0:00:03 > 0:00:06When we live in a house, we're just passing through.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09People have occupied it before us
0:00:09 > 0:00:12and others will take our place when we leave.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16A hundred human dramas played out in every room.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22Every house in Britain has a story to tell,
0:00:22 > 0:00:27but in this series I'm going to uncover the secret life of just one.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29A single town house here in Liverpool.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39A city that rivalled New York in the 19th century,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43yet, 100 years later, was one of the poorest places in Europe.
0:00:44 > 0:00:49In many ways, 62 Falkner Street is an ordinary house,
0:00:49 > 0:00:53but, as I'll show you, in reality, it is an amazing treasure trove.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59He leaves them not just £100, but also number 62 Falkner Street.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02In March 1885, again in this house,
0:01:02 > 0:01:05he grabbed her by the throat and assaulted her.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07The life that you can see
0:01:07 > 0:01:10recorded in these old documents is extraordinary.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Delving into the archives,
0:01:12 > 0:01:14I'll use the personal histories
0:01:14 > 0:01:17of the residents of this house to reveal the story of Britain
0:01:17 > 0:01:20over almost 200 years.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25It's a period of seismic social change.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27From the early years of Victoria's reign...
0:01:28 > 0:01:30..right through to the present day.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37This episode, a man with a taste for the high life moves in.
0:01:38 > 0:01:43A couple rise from domestic service to fantastic wealth.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45And one resident's journey
0:01:45 > 0:01:48takes him from debtors' prison to a foreign war.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50He's left his children behind.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53HE SIGHS
0:01:53 > 0:01:56I'm going on the ultimate detective hunt
0:01:56 > 0:02:00to uncover lives that haven't been recorded in the history books,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04but which can tell us a new version of our nation's past.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08A new history of Britain, hidden within the walls of a single house.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30Today, Liverpool is a dynamic city of half a million people.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34And, just a mile south of the centre,
0:02:34 > 0:02:36in a quiet, residential district,
0:02:36 > 0:02:38is 62 Falkner Street.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42Gaynor is a working mum.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45I'll bake it. Be ready for around 6pm?
0:02:45 > 0:02:50She lives here with her two children, Rosie and Tom.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55They share the house with a family friend, Kalyn,
0:02:55 > 0:02:56who has a room in the basement.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02Gaynor has agreed to let us into her home to see what stories
0:03:02 > 0:03:04we can find inside it.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09So, Gaynor, how long have you lived here?
0:03:09 > 0:03:12We've lived here since March 2010.
0:03:12 > 0:03:14Do you know much about its history?
0:03:14 > 0:03:17I know that it hasn't always been a single-family dwelling.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19It was flats at one point.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23But I don't know anything about the people who lived here before us.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26What would really surprise you, as we dig up the history of this house?
0:03:26 > 0:03:28What would shock you?
0:03:28 > 0:03:30If any crimes have been committed,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32I think it would shock me and then worry me,
0:03:32 > 0:03:36but I think whatever history is found becomes part of your history
0:03:36 > 0:03:38because you lived where they lived,
0:03:38 > 0:03:40and we are walking on the floors where they walked.
0:03:41 > 0:03:42Um, can I have a look around?
0:03:42 > 0:03:44- Of course.- Thank you.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47Let's start by showing you the front room.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52I think, 100 years ago, this might well have been
0:03:52 > 0:03:54a very formal dining room
0:03:54 > 0:03:55with the kitchen downstairs.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58That's very different from today.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00The kitchen is now on the ground floor.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04And there have been lots more changes over the years.
0:04:06 > 0:04:07Don't be too surprised,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09there are not many original features in the living room.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13- There's no fireplace. So it is...- No cornicing.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16- ..effectively just a white box? - It is a white box.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18- But...- But the sash windows make it all all right.
0:04:18 > 0:04:19Oh, they are wonderful.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23And at the back is a play room for Gaynor's children.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27And above that is another floor
0:04:27 > 0:04:29where the family have their bedrooms.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35From my first look inside Gaynor's house,
0:04:35 > 0:04:36I can already begin to imagine
0:04:36 > 0:04:39how these rooms might have looked in earlier times.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44And how other people might have lived here
0:04:44 > 0:04:46when they had oil lamps and open fires.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53But if I'm going to piece together the stories of those past lives,
0:04:53 > 0:04:54I need to go back...
0:04:56 > 0:04:58..over 200 years
0:04:58 > 0:05:00to before this house was even built...
0:05:02 > 0:05:05..and Liverpool was a town of just 80,000 people.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10Joseph Sharples is an architectural historian
0:05:10 > 0:05:13who can tell me how this street came to be here.
0:05:15 > 0:05:16- Joseph.- David, hello.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18- Very nice to meet you.- And you.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21So, what was here before Falkner Street was built?
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Well, this area of Liverpool was known as Moss Lake Fields.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26This is a map of 1796,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30and here you can see several fields owned by Mr Faulkner.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Winding its way between the fields you can see Crabtree Lane,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35and that's what became Falkner Street.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37Right. So when do we think this house was built?
0:05:37 > 0:05:41Well, it seems that the house was in existence by January 1841.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44We don't know how much a house like this would have cost
0:05:44 > 0:05:47but maybe in the region of £1,000, something like that.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51So, this is a home that's financially out of the reach
0:05:51 > 0:05:54- of 99% of the population? - I should think that's true, yes.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58By the time this house was built...
0:05:59 > 0:06:03..Liverpool was already one of the biggest ports in the British Empire,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05and business was booming.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11The town's new middle class wanted houses away from the slums
0:06:11 > 0:06:13by the docks, and so farmland
0:06:13 > 0:06:19on the outskirts were snapped up by developers and built on, bit by bit.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27So many of these projects were built individually
0:06:27 > 0:06:29and the rest of the street is filled in around them?
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Yes, and this piecemeal development's
0:06:31 > 0:06:32also reflected in street numbering.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36This house was originally number 58, but it's now number 62.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40Because Falkner Street was built without a plan,
0:06:40 > 0:06:43houses had to be renumbered as new ones were added.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47So, knowing that this was once number 58
0:06:47 > 0:06:51is vitally important as I start my investigation.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00Records for the early years of Falkner Street are hard to find,
0:07:00 > 0:07:01but, in a private library,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05I've discovered a rare collection of Victorian trade directories.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09Buried within these pages, I hope,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12is the name of the very first resident of our house.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16This is a copy of Gore's Directory.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19It's a list of all the traders and the merchants
0:07:19 > 0:07:21and the business owners in Liverpool.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25This directory was regularly updated from the 1760s onwards.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29And thanks to Gore's Directory, we can tell exactly
0:07:29 > 0:07:33who's living at 58 Falkner Street in the year 1841,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36because it lists the name Richard Glenton,
0:07:36 > 0:07:41and it tells us that he is working for Her Majesty's Customs.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44With the help of the census also of 1841,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47we can learn a little bit more about Richard Glenton,
0:07:47 > 0:07:50because this confirms that he's 45 years old
0:07:50 > 0:07:53and that he's not the only person living at 58 Falkner Street.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58There is no Mrs Glenton on the census,
0:07:58 > 0:08:03but there is someone called Erness Moller a clerk who's 20,
0:08:03 > 0:08:06and a middle-aged woman, Julia Schwind.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09My guess is that they're both lodgers.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14There's also a Katherine Smith, who's just 15 years old.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17The letters "FS" mean female servant,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20which means Richard had a maid,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23as did most middle-class households at the time.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28So from these two documents we can deduce that Richard Glenton
0:08:28 > 0:08:30was the master of his own home,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33that he was wealthy enough to employ a female servant,
0:08:33 > 0:08:37but he appears to be subsidising his lifestyle
0:08:37 > 0:08:40by taking rent from two paying lodgers.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42So it is a bit of a mixed picture.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48Richard certainly had room to spare in his substantial new house.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53The basement would have been where the servant worked,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56in the kitchen and the scullery.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00The ground floor would probably have had a dining room at the front
0:09:00 > 0:09:02and a morning room at the rear. Plus a toilet.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08The first floor rooms are the most expansive.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10At the front would have been a drawing room
0:09:10 > 0:09:13and behind it the master bedroom - Richard's, no doubt.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19Finally, on the top floor, were the bedrooms where Richard's lodgers
0:09:19 > 0:09:21and his servant would have slept.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27Already, though, this house has thrown up its first mystery.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30We know it would have cost about £1,000,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33which was out of the reach of most people.
0:09:33 > 0:09:38So I wonder if Richard Glenton had taken in lodgers to make ends meet,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42especially if his job in customs didn't quite pay enough.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50To find out, I'm following the trail back to where Richard once worked.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57In his day, these docks were the commercial heart of Liverpool.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03Ships from every corner of the globe carried millions of tonnes of cargo
0:10:03 > 0:10:05in and out of here every year.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11But what was Richard Glenton's part in all this?
0:10:13 > 0:10:15I'm hoping that doctor William Ashworth
0:10:15 > 0:10:18from University of Liverpool can tell me.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20- Will.- Hi.- Hi. How are you doing?
0:10:20 > 0:10:25So this is the centre of Liverpool's story, the docks?
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Yeah. By the end of the 18th century, early 19th century,
0:10:28 > 0:10:30Liverpool is beginning to even challenge London
0:10:30 > 0:10:31as the heart of trade.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34What would the docks have looked like when Richard was working here?
0:10:34 > 0:10:39Well, I've got a picture here of the Custom House built in 1839.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41- It was here?- Yeah.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43If you look just to the left of the pump house...
0:10:43 > 0:10:45- Uh-huh.- ..that's where the Custom House was.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48And that's where Richard's spending his career?
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Yeah. The first record of him is from 1832
0:10:51 > 0:10:54and it has him down as a clerk to the register.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56Now there are an array of different clerks.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59They're everywhere. Remember, there's no photocopiers,
0:10:59 > 0:11:00so these guys just sit there
0:11:00 > 0:11:04scribbling and copying documents from the treasury, letters...
0:11:04 > 0:11:07But it looks to me like he was one of the many clerks
0:11:07 > 0:11:11that would keep a register of all the ships coming into the port.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13So, how would Richard have got this job?
0:11:13 > 0:11:17It seems fairly clear that his father was instrumental
0:11:17 > 0:11:19in getting him the job.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21Now, his father was a land surveyor,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25which basically means he's one of the top boys working in the docks.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29This is jobs for the boys, this is not what you know, but who you know.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Yes. The whole of the 18th century is about patronage,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35so this is not unusual.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39When Richard's father, Jonas,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42started work here in the 1790s
0:11:42 > 0:11:46a job in customs was an invitation to line your own pockets.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51Crooked officials took backhanders to turn a blind eye to smuggling,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53and thieving was rife.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59But by the time Richard was a customs clerk
0:11:59 > 0:12:04the government had cracked down on corruption and criminality.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06Jobs for the boys were on the way out,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09promotions were to be strictly on merit,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13and the days of casual bribery were all but over.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18The epitome of the new regime was the Albert Dock,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21which Richard would have seen being built in 1846.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26So where we are now represents that new professional world
0:12:26 > 0:12:28that's developing down here at the docks?
0:12:28 > 0:12:31Yes. We're in a bonded warehouse.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35The idea is that the vessel comes in and is then swiftly off-loaded
0:12:35 > 0:12:37and placed in these warehouses.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39There's bars on the windows.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43- Yes.- The architecture here is specifically designed
0:12:43 > 0:12:47to stop this Wild West world of corruption and backhanders.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49Yes. It's almost like a Victorian prison.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54As a clerk, what's happening to Richard Glenton, personally?
0:12:55 > 0:12:57Not a lot. He remains a clerk.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01We don't know much about him and his attributes,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04but he doesn't seem to go anywhere.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06There's no promotions, no advancement...
0:13:06 > 0:13:10- No.- He doesn't climb the ladder. - If we're to believe that this is
0:13:10 > 0:13:12the start of a kind of new world
0:13:12 > 0:13:15in which meritocracy, for example, is important,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18I get the feeling he's a little bit inept,
0:13:18 > 0:13:21a little bit useless at what he's doing.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23What does that mean for him financially?
0:13:23 > 0:13:26It means he stays at the bottom rung on the wage,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29probably on a salary of about £50 a year.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32A lot more than most people in Victorian Britain,
0:13:32 > 0:13:34but it's not a lot for somebody
0:13:34 > 0:13:37living in a very big house on Falkner Street.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40No. That makes no sense at all if you're looking at purely at him
0:13:40 > 0:13:43- and his income.- So, there's a bit of a mystery there.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45There is a bit of a mystery there. Something else is going on.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52The mystery deepens when you look at the occupations of Richard's
0:13:52 > 0:13:55neighbours on Falkner Street in 1841.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57It certainly tells you a lot
0:13:57 > 0:14:00about their income bracket, compared to his.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06And the expense of a house like this
0:14:06 > 0:14:09wasn't just in the bricks and mortar, of course.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12The interior would have been highly decorated,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16especially the centrepiece of the house, the drawing room.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24I imagine that when Richard Glenton first got the keys to this house,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27this would have been the room that he was most excited to see.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30There were catalogues at the time, just like this one,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33and because Richard was the first owner of this house
0:14:33 > 0:14:37he would have had the chance to have selected the cornicing
0:14:37 > 0:14:39and the other decorative features.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42And the whole idea was to make rooms like this
0:14:42 > 0:14:44into statements about their owners,
0:14:44 > 0:14:47about their refinement and their taste.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53The plaster cornicing would have been elaborately ornate...
0:14:56 > 0:14:58..with a ceiling rose in a matching style.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03And there would have been a fireplace, too.
0:15:03 > 0:15:04Marble, I'd imagine.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09Having personally selected the decor,
0:15:09 > 0:15:13Richard Glenton would, of course, have wanted the furniture to match.
0:15:13 > 0:15:14Now, incredibly,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17by going through the back issues of the Liverpool Mail,
0:15:17 > 0:15:22I found a list of the furniture that Richard Glenton actually owned
0:15:22 > 0:15:23and had in this room.
0:15:23 > 0:15:29There's items like a rosewood couch, Trafalgar chairs and a cheffonier.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Now, I am by no means an expert in Victorian furniture,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36but, to me, none of this stuff sounds like it's going to be cheap.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43I've given the list to Professor Deborah Sugg Ryan,
0:15:43 > 0:15:44a design historian.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48She's come to the Geffrye Museum in London to see what she can discover
0:15:48 > 0:15:53about Richard's lifestyle from the objects in his home.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57Here is somebody who has a very fashionable interior.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00We've got lots of luxurious furniture,
0:16:00 > 0:16:02expensive fabrics,
0:16:02 > 0:16:04and expensive carpet, too.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08This is a Brussels carpet here, like Richard's.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12And they were absolutely the most high-quality kind of carpet
0:16:12 > 0:16:15you could get. This is a card table.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17Richard had a pair of these.
0:16:17 > 0:16:18You pull the legs out.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21The top flips over, and, lo and behold,
0:16:21 > 0:16:25you've got a lovely green baize top for playing cards on.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29I could imagine Richard at this card table, maybe with some friends,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33placing a little bit of a bet and downing a few drinks.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36I think that, you know, it might have got a little bit rowdy.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42The louche bachelor was a favourite figure of fun
0:16:42 > 0:16:46in 19th-century cartoons. So, perhaps, a night of gambling
0:16:46 > 0:16:49with his drinking cronies was Richard's idea
0:16:49 > 0:16:52of an entertaining evening at home.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56And Deborah's found another eye-catching item
0:16:56 > 0:16:57on the furniture list.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02Richard had a couch like this one.
0:17:02 > 0:17:03This is mahogany.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07Richard's was rosewood, which would have been even more luxurious
0:17:07 > 0:17:10and, to my mind, this is somewhere where maybe Richard
0:17:10 > 0:17:13would have entertained his lady visitors.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18The couch is lovely for the female visitor because it accommodates her
0:17:18 > 0:17:21clothing and allows her dress not to be crushed.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24And I can imagine him cosying up to them on the couch,
0:17:24 > 0:17:28poor, lonely bachelor, perhaps, that Richard was.
0:17:35 > 0:17:3958 Falkner Street might have echoed with the shouts
0:17:39 > 0:17:42of rowdy card players and the laughter of female guests, as,
0:17:42 > 0:17:47for three years, Richard enjoyed the lifestyle of a wealthy bachelor...
0:17:50 > 0:17:53..albeit on the salary of a customs clerk.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57But I've found a document that seems to mark a dramatic change
0:17:57 > 0:18:00in Richard's fortunes in 1844.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02It's his father's will,
0:18:02 > 0:18:06still stored in the archives of the Lancashire Record Office.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11And what it shows is that Jonas Glenton left all his money,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14his entire estate, to one of his children,
0:18:14 > 0:18:16and it's not Richard.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18It's his sister Eliza.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23Eliza was unmarried,
0:18:23 > 0:18:27so I can see why Jonas wanted to provide for her future,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31but it speaks volumes, I think, that Richard didn't get a penny.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38From this point, everything begins to unravel for Richard Glenton.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41That list of Richard's furniture
0:18:41 > 0:18:44from the Liverpool Mail now makes perfect sense
0:18:44 > 0:18:47because it's actually an advertisement
0:18:47 > 0:18:49for an auction at 58 Falkner Street.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54But Richard wasn't about to replace all these expensive items,
0:18:54 > 0:18:56he was selling up and moving out,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00or, as the notice puts it, "changing his residence."
0:19:02 > 0:19:05But I think this is the saddest document,
0:19:05 > 0:19:08it's a page from the Liverpool census from 1861.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Now he's living in a much smaller house in Everton,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15a far less prestigious part of the city.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21Richard's departure from Falkner Street just a few months after his
0:19:21 > 0:19:25father's death would seem to solve the mystery of his lavish lifestyle.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31Richard had been living off the bank of Dad,
0:19:31 > 0:19:35and when his father died the party really was over.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Now, there's a lot of people living in a Liverpool of 1844 who are
0:19:41 > 0:19:43far more deserving of our sympathy.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46Richard Glenton's not living in a slum, he's not starving.
0:19:47 > 0:19:52But I can't help still feeling a bit sorry for him,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55cos he's clearly someone who was a bit of a Daddy's boy.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01But he has been, to an extent, humiliated, and been exposed
0:20:01 > 0:20:05to the harshness, the cruelty of Victorian society.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11For him, 58 Falkner Street had been a stage on which he had played
0:20:11 > 0:20:14the role of a man of means.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17A role that he never really had the money to pull off.
0:20:25 > 0:20:26After Richard Glenton,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29the next people to move into 58 Falkner Street,
0:20:29 > 0:20:34in 1844, we think, were James and Ann Orr.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39And James' story starts with a journey.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Liverpool has always been associated with movement and migration.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50This was the port of entry for hundreds of thousands of people,
0:20:50 > 0:20:54from right across the British Empire, from across the world.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58In the 19th century, Liverpool was famous for
0:20:58 > 0:21:02its huge Irish population, but one community who are often overlooked
0:21:02 > 0:21:05in the Liverpool story are the Scots.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10In fact, there were more Scottish migrants in Liverpool
0:21:10 > 0:21:12than in any city outside London.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17And James Orr was one of them, born in Peebles in 1814.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21Now, he appears in Gore's Directory for the year 1847,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24and he's listed here as a gentleman.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27Pretty general catch-all term, and it could mean little more
0:21:27 > 0:21:30than somebody doing a middle-class occupation.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33What we do know about James is that he was 33 years old
0:21:33 > 0:21:36and that, three years earlier, he'd married Ann Waters.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41So, on the face of it, this is a simple, domestic story,
0:21:41 > 0:21:44a nice middle-class couple have got married and they've got themselves
0:21:44 > 0:21:45a nice house.
0:21:45 > 0:21:50But there's one detail about James and Ann that just doesn't fit
0:21:50 > 0:21:51that simple story,
0:21:51 > 0:21:56because their marriage certificate lists their profession as servants.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01We think that James and Ann may have moved into 58 Falkner Street
0:22:01 > 0:22:03as early as 1844,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07because, as a rule, couples had to leave domestic service
0:22:07 > 0:22:09once they got married.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12A house like this would have been a big step up for most
0:22:12 > 0:22:14Victorian newlyweds,
0:22:14 > 0:22:19but for two former servants it seems almost miraculous.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26It's quite easy to imagine James and Ann Orr sitting here
0:22:26 > 0:22:29in what, after all, was their living room,
0:22:29 > 0:22:32enjoying the fact that they could pour cups of tea
0:22:32 > 0:22:36for their guests rather than the guests of some employer.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39So, how on earth did this couple manage
0:22:39 > 0:22:42to change their fortunes so radically?
0:22:42 > 0:22:45We know from the records that both James and Ann had fathers
0:22:45 > 0:22:47who worked as labourers,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50and there's almost no chance that they inherited any money from their
0:22:50 > 0:22:55families. And this document, the Liverpool census from 1841,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59shows them both working as servants in the household of Richard Earl.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01Now, he was a wealthy barrister,
0:23:01 > 0:23:06but there's absolutely no evidence that he left this couple any money
0:23:06 > 0:23:10or property, so you're left to conclude that this scene
0:23:10 > 0:23:15of this middle-class couple pouring cups of tea for the guests
0:23:15 > 0:23:18in their nice, new middle-class home,
0:23:18 > 0:23:22that all of that was down to their own efforts and their own ingenuity.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29The hunt for clues as to how they managed it has to start, I think,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32with James and Ann's time in the service of Richard Earl.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38Richard Earl's household is really quite substantial.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41He's got eight indoor staff and one gardener.
0:23:41 > 0:23:47I think we can assume James Orr is probably something like a butler,
0:23:47 > 0:23:50because he is the oldest male indoor servant.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54He's 25, which seems young now, but in those days would have been
0:23:54 > 0:23:57relatively old in work experience terms.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03It's easy to imagine James serving dinner guests
0:24:03 > 0:24:05or polishing the silver,
0:24:05 > 0:24:10but a butler in the truest sense was much more than just a manservant.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14As a butler, James would also have run the household accounts,
0:24:14 > 0:24:18so he must have been both literate and numerate.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21Someone who has skills in managing other people,
0:24:21 > 0:24:23in James' case, a staff of eight,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26would have had talents which would have been very useful
0:24:26 > 0:24:28in all sorts of jobs in the outside world,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31and the most obvious one is going into the hotel business,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35into guesthouses, innkeeping.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39And a great number of servants, including Mr and Mrs Claridge,
0:24:39 > 0:24:44who set up Claridge's Hotel in London, had come from service.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50So for James, butlering was perhaps like an apprenticeship
0:24:50 > 0:24:51in business management.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56And he must have already taken up a well-paid job when he and Ann
0:24:56 > 0:25:00moved into this house, in 1844, we think.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04But it's not until the next census seven years later
0:25:04 > 0:25:07that we are finally able to discover what James
0:25:07 > 0:25:12was doing that enabled him to live on fashionable Falkner Street.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15This document tells us that his profession by then
0:25:15 > 0:25:18is master of newsroom.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22I think today we presume that this is a journalistic job,
0:25:22 > 0:25:25but if you were involved in the world of business
0:25:25 > 0:25:28in the 19th century, you'd instantly recognise this
0:25:28 > 0:25:30as a managerial job in a gentleman's club.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37Liverpool was becoming evermore prosperous in James Orr's day
0:25:37 > 0:25:40and grand, new buildings were being erected to cater for
0:25:40 > 0:25:43a growing professional class.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Gentleman's clubs were places of business and leisure,
0:25:49 > 0:25:53and there were many, including the Rotunda, where James Orr worked.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59The Athenaeum is one of the last survivors
0:25:59 > 0:26:01from the city's Victorian heyday.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05The current master of the newsroom is Vincent Roper.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08- Vincent.- Good evening. - Good to meet you.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14- Welcome to the Athenaeum. - Thank you very much.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17- Wow.- Impressive, isn't it?
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Vincent, what would a newsroom in a gentleman's club
0:26:20 > 0:26:23have been like in the middle of the 19th century?
0:26:23 > 0:26:25Not very different to this.
0:26:25 > 0:26:26We'd have had newspapers.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28There'd have been a bar.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30There's always a bar.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32And there'd be conversation going on all around us.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35People reading the newspapers, talking, having meetings,
0:26:35 > 0:26:37- discussing business?- Yes.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43Newspapers and magazines were then the only mass medium.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47There were over 50 titles in London alone.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51And clubs like the Athenaeum would have had the latest editions
0:26:51 > 0:26:53sent up overnight by train
0:26:53 > 0:26:58to meet the demands of their news-hungry business clientele.
0:26:58 > 0:26:59Thinking about James Orr,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02do we know what sort of man was recruited,
0:27:02 > 0:27:04what sort of skills they looked for?
0:27:04 > 0:27:08One of my predecessors, Mr Roscoe, the master in 1851,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11wrote down everything you're looking for.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15"The master of the newsroom should be an active and intelligent man."
0:27:15 > 0:27:17Don't look sceptical about that.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21"He should be between 30 to 40 years old.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24"If married, so much the better."
0:27:24 > 0:27:26So, they want stable men, family men.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28- Yes.- So, to have got this job,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31James Orr was clearly a man of some capacity.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34Of sound character.
0:27:34 > 0:27:35He wouldn't get it otherwise.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39It sounds very conceited, doesn't it?
0:27:39 > 0:27:41That's the way it goes.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45In the archives here, they still have an original list of duties
0:27:45 > 0:27:47for the master of the newsroom,
0:27:47 > 0:27:52which include everything from collecting fees to lighting fires.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54Most chillingly, it says his duties start
0:27:54 > 0:27:57- at seven o'clock in the morning. - Yes, but they also...
0:27:57 > 0:27:58They finished at midnight.
0:27:58 > 0:28:04So, he runs this enterprise all day long, from 7am to midnight?
0:28:04 > 0:28:08He's a manager. He is responsible for everything that goes on in here.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13James Orr would probably have earned around £250 a year,
0:28:13 > 0:28:16five times what Richard Glenton earned.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19But his job offered much more than just a good salary.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23So James Orr would have known pretty much everybody
0:28:23 > 0:28:28in Liverpool who was significant, anyone who's a major businessman.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31Yes. Liverpool was maybe one of the richest cities
0:28:31 > 0:28:33in the world at that stage.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36And they would be coming in his club the same as they would be
0:28:36 > 0:28:38coming to the Athenaeum.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42So he has the...the ear of the most powerful men in the city?
0:28:42 > 0:28:45He would have a lot of influence with them as well.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47They would tell him things, they could ask his opinion,
0:28:47 > 0:28:50so he'd have the contacts, if he wanted to use them.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56And James clearly did make the most of his position.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01By 1850, he and Ann could afford a larger house on Falkner Street,
0:29:01 > 0:29:03at number 28.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09And I've found evidence of him taking on new, prestigious roles
0:29:09 > 0:29:11in the world of finance.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15The details are in one of the same papers that would have been
0:29:15 > 0:29:19in James' newsroom. In 1860 the Liverpool Mercury
0:29:19 > 0:29:21reports that James Orr is a trustee
0:29:21 > 0:29:24of the Harrington Permanent Building Society.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26Seven years later, the same newspaper notes
0:29:26 > 0:29:28that he's the treasurer
0:29:28 > 0:29:31of the South Lancashire Permanent Benefit Building Societies.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34Now, these societies were one of the great financial,
0:29:34 > 0:29:37or one of the great social innovations of the 19th century.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41And it seems that James Orr is involved from quite early on.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46Building societies began as savings cooperatives
0:29:46 > 0:29:48for aspiring homeowners.
0:29:48 > 0:29:54They were so successful that the number went up from 250 in 1,800
0:29:54 > 0:29:56to almost 3,000 by 1860.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02James had acquired the skills and the contacts to join the ranks
0:30:02 > 0:30:06of trustees and treasurers, managing other people's money.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09But I think he saw that the new housing market
0:30:09 > 0:30:11held opportunities for him as well.
0:30:13 > 0:30:17This isn't a man who's involved in this world of finance
0:30:17 > 0:30:19just for these glamorous titles.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23I think he's using his growing knowledge to build
0:30:23 > 0:30:27his own fortune and change his own story, because this document,
0:30:27 > 0:30:33from 1874, shows that James Orr is an investor in 18 houses
0:30:33 > 0:30:36just across the Mersey, in Birkenhead.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41Birkenhead was a property hot spot.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43The demand for housing had skyrocketed,
0:30:43 > 0:30:46thanks not least to the growth of the Laird shipyard
0:30:46 > 0:30:49where the latest steamships were being built.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56But there's more to admire in James Orr than just his eye
0:30:56 > 0:30:58for a shrewd investment.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02These same newspapers from the 1860s
0:31:02 > 0:31:06show that he was collecting funds for local charities.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08One that was vaccinating children,
0:31:08 > 0:31:11and another that was helping women trapped in poverty.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18By any standards, the life of James Orr,
0:31:18 > 0:31:22the life that you can see recorded in these old documents
0:31:22 > 0:31:28is extraordinary. He was somebody who found himself in 1844 a servant,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32a man on the wrong side of a social barrier that millions of people,
0:31:32 > 0:31:36no matter how hard they tried, could never even dream of crossing.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39And, yet, when James dies in 1881
0:31:39 > 0:31:45he's able to leave his widow Ann the sum of £16,000.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49Now, there's lots of different ways that we could estimate
0:31:49 > 0:31:51how much that sum is worth today,
0:31:51 > 0:31:55but the most conservative of those estimates puts that amount
0:31:55 > 0:31:59as being worth around £1.5 million.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04The transformation of the life of James Orr and his wife, Ann,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07I think began in those years in Falkner Street.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10And what his life demonstrates
0:32:10 > 0:32:14is that for the very luckiest and the most talented,
0:32:14 > 0:32:18Victorian Britain could be a society in which there were
0:32:18 > 0:32:20phenomenal levels of social mobility.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26This is a journey from the parlour and the kitchen to the boardroom.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28This is a life transformed.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35A transformation was going on in Falkner Street as well.
0:32:38 > 0:32:43When Prince Albert visited Liverpool in 1846 to open the Albert Dock,
0:32:43 > 0:32:45he toured the city's finest sites,
0:32:45 > 0:32:49and his carriage passed right by 58 Falkner Street.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56It was then still part of a new development on the outskirts...
0:32:57 > 0:33:01..but, by the 1850s, there were many more houses on the street,
0:33:01 > 0:33:04and the owners were an even broader mix
0:33:04 > 0:33:06of Liverpool's up-and-coming class.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12After James and Ann Orr,
0:33:12 > 0:33:15we know that a shipping agent called Alexander Gillespie lived there
0:33:15 > 0:33:18briefly in 1851.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20And a single woman Isabella McNeill.
0:33:22 > 0:33:27Then, in 1853, the records show two new residents,
0:33:27 > 0:33:29Eliza and Wilfred Steele.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36Looking at these documents it's possible to come away
0:33:36 > 0:33:38with the impression that Eliza and Wilfred Steele
0:33:38 > 0:33:42are just another young couple moving into one of the posh houses
0:33:42 > 0:33:45on Falkner Street, but if you look a little bit closer
0:33:45 > 0:33:48you realise that isn't the case at all,
0:33:48 > 0:33:50because Eliza isn't Wilfred's wife,
0:33:50 > 0:33:51she's his mother.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54He's just a bachelor, 25 years old.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57And SHE is listed as the head of the household.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00Now, this is another document that helps us paint
0:34:00 > 0:34:03a better picture of the relationship between Eliza and Wilfred
0:34:03 > 0:34:07because this is the will of Wilfred Steele's father,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10and he dies when Wilfred is just a baby.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14So the impression that you come away with is of a woman
0:34:14 > 0:34:17who's brought up her son by herself,
0:34:17 > 0:34:18of a protective mother,
0:34:18 > 0:34:22and of a young man who's going out into the world
0:34:22 > 0:34:23to try to make his fortune.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25The question is what is the profession
0:34:25 > 0:34:28that he's chosen in which he's going to make his fortune?
0:34:30 > 0:34:32Well, I found this tiny clipping.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34It's from a Liverpool newspaper
0:34:34 > 0:34:37called the General Advertiser from 1851,
0:34:37 > 0:34:40and it's an advertisement for an auction that's going to take place
0:34:40 > 0:34:44at the premises of the company Bourne and Steele.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46Now, this document, to me,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49casts Wilfred Steele in a new light
0:34:49 > 0:34:54because what it tells us is that the commodity in which he is trading
0:34:54 > 0:34:57is the most profitable,
0:34:57 > 0:34:59it's the most risky,
0:34:59 > 0:35:03but it's also the most controversial commodity of the age,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06because Wilfred Steele is a cotton broker.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13If the docks were the commercial heart of this city
0:35:13 > 0:35:17in the 19th century, then cotton was its lifeblood.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22A quarter of a million tonnes of raw cotton passed through the port
0:35:22 > 0:35:24of Liverpool each year,
0:35:24 > 0:35:26destined for the giant mills of Lancashire,
0:35:26 > 0:35:30which produced almost half of all the world's cotton cloth.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Most of that cotton came from the slave plantations
0:35:36 > 0:35:38of the American South.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43So although slavery had been abolished in the British Empire,
0:35:43 > 0:35:47it was still at the core of the business that Wilfred Steele was in.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56It was a business worth £70 billion a year in today's money,
0:35:56 > 0:36:01and it put people like Wilfred at the top table of Liverpool society.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08This is the very first time I've been able to look into the face
0:36:08 > 0:36:11of somebody who lived in our house on Falkner Street,
0:36:11 > 0:36:16because this figure on the horse, this is Wilfred Steele.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23His likeness hangs anonymously in the Walker Art Gallery,
0:36:23 > 0:36:25where it's been for the last half-century or so.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31I've been able to identify this as Wilfred Steele from a history
0:36:31 > 0:36:35of Liverpool's early Victorian painters, published in 1904.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39Wilfred was a friend of the artist's wealthy patron,
0:36:39 > 0:36:43but there's no other explanation for why he agreed to pose.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49The picture is an imaginary scene, inspired by a Scottish ballad.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54The woman, Helen, is pregnant with her lover's child,
0:36:54 > 0:36:59but he will not give up his ride for her and she's forced to walk
0:36:59 > 0:37:02alongside his horse across the Highlands.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08This painting was produced in 1856, so Wilfred was in his 20s
0:37:08 > 0:37:13and he was, by then, fully established as a cotton broker in Liverpool.
0:37:13 > 0:37:18So this is how, at the moment he's risen to middle-class status,
0:37:18 > 0:37:20he allows himself to be portrayed,
0:37:20 > 0:37:24as this cruel and callous character from literature.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29Perhaps Wilfred didn't care about the meaning of the painting.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33Perhaps it was enough for him to know he was now mixing
0:37:33 > 0:37:35in the highest circles.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43As a cotton broker,
0:37:43 > 0:37:46this square would have been Wilfred's place of work.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51It's where all of Liverpool's wealthiest businessmen
0:37:51 > 0:37:52would gather to make deals.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57I'm meeting Dr Nigel Hoare to find out exactly
0:37:57 > 0:38:00what Wilfred would have been doing here. Nigel.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02- David, lovely to meet you.- Hi.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04Really good to meet you.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06So, although we're outside in the open air,
0:38:06 > 0:38:08this is a trading floor?
0:38:08 > 0:38:14Yes. Here we have a picture of Exchange Flags in 1847,
0:38:14 > 0:38:17and we can see these splendid, top-hatted gentlemen
0:38:17 > 0:38:19around the memorial.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22Networking is a phrase we would use today.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25So these frock coats and the top hat, that's like the Versace suits
0:38:25 > 0:38:27- of the mid-19th century. - Absolutely, yes.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30You've got to look the part. You've got to look like a merchant.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32Someone like Wilfred Steele, we know he comes from
0:38:32 > 0:38:35quite a humble background, yet he's here parading the Flags
0:38:35 > 0:38:39with the wealthy, looking like the wealthy, it's all part of the image
0:38:39 > 0:38:41for an up-and-coming and aspiring cotton broker.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46Exchange Flags was Liverpool's Wall Street at a time
0:38:46 > 0:38:51when the city was a serious rival to New York as a centre of trade.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57And the young Wilfred Steele was poised to make a fortune.
0:38:59 > 0:39:00So he's in the business elite
0:39:00 > 0:39:03- of one of the most dynamic cities in the world?- Yes.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06- It must have been immensely exciting.- Incredibly exciting.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09And particularly at this time in the 1850s when the cotton industry
0:39:09 > 0:39:12is roaring ahead, and booming, and people are making huge profits,
0:39:12 > 0:39:15he must've thought he was made for life.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17It looks like a safe bet, buying cotton.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20- And what happens? - It's not a safe bet.
0:39:20 > 0:39:25One Sunday, in late 1857, a ship arrives with news from America.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29And that news is the banks have closed, there's a run on the banks,
0:39:29 > 0:39:33the stock market's crashing, the price of cotton is collapsing.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36Come Monday in Liverpool, and the market opens...
0:39:36 > 0:39:38- All hell breaks loose. - Turmoil, pandemonium,
0:39:38 > 0:39:40they can't even quote the price of cotton.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44Within weeks, the price of cotton falls by 40%.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48So Wilfred Steele, a bright young thing, what happens to him?
0:39:48 > 0:39:52Anybody holding cotton would have been ruined in that situation.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54And on the 6th of November 1857,
0:39:54 > 0:39:58Wilfred Steele is listed as being out of business.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01- He's gone bust.- It looks that way.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03And it gets even worse for him.
0:40:03 > 0:40:05The 10th of November,
0:40:05 > 0:40:08we find Wilfred Steele has been sent to Lancaster gaol,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11and that's a debtors' prison for Liverpool.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13So one month he's a cotton trader.
0:40:13 > 0:40:15Well, a city trader, effectively.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17The next month he's literally in the nick.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19He's finished. Absolutely finished.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30It must have felt to Wilfred like a very long fall from the comfortable
0:40:30 > 0:40:32surroundings of Falkner Street
0:40:32 > 0:40:35to the harsh confines of Lancaster gaol.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40And anyone sent to a debtors' prison in Victorian times
0:40:40 > 0:40:44would have had to stay there until they'd cleared their debts,
0:40:44 > 0:40:47or reached a deal to have them wiped out.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52Wilfred Steele suffered this terrible reversal of fortunes.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54I imagine he's feeling sorry for himself,
0:40:54 > 0:40:55and I think he has reason to.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58A Victorian debtors' prison is an appalling place.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02I really wish I could feel sorry for Wilfred Steele, but I don't.
0:41:04 > 0:41:05The cotton bales that land in Liverpool,
0:41:05 > 0:41:09the last hand to have loaded them on a ship in New Orleans
0:41:09 > 0:41:12is that of a black person who is a slave.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19It's a profession that's steeped in blood and exploitation
0:41:19 > 0:41:20and evil, and he's part of it.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31It might be a worthy fate for Wilfred to be languishing in jail,
0:41:31 > 0:41:35but I need to know how long he was there and what happened to him next.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41I'm hoping I can find the answers in Liverpool Central Library,
0:41:41 > 0:41:44which houses the city's record office.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47- Laura. Hi.- Lovely to meet you.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51I found Wilfred after he left jail,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54so he clearly managed to pay his way out eventually.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57And in 1859 he's living in Percy Street in Liverpool,
0:41:57 > 0:42:00which was actually his mother's address.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04And he marries this widow Marian Elizabeth Clegg.
0:42:04 > 0:42:06- A widow at just 28.- Mm.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12So Wilfred's life had taken some dramatic twists
0:42:12 > 0:42:14in just a few short years.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16From Falkner Street to jail,
0:42:16 > 0:42:21then back to living with his mother at a new address, and now married.
0:42:22 > 0:42:27Marian Clegg's first husband Edward had been a pharmacist.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30He had died of scarlet fever in November 1858,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33leaving Marian with two young daughters.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37Wilfred married her just four months later
0:42:37 > 0:42:41and settled with his ready-made family in the new industrial town
0:42:41 > 0:42:44of Widnes, 12 miles upriver from Liverpool.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51But there's a final piece in the puzzle of his hasty marriage
0:42:51 > 0:42:53that Laura has managed to uncover.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57And it links Wilfred, his new wife, and her first husband.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02What's really interesting is that Edward Turnbull Clegg
0:43:02 > 0:43:08was in debtors' prison at the same time as Wilfred.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12Right. So, he's married a widow with two very young daughters,
0:43:12 > 0:43:15and their father was somebody he'd met in prison.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18- Yeah. That's what it looks like. - It's a bit EastEnders so far.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21Yes, yeah! Well, maybe he was doing the chivalrous thing
0:43:21 > 0:43:26and looking after this young family that he's taken pity on.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30We've got the family together in the 1861 census,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33but, interestingly, Wilfred's occupation has changed.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36He's now a clerk in the chemist's trade.
0:43:36 > 0:43:41He's really stepping into the shoes of her dead husband.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43- Basically, yes. - It's all a bit dubious.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47You wonder whether it's opportunistic, but...
0:43:47 > 0:43:50- It seems like he's trying to begin his life again.- Yes. Exactly.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53And there's a young son there as well, Wilfred Augustus,
0:43:53 > 0:43:55who's seven months old.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58- So Wilfred and Marian have had their own child now?- Mm.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00It looks initially like things are looking up for the family,
0:44:00 > 0:44:04but very sadly on 7th October, 1861,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07- Wilfred Junior passes away.- Right.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10He was exactly one-year-old.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15- Died on his birthday. - He died on his birthday, yeah.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18It's a pretty terrible blow for Wilfred.
0:44:18 > 0:44:19Yes. Yes, it must be.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24Wilfred Steele registers the death.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27That's actually the last record that we have of Wilfred
0:44:27 > 0:44:29- in the Liverpool area.- Right.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34Whatever hopes Wilfred might have had of building
0:44:34 > 0:44:36a new life had turned to dust.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39And if he had now left Liverpool,
0:44:39 > 0:44:41I worry what that meant for his young family.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47I have managed to find a couple of records for the two stepdaughters,
0:44:47 > 0:44:49Marian and Frances.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52They're in Kirkdale Industrial School.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54We have actually got a picture of it here.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56It was this huge institution just north of the city,
0:44:56 > 0:44:59built because the workhouse is getting so overcrowded,
0:44:59 > 0:45:02they wanted to move as many children as they could.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04- Workhouse?- Yes.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07- Where the children of the destitute end up?- Mm.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09So this isn't looking good.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14In the 1860s, Kirkdale held over 1,000 children
0:45:14 > 0:45:17in overcrowded and squalid conditions.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22Boys learned trades like tailoring and shoemaking.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28Girls like Marian and Frances were trained for domestic service.
0:45:31 > 0:45:35So we actually find the girls there in 1862.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37Where are they? Here they are.
0:45:37 > 0:45:38Yeah. Steele.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41So there they are listed under their stepfather's surname.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45So they're here because they're orphans?
0:45:45 > 0:45:51Well, this tells us that their stepfather had gone to America.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55- So he's left his children? - He's left them and, yeah...
0:45:59 > 0:46:01He's gone to America. What's the date?
0:46:01 > 0:46:03September 1862.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05So, he's gone to America in 1862
0:46:05 > 0:46:07in the middle of the American Civil War...
0:46:09 > 0:46:12..and he's left his children behind.
0:46:16 > 0:46:17HE SIGHS
0:46:20 > 0:46:24There's nothing in the Kirkdale records to say what happened
0:46:24 > 0:46:28to the girls' mother, Marian, so her fate is a mystery for now.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33But to find that somebody who'd once lived in this house
0:46:33 > 0:46:37was in the United States in the midst of the bloodiest conflict
0:46:37 > 0:46:40in its history is astonishing.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42GUNFIRE
0:46:46 > 0:46:49By the time Wilfred was there, in September 1862,
0:46:49 > 0:46:53America had already been gripped by civil war for more than a year.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59On one side were the southern Confederate states,
0:46:59 > 0:47:03who had gone to war to defend the rights of slave owners.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05Opposing them were the northern states,
0:47:05 > 0:47:07fighting to save the Union.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14Although Britain was officially neutral,
0:47:14 > 0:47:16in Liverpool there was strong support
0:47:16 > 0:47:19for the southern states because of their historic link
0:47:19 > 0:47:20to the cotton trade.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26I think the cotton connection is what's taken Wilfred to America
0:47:26 > 0:47:27in the midst of civil war.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33And if I'm going to find out what happened to him,
0:47:33 > 0:47:35I've got to go there, too.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45Richmond, Virginia, was the capital of the Confederacy,
0:47:45 > 0:47:49and 30 miles outside the city is Petersburg National Battlefield.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53The Union and Confederate armies
0:47:53 > 0:47:57fought each other to a standstill here for nine months,
0:47:57 > 0:48:00with tens of thousands of casualties on both sides.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06And there is evidence that Wilfred Steele was here,
0:48:06 > 0:48:08more than 3,000 miles from Liverpool,
0:48:08 > 0:48:11as the battle for Petersburg began.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16Civil War historian Harry Jones has the information I'm looking for.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20- Harry.- How are you? - Good to meet you.- My pleasure.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24- Good morning, David. - This is a beautiful landscape.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26It feels like a park.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29This is a park where we commemorate history,
0:48:29 > 0:48:31but it's not a park where we play.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34The last time Wilfred Steele appeared in the record,
0:48:34 > 0:48:36we discover that he's in America. What's he doing here?
0:48:36 > 0:48:40Well, when he comes here, he establishes a business
0:48:40 > 0:48:44- on Wall Street.- He's in New York? - Cotton and tobacco, 91 Wall Street.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46Steele and Harthill. So he's back in the cotton trade?
0:48:46 > 0:48:49Yes. Then in August of 1863,
0:48:49 > 0:48:55he enlists an artillery regiment, the 5th Light Artillery.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57There he is.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59In the Union Army.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01- The Union Army? - In the Union Army.
0:49:03 > 0:49:04I have to say, I'm surprised,
0:49:04 > 0:49:09because my fear was that Wilfred Steele, cotton broker,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13had come to America and that he'd joined the Confederate army
0:49:13 > 0:49:15to fight FOR slavery rather than against it.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19My worst fears about Wilfred have not been realised.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21Well, I'm glad to be the bearer of that good news.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28Wilfred Steele, a man who had made his living from cotton
0:49:28 > 0:49:31produced by slaves, was now standing shoulder to shoulder
0:49:31 > 0:49:33with men like these,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37in the Union Army, fighting AGAINST slavery.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40In fact, around 50,000 British volunteers
0:49:40 > 0:49:43fought in the American Civil War.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46Most of them on the Union side.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51You see what I want to believe is that he's come to New York
0:49:51 > 0:49:54where there's a big black population and he's had a conversion,
0:49:54 > 0:49:57a moral conversion against slavery.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00Well, merchants in New York at this time tend to be pro-slavery,
0:50:00 > 0:50:03so he's really not in that atmosphere.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05But on Wall Street, near where his office is,
0:50:05 > 0:50:08you have these brokerage firms who,
0:50:08 > 0:50:12for rich men, find substitutes for the draft.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15So you pay somebody to do your military service?
0:50:15 > 0:50:18That's correct. Many immigrants would actually enlist
0:50:18 > 0:50:23- as substitutes.- So this is probably more about money than morals.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25That's where the evidence leads me.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32So, it looks as if Wilfred wasn't fighting against slavery
0:50:32 > 0:50:37because of his conscience, and if he was, in effect, a mercenary,
0:50:37 > 0:50:41he was risking his life in a war that left 650,000 dead.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50At Petersburg, they've reconstructed part of the Union line
0:50:50 > 0:50:53where artillery units like Wilfred's were based.
0:50:55 > 0:50:57So what was it like being a soldier in the Civil War,
0:50:57 > 0:50:59manning these sort of defences?
0:50:59 > 0:51:03On a day-to-day basis, your biggest concern was actually sharpshooters.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05- Snipers?- That's what we'd call them today.
0:51:06 > 0:51:08GUNSHOT
0:51:08 > 0:51:11So, if you're in an artillery regiment, like Wilfred Steele was,
0:51:11 > 0:51:13- it's very easy to get killed. - Well, Wilfred Steele,
0:51:13 > 0:51:17his life is a little better than the average artilleryman.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20- Right.- He's not a gunner. He's not on the guns.
0:51:20 > 0:51:22He is a quartermaster sergeant.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24He's accountable for all the equipment that you have
0:51:24 > 0:51:27in the artillery, but he's not a front-line soldier.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31So he's not out here exposed to fire, keeping his head down?
0:51:31 > 0:51:34This is correct. This is a letter from an Englishman
0:51:34 > 0:51:37who's a part of the Union army as well, James Horrocks.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39So, this is one of Wilfred's colleagues.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42And when he writes home, he talks about this quartermaster
0:51:42 > 0:51:44and fellow Englishman Wilfred Steele.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46"The Orderly and the Quartermaster Sergeant and myself
0:51:46 > 0:51:50"sat down to beef steak and onions and coffee and bread.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53"Tonight we are going to have some stewed oysters."
0:51:54 > 0:51:56If you're an infantryman down in the trenches,
0:51:56 > 0:51:59you're not sitting down to stewed oysters and beef.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02You're eating rations out of a tin in the trench.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05The privilege of a quartermaster sergeant. Yes.
0:52:05 > 0:52:06Privilege is the word.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10So, having abandoned his wife and stepdaughters to their fates,
0:52:10 > 0:52:14and having signed up to fight in a brutal civil war
0:52:14 > 0:52:16thousands of miles from home,
0:52:16 > 0:52:20Wilfred Steele has nevertheless managed to land on his feet.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24It is a bit of a charmed life, isn't it?
0:52:24 > 0:52:30If you have to go to war and you do not have the angst for shooting
0:52:30 > 0:52:33your fellow man, Wilfred Steele's life is the life you want.
0:52:33 > 0:52:35I mean part of me thinks, you know, good for him.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38Did you find yourself finding
0:52:38 > 0:52:40at least, maybe not in his character but in his story,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43- something quite remarkable?- Yes.
0:52:49 > 0:52:54The war ended in 1865 with victory for the Union Army.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57Wilfred was, of course, on the winning side.
0:52:59 > 0:53:01By this time he was 37 years old,
0:53:01 > 0:53:04so still a relatively young man,
0:53:04 > 0:53:07having to make a big decision about his future.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12I wonder if he thought about returning to Liverpool?
0:53:12 > 0:53:15Or if the news had reached him
0:53:15 > 0:53:19that his wife Marian and her eldest daughter had both died
0:53:19 > 0:53:21of tuberculosis the previous year?
0:53:26 > 0:53:30His youngest stepdaughter Frances was now an orphan.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39If I'm going to find out what Wilfred did decide to do,
0:53:39 > 0:53:41I'll have to look at the American records.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47Five years after the war, Wilfred is still here in the United States.
0:53:47 > 0:53:52He settled in Philadelphia, on Poplar Street,
0:53:52 > 0:53:56and he is with Emma Steele, his wife.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59- Emma?- Yes.- His wife?- Yes.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03Wilfred, in 1869, marries an Emma F McLathery.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06He still describes himself as a cotton broker.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11Cotton broker, yes. And he has a son born in 1871.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13- Milford.- Milford Steele.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15- Yes.- So, another new life....
0:54:15 > 0:54:18- Exactly.- ..as it were.- He's definitely starting over again.
0:54:18 > 0:54:19But, sadly...
0:54:21 > 0:54:24..Milford dies at nine weeks.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28So, the second time in his life he's lost a baby boy.
0:54:28 > 0:54:29Right.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34And do we know much more about what happens to Wilfred?
0:54:34 > 0:54:39We do. He died March 23rd, 1873.
0:54:39 > 0:54:4042 years old.
0:54:40 > 0:54:44He dies of phthisis pulmonalis, or tuberculosis.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48He dies of the same disease as the woman he married
0:54:48 > 0:54:50and stepdaughter that he promised to care for.
0:54:52 > 0:54:53HE SIGHS
0:54:53 > 0:54:55So this is where the story ends for Wilfred.
0:54:55 > 0:54:57For Wilfred it does, yes.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59For 42, it's a full life -
0:54:59 > 0:55:02he's had two families, he's lived in two countries,
0:55:02 > 0:55:03he's been to war,
0:55:03 > 0:55:05he's been in prison,
0:55:05 > 0:55:08he's been bankrupt, he's been a businessman,
0:55:08 > 0:55:11and he passes away in Philadelphia.
0:55:12 > 0:55:13A long way from Liverpool.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26I think if you gather all the evidence that I've learned
0:55:26 > 0:55:29about the life of Wilfred Steele here in America
0:55:29 > 0:55:32and you put it alongside what we already knew about him
0:55:32 > 0:55:33from his time in Liverpool,
0:55:33 > 0:55:39what emerges is a man with an incredible gift for reinvention.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43Every time he seems, despite the adversity, to land on his feet.
0:55:43 > 0:55:48And, yet, it's impossible to look at death certificates
0:55:48 > 0:55:51for children who faded away in workhouses,
0:55:51 > 0:55:54of a wife who dies in her 20s, abandoned,
0:55:54 > 0:55:56and not conclude that what Wilfred Steele's life
0:55:56 > 0:55:59demonstrates is the flip side of all of those virtues
0:55:59 > 0:56:01that the Victorians admired,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04the virtues of self-help and inner drive
0:56:04 > 0:56:06and a determination to make it in business,
0:56:06 > 0:56:09because the flip side of those virtues is ruthlessness.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13And I think you get that in spades in the life of Wilfred Steele.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32So far, I've only looked into the first 15 years
0:56:32 > 0:56:34of the history of this house,
0:56:34 > 0:56:38but the stories I've already uncovered could hardly have been
0:56:38 > 0:56:40a more vivid reflection of their time.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46What all the first residents of this house had in common
0:56:46 > 0:56:49was that they were strivers, they were people
0:56:49 > 0:56:52who were trying to rise up the social ladder and, for each of them,
0:56:52 > 0:56:55this house represented everything that they aspired to.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59Comfort, wealth, status, and respectability.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02But, if you take all of their stories together,
0:57:02 > 0:57:06what they lay bare are the forces that were then sweeping through
0:57:06 > 0:57:11Victorian society in the 15 or so years after the house was built.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14Because, at that time, the old world of patronage
0:57:14 > 0:57:17upon which the very first resident of this house,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20Richard Glenton, had so heavily relied on,
0:57:20 > 0:57:23that was being shaken to its foundations.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26And the new forces - trade, finances -
0:57:26 > 0:57:29the forces that have propelled the careers of James Orr
0:57:29 > 0:57:33and Wilfred Steele, they were the forces that were going to
0:57:33 > 0:57:37change the future of this city and this house in the decades to come.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59Next time, a deadly disease strikes Liverpool...
0:57:59 > 0:58:02The residents of Falkner Street must have thought
0:58:02 > 0:58:04they were going to be safe.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07I think the sense would have been, "None of us are safe up here."
0:58:07 > 0:58:10..the dark shadow of domestic abuse...
0:58:10 > 0:58:13"Alfred Robinson dragged her by the hair of her head
0:58:13 > 0:58:16"and violently assaulted her." In this house.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18..and an unexplained death.
0:58:18 > 0:58:20But the police still don't know what's happened?
0:58:20 > 0:58:23- No.- That's the mystery. - That's the mystery.