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Sir Thomas Johnson

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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SIR THOMAS JOHNSON (1664-1729), English merchant, was born in Liverpool in November 1664. He succeeded his father in 1689 as bailiff and in 1695 as mayor. From 1701 to 1723 he represented Liverpool in parliament, and he was knighted by Queen Anne in 1708. He effected the separation of Liverpool from the parish of Walton-on-the-Hill; from the Crown he obtained the grant to the corporation of the site of the old castle where he planned the town market; while the construction of the first floating dock (1708)(1708) and the building of St Peter's and St George's churches were due in great measure to his efforts. He was interested in the tobacco trade; in 1715 he conveyed 130 Jacobite prisoners to the American plantations. In 1723, having lost in speculation the fortune which he had inherited from his father, he went himself to Virginia as collector of customs on the Rappahannock river. He died in Jamaica in 1729. A Liverpool street is named Sir Thomas Buildings after him.