Barton, Irlam and Higginson

rdf:langString Barton, Irlam and Higginson

rdf:langString Barton, Irlam and Higginson was a noted Liverpool firm of shipowners specializing in the trade with Barbados in the first half of the 19th century. The three partners were William Barton, George Irlam, and John Higginson. The firm made a practice of naming several of its vessels after the partners. Higginson may have joined the partnership around 1808. In that year the ownership of the ship Maxwell changed from Higginson to Barton & Co., and her master changed from J. Edwards to J. Irlam. Although Liverpool was an important center for Britain's slave trade, and Barbados an important destination for slave ships, the partnership does not appear to have engaged in slave trading. Two of the vessels the partners bought had been slave traders, but were not once the partners bought them. Captain John Gillespie (or Gilespy) of Barton, the ship the partners purchased in 1810 and trading between Liverpool and Bridgetown, was involved in 43 transactions involving manumissions of slaves in Bridgetown between 1806 and 1818. The firm, however, did lend to Barbados plantations, all of which employed slaves. Sir William Barton, then head of Barton, Irlam and Higginson, died aged 70 in 1826. He had been knighted in 1816 when Mayor of Liverpool on presenting an address of congratulation to the Regent on the marriage of Princess Charlotte of Wales. When Barton died, Irlam and Higginson took up his shares in the vessel Higginson. George Irlam died before John Higginson, who died in 1834. His son Jonathon succeeded him as a partner in the firm.