, in the libraries I have just named, on historical, legal, or theological subjects, without coming across books which formerly belonged to Old Harry Brown, as I once heard him called.

The question then arises, who was Henry Brown? This question is a difficult one to answer, and I am afraid that the information I have gathered will appear very scanty. Unfortunately, he never wrote a book. If he had done so, some bibliographers of thirty or forty years ago would have collected from Brown's contemporaries sufficient information to form an answer to the question. Brown was not only not an author, but he appears not to have been a society man in any sense of the term. He was a character, if ever there was one, and must have been well known in the town; yet such gossips as Boardman, Aspinall, and Stonehouse never once refer to him. The few references in Picton's Memorials of Liverpool are taken from Brooke's History of Liverpool during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Brooke speaks admiringly of Brown's ability, and with the knowledge of a contemporary.

Henry Brown was born at Liverpool in 1745 or 6, probably at 60, Paradise Street, where his father, William Brown, carried on the business of barber and peruke-maker. According to the Directories, William Brown retired from business about 1774, but continued to reside in Paradise Street. Whether

he was dependent upon his son, who was by that time established as an attorney, or living on his savings from the business of peruke making (which was at its height in the middle of the eighteenth century), there is nothing to shew. William Brown, however, was able to pay for the education of his son, and to article him to the leading attorney in the town-Francis Gildart, Town-clerk. I am able to submit for your inspection the original articles. of agreement between Henry Brown and William Brown on the one part, and Francis Gildart on the other. The date of the agreement is July 17, 1762, Brown being about 17 years of age at the time. There is no mention in the agreement of the payment of any sum of money.

In the Directory for 1774, Brown is described as an attorney, and appears to be living with his father at 60, Paradise Street. By 1781, he had removed to No. 59, Paradise Street, his father continuing to reside in No. 60. This property may have belonged to William Brown; it certainly belonged to Henry Brown, for he mentions it in his will.

For the next few years nothing important appears to be on record relative to Henry Brown. He acted as deputy Town-clerk, but that office was not quite the same as it is to-day. In 1791 the Corporation had to fight for what it considered to be its rights, and it is no small testimony to the ability of Henry Brown that, in their extremity, the Corporation entrusted their case to him, the Town-clerk-John Colquitt

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