John Cropper

Liverpool merchant, awarded the compensation for three estates on St Vincent (two as mortgagee, one as joint owner), and with James France France (q.v.) awarded the bulk of the compensation for the enslaved people on in Clarendon Jamaica as trustees of Thomas France (probably his brother-in-law): the other part of the compensation in this Jamaica award went to Samuel Poole (q.v.). Probably the John Cropper baptised a Unitarian in Liverpool to Thomas and Sarah Cropper on 06/06/1773 and if so then the brother of Nathaniel Bassnet Cropper (q.v.) with whom John Cropper of this entry was associated in some of his compensation claims.

1. In December 1815 James France France, John Cropper and Jonathan Brooks were identified as executors of Thomas France in an announcement by them and the partners in Fletcher, France Yates & Co. (Thomas Fletcher, Joseph Brooks Yates, Samuel Poole junior and John Henry Mathews) of the dissolution of the partnership by virtue of Thomas France's death the previous January, and the continuation of the business by Fletcher, Yates and Poole.

2. John Cropper of Liverpool was listed as a subscriber to Charles Shephead's An Historical Account of the Island of Saint Vincent, published in 1832.

3. In 1851 John Cropper aged 77 retired merchant born Liverpool was living at Netherfield Road Everton with servants. This John Cropper was shown in 1827 as merchant 7 Netherfield Rd North, office 11 Basnett Street. Will of John Cropper gentleman of Everton proved 12/06/1855. Under the will John Cropper left £3000 each to five nieces (Sarah Currie, Ellen France, Frances Sandys, Marianne France and Caroline Hamilton) and £6000 each to two other nieces (Elizabeth Percival and Harriet Swainson). His residual legatees were the Rev. Thomas France of Davenham and Henry Hayhurst France of Leamington.

4. Will of Thomas France of Bostock Cheshire proved 11/03/1815. Thomas France (then Hayhurst) married Elizabeth Cropper 16/8/1787 at St Thomas Liverpool.

5. NB this is not the son of the anti-slavery activist James Cropper (1773-1840), whose son John Cropper (1797-1874) was too young to have been an executor in 1815. With James Cropper, Edward Cropper and Robert Benson, John Cropper (1797-1874) was a partner in Jones Hodgson, which all four left 31/12/1831, when it was continued by William Jones and Adam Hodgson. Cropper, Benson & Co. (q.v.), was shown at Paradise Street Liverpool in 1827, when its partners' private address was shown at Dingle Bank, Toxteth Park, where John Cropper of the anti-slavery family died in 1874.

T71/915 Clarendon claim nos. 145A &B; T71/892 St Vincent claim nos. 598A & B (Bostock), 639 (Mount Hope) and 695 (Mt Pleasant). The link between the 'John Cropper' in Jamaica and the John Cropper in St Vincent is suggested by the Fletcher of Northwich Collection in the Cheshire and Chester Local Archives, in which 'John Cropper' or 'J. Cropper' appears as (1) executor of the will of the husband of Harriet Littledale [James France France's sister] with James France France; (2) 'business associate' of James France France (3) executor of John Lowe of the island of St Vincent (4) the uncle of Fanny Sandys and Marrianne [sic] France. More circumstantially: (a) the address of the office of the John Cropper of the Jamaican award, on Basnett Street may be connected, with the name of the partner in St Vincent, N[athaniel] Basnett Cropper; (b) one of the St Vincent estates was Bostock Park, the name of the Cheshire seat of the France family. An unsourced online genealogical source says that John, the brother of Nathaniel Basnett Cropper of St Vincent (1772-1845), 'returned to Liverpool by 1830'; Chester and Cheshire Archives and Local Studies Service, Fletcher of Northwich Collection: DFN/2705/116 (1822-1859); DFN/2705/120 (1830-1840); DFN/2705/173 (1814-1837); DFN/2705/176 (1770-1837); James W. Cropper, 14/10/2000 http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CARIBBEAN/2000-10/0971547191 [accessed 19/07/2012]; Ancestry.com, England & Wales, Non-conformist and Non-parochial Registers, 1567-1970 [database online] for the Unitarian baptism to Thomas and Sarah Cropper of John Cropper in 1773 and Nathaniel Bassnet Cropper in 1771..

1. London Gazette, Issue 17093, 23/12/1815, p. 2554.

2. Charles Shephard, An Historical Account of the Island of Saint Vincent (1832) pp. vii-xii.

3. PROB 11/2213; 1851 census online; Gore's Directory, 1827.

4. PROB 11/1566, which describes  the executor simply as John Cropper of Liverpool merchant; Ancestry.com, Liverpool, Lancashire, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1659-1812 [database online].

5. London Gazette, Issue 18916, 13/03/1832. p. 573; Gore's Directory, 1827. Some secondary sources appear to embed this confusion of John Cropper of St Vincent with John Cropper of the Dingle, e.g. "http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/edward-deacon/the-descent-of-the-family-of-deacon-of-elstowe-and-london-with-some-genealogica-cae/page-10-the-descent-of-the-family-of-deacon-of-elstowe-and-london-with-some-genealogica-cae.shtml">http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/edward-deacon/the-descent-of-the-family-of-deacon-of-elstowe-and-london-with-some-genealogica-cae/page-10-the-descent-of-the-family-of-deacon-of-elstowe-and-london-with-some-genealogica-cae.shtml p. 152 [accessed 10/09/2016].