Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

SHERYLLYNNE HAGGERTY
ford & Co., and they set up their offices in St George’s Street. 54 Under
the terms of the partnership document, one of the three men was to
be resident in Liverpool at any one time and to conduct the business
of the house there: ‘that is to accept and pay all bills that may be
drawn on the House here for the payment of negroes they may dispose
of . . . and Negociate [sic] all Bills the House here may remit to
them and to dispose of all produce that they may ship.’ All commissions
were to be shared equally between them. 55 Blundell junior took
up this post first. This may have been because of increasing tensions
between the partners, as matters with Blundell senior remained unresolved.
Almost immediately Blundell junior took advantage of this
situation to help out his father. Without the agreement of the
Rainfords in Kingston, or even notifying them, Blundell junior gave
his father £6,676 3s.6d. in four separate payments be tween November
1789 and July 1791. These were not payments for services or goods,
but money ‘advanced by him to his father’. 56 Indeed, it could have
been more, as Berry and Parke, attempting to sort out the Rainfords’
estates in 1804 noted: ‘As to What Amount J. B. Junr has drawn out
of the Concern, we are at a loss to know.’ 57 Robert Rainford obviously
felt that Blundell junior had misappropriated these funds, as well
as the house’s accounts, noting that the profits were to be ‘equally
divided amongst the Parties concerned’ and that the books belonged
to the firm, not to Jonathon Blundell [junior] alone. 58 By 1796 Blun -
dell junior had set up in business with his father at 1 Canal, as a coal
office. He was also listed alone at the St George’s address, as well as
Rainford & Co. 59 While there is nothing unusual in this in itself, in
light of the other evidence, it appears that Blundell junior really went
back to Liverpool to look after his own interests, at the expense of
those of his partners. Edward Chaffers, in an undated note to Chan -
54 John Gore (ed.), Liverpool Trade Directory for 1796 (Liverpool, 1796).
55 [Copy of] Memorandum of an agreement . . . 13 July 1789, 920 CHA/1/36,
PEC.
56 Rainford, Blundell & Rainford Account with Blundell, Rainford & Co,
Liverpool [n.d.], 920 CHA/1/21, PEC; Samuel Rainford, Jonathon Blundell
& Robert Rainford to Blundell, Rainford & Co., Kingston, 9 June 1798, 920
CHA/1/25, PEC.
57 Berry & Parke to Edward Chaffers, 22 Mar. 1804, 920 CHA/1/14, PEC.
58 Robert Rainford to Edward Chaffers, 13 July 1801, 920 CHA/1/30 PEC.
59 Gore (ed.), Liverpool Trade Directory for 1796.
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