Hardman Earle

Sir Hardman Earle, 1st Baronet (11 July 1792 – 25 January 1877) was a British railway director and slave owner. Earle owned plantations and enslaved people in what is now modern-day Guyana. He bought shares in the Liverpool to Manchester railway line and became a director of the company, which later amalgamated into the London and North Western Railway.

Early life
Earle was born on 11 July 1792. He was the fourth son of the slave trader, Thomas Earle. He was named after Sir John Hardman, an MP, slaver and owner of Allerton Hall. Earle attended Charterhouse School, then located in Charterhouse Square, London.

Cotton trading and slavery
In 1812, Earle became a partner in a Liverpool trading business, Salisbury Turner & Earle, where he was responsible for all cotton trading. He owned plantations and slaves in what is now Guyana. His family were steeped in the slave trade, his father, Thomas Earle, grandfather William Earle and great grandfather John Earle all having been slave traders. In 1833, slave ownership was abolished in the British colonies and with the Slave Compensation Act 1837, the British Government compensated the owners who were forced to free enslaved people. Hardman Earle was awarded £19,000, around £2.5m in 2020 money, in compensation; the former captives were not awarded anything. He received compensation for freeing enslaved people on the following plantations: Lynch's Estate, Blizards, Bodkin's (St Paul), Thibou's Estate, Gunthorpe's (St Georges) and Manning's Estate.

Salisbury Turner & Earle was a founder member of the Liverpool Cotton Brokers' Association, now the International Cotton Association, and Earle served as president in 1849.

Railway director
Earle was best known as a railway investor and executive. He had previous been a canal shareholder, but sold up and bought shares in the planned Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), joining his relative Charles Lawrence on the board of directors. A family legend claimed that he made the investment after personally walking the entire route to assess its prospects. He subsequently promoted the Grand Junction Railway which amalgamated with the L&MR and the London to Birmingham line to become the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). He was a senior director there, but suffered defeat in his 1857 campaign to protect the position of his Grand Junction colleague Francis Trevithick. He was an active member of the North Union Railway board which also became part of the L&NWR. He remained an active member of the LNWR board of directors until his death, when he was thought to be the oldest such official in the UK.

Religion and politics
Earle served as a churchwarden in the Liverpool parishes of St Peter's and St Nicholas and as a Liverpool JP. In 1869, he was awarded a baronetcy for his services to the Liberal Party.

Earlestown
Earlestown in Newton-le-Willows is named after him, because he was the director of the LNWR responsible for the consolidation of the company's wagon works there and for building the new housing required by the expansion.

Allerton Tower
Earle bought part of the Allerton Hall Estate and on it built a mansion called Allerton Tower. It was a grand Italianate building with a tower, designed by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes. The mansion was demolished and only associated buildings remain. The locality has now become Allerton Tower Park.

Personal life
Earle married Mary Langton of Kirkham on 24 August 1819. He enjoyed fox hunting and continued in this pursuit until he died at the age of 84. Mary died in 1850 aged 52; Hardman died on 25 January 1877. Both were buried at St Peter's Church, Woolton, Liverpool. One son was the soldier William Earle CB (1833 – 1885), another Hardman joined Salisbury Turner & Earle but died young, while the baronetcy went to Thomas.