John Tarleton (slave trader)

John Tarleton (1718–1773) was an English ship-owner and slave-trader, and Mayor of Liverpool in 1764.

Tarleton was born in 1718 to Thomas Tarleton, who with his brother John had been involved with trading in West Indies and Africa.[1][2]

Tarleton was the part-owner and manager of several ships engaged in the slave trade, the Tarleton and the Swan in the 1750s, and the John in the 1760s, mainly delivering slaves to Jamaica.[1] At his death in 1773, Tarleton also owned slaves at the Belfield Estate in Dominica. Tarleton rose to become a prominent Liverpool merchant, and after becoming Mayor in 1764, was encouraged to stand for Parliament, but declined. Tarleton made significant investment in real estate in his last decade. He owned estates in Carriacou and Dominica as well as stores and houses at Grenada and Grand Ance, Carriacou. He also had several houses in Liverpool, Fairfield Estate near Buxton and tenements at Aigburth near Liverpool, and finally secured part of Aigburth Hall Estate – the old family house – about 1770.[1] Aigburth Hall, located on Aigburth Hall Avenue, was demolished around 1840.[3]

Tarleton married Jane Parker (1726–1797), daughter and coheir of Banastre Parker of Cuerden, Lancashire. Tarleton died in 1773, and was survived by five sons, three of whom continued in the family business.[4] Son John Tarleton was an MP and slave trader, Banastre Tarleton was a soldier and MP, Clayton and Thomas were slave traders.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c Richardson, PD (1974). "American Material from the Tarleton Papers in Liverpool Record Office: Introduction to the microfilm collection" (PDF). British Records Relating to in Microform (BRRAM) Series. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  2. ^ "Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slave-ownership". www.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 6 September 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  3. ^ Huntley, Glen (15 June 2019). "Robert Griffiths' Toxteth Park: The Aigburth Toll Gate". The Priory and the Cast Iron Shore. Archived from the original on 8 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  4. ^ "Oxford.". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 5 January 2012. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/91810. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ Tarleton, Charles William (1900). The Tarleton family. New York Public Library. Concord, N.H., Evans.