
The Origins of The Ismay Family
THOMAS Ismay, was a relative newcomer to Liverpool. His family’s origins lay much further north, in Cumberland, where their roots could be traced back many centuries. He was born on January 7, 1837, and had a truly a modest beginning for the man who would later become one of the greatest shipping magnates of his time and entertain royalty on ships whose reputation would span the globe.
His family’s origins lay much further north, in Cumberland, where their roots could be traced back many centuries. When in 1894 Burke’s Landed Gentry recorded the family’s pedigree, it was claimed to date back to 1292 in the reign of Edward I.
Successive generations of the family were farmers – known as statesmen in the Lake counties – who had settled in the parish of Dundraw, 12 miles southwest of Carlisle, where they held lands in the 16″ century.
Two centuries later, a Daniel Ismay, born in 1731, settled to farm at Uldale, a hamlet around 10 miles northwest of Cockermouth. He had a son, Thomas, who in 1795 died a prisoner of the French during the Napoleonic Wars. Thomas left a son named Henry, born on November 17, 1777: he was the first of the family to abandon the land for a maritime career. By 1800, Henry Ismay had moved to the small seaport of Maryport, 28 miles southwest of Carlisle, on the southern bank of the Solway Firth. Here, ships from 30 to 300 tons were built, and one of the first shipbuilding yards to be opened was that of Joseph Middleton. Henry Ismay became the captain of one of his ships, and on January 29, 1800, he married Middleton’s eldest daughter Charlotte.
Their son Joseph was born on April 24, 1804, and in time became a foreman shipwright in the Middleton yard. On April 7, 1836, he married Mary, the daughter of John Sealby, a local gentleman. They lived in a row of cottages called Whillan’s Yard, which Joseph had bought in 1833, squeezed between other houses and overlooking a graveyard. Here, on January 7, 1837, their son Thomas Henry, was born. It was truly a modest beginning for the man who would later become one of the greatest shipping magnates of his time and entertain royalty on ships whose reputation would span the globe.
The family grew, with twins Charlotte and Mary and a further daughter Sarah arriving on the scene. As Whillan’s Yard became too cramped, the family moved out to a new home, Ropery House, close to the shipbuilding yard (Plate 2) which still remains today. From here, Joseph Ismay entered a new line of business as a timber merchant and shipbuilder. One of his first clients was the Liverpool firm of Imrie and Tomlinson, with whom his son Thomas later came to be apprenticed.

Thomas Henry Ismay centre
Back Row Left to right, daughter-in-law Lady Margaret Ismay & husband James; daughter Dora Ismay; son Joseph Bruce Ismay ; Thomas’s wife Margaret; Bruce’s wife Florence; son-in-law Geoffrey Drage.
Front Row; son Charles Bower Ismay; daughter Ethel Drage; daughters Ada & Charlotte
The Beginnings of a Career
Thomas was a bright, intelligent boy and showed such great promise that his parents sent him to be educated at what was considered to be one of the best boarding schools in the North, Croft House School, Brampton, Carlisle.
However, he had been there only a year when his father died at the early age of 46 on January 11, 1850. His great uncle, Isaac Middleton, then owner of the shipyard, took Thomas Henry under his wing and when the boy was 16, arranged his apprenticeship to Imrie and Tomlinson whose offices were at 13 Rumford Street, Liverpool.
Thomas Ismay thus moved to the city where he would make his fortune. There, he probably lived with the firm’s principal, William Imrie, at his villa Claremont at West Derby, the village where many of the port’s wealthy merchants built themselves fine mansions away from the noise, grime and disease of the metropolis where they earned their riches.
Thomas soon built up a good reputation among the Liverpool merchant class for his prompt and efficient attention to business, qualities which would make him a millionaire in later life. But after three years behind a desk, he yearned for practical experience of life at sea, and took himself on a year-long voyage to Chile on the 352-ton barque Chas Jackson, owned by Jackson and Co of Maryport.
The year after his return from Chile, Thomas went into the shipping business himself. He struck up a partnership with a retired sea captain, Philip Nelson, whose home town was also Maryport. They formed a shipbroking business, with offices at Drury Buildings, 21 Water Street, Liverpool. During this time, Thomas lived at Huyton, as recorded by Gore’s Directory of Liverpool in 1858.
His alliance with Nelson was however an uneasy one. The young, ambitious Ismay was a man of vision and passionately believed that the future lay in steam – then a novelty — rather than sail, and also in ships made of iron rather than wood.
The older Nelson was more cautious and the two disagreed. However, Thomas got his way and the first ship they commissioned, the 129-ton brigantine Angelita, was built of iron. However, when in 1861, it came to grief in a storm off the southern Irish coast it was a symbolic event, as the Ismay-Nelson partnership was dissolved soon after.
Thomas then set up on his own account. His firm, named T H Ismay and Company, was based at 10, Water Street, Liverpool, and had a mere handful of vessels. But his skills and vision meant he was soon highly successful, his ships mostly transporting general cargo to South America. In 1864, he entered the lucrative North Atlantic trade, as director of the successful National Line, with steamships running cargo and steerage passengers to the Southern States of America.
Some idea of how successful Thomas was at this time can be gauged from the fact that the following year – while still in his late 20s — he was able to build 13 Beach Lawn and join the select band of Liverpool merchant princes who had made this exclusive seafront location their retreat. He lived here with his wife and children until 1885. The house is visible from the mouth of Mersey, and all White Star vessels would offer a salute as they passed the Ismay residence.

One of the greatest figures in the commercial world; Thomas Henry Ismay as a young man.
The White Star Line
Thomas Henry Ismay’s greatest claim to fame is as the owner of the White Star Line – the company which would later gain notoriety when their ill-starred Titanic sank with the loss of more than 1,500 lives on April 14, 1912. He was not however its founder – the line had begun in Liverpool in the early 1850s and achieved considerable prosperity taking prospectors to the Australian Gold Rush. As a fast passage was essential, the White Star clippers became renowned for their speed. However, in 1866 disaster struck when the company’ s bank collapsed. On 18 January 1868 , shipping magnate Thomas Ismay purchased the house flag, trade name, and goodwill of the bankrupt White Star Line—for just £1,000.
The ensuing years were ones of rapid development and earned great prosperity for Ismay as his business interests flourished. He also found powerful friends. In 1869, During a game of billiards one evening, Liverpool merchant Gustav Christian Schwabe and his nephew, shipbuilder Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, offered to help finance Ismay’s new venture, but only if the line agreed to having its ships built by Wolff’s company, a Belfast-based firm called Harland & Wolff. Ismay agreed, as long as Harland & Wolff didn’t build any vessels for competing lines. (That’s why you will never read about a story about Harland & Wolff building a ship for White Star’s arch-rival, Cunard Line.)
Harland & Wolff -started building liners for White Star in mid-1869 vessels, for which they were paid a total of more than £7m. It quickly produced six Oceanic class ships: Oceanic, Atlantic, Baltic, Republic, Celtic and Adriatic. By 1871 the vessels began operating on regular schedules between Liverpool and New York.
Crucial to Ismay’s success was the fact that he believed comfort and safety were as important to passengers as speed, and that these considerations ought not to be sacrificed for the sake of a fast passage. Therefore, White Star vessels earned a reputation for being built to the highest standard. The work was done by Harland and Wolff on a cost-plus basis, rather than being held down to a fixed price. Only the best would do for Ismay — and we can see that mirrored in his home life, in the way 13 Beach Lawn, and his subsequent mansion of Dawpool, were appointed.
Thomas Henry Ismay remained president of White Star Line until 1899. Shortly after the launch of Oceanic (1899) on 14 January 1899, he complained of chest pains. Despite two operations Ismay suffered a heart attack, which led to his death on 23 November 1899. Ismay’s son, J. Bruce Ismay, assumed control of his father’s company and eventually oversaw the creation of three luxurious Olympic class cruise liners: Olympic, Titanic and Britannic. Titanic sunk in April 1912 during her maiden voyage. The younger Ismay survived the disaster under controversial circumstances. A broken man, he soon relinquished direct control of the company.

A Well-Connected Marriage
Thomas’ good fortune was also aided by the fact he married into the right circles. Naturally, there was a shipping connection.
In the late 1850s, he met Miss Margaret Bruce, eldest daughter of Luke Bruce, of 36 Dexter Street, in the Harrington district of Liverpool; Margaret’s birthplace indicates the family originated from the northeast, at North Shields in Northumberland. Bruce was later to move to 126 Falkner Street, amid the fashionable residential area created east of the town centre on Mosslake Fields in the first half of the 19* century. Luke Bruce was described variously at the time as master mariner, ship’s surveyor and shipowner; and it is likely Ismay met Margaret met as a result of business dealings with her father. The couple were married at St Bride’s church, Percy Street, Liverpool, on April 7, 1859, which was the wedding anniversary of Thomas’ own father.
Their eldest son Joseph Bruce, was born on December 12, 1862. Less confident and more reserved than his father, he would eventually inherit the Ismay empire but was destined to forever have his reputation tragically and permanently blackened by the fate of the Titanic — and the fact that he survived the disaster while so many other men perished.

Thomas made an advantageous marriage:
Margaret Bruce, also came from a ship owning company.
Enfield House: The First Ismay Home
Some months before his marriage, Ismay had moved to Enfield House, Great Crosby. Like so many of his fellow businessmen, he would have caught the train from Waterloo.
It was here at Enfield House that their eldest son Joseph Bruce, was born on December 12, 1862. Less confident and more reserved than his father, he would eventually inherit the Ismay empire but was destined to forever have his reputation tragically and permanently blackened by the fate of the Titanic — and the fact that he survived the disaster while so many other men perished.
As Thomas’ business grew more prosperous, he effectively outgrew Enfield House, and by 1865 was seeking a larger and more prestigious home. His attention was caught by the new development springing up on the shoreline a mile or so southwest at Waterloo, and thus the chain of events that led to the building of 13 Beach Lawn was set in motion.

Bruce Ismay aged around 13 photographed while living at Beach Lawn House

