Joseph Sandars was a successful corn merchant from Liverpool. Sandars was a Whig who was involved in most of the progressive causes at the time, including parliamentary reform and the campaign to end slavery. Sandars was also a strong critic of the local canal and river monopolies.
When James was declared bankrupt and was imprisoned for debt in 1823 Sandars asked George Stephenson to produce a new survey to decide the best route between Liverpool and Manchester. After the House of Commons rejected Stephenson's proposed route, Sanders recruited a company run by George Rennie to carry out a new survey and were invited by the company to build it. However, they refused to work with George Stephenson, who they did not consider was a real engineer, and they lost the contract.
