From a drawing by JV. G. Herdman, in the possession of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board.
SIR EDWARD MOORE, at one time the largest property owner in Liverpool, whose inventory of the property contains so much precious and racy history, the original manuscript of which was lately bequeathed to the Corporation of Liverpool and is now in the Free Public Library, was not given to singing the praises of the men whom he knew ; so we may take it that Roger James was all and something more than he describes, when he writes him down as “a very honest man, and a good woman to [for] his wife.’' W. Fergusson Irvine has an interesting note on the origin of the name of the street in “Liverpool in Charles the Second’s Time.” He says, “This Roger James was a man who prospered with the town, and subsequently built premises in Moor Street, and then in a new street backing to Moor Street, and which was eventually called after his name; and James Street is with us to this day, though very different from the day when Roger James knew it.”
Herdman worked from a drawing dated 1822, which shows the old houses and the fish market, which latter was not taken down until 1839.
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 28 September 2022