Thomas Foxcroft (slave trader)
Thomas Foxcroft (1733–1809) was an English slave trader. He was responsible for at least 91 slave voyages in the years between 1759 and 1792. A contemporary set of financial accounts for one slave voyage by his slave-ship "Bloom" has been preserved. His captain bought 349 enslaved people in Africa, 42 people died and 307 people were sold in the West Indies for £9858. Early life. Foxcroft was born in Thornton in Lonsdale, in Yorkshire. His father was George Foxcroft. Slave trade. Foxcroft was related to the Welch family through his sister Agnes's marriage  to Robert Welch in 1752. The Welch family were prominent in the slave trade and it is this link that is the likely reason for Foxcroft to move to Liverpool. From there he began slave trading from the Port of Liverpool. He regularly partnered with the slave traders George Welch and James Welch, and he invested in one slave voyage with John Welch in 1759. Thomas Foxcroft's niece, Mary Foxcroft, married one of his regular slave trading partners, Felix Doran. After Doran died in 1776, Foxcroft became a slaving partner of his son, who was also called Felix Doran . Foxcroft was the owner of the slave ship "Bloom". A contemporary set of financial accounts for a slave voyage by "Bloom" in 1784 exists. The accounts offer insight into the costs, profit, cargo and the purported value of the enslaved people it transported. Robert Bostock the captain of "Bloom" bought 349 enslaved people from the Windward Coast of Africa and transported them to the West Indies to be sold. 42 people died during the voyage, or died after landing but before they were sold. Of the 307 people that were sold, 103 were men, 51 were women, 99 were boys  and 54 were girls. In total they were sold for £9858 (). Gomer Williams writes that the cost of buying an enslaved person in Africa in 1798–1799 was £20 to £25, with a sale price in the West Indies of £70 (), concluding that Foxcroft made a very large profit at the expense of the captive Africans. Personal life. Foxcroft's family home was Halsteads in Thornton in Lonsdale. In his will Foxcroft gave a large part of his estate to his nephew Reverend Thomas Hammond Foxcroft who was living at Halsteads. Halsteads has been listed Grade II  on the National Heritage List for England since February 1958.