George Case was the son of a mercer from Prescot. As a young man, he began investing in the trading of enslaved Africans and by the time of abolition, he had become very wealthy as one of Liverpool’s most prolific slave traders, investing in more than 140 voyages by 1807. Case was a member of the Gregson syndicate in many voyages, but he is not listed as one of the owners of the infamous slave ship ‘Zong’, that resulted in the death of 131 of the enslaved, after they were thrown overboard alive on the command of the captain to allow the owners to claim on the ship’s insurance. In 1788, Case was one of the signatories of the first anti-abolition petition to be sent to parliament from Liverpool, objecting to the ending of the slave trade. He was a founder proprietor and served as the first president of the Athenaeum, Liverpool’s oldest surviving private members club. The land in Church Street that the Athenaeum was built on was purchased from Case and he became the owner of share number 1 in the share book of the club. Case served as Mayor of Liverpool in 1781 and in the portrait he can be seen wearing his robes of office. Many of the Athenaeum’s members would serve as Mayor of the town.