Background
Author: Nev. Ramsden
The Fisher family of Whitehaven & Liverpool
The family name of Fisher is probably the most populous name amongst the merchant families of Whitehaven, with 670 entries in the parish registers of Whitehaven before the year 1838.
There are six Fisher families that have been identified as Merchants in the literature who are all descendants of Thomas & Elizabeth [Pearson] Fisher of Whitehaven, they are:
1. John Fisher - 1718 – 1755
2. Robert Fisher - 1749 – 1845
3. Thomas Fisher - 1750 – 1810
4. Wilson Fisher - 1774 – 1844
5. John Fisher - 1778 –
6. Thomas Fisher - 1815 – 1906
Also there is a family of Merchants who are descendants of Henry & Margaret [Lowes] Fisher of St.Bees parish:
a. Henry Fisher - 1776 – 18??
In 1845 the fortunes of the Whitehaven Fisher family became entwined with the Brocklebank family, when:-
DECEMBER 1845 - The London Gazette - Promotions.
Thomas Fisher, of Standfield, near Liverpool, merchant, only son of Wilson Fisher, of Keekle, Cumberland, merchant, in compliance with a condition in the last will and testament of his maternal uncle, Thomas Brocklebank, to take and use the surname of Brocklebank instead of Fisher, and to take the arms of Brocklebank.
Brocklebank Line of Liverpool
1819 Thomas Brocklebank moved to Liverpool from Whitehaven and an office for the Thomas and John Brocklebank shipping company was opened there in 1822. His brother John remained in Whitehaven to run the Bransty shipyard and the ropery.
1829 The Brocklebank’s began trading to China but on an irregular basis.
1831 John Brocklebank was killed by a fall from his horse. Thomas Fisher moved to Liverpool to assist his uncle, Thomas Brocklebank, in the family business.
1843 Thomas made his nephew, Thomas, and his cousin, Ralph, partners in the firm.
1844 The fleet had reached its highest number, comprising fifty vessels.
1845 Thomas Fisher changed his name to Thomas Fisher Brocklebank
1865 The Whitehaven shipyard was closed and larger iron/steel sailing ships were bought mainly from Harland and Wolff, Belfast.
A major source of Whitehaven Brocklebank information, then see: Brocklebanks 1770 to 1950 by John Frederick Gibson, in two volumes, published by Henry Young & Sons in 1953.
The Whitehaven Defence Committee 1778
…… all those who incline to aid and assist, in this laudable Scheme, are desired to pay their respective Contributions at Mr. HAILES's Coffee-Room, where the COMMITTEE attend from Eleven o'Clock in the Forenoon 'till One in the Afternoon, and from Six 'till Eight in the Evening, until the same be closed. Whitehaven, 29 Apr 1778.
Signed: Robert Fisher, Thomas Hartley, Henry Littledale, Henry Littledale, Peter John Heywood, Isaac Stephenson, John Tate, John Sarjeant, George Stalker, John Barnes, Samuel Potter, John Wilson.
London Gazette, May 1793 - Robert Fisher & Henry Bragg, Merchants of Whitehaven were declared bankrupt.
Whitehaven Archive – Reference YDX 71/4 or the Alternative ref. DX 414
Title Copy of Court Roll (Manor of St Bees): Admittance of Robert Fisher, eldest son and heir of John Fisher deceased (by Mary Fisher, widow, his mother and guardian),
Description:- to a messuage and tenement at 38a King Street, containing 11 yards 2 feet 8 inches in front and 32 yards backwards to Chapel Street, adjoining Isaac Kelsick's tenement on the north-east. Yearly rent 4s 1d, now in the Lord's hands upon the death of John Fisher. Triple rent is payable as fine for admittance and every 21 years from 17 October 1689; suit of court and lord's will only.
Marginal notes: Last Admittance 20 July 1751, for Number 38a King Street .
Date 25 Feb 1761
Miles Ponsonby, Esq. of Hale Hall, married Catharine, daughter of Wilfred Clementson Esq. of Cockermouth, and had issue.
There was no surviving male heir for the family; so Dorothy the third daughter of Miles Ponsonby of Hale, who had married John Fisher Esq. of Whitehaven, who in her own right, and under the will of his father-in-law, John Fisher assumed the surname of Ponsonby. John & Dorothy had six children, including a Miles, who became the heir to his father.