The Watts: Rising Fortunes

Richard Watt I (1724–96), a former hackney-carriage driver, owned a plantation in Jamaica and acted as an estate manager – then known as an attorney – on others.

He returned briefly to Liverpool in 1769, where he set up a lucrative trading house for Jamaican goods.

Settling finally in Britain in 1782, he set himself up as a considerable landowner. That year, he bought Oak Hill House, Liverpool and Bishop Burton estate, east Yorkshire. In 1795, he purchased Speke but never actually lived there.

The Oak Bedroom at Speke Hall | © National Trust Images/Andreas von Einsiedel

Watts and slave ownership

Although Richard expressed concern about the brutality of plantation slavery, he nonetheless went on to invest in three slaving voyages in the 1760s and 70s.

In 1793, he bought a slaving ship which transported 549 African people to Jamaica. Of these, 539 survived the journey.

His ownership of slaves in Jamaica is detailed in his will of 1796 which lists ‘Negroes and other Slaves together with the issue offspring and increase of the Females of such Slaves.’

Richard Watt III

Richard Watt III (1786–1855) was the great-nephew of the first Richard Watts. He was brought up at Bishop Burton to enjoy the advantages of wealth and privilege.

On inheriting Speke in 1807, he set about restoring it from the neglect of his Watt predecessors to ‘true Baronial Magnificence’, however, he abandoned the work before completion.

Abolition and compensation

Showing little interest in his slave-worked Jamaica estates, Richard was happy to leave them in the hands of attorneys. On the abolition of slavery in the 1830s, Richard was awarded £4,485 4s 9d (just under £600,000 at today’s value) for the manumission of 256 enslaved African people.

This money was, through subsequent generations, spent on renovating Speke Hall as well as on the built heritage (often through philanthropy) of Liverpool itself.