Litherland, William, Liverpool, u (b. 1735–d. 1807). App. to Robinson Cooke and free by servitude, 13 March 1761. By July of the following year he was trading from a ‘warehouse joining Mrs Fleetwood's in Tythebarn-Street’. He offered to sell on both retail and wholesale terms a selection of blankets and indicated that he also stocked mattresses and ‘sea beds’. By 1765 he had a shop near the Old Shambles in the High St which he was to occupy for a number of years. Here he kept an assortment of ‘all Sorts of Upholstery Goods’. He also advertised for an app. The app. that he took was Matthew Gregson who trained under him, 1765–72, and was later to establish an important business himself. He also acted as executor at the time of Litherland's death in 1807. Earlier, Litherland had taken another app. named Hart in 1762, soon after the commencement of his business. At the time of his death Litherland was aged 72. [D; freemen's committee bk; freemen reg.; S of G, app. index; Liverpool RO, 920 GRE 3/1 45; Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser, 16 July 1762, 22 March 1765; Liverpool Chronicle, 8 April 1807]