The world in one city: Mike Royden examines the multi-cultural history of this northern city and charts its changes from vibrant port to European City of Culture

16 Who Do You Think You Are? July 2011 World in one city

The Custom House at Canning dotck, as seen in 1841

iverpool has always had a reputation as a vibrant city, “by the mid-19th century 40 but the visitor today cannot help but notice a real sense per cent of the World’s trade of optimism and change in passed through its docks” the air. Driven on by the 800th anniversary in 2007 and its designation as European Capital of venture is the new Liverpool Record Office, Most of the people making up Liverpool’s LCulture in 2008, the city is enjoying a with its purpose-built genealogy centre, while ethnic mix were directly or indirectly resurgence, economically, architecturally, down at the Pier Head on the riverside, the connected to the port, which created a and culturally, with more museums, theatres, new life is set to open constant interchange of people. Integration galleries and listed buildings than in any other its doors on 19 July this year. was not always cordial, with prejudice and region outside London. Liverpool wasn’t always such a vibrant city. discrimination common. Racial problems At the heart of the city’s identity are its From its foundation in 1207 right down to the persisted, with frequent sectarian violence. links with the past and this is an exciting 17th century, Liverpool witnessed little growth If your ancestor came from Liverpool, they time for anyone with Liverpool ancestors. and was overshadowed by the port of Chester. may well have belonged to one of the In a ground-breaking arrangement with It is hard to imagine that this fishing hamlet following communities. Liverpool Record Office, Ancestry.co.uk has would give birth to one of the greatest ports in just digitised and released over three million the world. The kick-start came by way of the The Irish Liverpool parish records, and this partnership expanding 17th-century salt trade and the The stigmatised stereotype of the Irish Catholic will also see the digitising of vast swathes of demise of Chester’s port due to the silting up migrant as being low in morals and hygiene the local archive over the next few years. of the River Dee. By the mid-19th century, was a difficult image to shake off. A local In addition, due to open in late 2012, Liverpool had become the ‘Second city of magistrate declared that within 12 hours and currently undergoing a £50 million the Empire’ with 40 per cent of the world’s of disembarkation, the Famine Irish were to redevelopment programme, is the new trade passing through be “found in one of three classes – paupers, Liverpool Central Library. Included in this its docks. vagrants, or thieves”. In 1847 alone,

Timeline 1207 1770 King John grants Liverpool The city’s first recorded slave Liverpool’s a Letters Patent – a legal ship, the Liverpool Merchant, history document advertising the sets sail. It arrives in Barbados a ns/ l am y/photolibr ry new borough and inviting on 18 September 1770 with a people to settle there. ‘cargo’ of 220 enslaved Africans. MAry ev MAry

Who Do You Think You Are? July 2011 2 Liverpool: the world in one city

Immigrants waving aboard a ship in 1880 Irish immigrants at Waterloo Dock, Liverpool in 1850

300,000 arrived, mostly in dreadful By the end of the century that figure had Officer of Health), all were all notables in circumstances – 116,000 were said to be “half doubled to 10 per cent. The pattern of Welsh their field. Skilled Scottish workers migrated naked and starving”. During the famine years, settlement tended to favour the newly created towards the more salubrious outskirts of the approximately 1.3 million Irish passed through residential developments, leading to Welsh North End, forming a distance from the Irish the port. But, it must be remembered that 17 clusters in Everton, and Bootle, and labourers in the South End. The Liverpool per cent of Liverpool’s population before the also in the southern areas of Park. Scottish Regiment was formed as an infantry famine was Irish – according to the census As the areas became Welsh in speech and in battalion in 1900 in response to the crisis 50,000 had already settled by 1841. culture, the streets were often given Welsh names. of the Boer War. Famine migrants who could not move on The first Welsh chapel was built in 1787 in to America or elsewhere were therefore able Pall Mall – an area later to be known as ‘Little The Manx to integrate into a Liverpool-Irish community, Wales’. In 1868 the ‘Welsh Cathedral’, the Liverpool has long had close ties with the mainly in the Scotland Road area of North Gothic Welsh Presbyterian church with its Isle of Man and the Island became a resort Liverpool. High child mortality, and epidemics impressive spire, was erected on Princes Road for Liverpool holiday-makers. Many Manx like cholera and typhus, were a consequence of – an area that excluded public houses. The workers coming to Liverpool in the 19th primitive sanitary facilities and overcrowding. local Liberal Review praised the Welsh as: century were seasonal, deriving their income The Irish middle class tended to use among the most peaceable, law-abiding, cleanly from the summer tourist trade at home, before the town as a stepping stone rather than a and provident of the Liverpool citizens… they travelling to Liverpool, hoping for a position destination, but some did remain and went retain their national customs and habits, and, to tide them through to the following year. on to occupy positions in local politics, law, in the midst of this great Saxon population, The Liverpool Manx Society was set up journalism and the medical professions, while have a little Wales of their own” . 1895 to keep the Manx spirit alive and to help Irish merchants frequently dominated the support these who made their stay permanent. mercantile circles. By 1851, the Irish in Liverpool The Scottish One such family were the Quilliams. William had risen to over 22 per cent (83,813) of the Regarding the Liverpool-Scottish, four per cent Quilliam was born in Liverpool to a wealthy city’s population. of the local population was Scots-born in 1871, Manx family in 1856, and is remembered today and in size was second only to the Scottish as a 19th-century convert from Christianity to The Welsh community in Newcastle. Many early migrants Islam, who founded England’s first mosque The Liverpool Welsh came in their thousands were involved in merchant shipping, sugar and Islamic centre. between 1780 and 1820, during which a large refining and brewing. The Scottish presence number of Welsh Chapels and Churches were was keenly felt in medicine when the town The Jewish built. In 1851 the Welsh-born population was benefited from the arrival of many men The Liverpool Jewish community was the first 20,262 (5.4 per cent of the population), and trained in Edinburgh. James Currie, Thomas organised Jewish community in the north of

many could only speak their native tongue. Traill and William Duncan, (the first Medical England. Settlers arrived in the mid-18th /Al am y/corbis PHOTOLIBR A RY

1712 1830

Work starts on the world’s first The Liverpool and Manchester enclosed commercial wet dock, Railway opens on 15 September designed to make the transfer 1830, connecting the two cities and of cargo easier by maintaining forming the first route in the world a constant water level. to carry both freight and passengers.

18 Who Do You Think You Are? July 2011 World in one city

“the scale of the scandanavian Making traditional Indian flatbreads in emigration from the 1850s to the Liverpool in 1955 great war was unprecedented”

Children queue

up at a youth centre in 1949 from the show Kim uncovered more about her family’s century and there is a record of an early in Stanley Street in 1753. Jews links to Liverpool’s impoverished past soon established a niche supplying chandlery and general provisions to the local seafaring quarter, while sending out hawkers into the local communities with cheap goods. A second Kim CatTraLl wave of settlers arrived from the late 19th Although she found international fame with family’s story, the Baugh’s living conditions century to 1914, when destitute Russian her role in the Manhattan-set Sex and the were sadly far from unusual in Liverpool and Polish Jews arrived following the pogroms. City, Kim Cattrall was born in Liverpool, and during the 1930s. Approximately 15 per At least 5,000 stayed in Liverpool, settling in the actress returned to the city to attempt to cent of the city’s population existed below the Brownlow Hill/Crown Street area. The unravel a 70-year-old family mystery in her the poverty line, and Toxteth in particular Princes Road Synagogue, with its beautiful episode of Who Do You Think You Are?. saw its impoverished population expand interior was consecrated in 1874. Kim’s mother, Shane, was just eight rapidly during the 18th and 19th centuries. years old when her father, George Baugh, Kim was able to track down George’s Other communities left his wife and their three daughters in the sisters, who believed that he may have used After the Second World War, Liverpool deprived inner-city area of Toxteth. Life after Liverpool’s busy docks to emigrate to the became home to a significant number of his disappearance was hard, and Shane US. Their hunch turned out to be along the Commonwealth immigrants who mostly remembers the family having to sell right lines: passenger records revealed that settled in the inner city, especially Toxteth. everything just to keep going: he tried to stow away on a ship bound However, a Black African community had they drank from jars, had no for New York in 1935. And this turns already existed in Liverpool well before this furniture, and the children out to be only one example of his time, many being brought to Liverpool as had to share a single bed. wayward nature: documents show domestic servants or as seamen. Some were The girls only owned one that George was also a bigamist. the children of traders sent to be educated, indistinct picture of their Despite these upsetting or freed slaves (as slaves entering the country father, meaning that they revelations, Kim is still after 1722 were declared free). had only a faint idea of upbeat about the During the late 19th and early 20th what he looked like. city in which she was century, Liverpool also drew immigrants from Although their born. “Whenever across Europe and the Indian subcontinent. father’s departure I think about family, The scale of the Scandinavian emigration from undoubtedly adds a I think of Liverpool,” the 1850s to the outbreak of the First World tragic edge to the she says. War was unprecedented, reaching around

1845 1916 2008

The Great Famine causes a million Work is completed on the Liverpool is named the Irish people to flee, many to city’s ‘Three Graces’: the European Capital of Culture, Liverpool. The 1851 census reveals Liver Building, the Port of beating off rival bids from that 22 per cent of the people in Liverpool Building and Birmingham, Newcastle, the city had been born in Ireland. the . Bristol, Cardiff and Oxford.

Who Do You Think You Are? July 2011 19 Liverpool: the world in one city Greenbank Drive Jewish Synagogue, built in 1936

The SS Etruria at Pier Head in Liverpool, c1900

The arch at the entrance to Liverpool’s Chinatown

new to liverpool 50,000. The Gustaf Adolfs Kyrka Seamen’s and gradually a small community of Asian Church was built in 1883/4 to respond to sailors grew up in Liverpool. Museum of Liverpool the needs of both seafarers and emigrants. The first presence of Chinese people in Opening in July 2011 Among foreign merchants, the Greeks Liverpool dates back to the early 19th century, Family historians will be able to discover more occupied a prominent and important place. with the main influx arriving at the end of the about their ancestors’ lives in Liverpool and Five shipping lines exported to Greece: Leyland, century. By then, Liverpool had the highest explore a diverse range of photos, artefacts, Moss, Cunard, Papayanti Johnstone and Prince’s concentration of Chinese residents in England. documents and oral histories when the new Line. The increasing prosperity of the Greek Immigrants from China came as sailors or Museum of Liverpool opens on 19 July 2011. ship-owning and mercantile community was stokers on the new steamships. For full details of what will be on offer, please reflected in erection of the Greek Orthodox From the 1890s, those who settled lived see our news story on page 12. church in Toxteth. near the docks, sometimes working in small Liverpool’s ‘Little Italy’, concentrated businesses catering to Chinese sailors or in the Liverpool Central around Gerard Street, numbered around numerous laundries. During the First World 500 in 1915. Italians worshipped mainly at War there were over 6,000 Chinese mariners Library St Joseph’s Church, Grosvenor Street, and in the city, but numbers escalated to around Opening in 2012 Holy Cross Church, Great Crosshall Street. 20,000 in the Second World War with some When Liverpool Central Library opens next Official records referring to the surnames marrying local women. From the late 1950s year following a two-year redevelopment of Italian immigrants show variations in the onwards, families began to arrive from Hong programme, visitors will be able access a spellings, and during the 1940s there was a Kong and the Chinese population of Liverpool specially-designed family history hub, as tendency for the spelling and pronunciation started to form a truly separate entity. well as the complete holdings of Liverpool of some Italian surnames to become anglicised. Record Office. Work is currently expected The Asian Indian presence pre-dates the Cosmopolitan city to be completed towards the end of the larger-scale post-independence migration of The city today is a mix of those descended year. Asians to Britain. By the 1890s, ship owners from many of the migrants from the period were finding it increasingly difficult to staff of the port’s expansion. The old out-dated their ships with British ratings because of the moniker of ‘Second City of the Empire’ has low wages and poor conditions afloat. The been well and truly replaced by ‘The World number of lascars (Indian seamen) engaged for in One City’, a description that truly reflects service grew, with lascars encountering harsh the diverse make-up today of this vibrant, conditions, substandard dietary provision, and cultured city, enriched by the contributions unequal treatment, including wages far below of its multicultural population and its

white seamen. Lascar desertion was a problem, various communities. /Al am y PHOTOLIBR A RY

20 Who Do You Think You Are? July 2011 World in one city

More archives & resources in Liverpool

Liverpool Record Office The website gives a clear idea of what this Ten of the best Until late 2012, due to redevelopment, the archive holds, from parish registers to Poor Liverpool Record Office is temporarily based at: Law records, estate papers and probate records.  Horseshoe Gallery, You can search for wills and order them from (2nd floor), William Brown Street Best websites the website. You can also view the tithe maps  0151 233 5817 and apportionments online, making them a  www.liverpool.gov.uk/Leisure_and_culture/ great, searchable resource for locating your 1 Liverpool & SW Lancashire FHS Local_history_and_heritage/index.asp 19th-century ancestors. The archive also holds www.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk  [email protected] the records of societies, businesses, hospitals, Founded in 1976, the society has a close The record office holds a vast resource of schools, courts and local authorities. It is best relationship with the Liverpool Record Office. information dating from the 13th century to the to call before visiting to check opening hours present. These include archives of the City and access requirements or look at the advice 2 Local History Society Council and its predecessors, schools, churches, on the website. www.liverpoolhistorysociety.org.uk families, businesses and societies, books, maps, Contains a lot of information about watercolours and photographs, as well as the University of Liverpool special membership benefits and lectures. usual family history staples of parish registers, collections and archives census returns, BMD indexes, newspapers and  http://sca.lib.liv.ac.uk/collections 3 Mersey Gateway directories. A reader’s ticket is needed to request (Port Cities Liverpool) archives, books, maps, photographs and water- The collections include manuscripts, medieval colours. Please bring proof of name and address. to modern; early and finely printed books, and www.mersey-gateway.org archival collections. See the website for more An online history of the port and its people. details on holdings. Maritime Archives and Library Mike Royden’s local  Merseyside Maritime Museum, 4 Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AQ Liverpool Medical Institution Library history pages  0151 478 4499  www.lmi.org.uk/LibraryAndArchives.aspx www.roydenhistory.co.uk new to liverpool  www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ The Library was founded in 1779 and houses a A site covering aspects of the city’s local history. maritime/archive stock of monographs and journals covering the The Museum houses maritime books and whole range of medical specialities. Although 5 Yo! Liverpool documents, including one of the finest collections the library is primarily for members of the LMI, www.yoliverpool.com of merchant shipping records in the UK. Every interested researchers may apply to the Librarian Over the last few years, Yo! Liverpool has aspect of Liverpool’s maritime history is covered, with a letter of introduction. grown into a great independent, popular site. and while the emphasis is on Liverpool, the coverage is national and international. The Liverpool & South-West Lancashire 6 Historic Liverpool Museum website gives information and advice Family History Society http://historic-liverpool.co.uk about its collections. Open Tuesday to Thursday,  Membership secretary, 39 Belmont St, Historic-Liverpool.co.uk shows the city’s 10.30am-4.30pm, a reader’s ticket is required, Southport, Merseyside PR8 1LY development over the years. so please bring proof of identity. It is advised  [email protected] that bookings are made in advance.  www.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk 7 Old Liverpool This is the main family history society for the www.old-liverpool.co.uk Wirral Archives Merseyside area with branches around the Snippets gleaned about Liverpool’s history.  Wirral Archives Service, Lower Ground region. An active society with a regular journal Floor, Cheshire Lines Building, Canning Street and monthly meetings and lectures, the society Merseyside Genealogy Birkenhead, Wirral CH41 1ND 8 welcomes anyone with family links to Liverpool and History Forum  0151 606 2929 and the surrounding area. The website offers a http://mersey genforum  [email protected] range of information from Liverpool orphanages proboards.com  www.wirral.gov.uk/my-services/leisure- to lists of cemeteries and churches. Also run by Caryl Williams of the Old Liverpool and-culture/wirral-archives-service site above, this is an excellent local forum. Wirral Archives Service cares for and offers RECCOMENDED READING public access to thousands of historical records Ancestry.co.uk relating to the history of the Wirral. Researchers 9 requiring parish registers of baptisms, marriages Mike Royden, Tracing Your Liverpool Ancestors www.ancestry.co.uk/liverpool and burials should contact Cheshire Record (Pen & Sword, 2010) Has pages dedicated to Liverpool records. Office orB irkenhead Reference Library. Munro & Sim, The Merseyside Scots (Birkenhead, 2001) 10 Liverpool In Print D Ben Rees, The Welsh of Merseyside (2 volumes, www.liverpoolinprint.org.uk Cheshire Archives Modern Welsh Publications Ltd, 1997)  Cheshire Archives and Local Studies Service, This site contains the new online catalogue Duke Street, Chester, Cheshire, CH1 1RL John Belcham Irish Catholic and Scouse: The History of the Liverpool Local Studies Collection,  01244 977195 of the Liverpool Irish, 1800-1939 (Liverpool, 2007) held by the Liverpool Record Office at the Central Library on William Brown Street.  [email protected] D Ben Rees, The Welsh of Merseyside (2 volumes,  http://archive.cheshire.gov.uk Modern Welsh Publications Ltd, 1997)

Who Do You Think You Are? July 2011 21