Background
Author: Nev. Ramsden
The Lutwidge Family of Whitehaven
Walter Lutwidge was a prominent merchant in Whitehaven gaining most of his fortune from the tobacco trade in the early 18th century. He came to Whitehaven with possibly two brothers from Ireland and was master of a tobacco ship in about 1708. He ended up with at least half a dozen ships and interest in many others.
His mansion stood at the comer of Lowther Street and Scotch Street, was built upon a site granted by James, subsequently Sir James Lowther, November 24th 1716. It extended seventy-five yards back to the plot of land then belonging to William Ferryes, the builder and owner of the mansion commonly known as the " Cupola." The front into Lowther Street had a length of 44 yards.
Not as large as the Cupola in the foreground, as seen on the 1738 view from Matthias Read painting of Whitehaven, the Lutwidge mansion behind was still one of the largest houses in Whitehaven. Although this shows the rear of the house it is clear to see the H shaped layout. The central range provided living accommodation with a central staircase and courtyards front and back where carriages and carts could decant their contents respectively. This is flanked by two large wings - the one on the Scotch Street side isn't heated and was probably a warehouse. The surviving wing provided more storage and office space. The wings actually look longer on the original painting creating a square court. This property was held by the family until May 24th, 1780, when it was sold by Charles, grandson of Thomas, the first owner, with the concurrence of Admiral Skeffington Lutwidge, the last heir of entail, for £1,260, to Sir Joseph Senhouse, then residing at Arkleby Hall.
His business dealings included more than shipping and trading as we know he also helped to establish a factory producing glass bottles. Marked as No.25 on Parr's engraving of Whitehaven, the bottle manufactory can be seen as a building housing the furnace with an attached house or warehouse and was in the area now known as the Ginns.
He also had a share in the Whitehaven Rope Company and by the 1740's accumulated several shops in the town. He had a brother called Thomas who was one of the principal importers of tobacco whose house was where the HSBC bank now is. There was also a James Lutwidge, probably a third brother, a retired sailor who died in 1737. In 1746, when he passed the business to his son also called Thomas, Walter estimated his own fortune at £30,000.
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Walter Lutwidge was one of the Whitehaven merchants with the greatest involvement in the Slave Trade. His letter books offer a valuable insight into his many business ventures. Lutwidge’s interest in the Slave Trade is demonstrated in a letter written to John Hardman of Liverpool in 1749:
“It would not be Disagreeable to me to be concerned a little in the Guinea Trade [slave trade] from your place as I have Ships & no Employment for them that I am at present fond of (I mean the Virginia Trade). I would readily send at least one of them to Guinea in case you should incline to take me in for a share of your cargo as a quarter, third, half or as was most agreeable to your Self you to have the nominating the Captn & other officers as necessary, to be skilled in the Trade, people here being strangers to it”
The letter books contain much more detail about dealing in slaves. They indicate that Lutwidge made three journeys to buy slaves between 1733 and 1737 as he explains in his Scheme of Cargo to purchase 300 Slaves in Angola. The cargo he recommended carrying consisted of a range of goods including guns and a variety of fabrics; Lutwidge advised the value to be expected for each slave would be £6.
Taken from:- Slavery - its Cumbrian Connections – published by the Cumbria Archive Service.
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It is possible to find details of some of the maritime journeys of the Whitehaven mariners in both old newspapers & articles written by historians of maritime history. The following notes concern the early maritime records of Walter Lutwidge are as follows:
“Stranraer [a port town in Wigtownshire, Scotland] Oct. 29. Yesterday came into our Loch the Whitehaven Galley, Burden 150 Tuns, carrying 16 Guns, Walter Lutdwig Master, bound for Jamaica, laden with Beef, Butter, and Tallow, from Dublin, with 40 Servants on board, and will proceed in her Voyage with the first fair wind, they coming here for that intent, this Loch being the best Outlet to the Westward in Britain.” (Supplement, 16–18 November 1709, No. 288);
“Whitehaven, March 24. On the 19th Instant the Whitehaven Galley, laden with Sugar and Indigo, Captain Lutwidge Commander, arrived at Ramsey Bay in the Isle of Man; She sailed from Jamaica on the 6th of February last without any Company, and left three of her Majesty’s Men of War, viz. the Kingston, Portland and Coventry, and four Guinea Ships, at Port-Royal.…” (London Gazette, 28–30 March 1710, No. 4671);
“Whitehaven, May 31. This Morning arrived a Fleet of Light Colliers, being twenty six Sail, from Dublin, under Convoy of the Seaford; And this Evening the Whitehaven Galley, Captain Walter Lutwidge commander, returned hither. In his Passage from hence to the West Indies, he met with a Sloop call’d the Anne of Liverpool, bound home from Fial [Faial (Fayal) Island in the Azores of Portugal] with Brandy, Wine and Sugar; which Sloop had been taken a little before by a Privateer, and mann’d with Frenchmen; he retook her, and brought her in here. The Privateer had put on Board several valuable Parcels of Goods more than her own Cargo, which she designed for France.” (London Gazette, 3–6 June 1710, No. 4700);
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Further reading:
Walter Lutwidge, Merchant of Whitehaven; author Frances Wilkins, Publisher Wyre Forest Press, in Paperback, ISBN10 1897725116
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Walter Lutwidge & family are discussed in:- The Forgotten Trade: Comprising the Log of the Daniel and Henry of 1700 and Accounts of the Slave Trade from the Minor Ports of England 1698-1725 by Nigel Tattersfield, John Fowles (ISBN: 9780712673433)