Thomas Earle

Liverpool slave-trader and merchant. Thomas Earle (1757-1822) of Liverpool and Spekelands, Mayor of Liverpool 1787-8 leaving £70,000. Grandson of Liverpool merchant John Earle (1674-1749), son of William Earle (1722-). Brother of William Earle (q.v.), father of William Earle the younger (q.v.) and Hardman Earle (q.v.). Married his first cousin Mary Earle in Liverpool in 1786. Partner in family firm of T & W Earle & Co. Thomas Earle had seven children with his wife Mary (of whom five appear to have survived him), all baptised in Liverpool: William (1787-1864), John (1789-1791), Hardman (1792-1878), Mary (1794-), Richard (1796-), Ann (1798-) and Jane (1800-1883). Youngest daughter Jane married George Hall Lawrence (q.v.) in Liverpool in 1831.

1. Will of Thomas Earle of Spekelands within West Derby Lancashire proved 02/11/1822. He left £100 immediately and then further £1500 to his wife Mary, together with an annuity of £1000 p.a.; £1000 for the support and professional education of his son Richard over three years; his interest in property in St Paul's Square Liverpool inherited by his father and uncles Ralph and Thomas Earle to his son William, together with the reversionary interest in his collieries and coal mines subject to the the life-interest he left to his wife; £5000 among all his children; £4000 to his eldest son William and £3000 each to his younger children.He left his residuary estate 4/14ths to William; 3/14ths each to his sons Hardman and Richard; and 2/14th each to his daughters Anne and Jane. He noted late in the will that his legacies to his wife were in full satisfaction of her rights in and to his property, including in and to a certain annuity on the Mount Pleasant estate in Jamaica that he instructed be treated as part of his residual estate [LBS has inferred this estate to have been Mount Pleasant in Hanover].

1. Gordon Reed, 'Introduction to the Earle collection', http://www.ampltd.co.uk/digital_guides/abolition_emancipation_part_2_3 accessed 9/8/2012.

2. PROB 11/1663/73