About Joseph Mayer
The Early years
Joseph Mayer was born on 23rd February 1803 in Newcastle-under-Lyme,
Staffordshire. He was born into a relatively wealthy family and was one of
eleven children, ten of whom survived into adulthood. His father, Samuel, was a
landowner who had a tanning business, which provided leather goods to the
industries and inhabitants of the Potteries area.
In 1820, Joseph Mayer’s elder sister, Eliza, married James Wordley of Liverpool.
Two years later, Joseph Mayer moved to Liverpool to work as an assistant in
James Wordley’s silversmith and jewellery business.
Liverpool was the main port for the Potteries; the Trent-Mersey Canal providing
the means for transporting the china clay and other raw materials to the
Potteries and the finished goods to the rest of the country and beyond. Business
opportunities were good, with Liverpool’s growing importance as a port, and
Britain’s increasing trade with the Empire and America.
The Liverpool Years
By the mid 1830s, Joseph Mayer was in partnership with his brother-in-law, James
Wordley, with their business premises at 62 Lord Street, Liverpool. As his
sister’s family grew, he moved out of their home, and lived briefly in Queen
Street, Edge Hill, before moving to Clarence Terrace, Everton Road.
During these early years, Joseph Mayer appears to have involved himself in the
cultural life of Liverpool, and started to develop his interest as a collector
of antiquities. He travelled abroad for the first time in1828, and these
business interests continued to draw him to Europe over the following decades.
It was on these trips that his enthusiasm for antiquities was nurtured. He would
acquire items for the business as well as for his own collection.
By 1844 he had set up his own business at 68 Lord Street, where he was to live
above these premises for a number of years. Whereas James Wordley traded in
bought-in jewellery and silverware, Joseph Mayer’s business embraced the design,
manufacture and trading of jewellery, engraving, and gold and silver plating. He
would find inspiration for the design of his own jewellery from his collection
of antiquities
His status as a collector was growing through his purchases both in Britain and
abroad. Locally he took a particular interest in the finds being made just a few
miles from his home, at Meols at the mouth of the River Dee. In 1848, Joseph
Mayer, Henry Pigeon and the Rev. Abraham Hume agreed the final plans for the
establishment of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. This led to
Joseph Mayer’s involvement with collectors in London, and to his subsequent
election as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in1850. In that same year he
joined the British Archaeological Association, and over the next few years he
was to join many similar bodies across Europe.
His business was very successful by the1850s, and he was able to devote himself
more fully to his passion for antiquities and the promotion of learning. He was
enthused by the contents of the British Museum, particularly its Egyptian
displays, which inspired him to open his own Egyptian Museum in Colquitt Street,
Liverpool in 1852. He added to the displays over the following years so that by
1862 it had become known as the ‘Museum of Antiquities’, and contained a
considerable range of relics, artefacts and manuscripts.
His collection continued to grow as he made further individual purchases, as
well as acquiring certain collections which came onto the market, including:

The Faussett Collection of Anglo-Saxon antiquities

The Fejervary Collection of ivories and prehistoric

metalwork

The Hertz Collection of gems

W H Rolfe’s Collection of Anglo-Saxon antiquities.
By 1867, his museum collection totalled 15,000 items. However, in1860, the
newly- constructed Liverpool Museum was opened. Its construction was funded by
the successful merchant banker, William Brown, to be managed by the Liverpool
Town Council. In 1867, Joseph Mayer gifted his museum collection to the Council,
where it subsequently formed a substantial part of Liverpool Museum’s collection
(now known as the World Museum, Liverpool).

Anglo-Saxon brooch and Egyptian mummy from Liverpool Museum’s collection - click for larger image.
The Bebington Years
By the late 1850s, Joseph Mayer had moved residence to Wirral, living briefly at
Dacre Park, Rock Ferry, before moving to the house he had bought in Bebington.
He named this house ‘Pennant House’, after Thomas Pennant, the traveller and
naturalist.

Pennant House in Bebington - click for larger image.
At this time, the economic importance of Liverpool, the opening of the railways,
the construction of the New Chester Road and the introduction of steam
ferryboats on the Mersey, all led to the growth of Bebington village as a
dormitory township for many professional and business people working in
Liverpool.
Joseph Mayer quickly immersed himself into village life, which had the effect of
transforming and enriching the lives of the community. He was instrumental in
bringing gas and water services to the village; he was involved in founding
clubs for various sports and recreational activities; he raised funds for a
village hospital and a horticultural society, and allotments were formed on his
initiative.
In 1864 he financed the raising and clothing of volunteers to form a company of
the 4th Cheshire Rifles, for which Mayer served as commander for nearly ten
years.
Joseph Mayer’s enthusiasm for people to enrich their lives, through access to
learning and culture, led him to establish a free library in Bebington in 1866.
Initially, he established the library in Thomas Francis’s old house which he had
bought, but the demand for these facilities soon outgrew the original library
premises.
Fortunately in 1869, the farmhouse, barn and associated buildings, together with
five acres of land which adjoined Pennant House, came up for sale, so Joseph
Mayer bought them. He immediately set to work, and within a few months, had
created public parkland from the farmland and orchard that had previously
existed.
He then converted and extended the farmhouse, including the addition of
a clock tower, to provide a new and bigger home for the library, which was
opened in 1870. It was a facility enjoyed by all, from children to the elderly,
from the poorest farm labourers to the wealthiest businessmen.

Mayer Park as it is today - click for larger image.
He then turned his attention to the barn, and by 1871 had it converted into a
single storey public hall to be used for exhibitions and lectures. By 1873, the
year of his retirement from his jewellers business, he commissioned plans for
the extension of Pennant House, to better accommodate his ever-growing
collection of manuscripts, papers, pictures and sculptures.
Despite these extensions, conditions in Pennant House were becoming too cramped
for his collection, so by 1878 he decided to demolish the ‘barn’ and construct a
new two storey hall. The ground floor would provide for lectures and concerts,
and the upper floor would be a gallery in which to exhibit his collection of
pictures and sculptures.

Mayer Hall as it is today - click for larger image.
A local newspaper in 1878 reported:
… without
losing its rustic air, the village of Bebington gained advantages such as many
might envy in convenience and comfort. A very few years since the place had
neither gas nor pavements, its younger population went barefooted and women
fetched water from a well as much as two miles distance. If all that is changed,
and if Bebington is to be held up as a model village, the honour is due to
Joseph Mayer. 
The upkeep of the library, hall and parkland was being met totally by Joseph
Mayer, but in looking to the future, he decided to establish the Mayer Trust in
1878 to undertake these tasks. He continued to provide the necessary funds to
the Trust, which comprised of himself and four friends. He chaired the Trust up
to his death in 1886. He is buried in the graveyard of St Andrew’s Church in
Bebington.
Joseph Mayer – The Legacy
Joseph Mayer never married, and he shared his home at Pennant House with his
unmarried sister Jane, and niece Mary Wordley. Upon his death in 1886, his will
provided for his estate to be shared between his sisters, certain relatives and
also the Mayer Trust
He bequeathed sculptures, paintings, medallions and other articles to the Trust
for display in the museum gallery. However, his papers, pictures and gems, some
20,000 items, were to be sold, to provide the funds towards executing the
financial provisions in his will. These were offered to Liverpool Museum for
£6000, but the offer was declined, and they were subsequently auctioned at
Sotheby’s and by a Liverpool auctioneer.
The bequest made to the Mayer Trust soon proved to be insufficient to generate
the income needed to meet all of the Trust’s running costs, and by 1894, the
local council started to contribute towards the costs of the free library.
Eventually in 1930, the council took on the full responsibility for the library,
hall, museum and parkland, but the Trust retained the responsibility for the
annual lectures, which are still provided today.
With the opening of Bebington Civic Centre in the early 1970s the library
services were transferred to this new building. The Mayer Library building is
now vacant. The parkland continues to be maintained by
the local authority and retains the name ‘Mayer Park’; the hall, known as
‘Mayer Hall’, is still in restricted community use but its future,
and that of the Library building and Pennant House, is uncertain, as the
local council seeks changes to the management arrangements of these
buildings.
Joseph Mayer, during his earlier collecting years, showed particular interest in
British archaeology, when little interest was being shown by the British Museum
and parts of the archaeological establishment. His interest and support for
those pursuing such researches and investigations, and his purchase of
Anglo-Saxon antiquaries, helped in the development of British archaeology.
His gift to Liverpool Museum in 1867 was and is identified, as the ‘Mayer
Collection’. However, a more visible reminder of the significance of Joseph
Mayer can be found inside St Georges Hall, Liverpool. Following his gift to the
Museum, Liverpool Town Council commissioned a marble statue of Joseph Mayer,
sculpted by Giovanni Fontana, which was unveiled in 1869. This statue is one of
twelve statues inside St Georges Hall; of prominent men judged to be of
importance to the people of Liverpool, a measure of the esteem in which Joseph
Mayer was held during his lifetime.
English Heritage currently operate the Blue Plaque scheme which commemorates the
former homes or workplaces of famous people.
The scheme has been in being since the mid nineteenth century but only applied
to the Greater London area. However in 1999 they announced that for the first
time, they were extending the scheme to other parts of the country. The first
area selected for the Plaques was Liverpool/Merseyside. Fifteen individuals were
identified who merited recognition for their contribution to society.
One of those was Joseph Mayer, and a Blue Plaque was affixed to the front of Pennant House a few months later:
a recognition, more than a century after his death, of his lasting contribution to society.

English Heritage Blue Plaque on Pennant House - click for larger image.
Acknowledgements are made to:
The Society of Antiquaries, whose publication ‘Joseph Mayer of Liverpool 1803-1886’ provided much of the background
information for the above.
Liverpool Museum, for the provision of the picture of the ancient Egyptian coffin.
St George’s Hall for facilitating the photographing of Joseph Mayer’s statue.