John Coakley

3

Bruce Anderson on 26th September 2021

Liverpool was very wealthy and a great deal of money was made from the slave trade and that only accounted for some 10% of the shipping industry. Although the slave trade was over by 1807 Liverpool ships had transported half of the 3 million Africans carried across the Atlantic by British slavers. By the 1830’s the port was handling huge amounts of goods destined for Manchester and other towns thriving from the Industrial Revolution. There were, no doubt, many prosperous Liverpool merchants who could afford silver plate and one Liverpool silversmith who was providing a prolific quantity of silver was John Coakley. However, in May 1834 he was arrested with his father and a Mrs Cumpstey. They were referred to as ‘Three notorious receivers of plate’ after sacks full of silver were found under the floor of Coakley’s house. Nearly all the plate was believed to have been stolen from properties in and around Liverpool by gangs of men, one of whom at his trial identified his ‘fence’ to the police. At the committal proceedings it was stated that, ‘Many of the crests upon the spoons are filed out, and the maker's initials are punched over with JC, the prisoner's mark, (Johns own mark as a spoon-maker).’ Eventually Coakley and his father were tried together with others involved in the operation. John Coakley was sentenced to transportation for life, his 73-year-old father, Patrick, was acquitted as no evidence was offered against him.