From an engraving by Daniell Havell after W. Cowen, 1817, in the Hornby Room of the Liverpool Free Public Library.
EVERTON nearly a hundred years ago, and even somewhat later, was a fashionable suburb, and its history has been written with great minuteness by Robert Syers, and published in 1830. Here dwelt the prosperous Liverpool merchants, who erected handsome mansions in commanding situations, and who were facetiously designated by the town residents “Everton nobles.” That old family, the Seacomes, possessed large properties in Everton; and here, too, lived “Squire Shaw,” who, through a fortunate marriage, became possessed of a good estate; whilst Mr. Sparling dwelt on his St. Domingo property, of which he was inordinately proud. It is said that he proposed to build the Queen’s Dock at his own expense; but instead of that he sold the site to the Liverpool Corporation for a large sum.
He was most anxious that his family should always identify his name with the estate in Everton; but in this he was disappointed, for his son never resided there after his duel with poor Mr. Grayson, the shipbuilder, whom the wretched fellow challenged to a duel, and had out on a fair green field in Toxteth Park, where he shot him dead on Sunday morning, February 26, 1804, The next year there was another fatal duel fought in a field close to London Road, between Colonel Bolton, of the first regiment of Liverpool Volunteers, and Major Edward Brooks, of the second regiment. Major Brooks was killed, but his opponent docs not seem ever to have been brought to trial.
Bibliography
Muir, Ramsay, et al. Bygone Liverpool. Liverpool: Young, 1913. Internet Archive online version of a copy in the University of Toronto Library. Web. 29 September 2022.
Last modified 30 September 2022