Catalogue description THE CROPPER FAMILY ARCHIVES

D/CR/1/1 - 34 Estate Deeds, Probates, etc. 1634 - 1902

D/CR/2/1 - 7 Business Papers 1790 - 1838

D/CR/3/1 - 5 Business Correspondence re The Liverpool & Manchester Railway 1825 - 1830

D/CR/4/1 - 5 Anti-Slavery Correspondence of William Wilberforce & Others 1798 - 1829

D/CR/5/1 - 6 Anti-Slavery Correspondence with Zachary MacAuley & Others 1809 - 1833

D/CR/6/1 - 4 Business Papers re William Arrowsmith & Company, Steamillers, Upper Islington, Liverpool 1807 - 1808

D/CR/7/1 - 13 Family Correspondence and Papers 1860 - 1857

D/CR/8/1 - 25 Letters from James Cropper to his daughter Eliza Sturge and/or his son-in-law Joseph Sturge, Birmingham, re Quaker business, etc. 1829 - 1839

D/CR/9/1 - 10 Business Papers re Liverpool Borough Bank 1857 - 1860

D/CR/10/1 - 71 Letter Book [Including selected transcripts] 1791 - 1854

D/CR/11/1 - 83 Letter Book 1790 - 1840

D/CR/12/1 - 41 Anti-Slavery Album c.1820 - 1832

D/CR/13/1 Anti-Slavery Newscuttings 1824 - 1826

D/CR/14/1 - 8 Miscellaneous 1797 - 1926

D/CR/15/1 - 17c Photographs of Dingle Bank (by John Mills mostly from original paintings, drawings, etc.) 1824 - 1950

D/CR/16/1 - 25 History File, Cropper Articles, etc. 1631 - 1973

The collection has never been fully listed until this present catalogue, but this reflects it's original arrangement.

Further Reading:

A number of useful articles relating to the history of the Croppers may be found in section 16 of the collection.

The below books are out of print but are available in the Maritime Archives & Library.

Conybeare, F. Dingle Bank-The Home of the Croppers (A history of the family and their home, written by a family member.), W. Heffer & Sons, Cambridge, 1925.

Cropper, A. Extracts from letters of the late James Cropper transcribed for his grandchildren by their very affectionate mother and aunt, privately printed.

Cropper family of Liverpool

A copy of the microfilm is available in the searchroom. Due to the fragile condition of many of the items in this collection, we request searchers to use the microfilms. Please consult the archivists if you need to see the original documents.

The collection was deposited on loan by James Cropper in 1983.

Acc. No.:MMM.1991.0081

Such is the importance of this collection for the history of the Anti-Slavery movement that it has been microfilmed as part of a commercial publication: Abolition & Emancipation by Adam Matthews Publications.

• Slavery

Transcripts of some of the most interesting correspondence have been produced and are available as part of this catalogue.

The Cropper family were well known in Liverpool throughout the nineteenth century, especially for their charitable and philanthropic work. James Cropper (1773-1840) was brought up near Ormskirk, the son of a yeoman father. In 1790, he became an apprentice with the merchant partnership of Rathbone and Benson. In 1799, he joined Robert Benson as a shipowner to form Cropper, Benson & Co., and they became agents for the Black Ball Line of pioneering transatlantic sailing packets.

The Croppers were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), and their relationships with fellow Quakers was largely responsible for the connection between Cropper, Benson & Co. and their counterparts in New York, Jeremiah Thompson and Benjamin Marshall, the founders of the Black Ball Line. In January 1818 this firm initiated the running of a shipping line, which for the first time in history, ran on a fixed route, with or without a full cargo, from each place (Liverpool or New York) on a certain day every month, according to the terms of its advertisement. Thompson and Marshall imported vast quantities of cloth from England, in return for exports of large quantities of raw cotton to Liverpool. However, despite being described as the U.S.A.'s largest shipowner and cotton dealer, the firm failed in 1827 because of imitation by rival lines in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.

Cropper, Benson, however, continued to prosper, and the Cropper family were able to devote their time to social issues, especially the campaign for the abolition of slavery. The collection contains a wealth of anti-slavery material ranging from correspondence with leading figures in the Abolition, such as William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, to pamphlets written by James Cropper on the evils of slavery. For example, he made up parcels of sugar and coffee from the East Indies and sent them to every M.P. to show that slave labour was not essential to their cultivation. The best crockery in the Cropper household was decorated with the picture of a slave in irons with the mottoes: "Alas my poor brother" and "Am I not a man and brother". James Cropper was also particularly concerned with the economic conditions in Ireland, visiting the country in 1824 and making representations to the Government and persons of influence concerning the development of its trade and industry. He was also interested in the reformation of young offenders, setting up a farm school at Fearnhead, near Warrington. His son, John (1797-1874) continued his involvement in this work, entertaining the boys from the reformatory ship Akbar at the family home, Dingle Bank, and continuing the anti-slavery campaign on an international level. Harriet Beecher Stowe (authoress of Uncle Tom's Cabin) was entertained at Dingle Bank, when she visited Britain in 1853.

The Dingle Bank estate was leased from the Yates family by James Cropper in 1823, and he built three houses, one for himself, and one for each of his sons, John and Edward (b.1799). The estate covered thirty acres, about two miles south of Liverpool on the banks of the River Mersey, and was of outstanding natural beauty. Isabella Wakefield, Edward's first wife, was an amateur landscape gardener and made Dingle Bank's grounds even more beautiful by creating a one-mile walk around the property lined with Japanese looking trees and plants, and arbours with seats overlooking the river. Unfortunately, although a large family, a number of the Croppers were to die prematurely, Isabella herself died tragically young, as did Edward's second wife, Margaret (the daughter of the anti-slavery campaigner, Zachary Macaulay) and their son Charles. James' daughter, Eliza, was also to die young and there are a large number of letters from James Cropper to Eliza and/or her husband Joseph Sturge concerning family news, business affairs, and their Quaker faith. The Croppers were a leading Quaker family, and tended to marry into families with similar beliefs to their own. Both Isabella and Anne Wakefield, who married Edward and John respectively came from ardent Quaker families. However, much to Anne's displeasure, four of her daughters were to marry ministers of the Church of England. The collection contains a wealth of their letters containing great detail about their life at Dingle Bank. Perhaps, the most charming are those written by James' young grandson, also called James (1823-1900) to his parents, brothers and sisters, and grandparents at Dingle Bank.

The last members of the Cropper family left Dingle Bank in 1920 when the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board terminated the lease, and it became the site of a Shell oil storage installation.