Restless Enterprise: A Free Methodist Family in Victorian Liverpool

Set against the background of Liverpool’s rapid development as a port, ‘Restless Enterprise’ explores the achievements of the author’s three-times great-grandfather, Richard Lloyd, and his family. Aged fourteen, Richard arrived from Wales in 1836 and would be one of four generations of his family to hold the ancient post of Official Gauger to the Port of Liverpool. He was head of a family of successful businessmen, academics, ministers, and activists. His son, Richard John, combined a career as a port gauger with being reader in phonetics at Liverpool University and a leading Esperanto scholar; his brother-in-law, Thomas Snape, was an MP and campaigner for peace and education after selling his chemical works in Widnes; and his son-in-law, Silas Hocking, became the most popular novelist of his generation. His breakthrough novel, ‘Her Benny’, was based on his experiences as a minister in Liverpool’s slums. Their sum was greater than their parts. United by their Liberal politics and their commitment to a breakaway Methodist denomination they exemplified the Victorian nonconformist conscience.