Thomas Canning
Born Northern Ireland in 1835, he appears in the 1859 and 1865 editions Gore's Directory of Liverpool as a Marine Store Dealer, 54-56 Milton Street in the Town Hall/Marybone district. These premises also appear in the 1861 Census as 'Marine Store,' but are marked as uninhabited so clearly he didn't live over the shop. He was a 50 year old widower in 1884 when he married 42 year old Jane Horner (nee Hanley) from Everton, Jane had married her first husband George Horner in 1862. By the time of his marriage Thomas is described as a labourer, his son James was born nine months later.