Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlv. (1901), No. 8. 15 



Mr. John Livesey, of the well-known Blackburn family of 

 that name, was living in Douglas at this time. He is 

 somewhat ill-naturedly alluded to by Colonel Townley : — * 



" I saw that very extraordinary personage Mr. John Livesey, of Black- 

 burn, on the opposite side of the harbour, near the Douglas head coffee-house, 

 where he resides ; (& has resided for a considerable time) under the name of 

 Warren ; but I find most people here know his real name, as well as his real 

 character. He gave a dinner, yesterday, to a party of gentlemen." 



There were tvv^o main factions in Isle of Man society at 

 this time, and as the Island was a favourite subject for 

 " book-makers," it was the object of each side to capture 

 one of these peripatetic critics as he arrived, and so lead 

 him to endorse their views and actions. Speaking 

 candidly, Colonel Townley seems to have fallen into the 

 hands of the Philistines, at least as viewed by Captain 

 Cable and his friends ; consequently, they make extremely 

 different estimates of the same people. It is gratifying 

 to find that the statements of our hero, Captain Cable, 

 have been endorsed by a subsequent and authorita- 

 tive writer, who says of Townley 's Journal (the chronicle 

 of the opposite faction), that it is a " trivial record 

 of little things," and that " it is difficult to make 

 out why it was ever v/ritten." The friendship between 

 Cable and Philips and Livesey endured for many years, 

 as will subsequently be seen. Livesey belonged to the 

 family ot Liveseys who took such a notable part in the 

 history of calico printing in Lancashire. I learn from 

 Abram's History of Blackburn that they were a collateral 

 branch of the Liveseys, of Livesey, a territorial family 

 known in Lancashire in the thirteenth century, who held 

 land by grant of Henry III. Mr. John Livesey, like his 

 brother Thomas, began trading at Blackburn, and in 1780, 

 founded the firm of Livese}-, Hargreaves, Anstie, Smith, 

 and Hall, and started a print works at Mosney. The 



* Tour in the Isle of Man, 



