The Early Coal Magnates

IN the early eighteenth century the most important coalowners on the western side of the St. Helens-Prescot coalfield were the Cases of Redhasles. They held the manor of Huyton and, by intermarriage with the Ogles of Whiston, they had come into possession of that manor and its important coal measures. ¹ In 1701 a Jonathan Case figured prominently in a petition of rock salt proprietors interested in the Cheshire trade, ² and in 1714 he was partner in a Huyton colliery supplying the great salt proprietors Sir Thomas Johnson and John Blackburne. Significantly, as will appear, there were also among the colliery’s customers a Mr. Clayton and other owners of the ship called the “ Clayton Galley ”. ³