Wikipedia has the following anecdotal remarks on the naming of Southport. This seems to have become the standard for many other references on the internet.
'Upon obtaining some success with the venture( his hotel on Lord Street), Mr Sutton, it is told, threw a party to which a certain solicitor named Dr Miles Barton from Ormskirk (8 miles [13 km] inland) was invited. After good fare and enough drink, the solicitor stood up to make a toast, christened the hamlet "South..." but having forgotten where he was and looking at his glass of port, added "...Port". South Hawes would have been the correct name at that time but South Port it was to be and this latter name appeared in written records in 1798.'
During my research into a lunatic Asylum near Blackburn (beginning of 19th century), I have stumbled across Miles Barton, surgeon of North Meols. Are these the same persons or related in any way?
Paul Sutcliffe
P.S. he was not an inmate but certified a patient to the Asylum
Bez
Dr Miles Barton (1725-1810) was a surgeon and not a solicitor and would be the same person. Apparently he was 73 when he "christened" Southport - although most accounts put it a little differently and say he was emphatic in calling the place "South Port". He was an advocate of sea bathing as a cure for the bite of a mad dog, this having become more popular than his patent medicine sold as a remedy for the same complaint and known as the Ormskirk Medicine. He was the son of Dr Henry Barton of Ormskirk and Sarah Hesketh of Meols Hall, so was no stranger to Southport, and became one of earliest residents when he built Nile Cottage.
Peter Aughton in "North Meols and Southport" puts forward the argument that the new town was at the southern end of Faircloughs Lake which had once been a deep bay where ships could lie at anchor, so was the "south port" as there had been a "north port" at Marshside.
