Whilst looking at the 1851 census for the Oxton area I came across what appears to be a boarding school? in Singleton Ave. It has about 60 occupants from far and wide, Ladies with titles such as Governess, French teachers etc, Young ladies maids and about 40/50 scholars at home at different age ranges. Was this the forerunner to St Joseph's that is/was up that way or another establishment.

Interesting, Bert; according to the O.S.1912 map, Singleton Ave. didn't exist even then. Any more info.?
Interesting to note, though, that the Rover's ground is where Temple Rd. school will be a couple of years later.

Thanks for that Chris, with Singleton ave not existing I've had a further look and I suppose the address could be Lingdale House, the old scroll makes it difficult to read and at first glance it looked like Singleton. The old enumerator has covered Noctorum Rd, Village (Oxton), Moss St, Wellington Rd and this Lingdale House, which rings a bell.

Might be the same place mentioned on this thread, bert:

http://www.uptonhallschool.co.uk/page/?pid=19

Thanks Geekus, that will be the one.

That seems very likely, Geekus. I've e-mailed Upton House School asking if they know the location of Lingdale House.
Bert; that's quite a spread, from Noctorum Rd. to Wellington Rd. via Oxton Village. I had a mate at school who lived in Wellington Rd.

Chris, Lingdale house was in Claughton, I assume by or in Lingdale Road which still exists.

The following item is from the Liverpool Mercury of 19th November 1850. If the date for the starting of the School on the Upton Hall Convent website is correct, the Mercury were clearly a bit slow off the mark in their reporting of it!

Lingdale House was at the very south end of Lingdale Road, to the south of Tollemache Road. The site is now occupied by the houses of Ashburton Avenue and Lingdale Avenue.

Nice one marty.

Cheers Marty, I wonder what Mr F M Brownrigg was involved in to have such a fine property.

Thanks, Marty.

The date on the Upton Hall website is indeed correct, the school was at Lingdale house from October 1849 until June 1863, when it moved to Upton Hall. The Mercury was also incorrect, as the sisters FCJ didn't buy Lingdale House, they took it on a 14 year lease. In 1858 they looked at buying the house but, due to difficulties in confirming the ownership, they decided to look elsewhere.

The Mercury didn’t just get that information wrong, they also got the name of the house’s former occupant wrong; it wasn’t F M Brownrigg, but M F Brownrigg.

Marcus Freeman Brownrigg was born in Ireland in 1800 or 1801, and entered the Royal Naval College in 1813. He eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant in 1822, but, apparently frustrated at the lack of further promotion, left the Navy in 1834 and went into business instead. He sailed with his family to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, where he had been commissioned to establish an agency for the London-based merchants Cockerell & Co, and then went on to Bombay where he established another trading agency under the name McGregor, Brownrigg & Co, serving as Chairman of the Local Chamber of Commerce and a Director of the Government Bank.

By August 1840, M F Brownrigg was back in England living in Toxteth Park, his occupation listed as merchant. Before long he was well-established as a “Bombay merchant”, operating in partnership with others in Liverpool (as Brownrigg, Stewart & Co, later Brownrigg, Miller & Co), Glasgow (as MacGregor, Brownrigg & Co) and Bombay (as Brownrigg & Co).

In the early 1840s the family had relocated across the Mersey and lived for several years at 26 Hamilton Square. Brownrigg was elected to the Birkenhead Improvement Commissioners in June 1844, serving on the Road & Improvement, Ferries and Finance Committees. Mortimer, in his History of the Hundred of Wirral, described him as “one of the most active and influential of Commissioners”. He was so influential there were even plans to name no less than three of the new streets then being laid out after him; Marcus Street, Freeman Street and Brownrigg Street! Marcus Street and Freeman Street certainly eventually took their place on the map, but I haven’t been able to find out which one they planned to call Brownrigg Street.

By May 1847 the family were resident at Lingdale House, where Brownrigg’s wife Maria gave birth to their ninth child. Unfortunately storm clouds had been slowly gathering on the business horizon, and during the financial crisis of late 1847 all of Brownrigg’s companies failed. Brownrigg’s connection with Birkenhead was finally severed when in April 1848 he accepted an offer to resume his naval career, and the family duly decamped to Devonport, where they were living at the time of the 1851 Census, leaving Lingdale House vacant for the FCJ Sisters to acquire it as a suitable location for their convent and school.

Lt Brownrigg RN was promoted to commander in May 1851, and soon thereafter to captain, but in 1852 he decided to leave the Navy once again. After briefly working for the Colonial Land and Immigration Commissioners in Glasgow, he succeeded in his application for the post of General Superintendent of the Australian Agricultural Co, then the largest pastoral produce and coal company in Australia, and sailed with his family halfway around the world to start a new life in New South Wales. After four years in charge he left the company, and spent the rest of his career until his retirement in 1882 as a Police Magistrate, first at Port Macquarie, then at Albury NSW. He died on 1st of December 1884 at his eldest son Marcus’s house in Launceston, Tasmania, and is buried in Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney.

Thanks Marty, interesting stuff, there's always a good story behind decent property and its owners around that time period.