Liverpool, New York & Philadelphia Steamship Co. 22 mm large gilt button,                                                 maker stamped on reverse ‘KENNING – LIVERPOOL’ condition 80% plus, original gilding remains
The Inman Line commenced their transatlantic operations in 1850. The company was founded as the “Liverpool & Philadelphia Steamship Company” by the Richardson Brothers & Co, with William Inman as a partial owner. After a few years, in 1854, William Inman took the sole ownership of the line. The first opening of the line took place between Liverpool and Philadelphia, carrying in the beginning none but first-class cabin passengers, but the vessels were soon after changed in their interior arrangements to permit the accommodation of emigrant passengers. After a few years of service, in 1857, the port of New-York was decided upon as the Western terminus of the route. In the winter of 1856-7 the Delaware River was frozen over, and a vessel of the line seeking a harbour put into New-York. This accident, it is said, led to the establishment of the office in New York. The official name of the line was then changed to the “Liverpool, New-York and Philadelphia Steam-ship Company”, however, it was commonly known as the “Inman Line”. It was not before in 1875, the official name of company was changed to “Inman Steamship Company Ltd”. The representative in New York was John G. Dale, who was born in Lancashire, England, in 1830. He represented the line till his death in 1883. He was followed by a Mr. Smith.
Formally ‘The Inman Line’ The firm’s name was changed to the Liverpool, Philadelphia and New York Steam Ship Company, but all ships were routed to New York after its SS Kangaroo was trapped by ice in the Delaware River. Until 1857, the firm ran a fortnightly service from Liverpool.
3 Feb 2005 – To cater for the growth of New York traffic, the official name of the company was changed in 1857 to Liverpool , New York and Philadelphia SS Co and Philadelphia rapidly became a secondary port of call. Due to Irish emigrant trade, Queenstown was added as a passenger call in 1859.
Liverpool, New York & Philadelphia S. S. Co. v. Commissioners of Emigration, 113 U.S. 33 (1885), was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court, in which the court held that the plaintiff was in error, being a corporation under the laws of Great Britain, and an alien, had brought this action in the circuit court of the United States for the Southern district of New York, the defendant being a corporation of that state.
- The defendant, Liverpool, Philadelphia and New York Steamship Company, was indebted to the plaintiff for the sum of at least one million and ninety-three thousand dollars, regarding passengers in vessels arriving in the state of New York, and for the regulation of marine hospitals. the defendant was paid under the inducement of certain representations of the defendant, the plaintiff being an alien and not knowing the laws of the state of New York, and under protest.
Treating it as a complaint according to the procedure under the New York Code, the defendant filed an answer setting up several different defences, which included the following: “That by an act of congress, entitled ‘A bill to legalise the collection of head- moneys already paid,’ approved June 19, 1878, the acts of every state and municipal officer or corporation in the several states of the United States in collection of head-moneys for every passenger brought to the United States prior to the first day of January 1877, under then existing laws of the several states, were declared valid, and the [113 U.S. 33, 35].”
The case was cited in the per curiam decision Petite vs. United States.
