Charles Horsfall
Charles Horsfall (21 June 1776 – 18 June 1846) was Bailiff and then Lord Mayor of Liverpool from 1832–1833.
Horsfall was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, and was the son of Joseph Horsfall and Anna Hodgson.
On 9 June 1803, he married Dorothy Hall Berry (7 October 1784 Jamaica – 18 March 1846), and they had 13 children. Notable amongst them were businessmen and politicians Thomas Berry Horsfall (1805–1878), Robert Horsfall (1807–1881) and George Henry Horsfall (1824–1900).
He was Bailiff in 1829 and then Mayor in 1832. He was an avid botanist, and his wife was a noted horticultural artist who contributed many plates to books and magazines of the time.
His botanical passions were fuelled by his business trade connections with West Africa, the West Indies and the Americas. He was in partnership with another notable merchant family, the Tobins and also his cousins the Hodgsons, Jamaican plantation owners.
He died on 18 June 1846 in Crosby, Sefton, of "senile decline after paralysis". He is buried in St. Georges, Everton.
In his honour his family, led by Robert Horsfall built Christ Church, Great Homer Street in Everton. It was consecrated on 30 October 1848 (Annals of Liverpool, page 1903) by the Bishop of Chester. According to the Liverpool Evening Express, 9th Sep 1948 the cost of building was borne by the Horsfall family of Liverpool. Its patronage was vested in Trustees.
The church was destroyed by German bombing in the May blitz of 1941.