On 27th February, Jim Kenny (who writes for 'Bygone Liverpool' under the name Glen Huntley) gave us a fascinating Zoom talk. He explained the origins of the pedimented gateway that stands in Halewood Road, within the perimeter fence of the Woodsome Park apartments - formerly the site of the Gateacre Hall Hotel.

The nickname 'The Slave Gate' arose because, right from the start, it was claimed to have been connected with Liverpool's slave trade. Jim's researches - outlined in our last Newsletter - have convincingly demonstrated that it was removed from the Merchants' Coffee House in George's Dock Gates (alongside St Nicholas's churchyard) in 1883 when that building was demolished to allow the road to be widened.

In September 1883 an article in the Liverpool Mercury claimed that "the Merchants' Coffee House must be for ever memorable in the wider history of the nation at large as being the place where the last African slave was sold in England". A year later, a book entitled 'Liverpool and Slavery: An Historical Account of the Liverpool African Slave Trade' was published. Its author, using the pseudonym 'A genuine Dicky Sam', wrote that he 'recollected' an advertisement from the Liverpool Chronicle: "A fine negro boy, to be sold by auction. He is 11 years of age; the auction will take place at the Merchants' Coffee House, Old Church Yard. Sale to commence at 7 o'clock, by candle light. By order of Mr Thomas Yates, who hath imported him from Bonny". A later author, Gomer Williams, referred to the same advertisement in his book 'History of the Liverpool Privateers and … Slave Trade' (1897). He mentioned it alongside other slave auction advertisements from the period 1757-58.

The 'Bygone Liverpool' book - 'Liverpool's Slave Gate' - co-authored by Jim Kenny, lists a number of similar advertisements from the 18th century, proving that slaves were regularly sold in Liverpool (at least until the celebrated 'Somersett ruling' of 1772). There was, however, no slave 'market'. They would mostly have been ad hoc sales of 'privilege' slaves which had been given to ships' officers by the vessel's owner by way of thanks for a successful voyage. They were valued as house servants - and fashionable status symbols - by wealthy merchants.

What the 'Bygone Liverpool' team have discovered - but previous writers overlooked - is that the Merchants' Coffee House was, between about 1720 and 1767, the name of an establishment in Dale Street. The building at George's Dock Gates/Old Churchyard was, from its construction in 1756 until 1773, known as the Bath Coffee House, with a saltwater bath in the basement fed by the tidal waters of the River Mersey. The auctions of slaves, therefore, must have taken place at the Merchants' Coffee House in Dale Street. Jim Kenny's theory is that 'Dicky Sam' added the words 'Old Church Yard' to the alleged advertisement (the original of which has never been discovered) because the demolition of that building had recently been in the news.