John Abraham Tinne

Partner in Sandbach Tinne until 1842.

1. Of Briarley, Aigburth, Liverpool. Born Demerara 16/02/1807, son of Philip Frederic Tinne, "Secretary to the Dutch Ambassador in London, afterwards Deputy Secretary of Court of Policy, Demerara, by his wife Anna [nee Rose]." Merchant of Liverpool, Deputy-Lieutenant and J.P. for Lancashire.

2. Married Margaret Sandbach 16/04/1833 at Childwall Lancs (his second marriage, his first being to Elizabeth Robinson). Children Anna and Philip Frederic baptised Liverpool 1834 and 1836. In 1851 living at Briarley aged 43 born Demerara, DL and JP Landed Proprietor and Fundholder with wife Margaret aged 39 and their children Emily Rose 12, Bertha E 9, Harriet W 7 John E 5 James C 3 and Sarah M 2. Death of John Abraham Tinne registered West Derby Lancashire Q1/1884. Will of John Abraham Tinne late of Briarley Aigburth who died 20/01/1884 proved 21/03/1884, effects £107,744 8s 2d, resworn Feb 1886 £121,586 18s 2d.

3. Father of Philip Frederic Tinne (1836-1869). Will of Philip Frederic Tinne who died 22/10/1869 late of Liverpool and of Childwall near Liverpool proved 11/11/1869 by Samuel Sandbach Parker and Alfred Traill Parker merchants of Liverpool effects under £25,000. Identified also as father of James Capellen Tinne on the latter's marriage as widower aged 66 in 03/03/1914 at Holy Trinity Brompton to Margaret Louisa  Huntson.

4. John Abraham Tinne invested in land in New Zealand, and his sons John Ernest  and Herman William Tinne were among family members farming on an estate called Briarley 1876-1881.

5. John Abraham Tinne's grandson, also Philip Frederic Tinne, was a Liverpool GP. His wife Emily was the subject of an exhibition at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool in 25/10/2019-01/03/2020, 'An English lady's wardrobe'. The museum's website said of the family: 'The Tinnes were Dutch sugar merchants and ship owners, who first came to Liverpool in 1813 from Demarara [sic] in what was then Dutch Guiana, later to be re-named British Guiana (and finally, following independence in 1966, Guyana) on the North East coast of South America. During the 19th century, as part of the firm of Sandbach, Tinne & Co, the family made a great fortune importing sugar, molasses, coffee and tropical hardwoods from their plantations. Philip Frederic Tinne, the first Tinne to settle in Liverpool, was born in The Hague in 1772. In 1796, following Napoleon’s occupation of Holland, he went to Dutch Guiana. There he built up a lucrative career as an administrator, becoming Secretary of the colony by 1801, and wealthy enough to buy a coffee plantation, named Vauxhall and Westminster. In 1810 he and his Scottish-born wife, Anna Rose, travelled to England and then Scotland, where they spent some time in Greenock. Here he met James McInroy, who in 1782 had set up in business as a sugar merchant in Demerara. In 1790 McInroy was joined in the venture by Samuel Sandbach, Charles Stewart Parker and George Robertson. Their business involved the import of sugar, molasses, coffee and rum from Demerara, but they also dealt in "prime Gold Coast Negroes", and used them to work their plantations there. In 1813, the same year that Demerara became a British colony, Philip Tinne went into partnership with McInroy, agreeing to be based at the company’s Liverpool branch, along with Samuel Sandbach. That part of the company was then re-named Sandbach, Tinne & Co, the name it traded under until 1891 when it was renamed the Demerara Company. McInroy, Sandbach & Co continued to run the other part of the business from Demerara, and briefly, from Glasgow as McInroy, Parker & Co. Besides growing coffee, Sandbach, Tinne & Co acquired several sugar plantations in Demerara, including Diamond and Providence. Other properties acquired much later included the estates known as Wales, Industry, Greenveld and Leonora. Sandbach, Tinne & Co prospered, receiving an extra financial boost of more than £173,000 in 1835 as compensation from the British government for giving up the enslaved Africans on their plantations. Following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834, Demerara’s sugar estates were worked by a combination of indentured Chinese and Indian labourers and by former enslaved people who continued as paid labourers. Sandbach, Tinne & Co's fleet of more than thirty sailing ships carried indentured labourers from India and China to Demerara, as well as European passengers and cargoes of tea and other commodities, to and from the Far East.Emily's future husband, Philip Frederic Tinne, was born in Georgetown, British Guiana. Philip spent his early years living at his grandfather's home, Briarley, a large colonial-style house built by the family in its own extensive grounds in Aigburth. In 1884, following a set back in the family's fortunes on the sugar futures market, they were forced to move out of Briarley when its upkeep proved too expensive. They moved into another house built within the grounds, Mostyn, which was still spacious but smaller than the original.'

T71/886 British Guiana claim no. 1296.

1. Genealogy of the families of Douglas of Mulderg and Robertson of Kindeace (1895) pp. 28-29; available within the wider family tree at Rootsweb WorldConnect Project 'The Last Knight'.

2. Ancestry.com, England and Wales, Marriages and Banns, 1538-1940 [database online]; Ancestry.com, England and Wales Christening Records 1530-1906 [database online]; 1851 census online; FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online]; National Probate Calendar 1884.

3. Ancestry.com, England and Wales Christening Records, 1530-1960 [database online]; England and Wales FreeBMD death Index 1837-1915; National Probate Calendar 1869; Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online].

4. New Zealand historical Places Trust Pouhere Taonga Deficient Registration Report for a Historic Place, Briarely Tamahere http://www.historic.org.nz/TheRegister/RegisterSearch/RegisterResults.aspx?RID=4347&m=advanced [accessed 03/10/2012].

5. https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/tinne2006/tinne-family.aspx" [accessed 25/10/2019 and 05/11/2019.]

We are grateful to Clif Knight for his assistance with compiling this entry, and to Audrey Dewjee for drawing the Walker Gallery's Emily Tinne exhibition to our attention.