This area of Old Swan was flat prosperous farm land, with many quarries for the local red sandstone, and being only 3-4 miles from the busy port of Liverpool, was an ideal location for the building of large houses and mansions in the 18th and 19th century. They were often built or occupied with the 'new money' of self made merchants, rather than the 'old money' aristocracy. Those built in the 1700s frequently were built out of the profits of plantations in the Caribbean and the exploitation of the slave workers. An example of one such dwelling was Oak Hill House, built in 1773 and got it's name from the fact that many of the oak trees that stood in 'The Ladies Walk', near Old Hall Street, were brought here after it's demolition in 1778. Examples of grand property that stood there include, May Place; Highfield House; Firgrove House; Moss farm estate; Moss House; Larkill Mansion; Tuebrook villa; Tuebrook farm; Alderhey and the one chosen here, Oak Hill House.
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| Richard Watt 1 |
Richard Watt 1, a former hackney-carriage driver, was born at
Shevington, near Wigan, in 1724. Arriving in Jamaica before 1751,
probably in the mid to late 1740s he partnered with Alexander Allardyce
in owning a large-scale plantation as well as being estate manager for
John Ellis on his Montpelier estate, for Samuel Riley on Riley's estate
and also for the Milner family on Wheelerfield. Returning to Liverpool in
1769 he set up a lucrative trading house for Jamaican goods before
returning to Jamaica in 1772. His Liverpool trading house continued to
import goods from Jamaica, in partnership with Richard Savage, then later
with his nephew Richard Watt and Thomas Rawson, between 1742 and 1818
followed by a partnership with his nephew Richard Walker. His finances
suffered in the downturn of the late 1770s, in particular from the
bankruptcy of the Liverpool merchant John Dobson. Returning to Britain
in 1782 he purchased Oak Hill House at Old Swan near Liverpool in 1782
or 1783 and also a large estate at Bishop Burton in east Yorkshire.
This 40 acre estate and handsome Mansion house had stabling, pleasure grounds, outbuildings including a Gardener's House, with a walled garden and Vineriea. Richard lived here at Oak Hill House and his nephew Richard junior based
himself at Bishop Burton. He also purchased Speke Hall in November 1795,
a year before his death, for £73,500, but continued to live at Oak Hill
House.
Francis Watt, often referred to as 'Francis Watt of
Ottringham', was the son of Richard Watt II and younger brother of
Richard Watt III. He was born in 1787 in Liverpool and baptised at St
Thomas church on the 22nd of March 1787, but spent his childhood in the East
Riding of Yorkshire. When he came of age in 1808, he inherited the
estate at Ottringham, in Holderness, East Yorkshire, from his father and
he also inherited Richard Watt senior's house at Oak Hill, and
other property in Liverpool. He probably sold Oak Hill in the early
1820s and certainly Sir John Tobin, the ex-slave captain and pioneer
palm oil trader, was living there by 1827. Sir John Tobin was born Isle
of Man and by the 1790s was a master, operating in the slave trade
between Africa and the Caribbean', and also operated as a privateer in
the early years of the war with France. In 1798 he married 1798 Sarah
Aspinall, daughter of James Aspinall, also a prominent Liverpool
slave-trader. A Lord Mayor of Liverpool he was knighted in 1820 and
built Liscard Hall in 1835.
The final resident was Edward Chaloner a timber merchant who was also a benefactor of Catholic building projects, including the schools at St Oswald’s Old Swan and St Vincent de Paul, Liverpool. He also donated the land where St Oswald's Church is now built. He marrried Katherine Amelia Dale in 1830 and they appeared to be very well off, living in grand style in their large home Oak Hill House which was eventually demolished at the end of the 19th Century.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2022/10/historic-liverpool-dwellings-spekelands.html
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