William Earle (slave trader)

He was to proceed from the Isle of Man to Old Calabar and then "to barter our cargoe as per invoice annexed for slaves and elephants teeth.

[6] William Earle in his correspondence referred to slave traders, who bought and sold people for enslavement from the Bight of Biafra, as "Bite Men".

[8] The "Bite Men" were responsible for transporting almost 900,000 people to America between the 1740s and 1807, when abolition led to the end of the British slave trade.

These men were William Davenport who partnered with him 50 times, Patrick Black, Nehemiah Holland, Robert Jennings and Ambrose Lace.

[12] His slaving career lasted almost 40 years from the sailing of Lucy in June 1748 to the return to Liverpool of the Maria in May 1787.

This connected him to two other slave traders, John Copeland and Robert Jennings, who had each married a Wynstanley sister.

[14] Ann Wynstanley was a widow whose attractions included a substantial dowry to add to what William had been able to save from his five years as a ship's captain.

[15] Earle was living in Water Street in 1760, a residence in the business centre of Liverpool with accompanying inns, taverns and coffee houses.

[16] The residence was used as his counting house; his clerks worked there, and he offered merchants a room to live in while they were doing business in Liverpool.

[16] Earle was a sufferer from gout, which confined him to his room for ten days or more three times between January 1760 and September 1761.