THE BINNS FAMILY OF LIVERPOOL AND THE BINNS COLLECTION IN THE LIVERPOOL PUBLIC LIBRARY

BY EVELINE B. SAXTON, M.A., A.L.A.

AJL students of Liverpool local history will be acquainted with the most interesting collection of maps, views of old

Liverpool and Lancashire, and portraits of old Lancashire worthies in the Liverpool Record Office, which goes by the name of the Binns Collection, and is contained partly in thirty- five elephant folio volumes and partly in a number of very large boxes.

The originator of the collection was a Liverpool Quaker named Thomas Binns, and it is a remarkable fact that though he was born in Liverpool and belonged to a family esteemed and respected in the town in both public and private life for over a hundred years, when he died in 1842 so little was known of his origin that the prominent Liverpool paper, the Albion, des­ cribed him as having been born in Ireland. It is yet more remarkable that, in spite of two other important Liverpool papers stating that he was born in Liverpool, his Irish birth was accepted as the true version and the error perpetuated in an article in the Lancaster Guardian of 8 April 1911. He was in fact born in Church Street, where his father had lived for over five years, on 24 November 1771, and his name appears in the register of births for the Quarterly Meeting of Lancashire.

In 1932 a letter arrived at the Liverpool Reference Library from a Mr. George Binns, a solicitor in Lancaster, who had seen the reference to this Thomas Binns from Ireland in the Lancaster paper, and wrote to refute the statement. He ex­ pressed a desire to inspect the Binns Collection on a coming visit to Liverpool, and later not only sent to the Library all the data he could collect on Thomas Binns and genealogical notes on the family, but also lent a transcript of the letters and diaries of Jonathan Binns, the uncle of Thomas, a prominent Liverpool doctor, with permission to copy as much as was thought necessary for the Library records.

The genealogical notes begin with the baptism in 1572 of Thomas, son of William Binns, recorded in the Carleton parish register. In 1663, John Binns, the first member of the family to become a Quaker, was born at Cloughheigh in Keighley parish. He began to attend the Friends' meetings in 1683, and

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168 BINNS FAMILY

in 1703 married Abigail King: of his large family of ten sons and three daughters, the tenth child, Jonathan, born in 1718, after spending some years in Crawshawbooth in Lancashire, settled in Liverpool in 1765. His name appears in the second Liverpool directory, 1767, as Jonathan Binns & Sons, leather sellers, Ranelagh Street. By 1772 he had moved to 4 Church Street, which continued to be both the residence and place of business of the family until 1804. From 1774 their trade designation is leather-cutter. Jonathan retired from business sometime in 1790, and died in 1794. He had married, in 1740, Elizabeth, daughter of William Sutcliffe, "a managing discreet woman, religiously inclined, of an agreeable temper, a kind neighbour, and a loving and affectionate wife and mother". She was born in 1719 and died in 1748. Towards the end of 1790 Jonathan married as his second wife, Jane Cropper of Winstanley. Of him his grandson Jonathan wrote, "He was an example of plainness without affectation, of a very benevolent disposition, and much respected by his acquaintances. Though his intimate associates were mostly those of his own religious persuasion, yet his benevolence and goodwill extended to all. He was very active in promoting subscriptions for charitable and useful purposes. He was remarkably cheerful and took great delight in relating occurrences of his younger days, which made his company interesting, particularly to young people. He was a man of strict integrity in business, and though industrious, allowed his pursuits and prospects to be bounded by a Christian-like moderation." He was buried, like all his family, in the Friends' burying ground in Hunter Street. When, in 1948, this area was required for housing purposes, all the remains were removed to Allerton Cemetery, and a detailed list and plan of the burial ground were deposited in the Liverpool Record Office.

The eldest of his three sons, Abraham, born in 1743 at Woodside near Skipton, was brought up in his father's trade and came with him to Liverpool in 1765. The following year he married Margaret, daughter of George and Elizabeth Routh of Crawshawbooth, by whom he had ten children, of whom only four, George, Thomas, Elizabeth and Margaret, survived. On his father's retirement in 1790, Abraham appears in the Liver­ pool directory as grocer and leather-cutter, but the designation grocer is never used again. Two copies have survived, now in the Liverpool Record Office, of a manuscript book by Abraham's wife called "Occasional notices and remarks by the late Margaret Binns of Liverpool", which consists mainly of a diary from 1763 to 1812, and some copies of letters. From this

BINNS FAMILY 169

book we learn that in 1790 Abraham took into partnership his son George, then aged 21. He appears to have retired from the business in 1795, for only his sons, George and Thomas, appear in the Liverpool directory of 1796, and from his wife's book we learn also that she and her husband first occupied their house at Mile End on 11 January 1795. Though from 1803 to 1814 the business is described as Abram Binns and Sons, merchants, Abraham was apparently a sleeping partner, for he is always designated gentleman in the directories.

It would appear that "Mile End" could at the time be applied to any place a mile from the Town Hall, (1) as this was, for Abraham's house was not in the district at the junction of Scotland Road and Cazneau Street now known by that name, but was situated on the West Derby Street side of the triangle of land formed by the streets now known as West Derby Street, Fairclough Lane and Mount Vernon Street. There has sur­ vived a delightful account of the house written by Abraham's nephew, Jonathan, when he visited the family in 1803.

"Reached Liverpool in the evening, took tea at Cousin Thomas Binns; lodged there, and went to meeting in the morning and then to our Uncle Abraham's at Mile End, which was then quite in the country. Whether my Uncle purchased this lovely little retreat when he first went to Liverpool or afterwards I am not aware. It was a rather low unostentatious building of brick, having smallish and low rooms. I recollect very well a fruitful cherry tree in front, which was hung with clusters of fine fruit. He had also an orchard behind the house, well stocked with fruit trees. In front of the house was a garden with a fish-pond in the middle; he had great pleasure in attending to his garden and orchard, in pruning and cultivating his plants, in feeding his fish, &c. in which his daughters Elizabeth and Margaret also had great pleasure. His wife was a Minister of the Gospel.

I believe my uncle was a good man, consequently a happy man, and a cheerful and pleasant companion. Peace and plenty reigned in this paradise. My cousin Thomas Binns, after his father's death, built himself a house on part of the above property, the district being named Mount Vernon. A small neat house was also built for my cousin Margaret, the only surviving sister. The remaining part of the ground is now, 1867, all built upon; the old house, fish-pond and garden being a thing of the past, and remembered by few now living."

Horwood's plan of 1803 shows the house and the fish-pond quite plainly, and shows also two large houses in Mount Vernon Street, near the corner of Fairclough Lane, occupied respectively by Mr. Yates and Mr. Venables. On the large-scale Ordnance map of 1848-49, these two houses have become Vernon House and Vernon Academy, and Thomas Binns's house can be seen at the opposite end of Mount Vernon Street, the rest of the street being mainly occupied by the Convent of Mercy. The house built by Thomas for his sister can also be seen, at the top of Elm Road, but Abraham's house has disappeared, the site being covered by houses for the most part small and undistinguished. Shortly before the recent war, the site, except

111 Cf. Mile End Rocks, and Mile End Mill, which was near the Nelson Dock.

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for the Convent, was cleared for re-development, and is now reserved for a hospital.

Abraham occupied a prominent place in the Quaker com­ munity. In 1777 he was, with his brother Jonathan, on the Committee appointed by the trustees of the old Quaker Meeting House in Hackin's Hey to seek land to serve as a burial ground, and in 1791, when the new meeting house in Hunter Street was finished, he was appointed to give notice to the Friends to meet there "this day two weeks at the usual time". He died on 19 June 1814: his death is thus recorded in Gore's Liverpool Advertiser, "On Sunday last, aged 71, Mr. Abraham Binns of this town. A man of the strictest integrity and a meek humble-minded Christian".

His wife Margaret was deeply religious and of outstanding intellectual gifts. On her death a testimony from Hardshaw West Monthly Meeting was signed by between seventy and eighty Friends, which says, "she was a diligent attender of our religious meetings both for worship and discipline, and first appeared in the ministry in the year 1795. Humble in life and conversation and a sincere sympathiser with the afflicted, she was an example of simplicity and diligence in the discharge of Christian duties". These qualities are evident in her "Occasional Notices and Remarks". In this book we read of the sad deaths of her infant children: Elizabeth, who died of smallpox in 1770, aged three, who had already "for some time gone to meetings, and behaved more like a grown person than a child"; and Ann, who died in 1778, "a sweet little creature, aged about 11 months". In 1779, on hearing of their considerable business losses, she says, "still room for thankfulness, many things worse might have happened: a man's life consisteth not in the abun­ dance he possesses". In 1782 members of the family were "poorly for about a week of a disorder called the Influenza" a fairly early use of this term. In 1789 she records the death of William Rathbone, "he was indeed a Friend, we knew it;" and a few months later speaks of a visit from Samuel Smith of Philadelphia, who had been on a religious visit to Ireland: he stayed with them eleven days. A visit to the Monthly Meeting of the Friends of Swarthmoor earlier the same year revives in her mind the sufferings of the Friends in the beginning, and she laments that with ease and liberty, indifference and indulgence have crept in. At the Monthly Meeting in Preston in 1790, to which she travelled on horseback behind her son George, she fears that the discipline is in weak hands, and complains that the Meeting for Conference held at Lancaster shortly afterwards "suffered loss greatly by a Friend standing too long".

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A week after their removal to the house at Mile End, she writes, "Have spent a very quiet agreeable week: what still quietness I am here favoured with"; but a few months later, "Alas, how soon our enjoyments here may be withered" on recording the death of her granddaughter Jane from smallpox; and again, "From the llth month (1795) to 1st month (1796) we had such a time of sickness in our Family as I had not before experienced". In 1811 she was much worried by the fear that her sons were extending their business beyond the limits of safety: her judgment proved correct and they suffered a great loss, but there is a note appended by Thomas Binns stating that "We were favoured to get over these difficulties with consider­ able loss of property to ourselves, but none to our parents, of which there had been too much cause of apprehension". Margaret died in February 1818.

George, her eldest son, who was born in 1769, and was a partner in the business in 1790, appears in the next Liverpool directory, 1794, as George Binns, leather-cutter at 3 Church Street, adjoining his father's house. Abraham retired in 1795. Thomas, his younger son, took his place, and the 1796 directory shows the brothers as curriers and leather-cutters: the business moved in 1803 to Wapping, and in 1813 to 6 King Street. On the transference of the business, both George and Thomas ceased to reside in Church Street. George moved first to Lime Street and in 1813 to Cecil Street, Mount Vernon; Thomas to 3 Mount Vernon Street, where he built the house in which he lived until his death. George, who married Sarah Pearson and had four daughters, seems to have had some standing in the Quaker community, for in the Minutes of the Quaker Meeting House in Hunter Street we read of his being appointed a trustee at the age of 22. He usually accompanied his mother to the Monthly Meetings in various parts of Lancashire. He died in 1816.

It is to the younger brother, Thomas, born in 1771, that we owe the Binns Collection. From a copy of a letter in Margaret Binns's book, he appears to have been at Joseph Tatham's Academy in Leeds, but he early joined the family business and his marriage in December 1794 seems to have earned him a partnership. He married Hannah Salthouse of Ulverston, who belonged to a notable Quaker family. Of his eight children, four died young; of those who survived, Mary, born in 1807, married in 1830 Henry Ellythorp Robson, from whom, as executor for Thomas Binns's estate, the Binns Collection was eventually purchased for the Public Library. Ann, Thomas's eldest daughter, born in 1798, died in 1815, and was the subject

174 BINNS FAMILY

Plate 24. HOME OF THOMAS BINNS, MOUNT VERNON STREET

From a drawing by James Brierley, 1828.

BINNS FAMILY 175

of a touching little biography, A brief account of Ann Binns, daughter of Thomas and Hannah Binns of Mount Vernon near Liverpool, printed by James Smith of Liverpool, from which we learn that she began her education at the Friends School in Liverpool, and remained there until 1810, when she went to Doncaster, to be under the care of Elizabeth Armstrong. Sarah, the third daughter, married a Mr. Wilson. Henry, the fourth and only surviving son, born in 1812, followed in the leather trade, and erected a tannery in Edge Lane, close to the Botanic Gardens. He married Sarah, daughter of Hager Lowe, and had one son, Richard, who was apprenticed to a nurseryman in Hertfordshire. He seems to have retired from business in 1848, as he appears in the 1849 directory as Henry Binns, gentleman, Liscard Vale, Cheshire, and is said to have died about 1856.

After his brother George's death, Thomas took into partner­ ship, about 1819, one of the Hadwen family, the Quaker merchants, who lived in Edge Lane, the firm being now styled Binns and Hadwen, merchants and leather factors. In 1830 Hadwen dropped out, and the next entry is simply Thomas Binns, hide merchant. Thomas retired about 1833, and spent the rest of his life in his antiquarian pursuits at his house in Mount Vernon Street. He died on 27 December 1842. Gore's Liverpool Advertiser of 5 January 1843, says, "At his house, Mount Vernon, at the age of 71, Thomas Binns, a member of the Society of Friends. He was a native of Liverpool, and was for a long period highly respected in business, filled the offices of chairman of the Underwriters' and other associations, and was treasurer to the Infirmary, at the important era of the building of the present edifice".

But however honourably he fulfilled his obligations in business and public, Thomas's real interest was in the collecting of items of local topography. He was a born collector, and when he died he left, in addition to real property in Liverpool and North Lancashire, the collection of material illustrating the county of Lancaster which we now know as the Binns Collec­ tion. It numbered over 6,000 items (the number has of course been greatly increased since then), and comprised maps, plans, views, portraits, MSS. and rare printed items, including broad­ sheets and election squibs. Many of the portraits are fine mezzotint engravings. While making the collection Binns commissioned certain items, notably the sepia drawings of Liverpool streets and buildings made by James Brierley in 1828-29, which are a valuable contribution to our knowledge of Liverpool topography at that period. Among these are views

176 BINNS FAMILY

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BINNS FAMILY 177

of the Binns's houses in Mount Vernon. Most of the Brierley drawings originally formed Volume 13 of the Binns Collection, but they have since been mounted separately. Besides those in this collection, there are a certain number in the Liverpool Athenaeum Library.

It was not until ten years after Thomas Binns's death that the Liverpool Public Library came into existence, and it is fortunate that during that time the collection was not dis­ persed. It was probably well-known to local antiquarians, and when, in 1853, the executors offered the collection to the newly established library, a memorial signed by a large number of influential men, urging its immediate acquisition, was for­ warded to the Library Committee. In the 2nd Annual Report, 1854, of the Free Public Library occurs this note:

"A valuable addition has been made to the Library during the past year, by the purchase from the Executors of the late Mr. Thomas Binns, of the collection made by that gentleman, illustrative of the history of the County of Lancaster, and more especially of the town of Liverpool. They occupied the leisure hours of forty years of his life, and contain a repertory of illustrations of the past history of the locality, which will increase in value every year, and would in vain be sought for elsewhere. In order to complete and continue the series, the Committee have prepared a portfolio for the reception of illustrations which may offer from time to time, of views, buildings, remarkable events, ships, steam-vessels, &c. to which they respectfully invite contributions. The Collection itself is contained in thirty folio volumes, filled with engravings and drawings. A classified index is in the course of preparation, which will render the Collec­ tion more useful for consultation by the antiquarian and local historian."

From this it will be seen that the Local Collection which has developed into the Liverpool Record Office got off to an extraordinarily good start almost immediately after the Public Library itself was inaugurated, and that the Committee, which seems to have been an unusually enlightened one, was de­ termined not only to acquire a local collection, but to maintain one. On the day following the resolution to purchase the col­ lection for £300, a second resolution was passed: "That steps be taken to purchase any illustrations of the kind where the price does not exceed £1 Os. Od.", and accordingly the next year's report records that "Mr. Herdman, junior, attended and exhibited several drawings and sketches of old buildings about to be taken down as per list. Resolved: That the same be purchased at the sum of 15/- each as they are finished", thus beginning the almost equally well-known Herdman Collection. This policy of purchasing views of old buildings about to be demolished continues to the present day.

There are about fifty items in the Binns Collection either drawn or engraved by Jonathan Binns, Thomas's nephew. He was the son of Dr. Jonathan Binns, the younger son of the first

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BINNS FAMILY 179

Jonathan to settle in Liverpool. Dr. Jonathan was a most interesting character, who had been apprenticed to his maternal uncle, Abraham Sutcliffe of Settle, Yorkshire, a surgeon and apothecary in good practice, one of whose earlier pupils had been the famous Dr. John Coakley Lettsom. After serving his time with his uncle Dr. Jonathan came in 1769 to the chemists' shop of Leigh and Bond in Liverpool, where he stayed for a year: there was at that time no other way of learning dispensing. He took his degree in Edinburgh in 1772 and began to practice in Liverpool, first living with his father in Church Street. In 1781 he removed to Hanover Street on his marriage to Mary Allbright of Lancaster, and here his two sons, Jonathan and William, were born. As he continued to prosper he built a house in Bold Street, next to the house of Henry Park, the celebrated surgeon. His son Jonathan has left an account of this house, and their style of living in it, which gives an idea of the eminence which his father had at that time attained. The copy of Dr. Jonathan's own diary, which was among the documents received from Mr. George Binns, has some interesting side­ lights on Liverpool life of the day, particularly in the accounts of a Quaker wedding and a Quaker funeral. At the height of his career the doctor suddenly left Liverpool to take up the position of honorary superintendent of Ackworth School, an institution for the children of "Friends not in affluent circum­ stances" : a poorly-paid position of an entirely different nature from his own profession, and it is difficult to understand why he made the change. His son suggests that it may have been due to the unpopularity he incurred owing to his opposition to the Slave Trade: he was one of the only two Liverpool persons who signed the first list of the Abolitionists of Slavery. He was not happy in his new post, and resigned from it in 1804 because the Committee interfered so much in details of management. By that time in a somewhat poor state of health, he retired to Lancaster, where he practised his profession until he died.

There is a letter sent by a member of the Binns family to Mr. Bickerton when he was engaged on the Medical History of Liverpool, which gives an account of the doctor's strange treatment of his elder son, Jonathan. "Dr. Binns", says the writer, "appears to have grossly neglected the education of his son, the late Mr. Jon. Binns of Lancaster. He did not have him taught Latin, History or Geography, and at an early age put him to learn farming with a mere yokel, while on the other hand the other son (William), who died young, was apprenticed to a physician in Darlington to start his career as medical man. Mr. Jon. Binns spent much valuable time in after life in learning

180 BINNS FAMILY

things he should have b^en taught when young. He was over 6ft. high and marvellously handsome, clever in all ways, and most expert with his pencil". He does not seem to have been embittered by this treatment, for his reminiscences of his Liverpool relations and of his life with his father in Liverpool are written in a most affectionate and pleasing manner, as in this little picture of Bold Street: "At the upper end of the street where that beautiful church is now, the green fields were open to the street without any fence, and cows used to stray down the streets. I often flied my kite in those fields, and tied the string to the plants which grew there in abundance the rag-wort. A cow occasionally troubled my father by rubbing its neck and horns against the corner of his house, such was the state of that part of Liverpool in 1790".

His father did advance the money to set him up in a farm, but he gave this up in 1819, and began business as a land surveyor in Lancaster. His great work is the map of Lancaster which he published from an actual survey made in 1821: during its preparation he collected a number of old people's recollections. He was one of the original members of the Lancaster Literary, Scientific and Natural History Society, and shared to the full his uncle Thomas's interest in local history: indeed, from the large number of items in the Binns Collection which deal directly with Lancaster, quite apart from those that were actually Jonathan's work, it is reasonable to assume that his uncle received a great deal of help from him in assembling his collection.

; ' Bibliography

Binns, Thomas. Collection of maps, plans, charts, views, &c.serving to illustrate the history of Lancashire.

Binns, Margaret. Occasional notices and remarks. MS. Jonathan Binns, M.D., 1747-1812. Typescript MS. Thomas Binns of Liverpool, 1771-1842. Typescript MS. Liverpool directories, 1766-1857. Liverpool Public Library. Annual reports, 1854-1855. Thomas H. Bickerton Papers, Vol. 2 (Jonathan Binns). MS.

All the above are in the Liverpool Record Office.