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The origins

of St. Domingo’s

For this latest design, I am going back beyond football and delving into the history of how the church of St. Domingo’s came about and would later lead to the beginning of Everton Football Club. An Everton prequel, if you like.

Research and articles from @EFC_Statto

In 1878, Everton Football Club were formed, and they were known as

But why was the church called St. Domingo’s?
Allow me to introduce you to George Campbell…

George Campbell was a trader and sugar boiler from the West Indies.

In Robert Syers’ book “The History of Everton”, he was selected to be in charge of a regiment in Liverpool in 1745 to fight against rebels.

Following the battle, George Campbell stayed in Liverpool and in 1757, he bought some land from Henry Halsall, and some more land from John Seacome the following year.

He built his own property and called it “St. Domingo” after a ship he captured from an island called Santo Domingo (St. Domingo) – which was named after Saint Dominic.

Mr. Campbell gave the name of St Domingo to this estate, in commemoration of a piece of good fortune which befel him, when one of his vessels captured a rich ship from the Island of Santo Domingo (Saint Domingo’s), in the West Indies.

He then decided to build a house from that ship in the Everton area.

On the 23rd August, 1757, he made the first purchase of those Everton lands which originally formed the estate. The spot Mr. Campbell chose for his place of residence, was at the south end of the patch of land, or locality, where a house was pleasantly situated; it was separated from the main road by a deep, triangular-shaped lawn, the sides of which were bordered with trees and shrubs.

Campbell’s house was described as being close to “the old Beacon”, which is Prince Rupert’s Tower. Not only that, he also said Campbell wanted his house to look like a place…

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