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From Welfare to
Politics Synopsis of a talk given
Brenda Murray at our meeting on 19th February 2006 Brenda started her talk by informing us that there
have been 13 generations of Rathbones so far, and gave us a fascinating
insight into the lives of the first seven of them before we sadly ran out of
time. The founder of the family, William (I) was a yeoman
farmer in Gawsworth. The worth of his possessions was £25 William (II) came to Liverpool in 1720, and died in
1746. He worked in the timber industry as a sawyer. In the rapidly expanding
town, wood for building was in great demand, and William soon expanded his
activities and became a timber merchant. In 1731 he joined the Quakers and
from that time the family remained loyal to that movement, except for an
occasional member being excluded because of public endeavours to get reform. William (III), 1726-1789, besides being a very
conscientious member of the family firm, loved to help less fortunate people.
He was very aware of the deprivation in the town. He was a friend of many
philanthropists of the day; Dr. Rutter (whose daughter, Rachel he married),
Elizabeth Fry, the Darbys of Coalbrookdale and others. William was much
admired and was renowned for his “diligent, calm and composed” manner. He was
one of the earliest supporters of the Temperance movement and he was firm in
refusing “Honours”. One blot on his reputation is held to be that he once
sold a slave. It was well known that he opposed the slave trade and documents
show that the sale was on behalf of a friend, and that the slave in question
was healthy and even quite prosperous. William (IV), 1757-1809, (below, left) married Hannah
Reynolds from Ironbridge, near Coalbrookdale. In 1786, they built the house
Greenbank, three miles from the centre of Liverpool, as a country residence.
William was in favour of the French Revolution, until Napoleon made himself
Emperor. William, friend of William Roscoe, opposed the Slave trade and was
unpopular with Liverpool seamen who accused him of ruining their livelihood.
When Roscoe returned to Liverpool after the passing of the Abolition of the
Slave Trade Bill in 1807, he was stoned by merchants and seamen. As well as
being the largest importer of cotton from America, William was also
interested in many other reforms. One was postal deliveries, as in 1775 mail
from the South came via Warrington and there was just ONE letter carrier for
the whole of Liverpool William (V), 1787-1868, (above, centre) married
Elizabeth Greg from Styal. He was intent on reforming the voting system. Much
of his zeal was focussed against the bribing of voters during the lengthy
voting period, which encouraged drunkenness, and he succeeded in having it
cut from 2 weeks to 2 days. In 1837 he was made Mayor of Liverpool, and was
involved in reforming the school system, particularly religious education,
making it possible for Catholic children to be taught their faith as well as
Anglicans. He and his wife entertained lavishly at Greenbank, which was
luxuriously improved by Hannah, widow of William IV. One of their guests, who
often stayed for very long spells, was the American painter, John James
Audubon, whom William helped to have his Birds of America eventually
published in Edinburgh. A copy was bought for the new Library of Liverpool
for an even then seemingly large sum, but although it was damaged during WW
2, it is now estimated to be worth £ millions. Other guests included the Rev.
Joseph Blanco White, a Spanish priest, who converted first to Anglicanism and
then to Unitarianism, Robert Owen, the philanthropist mill-owner from
Scotland, and Lady Byron, wife of the poet. It is apparent that the Rathbone
family helped people of all faiths and classes. William (VI), 1819 -1902, (above, right) was born in a
cottage on the site of the Albert Dock. In 1847 he married Lucretia Gair and
had a house in New Brighton, Wirral. He was in the cotton trade, and he and
his brother travelled extensively in the United States, where they were
persuaded by slave owning plantation owners that slaves were necessary for
the cotton industry. Very aware of the poverty prevalent in Liverpool, he
started the Liverpool Provident Society to help the very poor to help
themselves by saving a little each week, and he and others regularly visited
the participants to help and advise. In 1852 he got involved with local
politics, joining the Liverpool Council and the Mersey Docks & Harbour
Board. When his wife fell ill, he paid Mary Robinson to nurse
her, and when Lucretia died, he asked Mary to organise a system of district
nursing. The only place for the sick poor to go was the Workhouse, which then
“housed” 1200 inmates, many sleeping three to a bed. William knew Florence
Nightingale and sought her advice. Telling William that the “pauper nurses”
could not be trained to her methods, he started a nurses training school in
1863, and through Florence he persuaded Agnes Jones to train the nurses and
reorganise the Workhouse. This she did, brilliantly, but after only four
years she was struck down by typhus, and died. William continued his welfare
work co-operating with George Melly to relieve impoverished cotton workers
during the cotton famine caused by the American Civil War. They collected so
much money that once the crisis had passed, there was enough left to found a
convalescent hospital in Woolton. In 1868, William (VI) was elected M.P. and lived in
London, where his daughter, Eleanor was born. He worked tirelessly with his
second wife, Emily Lyle, and helped establish the Universities of Liverpool
and Wales. He also fought to change the tradition system of casual labour for
Dockers to one of weekly wages, but in this, unusually, he failed and it was
not until 1950 that this was introduced. Eleanor, 1872-1946, (above) read Philosophy at Oxford,
where, at her second attempt, she gained a second class degree. (On the first
occasion, her handwriting was declared illegible, so she paid a typist to
type at her dictation.) She returned to Liverpool and was the first woman to
join the Council, being elected in 1909 for Granby Ward. During WW1 she
observed the poverty of soldiers wives, who received no income for the first
month of their husbands' service. She and others hired a building in Commutation
Row, where wives could obtain help until their allowance became available. Elected to Parliament in 1929, Eleanor was passionate
about democracy and social problems, and tried to improve conditions in many
countries where she observed injustice. She also tried to ease the
difficulties of immigration into England of Jews seeking to escape from Nazi
Germany. She fought for the support of housewives, holding that they deserved
wages for raising their children. She managed to establish child allowance in
1945 and insisted it be paid directly to mothers. Eleanor (left) died the following
year, aged 74. Sadly, Brenda had to suspend her account at this point
as time had run out. John said it was a great pity, and expressed the hope
that she could be persuaded to tell us about the later generations of this
wonderful family on another occasion.
He thanked her on behalf of the appreciative members for a most
informative and wide ranging talk. |
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Liverpool History
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