Joseph Sandars (1785-1860) was a wealthy corn merchant based in Liverpool, UK. He played a major role in initiating development of the groundbreaking Liverpool & Manchester Railway which opened in 1830. Early life Sandars' father, also called Joseph, was a corn merchant who moved to Derby from Mackworth. His mother was born Elizabeth Blakeman. He had two siblings, the twins Samuel and Elizabeth. In family trees Joseph Sandars is often referred to as Joseph Sandars of Taplow House, Buckinghamshire, where he lived in later years. Move to Liverpool Sandars entered his father's trade but at the age of 20 moved to Liverpool where he continued as a corn merchant. He traded in a partnership, firstly as Sandars & Blain and from 1826 when the partnership split up, as Sandars & Claxton and, in 1860, as Sandars & Smith. Sandars was a successful businessman as can be judged from his integration into the commercial life of Liverpool. Trade directories show that he was a member of several significant Liverpool committees, including the Corn Exchange committee, the Lyceum newsroom committee and the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Committee, all prior to the opening of the railway. His company kept detailed records of wheat yields from multiple regions and he subsequently gave testimony to parliamentary committees on crop yields and their economic consequences. He also testified during the inquiry into the affairs of Liverpool Corporation. Despite some misgivings, he asserted that "never was there an estate of such magnitude so fairly and honestly administered." Sandars was a Quaker with Whig and Reform tendencies in common with many of his Liverpool contemporaries and, as with many local merchants, participated actively in the election of Liverpool's two MPs. However, in 1824 he resigned from the Liverpool Society for the Abolition of Slavery over concerns regarding the process of emancipation. His public letter led to a strong rebuttal in the Hull Rockingham newspaper. Many of Sandars' peers were also involved in the investigation of the young Liverpool woman Margaret M'Avoy about whom Sandars wrote a report "Hints to credulity" that was critical of claims that, although blind, she could read with the aid of her fingers. Sandars was one of the wealthy merchants who in 1819 purchased 37 artworks from the estate of the bankrupt William Roscoe on behalf of the gallery of the Liverpool Royal Institution. The paintings ultimately formed the core of the Walker Art