B A O10 V 64 Ae v. 4+ Cornell Aniversity Library BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henry W. Sage 1891 A 255110... Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation with Cornell University Libraries, 2007. You may use and print this copy in limited quantity for your personal purposes, but may not distribute or provide access to it (or modified or partial versions of it) for revenue-generating or other commercial purposes. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® The Victoria History of the Counties of England EDITED BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE VOLUME IV Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND LANCASHIRE LONDON CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED Digitized by Microsoft® This History is issued to Subscribers only By Constable & Company Limited end printed by Eyre & Spottiswoode Limited HM. Printers of London Digitized by Microsoft® INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF HER LATE MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE THE TITLE TO AND ACCEPTED THE DEDICATION OF THIS HISTORY Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® feel pore Nae nD) FP Fy Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF LANCASTER EDITED BY WILLIAM FARRER, D.Litr., anp J. BROWNBILL, M.A. VOLUME FOUR LONDON CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED IQII Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® CONTENTS Dedication Contents Index of Parishes, Townships, and Manors . List of Illustrations Editorial Note Topography West Derby Hundred (cont.)— Liverpool . Wigan Winwick Salford Hundred— Introduction Manchester Ashton-under-Lyne Eccles \ OF VOLUME FOUR Architectural descriptions by C. R. Pzgrs, M.A., F.S.A.,and F. H. Cuzzruam. Heraldic draw- ings and blazon by the Rev. E. E. Doruine, M.A., F.S.A. Historical description by Professor Ramsay Mute, M.A. Historical description by W. Farrer, D.Litt., and J. Brownzitt, M.A. 9 ” ” Historical descriptions by W. Farrer, D.Litt., and J. Brownsitt, M.A. Digitized by Microsoft® xiii 122 171 174 338 352 Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX OF PARISHES, TOWNSHIPS, AND MANORS In the following list (m) indicates manor, (p) parish, and (t) township Abram (Wigan), (t) 111, (m) 111 Agecroft Hall (Eccles), 397, 400 Alport (Manchester), 237 Ancoats (Manchester), 237 Arbury (Winwick), (t) 166, (m) 168 Ardwick (Manchester), (t) 279, (m) 280 Ashton-in-Makerfield (Winwick), (t) 142, (m) 142 Ashton-under-Lyne, (p) 338, (m) 340 Aspull (Wigan), (t) 118, (m) 118 Bamfurlong (Wigan), 113 Barlow (Manchester), 298 Barton (Eccles), (t) 363, (m) 364 Bentcliffe (Eccles), 369 Beswick (Manchester), (t) 281, (m) 281 Bickershaw (Wigan), 114 Billinge Chapel End (Wigan), 83 Billinge Higher End (Wigan), 83 Birch (Manchester), 305 Birchley (Wigan), 85 Bispham Hall in Billinge (Wigan), 83, 85 Blackley (Manchester), (t) 255, (m) 255 Bolton, Little (Eccles), 395 Booth Hall in Blackley (Manchester), 256 Booths (Eccles), 382 Boysnope (Eccles), 370 Bradford (Manchester), (t) 274, (m) 275 Brindlache (Eccles), 394 Bromyhurst (Eccles), 373 Broughton (Manchester), (t) 217, (m) 217 Burnage (Manchester), (t) 310, (m) 310 Byrom (Winwick), 151 Cadishead (Eccles), 371 Cayley (Winwick), 140 Cheetham (Manchester), (t) 259, (m) 259 Chorlton-upon-Medlock (Manchester), (t) 251, (m) 252 Chorlton-with-Hardy (Manchester), (t) (m) 298 Clayden (Manchester), 240 Clayton (Manchester), 282 Clifton (Eccles), (t) 404, (m) 404 Collyhurst (Manchester), 241 Croft (Winwick), (t) 168, (m) 168 Crumpsall (Manchester), (t) 262, (m) 262 Culcheth (Manchester), 271 Culcheth (Winwick), (t) 156, (m) 156 Dalton (Wigan), (t) 97, (m) 97 Davyhulme (Eccles), 372 Denton (Manchester), (t) 311, (m) 311 Didsbury (Manchester), (t) 293, (m) 293 Droylesden (Manchester), (t) 282, (m) 282 Dumplington (Eccles), 374 Earlestown (Winwick), 132 Eccles, 352 Ellenbrook (Eccles), 391 Failsworth (Manchester), (t) 273, (m) 273 Garrett (Manchester), 240 Gidlow Hall (Wigan), 120 Golborne (Winwick), (t) 148, (m) 148 Gorton (Manchester), (t) 275, (m) 276 Gotherswick (Manchester), 270 Greenlow (Manchester), 254, 277 Grindlow. See Greenlow. Haigh (Wigan), (t) 115, (m) 115 Hardy. See Chorlton Harpurhey (Manchester), (t) 270, (m) 270 Haughton (Manchester), 322 Hawkley (Wigan), 81 Haydock (Winwick), (t) 137, (m) 137 Heaton Norris (Manchester), (t) 323, (m) 324 Hey (Winwick), 134 Hindley (Wigan), (t) 106, (m) 106 Hindley Hall in Aspull (Wigan), 120 Hindley Hall in Pemberton (Wigan), 80 Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX OF PARISHES, Holcroft (Winwick), 160 Holt (Manchester), 308 Hope (Eccles), 394 Hough End Hall (Manchester), 291 Hough Hall (Manchester), 268 Houghton (Winwick), (t) 166, (m) 166 Houghton, Little (Eccles), 389 Houghton Peel (Winwick), 167 Hulme (Manchester), (t) 335, (m) 335 Hulme Hall (Reddish), 328 Hurst (Winwick), 163 Hyde Hall in Denton (Manchester), 316 Ince (Wigan), (t) 101, (m) 102 Irlam (Eccles), 371 Kempnough (Eccles), 388 Kenyon (Winwick), (t) 154, (m) 154 Kersal (Manchester), 219 Kingnall (Winwick), 163 Kirklees (Wigan), 121 Kirkmanshulme (Manchester), 271 Levenshulme (Manchester), (t) 309, (m) 309 Lightbowne Hall (Manchester), 265 Lightshaw (Winwick), 149 Litchford Hall (Manchester), 259 Liverpool, (p) 1, (m) 2 Lowe (Wigan), 108 Lowton (Winwick), (t) 150, (m) 151 Manchester, (p) 174, (t) 222, (m) 230 Markland (Wigan), 82 Middleton (Winwick), (t) 166, (m) 166 Monks’ Hall (Eccles), 368 Monsall (Manchester), 272 Monton (Eccles), 369 Mossley (Ashley-under-Lyne), 347 Moss Side (Manchester), 302 Moston (Manchester), (t) 264, (m) 267 Newchurch (Winwick), 164 Newham (Eccles), 370 Newton (Manchester), (t) 271, (m) 271 Newton-in-Makerfield (Winwick), (t) 132, (m) 133 TOWNSHIPS, AND MANORS Norley (Wigan), 79 Nuthurst (Manchester), 265 Occleshaw (Wigan), 113 Openshaw (Manchester), (t) 287, (m) 287 Ordsall (Manchester), 210 Orrell (Wigan), (t) 89, (m) 89 Peasfurlong (Winwick), 159 Pemberton (Wigan), (t) 78, (m) 79 Pendlebury (Eccles), (t) 397, (m) 397 Pendleton (Eccles), (t) 392, (m) 393 Platt (Manchester), 303 Reddish (Manchester), (t) 326, (m) 326 Risley (Winwick), 161 Rusholme (Manchester), (t) 303, (m) 303 Salford (Manchester), (t) 204, (m) 205 Shoresworth (Eccles), 397, 403 Slade (Manchester), 306 Smedley (Manchester), 261 Southworth (Winwick), (t) 168, (m) 168 Stalybridge (Ashton-under-Lyne), 347 Strangeways (Manchester), 260 Stretford (Manchester), (t) 329, (m) 330 Swinton (Eccles), 389 Tetlow (Manchester), 218 Trafford (Manchester), 330 Tunstead (Wigan), 81 Upholland (Wigan), (t) 91, (m) 92 Walkden (Eccles), 390 Wardley (Eccles), 384 Weaste (Eccles), 396 Whittleswick (Eccles), 374 Wigan, (p) 57, (t) 68, (m) 70. Winstanley (Wigan), (m) 83, (t) 87 Winton (Eccles), 370 Winwick, (p) 122, (t) 140, (m) 141 Withington (Manchester), (t) 288, (m) 288 Worsley (Eccles), (t) 376, (m) 376 Worsley Mesnes (Wigan), 80 Digitized by Microsoft® LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Old Dock and Custom House, Liverpool, 1721 Liverpool : Plan, 1765 %5 Old Haymarket, 1850 35 Old Tithe Barn St. John’s Lane, 1865 } Lord Street, about 1798 5 in 1680 . 3 North Shore Mill 5 Shaw’s Brow St. Nicholas’s Church } St. Peter’s Church 55 Old Bluecoat School Goree Buildings, on, Wigan Church from the North-west, showing Tower Upholland Priory Church looking East } Billinge : Bispham Hall Abram : Bamfurlong ail! Upholland Church: Plan . : Dalton : Scotts Fold, Douglas Valley »» Stane House, Douglas alee , Winwick Church from the South 3 » North Arcade of ae) Newton in Makerfield : Newton-le-Willows Hall Ps $3 Village Street looking towards Sai Manchester and Salford: Plan, about 1650 . ” ” ” Map, 1740 * ee si Plan, 1772 Salford : Bull’s Head Inn, Greengate : Manchester : General View from Mount Pleasant . Cathedral, from the South-east . Plan The Quire Stalls in the Quire ‘ ‘ : The Nave, showing Screen and Organ 5 % View across the Nave from the South-west . Salford : Ordsall Hall : General View from the North-east, 1875 . Bay Window of the Hall, &c., 1875 North Face of the Hall after removal of Plaster Window of the ‘Star Chamber,’ c. 1875 Plan in 1849. e a Sy Plan ‘ Broughton : Kersal Cell: The South Front . 3 » Hall: The West Front Manchester ; The Market Place, about 1825 Chetham’s Hospital, 1797 : ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ”? ” Plan * The Cloister The Great Hall } ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” xiii Digitized by Microsoft® Sull-page plate, ” ” ” ” ” coloured plan, facing Sull-page plate, facing ” ” a: PAGE . Srontispiece JSacing ” 2 4 14 22 26 34 44 46 54 58 174 178 186 188 190 190 192 194 210 210 212 212 214 214 220 220 222 224 224 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Manchester : Chetham’s Hospital, Corner of Reading Room The Screens - The Gatehouse ” ” ” ” ss Poet’s Corner Pe The Seven Stars Inn 5 St. Ann’s Church Moston : Hough Hall, Back View ‘ Droylsden : Clayton Hall, from the South-west 3 si » Plan . , yi : Withington : Hough End Hall: South-west Front. ) 5 or » 9, from the South-east . ) Didsbury Church : Plan Chorlton-with-Hardy : Barlow Hall Rusholme : Platt Hall 3 Slade Hall, East Front Denton Hall from the North-west “ 55 Plan . ‘ ‘ » Hyde Hall, Entrance Front _ »» 95. South Front ae St. Laurence’s Church Hulme Hall: the Courtyard in 1843 . Ashton-under-Lyne: Old Hall . ‘ : : ‘ ‘ 3 5 Parish Church : Glass in South-west Window of South Aisle ; 3 Pr a 5 Glass in Middle Window of South Aisle . “ ‘ « Clase iv Bast Window orSouth Aide 5 a ie 3% Glass in West Window of North Aisle Eccles Church : Plan * 35 South View Barton : Monk’s Hall : Worsley : Wardley Hall : The Gateway ” ” sr Plan, *5 1” », The South Front. % 3 » Courtyard from South-east i % » from the South-west Pendlebury : Agecroft Hall, North-east Angle of Courtyard, c. 1875 Worsley : Kempnough Hall ‘ . ‘ Pendlebury : Agecroft Hall from the South-east ” ” ” ” ” ” Plan LIST OF MAPS Index Map to the Parish of Wigan 5 Pa 5 Winwick . re a Hundred of Salford bs oi Parish of Manchester _ Ashton-under-Lyne 4 9 Parishes of Eccles and Flixton xiv Digitized by Microsoft® j Jull-page plate, facing ” ” ” Sull-page plate, facing Sull-page plate, facing Jull-page plate, facing ” ” ” ” ” ” Sull-page plate, facing Sull-page plate, facing Sull-page plate, facing Sull-page plate, facing PAGE 226 226 227 228 247 123 172 175 339 353 EDITORIAL NOTE Tue Editors are desirous of expressing their thanks to Mr. C. W. Sutton, M.A., Mr. Ernest Axon, and Mr. H. T. Crofton, for their assistance with regard to the history of Manchester and in many other ways ; and in addition to those whose help has been acknowledged in previous volumes they desire to record their obligations to the following : The Earl of Wilton, the Earl of Ellesmere, Sir Humphrey de Trafford, bart., Mr. T. H. Davies-Colley, Mr. H. T. Folkard, F.S.A., Mr. S. Mills, Mr. J. J. Phelps, and the Town Clerks and Librarians of Eccles and Salford. For the use of plans and for information regarding the architecture of the county, the Editors are indebted to the late Mr. Alfred Darbyshire, F.S.A., Mr. John Douglas, Mr. Harold Gibbons, Mr. A. Corbett and the Manchester Society of Architects, Mr. Frank Oakley, Mr. George Pearson, Mr. R. Basnett Preston, and Mr. Henry Taylor, F.S.A. For the use of photographs for illustrations the Editors desire to express their obligations to Mr. Fletcher Moss, J.P., and Mr. James Watts for permission to reproduce those of Chetham’s Hospital in Mr. Moss’s ‘Pilgrimages to Old Homes,’ to Mr. A. E. H. Blackburn, and also to the Editor of the Manchester City News for the block of Platt Hall. Owing to unforeseen circumstances the publication of this volume has been delayed, and although an attempt has been made to bring the information up to the date of finally going to press, it has been” impossible to do so in every instance. It should be noted that the class of documents at the British Museum here cited as ‘ Norris Deeds’ has been re-named ‘ Aston Hall Charters.’ The Towneley Manuscripts denominated G G and R R are in the British - Museum ; CC is in the Chetham Library. xv ¢ Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE Digitized by Microsoft® A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE Street to the west, and Dale Street and Moor Street to the east. All these streets are known to have existed in the 14th century,® and no others were added until the 17th. The geography of the fields of early Liverpool forms a very obscure and difficult subject. The chief authori- ties for them are the numerous deeds of transfer of lands from the 13th century onwards, which were preserved in the muniments of the Moore and Crosse families ; but it has not yet been possible to construct a detailed map of the mediaeval field system. Many field-names are given in the deeds, the chief being the Old Fields (Great and Little), the Heathy Lands (Nether and Over), the Brecks, the Dalefield, the Wallfield, the Milnefield, the Sheriffacres, the Castle field, the Whiteacres, the Wetearth.° Some of these doubtless represent approvements from the waste ; but only one of these approvements can be definitely dated. This was the Salthouse Moor, of which 45 acres were inclosed between 1296 and 1323,’ and 19 more between 1327 and 1346.8 The Salt- house Moor probably lay at the north-west of the township by the Mersey shore, but it is not possible to be certain.° Next to nothing is known of LIVER- MANOR POOL before the creation of the borough in 1207. In Domesday it is almost cer- tainly one of the six unnamed berewicks attached to the manor of West Derby. What degree of depen- dence upon the parent manor was involved in the berewick period cannot be determined ; but probably the Liverpool tenants did suit at the West Derby halmote, as the tenants of the other berewicks long continued to do." At some date between 1166 and 1189 Liverpool was granted by Henry II to Warine de Lancaster, along with other lands, and this may have involved separation from West Derby and the institution of a distinct court. ‘The deed of grant does not survive, but is referred to in an undated confirmation ? granted to Henry son of Warine by John Count of Mortain, after his succession to the honour. But Liverpool was not long permitted to remain in the hands of a mesne lord. On 23 August 1207 John reacquired it, giving the township of English Lea near Preston in exchange. Five days later the so-called ‘charter’ was issued which turned the vill into a borough. MHenceforward the descent of the lordship of the borough follows the descent of the honour of which it formed a part ; except during the brief interval, 1315-22, when it was held by Robert de Holand under grant from Thomas Earl of Lancaster.” Liverpool is distinguished from most other boroughs by the fact that it owes its foundation absolutely to an exer- cise of the royal will ; there is no evidence that the place was a centre of any trade before the date when John fixed upon its sheltered Pool as a convenient place of embarkation for men and sup- plies from his Lancashire lands for his Irish campaigns. He may have visited the place in February 1206, on the way from Lancaster to Chester ; '° and probably the creation of the borough should be re- garded as part of the prepara- tion for the great expedition of 1209. Some part of the new population which was necessary may have been found by a transplantation from West Derby, which is described in 1208 as having been remota usque ad Liverpul;“ others doubtless came in response to the ‘charter,’ which may more accurately be described as a proclamation of invitation ; and the original tenants of the township appear all to have been enfranchised. For the reception of the new population John had set apart a number of burgages facing on the seven main streets of the borough. The number of the original burgages it is impossible to determine. ‘There were 168 in 1296,'* and there- after the number remained fixed. But it is probable that there were fewer to begin with. Nor is it pos- sible to be precise about the area of the burgage proper, i.e. the building lot. It was big enough to be divisible into minute fractions, as small as gy or gs:'° Probably each burgage was a selion. In 1346 the commonest holding was half a burgage, and it is likely that the burgages were divisible from the outset. At the same date large holdings are found of 2, 3, 4, 5, and even 8 burgages. ‘To each burgage proper was attached one Cheshire acre in the town-fields, usually consisting of two strips in different fields.” The rent for burgage and field-holdings together was 12d. per annum,” payable half-yearly, a figure which suggests the influence of Norman parallels. Or, rather, it would be more accurate to say that the rent was charge- able for the burgage, but ‘ acquitted’ also the corre- BOROUGH Liverroor. Argent a cormorant sable beaked and legged gules holding in his beak a branch of seaweed called laver in- verted vert. 5 Moore and Crosse deeds, passim. 6 The positions of these lands (in some cases conjectural) are indicated in the map. The names of most frequent occurrence are the Oldfields, the Heathy Lands, and the Dalefield, and it is prob- ably in these that we should look for the original town-fields. It may be con- jectured that the Dalefield formed origi- nally a part of the Little Oldfield, which, lying round the village, was naturally broken up by the streets; that the two Oldfields thus reconstructed formed the lands of the township on a two-field sys- tem before the constitution of the bor- ough ; and that the Heathy Lands (as the name itself suggests) were an approvement from the waste on the north between Liverpool and Kirkdale, made at an early date, probably to meet the requirements of the new population whom King John introduced at the creation of the borough. Other field-names may represent either the original demesne (e.g. Castlefield), or distinct portions of the older fields (e.g. Milnefield, part of one of the Oldfields), or more recent approvements (e.g. Wet- earth). 7 See Muir in Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.) xxl, 16, 17. Cf. Ing. p.m. 25 Edw. I, no. 51, with L.T.R. Enr. Accts. Misc. 14, m. 76d. 8 Ibid. and Add. MS. 32103, fol. 140. 9 The name seems to have been an official one, not popularly adopted, for it does not appear in the Moore or Crosse deeds. 10 V.C.H. Lanes. i, 283. 11 See Lancs. Ct. R. (Rec. Soc. of Lancs, and Ches. xli), passim, 12 Original at Hoghton Tower. Printed in Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 432. a Digitized by Microsoft® 18 Chart, R. (Rec. Com.), 1714, In the Charter Rolls the date is given as Aug. xxviii ; but this isa mistake for xxiii. The deed is dated from Worcester, where John was on the 23rd (Itin. of John) ; on the 28th he was at Winchester. 4 Orig, in Liv. Munic. Archives. Printed in Hist, Munic. Govt. in Liv. 153. 15 Ing. p.m. 1 Edw. III, m, 88. 16 Itin. of John prefixed to Pipe R. of ohn. 1 Pipe R. of 1207-9 in Lancs. Pipe R. 220, 228, 2343; where an allowance of £9 8s. is made to the sheriff ‘in defalta de West Derbei quae est remota usque ad Liverpul, per breve Regis.’ 18 Ing. pm. 25 Edw. I, no. 51. 19 Moore and Crosse deeds. Also Add. MS. 32103 (extent of 1346). 20 Moore deeds, passim. 21 Add. MS. 32103. SgZ1 “tooauaaly ao NVI q Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED sponding holdings in the fields ; for, as the Moore and Crosse deeds abundantly show, these could be separ- ately sold or let by the tenant, still being ‘ acquitted’ so far as the lord was concerned by the burgage to which they were originally attached. The 12d. rent, together with suit at the borough court, constituted the whole of the ‘service’ due from the tenants.” There is no evidence for the payment of a heriot, such as was exacted in Salford.” : The privileges which John promised to the occu- pants of the burgages are included under the general phrase ‘all the liberties and free customs which any tree borough on the sea has in our land.’ This, if taken literally, would place Liverpool from the outset _at the same level of burghal liberties as Bristol and Southampton ; but probably nothing of the sort was intended,” and the phrase is to be taken merely as securing to the burgesses personal liberty, freedom from service, free tenure of land, and exemption from the payment of tolls within the limits of the borough, though seemingly not beyond them. The grants of John are essentially promises to individuals, not formal concessions of powers to an organized community. During the next twenty-two years the borough was doubtless governed by a royal bailiff or steward, and the burgesses were represented, as in the rural period, by a reeve.* Probably, however, 1207 saw also the establishment of a weekly market and an annual fair, the erection of a mill,?* and perhaps of a chapel.” The gradual progress of the new borough is best illustrated by the history of its yield to the royal exchequer. From 1211 to 1219 the profits of Liver- pool seem to have been included in those of West Derby, from which it may be inferred that the borough was administered in these years by the steward of the neighbouring manor. In 1222 and the following years ® an assized rent of £9 was charged on the borough, being answered for by William de Ferrers as sheriff of Lancaster. How much was covered by this rent it is not easy to determine,” but if it included mills, ferry, and courts as well as the burgage rents the borough must have been poor enough, or the sheriff have made a substantial profit. Possibly the burgesses may themselves have paid the assized rent, but more probably-the borough was farmed for this sum by the sheriff. The tallages assessed on the borough during the early years of Henry III show, however, a steady advance. In 1219 Liverpool . paid half a mark, West Derby a mark, Preston 10 22 Add. MS. 321033 Reg. St. Wer- burgh Hall MS. 1965, fol. xviiid, men (Munic. Rec. passim) on payment of a small fixed fee, whether they held bur- LIVERPOOL marks. In 1222 *! Liverpool paid 5 marks, West Derby 1 mark, Preston 15 marks. In 1227 * Liver- pool paid 11 marks 7s, 8¢., West Derby 7 marks 4s. 4d., Preston 15 marks 6¢. In these years the parent manor of West Derby had been completely outstripped, while the new borough was rapidly over- taking Preston. A very important step forward was taken when on 24. March 1229 Henry III granted a charter® to Liverpool, the burgesses paying for it 10 marks. The payment shows that they had learnt to take common action ; perhaps they had formed an illicit gild. The charter of Henry III is of the first importance, as it remained the governing charter of the borough down to 1626, all the intervening charters being merely confirmations with or without modifications. The charter is on the most ample scale. It opens by conceding that Liverpool should be a free borough (Aber burgus), for ever ; but this, though it secured, probably did not extend the privileges already con- ferred by John. In the second place it grants inde- pendent jurisdiction to the borough court in the regular formula of sac and soc, thol and theam, and in- fangenethef, and exempts the burgesses from suit at shire and hundred-courts for their holdings in the borough. In regard to trade, the exemption from tolls in the Liverpool market granted by King John was now extended to all markets within the king’s dominions, and the Liverpool traders were thus placed on a level with the burgesses of the most favoured boroughs. But the most important concession of the charter was the right to have ‘a gild merchant with a hansa and all the liberties and free customs pertaining to that gild’ ; the privileges of trade, previously con- fined to holders of burgages, being now limited to members of the gild, while in future no one might be permitted to trade in the borough without licence of the gild. No evidence whatsoever survives as to the mode of organization of the gild thus granted, or its relation to the ordinary governmental machinery of the borough. Doubtless all holders of burgages were entitled to membership.™ During the first century of the borough’s existence it is as difficult to say anything definite about the borough government as about the gild. With regard to officers, in 1246 the ‘vill’ was represented at the eyre of the justices by twelve jurors, including ‘Ranulf de Moore, reeve of the vill,’ ** but this seems to be the only mention of a reeve ; probably he was Age no allusion in any document to separate officers of the gild. In the 16th 23 For discussion of this, see Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 13 1. 3. 24 Ibid. 15-17. 25 A reeve is mentioned in 1246; As- size R. 1404, m. 16. 26 The mills ‘certainly existed from 1256, and probably from 1229. 27 The small chapel of St. Mary del Key was in existence before 1257 ; see below. 28 Pipe R. 10 Hen. IIL; Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 295. 29 Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xxi, 6, 7+ 30 Pipe R. 3 Hen. III, m. 12d. 81 Ibid, 6 Hen. III, m. 5d. 82 Tbid. 11 Hen. III, m. 1. 88 Orig. in Liv. Munic. Archives ; Chart. R. 13 Hen. III, m. 9; Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 155. 84In the 16th century it had become the practice to admit to the freedom of the gild all sons and apprentices of free- gages or not; and as early as 1525 non- resident merchants were admitted in large numbers; Duchy of Lanc. Misc. vol. 95, fol. 366; Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 402. Whether or no this practice existed from the beginning it is impossible to say ; but in any case the grant of gild- powers rendered possible the admission to trading privileges of persons other than burgage holders, and thus prevented the limitation of these privileges to a narrow landholding oligarchy. But the non- burgess members of the gild, in so small a borough, must always have been few ; and there can have been little distinction between the burgess body proper and the gild. Hence it is probable that, as in other cases (Gross, Gild Merchant, i, chap. v.), a single assembly and a single set of officers served for both. There is, indeed, throughout the Middle 3 Digitized by Microsoft® century gild business and borough busi- ness were indifferently transacted in the same assemblies and by the same officers. In 1551 there were elected two ‘sene- schals of the Gild Court’ (Mdunic. Rec. i, 2a. But they were then only keepers of the gildhall), whose existence suggests that there had once been a distinctive court for the enforcement of trade regula- tions, which would not naturally fall under the review of the borough-court. But that is the only mention of any such officials. Probably, therefore, the gild added little to the complexity of burghal organization 3 and it should be regarded, not as a distinct body, but rather as simply adding certain new executive and legisla- tive powers to the existing ruling bodies of the borough. The question is dis- cussed at length in Hist. Munic. Govt, in Liv. 31-6. 85 Assize R. 404, m. 16. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE replaced by a bailiff. In 1292 * the burgesses asserted that they ‘had been accustomed to have’ a bailiff ‘ of themselves,’ i.e. e'ected by themselves; numerous local deeds,” the earliest dating from 1309, show, however, that there were two bailiffs. ‘The pro- bability is that the burgesses normally elected one, and that the lord appointed the other to look after his dues. When the burgesses held the farm of the town they may have elected both bailiffs. In the only roll of the borough court * of Liverpool which survives from the mediaeval period, the lord’s steward pre- sides ; but this may be because the burgesses did not then hold the farm of the town.® The great advance marked by the charter of Henry III was completed by the concession to the burgesses on the following day, 25 March 1229, of a lease of the farm of the borough“ at a rent of £10. The lease is in the most general terms, but it is clear from the items included in the same rent in 1256 that it comprised the burgage rents, the market tolls, and the profits of two water-mills and a windmill” If at this date the burgages at all approximated to their ultimate number of 168 the burgesses must have made a substantial profit on this lease. But the lease was only for four years, expiring in 1233. While it lasted, the lease freed the bur- gesses from the intervention of royal agents. The burghal system of Liverpool had no sooner been completed by these deeds than the borough passed from royal to baronial control, as a result of the grant of the borough, along with the rest of the Lancashire lands of the Crown, to Ranulf, Earl of Chester. During Ranulf’s occupancy, which lasted for three years only, and that of the three Ferrers, Earls of Derby, whose tenure extended (with the interval of the minority of Robert de Ferrers, 1254-62 (?)) until 1266, the material for the history of the borough is singularly scanty. But the Ferrers family appear to have respected the burghal liberties, and to have renewed the lease of the farm (which fell in in 1233) regularly at the same rental throughout the period of their control.“ In 1266, just before his last rebellion and confiscation, Robert de Ferrers con- firmed the charters‘ of Liverpool; probably as a means of raising money. The most important event of the period CASTLE was the erection of the Liverpool Castle, which had taken place before 1235 and may safely be attributed to the first William de Ferrers.“ There had long been a castle at West Derby ; it was in ruins in 1296,” but it had been in existence in 1232,‘* when the first Ferrers took posses- sion ; when his son succeeded him, Liverpool Castle had been built ;“ probably the one was intended to take the place of the other. No re- cord of its erection survives, nor any account of the fabric before a late date. It was demolished in 1720, and no satisfactory views or plans of it survive.” It stood at the top of the modern Lord Street ; that is, on the highest point of land in the town, imme- diately overlooking the entrance to the Pool. Occupy- ing an artificially created plateau, almost exactly So yds. square, it was surrounded by a moat some 20 yds. wide, cut out of the solid rock.** The main fabric consisted of (1) a great gatehouse surmounted by two small towers, which stood at the north-eastern corner, and looked down Castle Street ; (2) three circular towers at the three other corners; one of these, probably that at the south-east corner, was built later than the rest of the fabric, in 1442; the south- western tower seems to have been regarded as the keep of the fortress ; (3) curtain walls connected the four main towers; on the eastern side the wall rose from the edge of the rock-plateau ; on the north and Wal Ferrers, Earl of Derby. Vairy or and gules. 86 Plac. de Quo War, (Rec. Com.), 381. 87 Moore D. passim. 88 Roll of 13243 Lance. Cr R. (Rec. Soc. xli), 77-88. 89 As to lesser burghal officers there is no evidence before the 16th century, when we get the titles (Adunic. Rec. i, 2a) of a hayward, two burleymen, two moss- reeves, two ale-founders, all of whom must have had mediaeval predecessors ; and two water-bailiffs, four merchant prysors, and two leve-lookers, who were probably officials required by the gild powers obtained under the charter of Henry III (Gross, Gild Merchant) ; the 16th century also shows us in exis- tence a body of jurats like those of Leicester (Bateson, Rec. Leic.), Ipswich (Little Domesday of Ipswich), and other towns. They numbered twelve or twenty- four, and made regulations for the better government of the town, besides making presentments in the portmoot. Their decrees were at that date disregarded, but they were considered to be the representa- tives of an institution which had once been powerful (Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 52). It is likely, therefore, that in mediaeval Liverpool, as in Leicester, Ips- wich, ‘and all the other boroughs of Eng- land’ (Little Domesday of Ipswich), there was a standing body of jurats who exer- cised a general control over the adminis- Digitized by Microsoft® tration carried on by the bailiff and other elected officers. In the 16th century all the officers were elected at an assembly of all freemen held on St. Luke’s Day, 18 October. Other assemblies were summoned for special business as occasion required. There were also two solemn courts, or portmoots, in each year; the great port- moot being held a few days after the electoral assembly. In the mediaeval period the only general bodies of which there is mention (Add. MS. 32103 3 Court Roll of 1324, Lanc. Cr. R. 77-88) were two great courts, corresponding to the portmoots of the 16th century, at which all burgesses were bound to be present, and a lesser court held theoreti- cally every three weeks, but in practice at irregular intervals. Thus in 1324 twelve courts were held, at intervals varying from a week to three months. It is likely that the 16th century differentiation between the portmoots for legal business and the assemblies for general business did not exist in the early days of the borough ; but that the single governing organ of the borough was the portmoot, at which all burgesses were entitled to be present, and, on two solemn occasions a year, required to be present. For a fuller discussion of the burghal constitution under the charter of Hen. III see Hist, Munic. Govt. in Liv, 20-36. 4 40 Pat. 13 Hen. III, m. 9 ; Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 296. 41 Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xxi, 8. 42 On the history of the mills and milling soke of Liverpool, see Bennett and Elton, Hist. of Corn-milling, iv, chap. iv, where the facts are fully marshalled. 48 Cal. Close, 1227-31, p. 221 3 Chart. R. 13 Hen. III, pt. i, m. 2. 44 This is a fair inference from the fact that in 1256, during the minority of Robert and the occupancy of his lands by the king’s son Edward, Edward’s bailiff renders account for the farm of the vill of Liverpool at the old rent; Duchy of Lanc. Mins. Accts. bdle. 1094, no. 113 Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 39, 296. 45 Hist, Munic. Govt. 156. Original in Liv. Munic. Archives. 48 Cal, Pat 1232-47, p. 89. 47 Ing. p.m. 25 Edw. I, no. 51. 48 Cal. Close, 1231-4, p. 169. 49 Fine Roll, 32 Hen, III, pt. i, m. 14. 50 The best discussion and reconstruc- tion of the castle is by E. W. Cox, Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), vi. 51 Mr. Cox has been followed in infer- ting these main features of the castle from (1) the Extent of 1346; (2) de- tailed instructions for repairs in 1476 (Duchy of Lanc. Bk. of Orders, etc. Edw. IV, fol. 140) ; (3) report of com- missioners on demolition of the castle, 1706, Okill MSS. iv, 337. Surmvaq 4n0j0I-431v 44 v mot” : ney AA oS$gl ‘1aWUVNAV]]T GIO | ToOddsAlT OS80—F1vo “13M B VAY. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED south it was recessed so as to be commanded from the towers ; on the west it formed an obtuse angle, the angle touching the edge of the rock ; (4) the hall and a chapel probably lay respectively along the western and southern walls, and were connected with the south-western tower ; (5) there were also a brew- house and a bakehouse, the sites of which cannot be determined ; they may have been in the north-west angle, near which a postern gate led to an under- ground passage from the moat to the edge of the river.” The courtyard seems to have been divided by a wall running from north to south. A survey of 2 October 1559 gives further interesting details of the building. It was at the time ‘in utter ruin and decay,’ there having been no lead on any of the buildings within the memory of man. The great tower, probably that at the south-west, had a slated roof, and the commissioners suggested that it should be repaired and used for the keeping of the ‘Quenes Majesties Courtes for Her Graces Wappentacke of West Derbyshyre, being a very greate soken,’ and for the storage of the court rolls. The ‘ringe walle’ or curtain and the masonry of the towers seem to have been fairly sound, and only needed protection from the weather, and the com- missioners strongly advised the putting of the castle into substantial repair at a cost of about {100, ‘otherwaies it were a grate defacement unto the said towne of Litherpole.’ No mention is made of any moat in the report, and there is some tradition that none existed till the Civil Wars, but no proof of this is obtainable. There was a dovecot under the castle wall, and an orchard ran down the slope to the Pool on the east. Out of this orchard Lord Street was cut in the 17th century. Thus the first period of baronial suzerainty had resulted in the overawing of the burgesses by a formidable fortress, On the rebellion and forfeiture of Robert de Ferrers Liverpool, with other possessions between Ribble and Mersey, passed to the hands of the Crown. Henry III at once granted them with the honour of Lancaster to his second son, Edmund ; to whose representatives Mary de Ferrers, wife of the forfeited earl and niece of the king, was ordered to surrender the castle of Liverpool in July 1266.% This begins the second part of the baronial period of Liverpool history, extending over the earldoms of Edmund and Thomas of Lancaster, 1266-1322. Both of these earls seem to have treated the borough with some harshness. In the first place the lease of the farm was not renewed. Earl Edmund took the administration of the town into his own hands," or at least broke up the farm into several parts ; and the total yield under the new system in place of the old rent of {10 amounted to £25 1os. in the latter years of Earl Edmund and about £30 by the end of 52 A rock-cut passage still runs under 7 ft. 6 in. deep. It was again examined LIVERPOOL the reign of Earl Thomas ; the tolls of market and fair alone brought in as much as the old rent ; but there seems reason for believing that a farm of these tolls was held by the burgesses.” The greatly increased yield of the town affords evidence, however, that the earl was doing his best to develop its resources, and the beginning of a period of prosperity may perhaps be attributed to this time. In addition to the suppression of the lease of the farm, Edmund overrode the chartered rights of the burgesses. In 1292 the bailiffs and community of Liverpool were summoned on a gxo warranto*® plea to Lancaster. No bailiffs came ; but several men came for the com- munity, and, producing the charters of John and Henry III, stated that they had been a free borough with a gild, &c.; but that Earl Edmund suffered them not to have a free borough, or to elect a bailiff ‘of themselves’ ; wherefore they did not claim these liberties at present. The further hearing of the case was adjourned, but there is no record of the decision. Whatever the decision, the burgesses did not regain their rights till the beginning of the reign of Edward III. During this period the growing importance of the town (or the power of its masters) is recognized in the summons of burgesses from Liverpool to the Parliament of 1295, and again to that of 1307. The first Liverpool members of Parliament were Adam son of Richard, and Robert Pinklowe. After 1307 the borough did not again return members to Westminster until the middle of the 16th century. During the earldom of Thomas of Lancaster the steady progress of Liverpool appears to have continued. It is to this period that we must attribute the inclosure of Salthouse Moor, of which no mention is made in 1296, but which was in occupation and yielding rent in 1322. This is the only large approvement from the waste of which there is any trace, before the 17th century. The area first in- closed amounted to 45 acres ; which were in 1346 divided among 51 free tenants and 47 tenants-at-will, and in 1322-7 yielded 40s. of rent. Most of the tenants in these new lands already held burgages in the borough, but 32 of them were not included in the burgess roll, and this involved that they were a new class of tenants, not sharing in the liberties, but directly under the control of the lord. He could hold a distinct court for them if he wished; and though this does not seem to have been done at this period, that was only because the lord’s steward was presiding over the borough-court. At a later date questions of the first Tuomas, Earl of Lan- caster. ENGLAND with a label of France. his visit to Liverpool in 1283; Whalley James Street, from somewhere near the position of the castle, towards the river. It was entered and examined in May 1862 by Mr. P. M. Coogan (Rep. in vol. 2, p- 132 of the Misc. Rep. in the City En- gineer’s Office), and a plan and sections were made, showing that it varied in height and width, averaging about 8 ft. in height, and has in its floor on the south side a channel, which, when lately sounded on the suggestion of Mr. Robert Glad- stone, junr., has proved to be as much as Digitized by Microsoft® by the city engineer in 1908, and a new plan made. ‘That it had some connexion with the ditch of the castle seems pos- sible, and its depth is said to be sufficient to allow the river water to reach the ditch at high water. 522 Duchy of Lanc. Special Commis- sions, no. 9. 58 Pat. 50 Hen. III. §4Ing. p.m. 25 Edw. I, no. 513 L.T.R. Enr. Accts. Misc. no. 14, m. 77. Perhaps this may have been the result of 5 Coucher, 507. 55 Trans, Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xxi, 11. 56 Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 3814.; Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 41, and 397- 57 Parl. Writs, i, 39 (18). 58 L. T. R. Enr. Accts, Misc. no. 14, m. 77. 69 Extent of 1346, Add. MS. 32103, to which a full list of burgesses and tenants in Salthouse Moor is appended, A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE importance were to arise from the existence of this group of tenants. This was not the only new use made of the waste by Thomas of Lancaster. In the year 1310, on a visit to the borough, the earl granted to the burgesses © 6 Cheshire acres of moss ¢ adjoining the mill-pool of the vill of Liverpool’ at a rental of one silver penny per annum. This was in exchange for the right which they had previously possessed of digging peat in Toxteth Park. Important as being the first piece of corporate property owned by the burgesses, this patch of moss lay at the upper end and on the eastern side of the Pool, and formed part of the Mosslake. The rent of it appears among the revenues of the town during the remainder of the 14th century; in the 1sth it disappeared, being merged in that general control over the whole of the waste which the bur- gesses of that period quietly usurped. But in spite of this gift the earl does not seem to have attached much value to the borough, for in 1315 he granted both castle and borough to Robert de Holand. But no charter was sealed, nor did the tenants do homage ;*! in consequence of which Holand’s son, after the death of ‘Thomas of Lancaster, failed to obtain restitution of the estate, though he petitioned Parliament and obtained a favourable report from the treasurer and the barons of the exchequer.” The confusion produced by the turbulence of Thomas of Lancaster and the weak government of Edward II was felt at Liverpool as elsewhere. In 1315 Adam Banastre, Henry de Lea, and William de Bradshagh raised a rebellion against the earl ; and marching from their rendezvous at Charnock by way of Wigan, under the standard of Adam Banastre, made an assault upon Liverpool Castle. They were driven back, and then fell upon West Derby. ‘This is the only occasion on which the castle is known to have been attacked before the Civil War. On the attainder and execution of Thomes of Lan- caster royal agents reappeared in the borough. ‘The very full accounts which they rendered from 1322 to 1327 supply some of the most valuable material for ascertaining the condition of the town ; and it is to this time that the single court roll for the mediaeval period —that for the year 1324—belongs. In 1323 King Edward II himself visited Liverpool, staying for a week in the castle between 24 and 30 October. In preparation for him the castle was thoroughly repaired and victualled ; and the sum of 1s. 84. in particular was expended in mending the roof of the hall.® During the last troubled years of Edward II, the bailiffs of Liverpool were kept busy carrying out feverish orders : such as to hold ready for the king’s service all ships of sufficient burthen to carry 40 tuns of wine, to make returns of such ships, to warn mariners to beware of pirates,” to proclaim kindly usage for Flemings.* When, in 1326, the situation became really critical, the bailiffs were ordered to send all ships of 50 tons and upwards to Portsmouth ;® to search all persons entering or leaving the port, and to 60 Original in Liv. Munic. Archives. 61 Ing. p.m. 1 Edw. II, m. 88. The manor of West Derby was granted to Holand 3 Feb. 1320. The charter was inspected and the grant confirmed by the king 22 Feb, 1320. Cal. Pat. 1317-21, +431. 7 63 Rot. Parl. ii, 18. i 68 Coram Rege R. 254, m. 52. 6 Ibid. p. 641. 6 6 L.T.R. Enr. Accts, Misc. no. 14. 85 The walls, towers, houses, and gates of the castle were ordered to be repaired and the castle victualled 7 Feb. 1323. Cal, Close, 1318-23, p. 627. 66 L.T.R. Enr. Accts. loc, cit. 87 Cal. Close, 1323-7, p. 183. 68 Ibid. pp. 367, 378. seize letters prejudicial to the king ;” and to prevent the export of horses, armour, or money.” So, amid feverish feeble strife, the reign of Edward II came to an end. With it ended an epoch for Liverpool, The century from 1229 to 1327 had seen a serious diminution of burghal liberties, but it had also wit- nessed a substantial expansion of the borough’s re- sources. In the next age this expansion continues, and is accompanied by a remarkable revival of the privileges of the burgesses, which attained their highest point at the end of the century. The disorders which had marked the later years of Edward II continued to disturb Liverpool in the early years of his successor, and their echoes are audible in the trials of the period of which record remains. In 1332 Robert son of Thomas de Hale slew Henry de Walton at Liverpool, in the church before the altar ; a few days later Simon son of William de Walton struck and wounded Henry Ithell, and on the next day his brother Richard struck and wounded Robert the Harper.” In 1335 Sir William Blount, sheriff of the county, was murdered in Liverpool while en- gaged in the execution of his office,” and four years later five men, in consideration of their hay- ing ‘gone beyond the seas’ in the king’s service,” were pardoned for this crime and also for the murder of Henry Baret and Roger Wildgoose. As late as St. Valentine’s Day 1345 there was a serious disturb- ance of the peace in Liverpool :” a body of lawless men having entered the town in arms, with banners unfurled as in war, forced their way into the court where the king’s justices were in session, and after hurling ‘insulting and contumacious words,’ ‘did wickedly kill, mutilate, and plunder of their goods, and wound very many persons there assembled, and further did prevent the justices from showing jus-- tice . . . according to the tenour of their commis- sion.’ ‘Three weeks later special justices were appointed to deal with the offenders, and in July a large number of persons, many of them being men of position in the county, were pardoned at the request of the Earl of Lancaster, on condition that they went at their own charges for one year to do service to the king in Gascony. A condition of society such as is indicated by these events could scarcely be favourable to the growth of peaceful trade ; nevertheless, the growth of Liverpool continued. In 1338 the earl appears to have made an addition to the approved lands in Salthouse Moor, and enfeoffed a number of tenants at fines of 5 marks to the acre ;”° and the details of the assessment for the levy of a ninth in 1340 show a number of substan- tial persons to have been resident in the town.” We now obtain the first clear indications of the extent and nature of the trade of the town, of which something will be said later ; it would appear that Liverpool had become one of the most considerable ports of the west coast. As such, during the Scottish wars of the early years of Edward III, and during the Irish wars of the later years of his reign, it proved very useful as #0 Ibid. p. 537. 71 Ibid. p. 546. 74 Assize R. no. 1411, Mm, z 78 Cal. Pat. 1334-8, p. 580. 74 Ibid. 1338-40, pp. 217, 229, 232, 235. Ibid. 1343-5, pp. -9; Coram Rege R. 344, m. 3 ail ta 6 Add. MS. 32105, GG. 2901. 77 Exch. Lay Subs. bdle. 130, no. 15. Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED a port of embarkation ; and it is probably to the attention thus directed to it that we must attribute the revival of the town’s political fortunes. In 1327 the constable of Liverpool Castle was ordered” to receive within the castle men fleeing from the invading Scots. Next year the bailiffs of Liverpool were ordered to have all vessels in the port of 40 tons burthen in readiness to resist the king’s enemies from Normandy and Poitou.” In 1333 the bailiffs were commanded to retain all vessels of burthen sufficient for 50 tuns of wine, and to pre- pare them hastily with double equipment for the defence of the kingdom against the Scots,’ and the mandate was repeated in the next year, a royal com- missioner being told off to supervise the preparations.” In 1335 a clerk of the Exchequer was told off to pro- vide two ships of war fully manned and armed, to sail from Liverpool in pursuit of a great ship loaded with wine and arms, coming from abroad, and destined for the aid of the king’s enemies in the castle of Dum- barton.” These ships seem also to have been used to carry supplies for the royal army to Skymburnesse, at the mouth of the Solway. In the same year six of the largest ships to be found on the west coast be- tween Liverpool and Skymburnesse were ordered to be manned and armed and sent against the Scottish ships.™ In the French wars of the middle part of the reign Liverpool naturally took less share ;* but the inse- curity of English waters which marked the first part of the war is indicated by the receipt of an order to the Liverpool bailiffs not to permit vessels to leave the port for foreign parts save in great fleets and under: escort, while on more than one occasion Liverpool ships were summoned to southern ports to help in dealing with threatened French attacks.” In the later part of the reign of Edward III, and during the reigns of Richard IT and Henry IV, Liverpool was still more actively engaged in connexion with the Irish wars than she had been at the commencement of the period with the Scottish wars. In 1361 ‘the whole navy of the land, competently armed,’ was brought to transport Lionel of Clarence and his army to Ireland from Liverpool and Chester ;® in 1372 all ships between 20 tons and 200 tons burthen between Bristol and Liverpool were ordered to be collected at Liverpool for the transport ® of William de Windsor, ‘governor . . . of our realm of Ireland, and of the men at arms and others about to depart in our service in the retinue of the said William.’ In the next year all ships between Southampton and Furness were ordered to be brought to Liverpool for a similar purpose.” The port was constantly uti- lized for the embarkation of troops, and the Patent Rolls contain frequent notices of the assemblage of 78 Rot. Scot. i, 209. 49 Cal. Close, 1327-30, ps 307+ 86 Rot. Scot. i, 467. LIVERPOOL ships and considerable forces of men in the town on the way to Ireland.” This frequent use of the port for royal purposes, which doubtless brought with it an expansion of trade to both Scotland and Ireland, is beyond question the main reason for the favour now shown to Liverpool both by the king and by the earl.” The first sign of this is the grant of the right to collect certain dues for paving the town, first made in 1328 for a period of three years, and renewed several times during the century.” The collection of these dues and the spending of them represent a new kind of corporate action on the part of the burgesses, and therefore mark a stage in the development of municipal govern- ment. The money does not seem always to have been used for the purpose for which the grant was made, for in 1341 a commission of investigation had to be sent to Liverpool, as the king was informed that much of the money collected had been misappro- priated.* In 1333 a still more valuable favour was received from the king in the grant of a new charter.” The charter contains no new grant, being merely a confirmation of its predecessors. But we have seen that such a confirmation was highly necessary, and we may assume that from this date the free exercise of chartered liberties, prevented since the accession of Edmund of Lancaster, recommenced. Still more important than the charter, the lease of the farm of the borough is gradually regained during this period.*® At the beginning of the reign of Edward III the burgesses seem to have held a lease only of the tolls of the market and fair.” The first great advance is marked by the extent of the lands of the second Henry of Lancaster, made in 1346 after his succession to the earldom. In this deed there is a combined farm of the mills, tolls, and ferry for {24 per annum, which has been held for some years by an unnamed farmer, almost certainly representing the burgesses, and which is henceforward to be raised to £26.% In 1357 there comes a highly important new lease of the farm,® at a rent of £33, which was granted to eight leading burgesses on behalf of the community. This lease included the burgage rents and the profits of courts, in addition to the rights covered by the previous lease." From this lease, however, the rents of the new inclosures in Salthouse Moor seem to be omitted, and it would appear that while the burgesses resumed control of their own borough-court, a separate court was now instituted for these tenants. Apart from this, the sole reservations were the castle with its purlieus, forfeitures of lands, and (probably) escheats. By 1357, therefore, the burgesses had again attained to all but the highest degree of municipal liberties. The 1357 lease appears to have been continued 87 Ibid. in detail in Trans. Hist. Soc. (new. ser.), 80 Ror. Scot. i, 248, 258. 81 Thid. 306, 309. 83 Cal, Close, 1333-7, p- 414 3 Rot. Scot. 4, 321. 83 Pipe R. 9 Edw. III. 84 Cal, Rot. Scot. i, 355. 85 It has long been supposed that one Liverpool ship took part in the siege of Calais ; Baines, Liverpool, 1523 Kaye’s Stranger in Liv. (1825 ed.), 1§. It is clear, however, that this vessel hailed from Mersea in Essex, and not from the River Mersey, as pointed out by Mr. Robert Gladstone, jun. See the Liverpool Courier, 26 Dec. 1905. 88 Pat. 35 Edw. III, pt. 2, m. 24. 89 Ibid. 47 Edw. III. Printed in Baines, Liv. 165-6, from Okill’s transcripts. % Tbid. 48 Edw. III; Baines, op. cit. 166. 1 Cal, Pat. 1377-81, p. 385 3 1385-9, P- 163; 1388-92, pp. 134. 405, 385 5 1399-1401, p. 164, &c. 9 Thid. 9 Thid. 1327-30, p. 2313 1330-4, Pp. 396 3 1334-8, p. 223 5 1381-5, p. 130. 4 Ibid. 1340-3, p. 313. % Original in Liv. Munic. Archives, Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 158. % The steps in this process are analysed z Digitized by Microsoft® xxi, 1-27, 97 Ibid. 13; L. T. R. Enr. Accts. Misc. no. 14, m. 77. %8 Ibid. 19; Add. MS. 32103; Hise. Afunic. Govt. in Liv. 299. %9 Duchy of Lanc. Chan. R. no. 23 Dist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 302 and 47. See also Trans. Hist. Soc. loc. cit. 23. 100 In view of these additions the rent is extremely moderate, for the burgage rents of £8 more than make up the difference between the old rent of £26 and the new rent of £33. Possibly the rea- son for this moderation was that the town suffered severely from the Black Death. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE regularly until 1393,'' when it was replaced by a still more extensive lease granted by John of Gaunt, which represents the highest point attained by the municipal liberties of Liverpool during the Middle Ages.'” The rent was raised to £38, but the lease included a grant of control over the whole of the waste, a power which the burgesses were never to lose, though it is not mentioned in later leases ; it included all the lord’s jurisdictional rights (embracing, apparently, the right of holding a court for the Salthouse Moor tenants, which brought these tenants under the control of the borough courts and officers) ; and it included the right of taking escheats and forfeitures. In brief, the effect of this lease was to extrude the feudal power entirely from the borough, except within the walls of the castle. The lease was for seventeen years, and expiredin 1410. It thus extended well into the new period which began when, by the accession of the House of Lancaster to the throne, the borough was once more brought into direct relation with the Crown. The extension of municipal powers represented by these leases was accompanied by a development of the burghal system of government. In 1351 there is the first mention of a mayor of Liverpool.’ No royal or ducal grant of the right to elect such an officer survives, and the probability is that his appear- ance is the result of the re-acquisition of the lease of the farm, and perhaps dates from 1346, or even earlier. Up to that time it seems probable that the burgesses had only elected one bailiff, the other being nomi- nated by the lord; and as the functions performed by the latter (collection of dues and presidency of the court) were much the more important, he would be very definitely major dallivus. When these functions pass into the hands of the burgesses, they elect their own major ballivus. It was as major ballivus that the mayor began,’ but later he nominated a bailiff of his own. It is instructive to find that this second bailiff was always regarded as representing the Crown (i.e. the lord) as well as the mayor.’ It is possible that the same period also saw the institution of another element in burghal government —the Court of Aldermen.'” Each of the leases from 1357 was granted to a group of leading citizens, most of whom repeatedly occupied the mayoral chair, and who were probably selected as substantial men, able to stand surety for the payment of the rent. In the lease of 1393 they were formally empowered to hold the borough courts. Both in its functions and in its personnel, this group closely resembles the Court of Aldermen as it is found in the 16th century, when records begin to be abundant. Thus the 14th century, in spite of the disorders of its first half, and the distresses caused by plague and war in its second half, witnessed firstly a steady growth of the town and a steady expansion of its prosperity ; and secondly a striking revival and development of its municipal liberties. One exception to this statement, however, must be made. Though there is no trace of it in the records, it would appear that the influence of the Peasants’ Revolt extended to Liverpool. One of the demands made by the rebels was the withdrawal of the monopoly enjoyed by the privileged burgesses in towns ; and it is probably to some such demand that we must attribute the grant of the charter of Richard II in 1382, the year after the rising.’ The only distinc. tive feature of this charter is its revocation of the. power of prohibiting trade by non-members of the gild which had been contained in the earlier charters, and it is inconceivable that the burgesses can have applied for this. But in spite of this charter, clearly the little borough was thriving; and it is possible, through the greater abundance of material, to get some notion of its life and working at this, the moment of its greatest prosperity. The burgess roll appended to the extent of 1346 shows that there were 196 householders in Liverpool paying rent to the lord. On the usual basis of calcu- lation, this would give a population of just under 1,000. But as the more substantial burgesses, who held large holdings in the fields or engaged largely in trade, must have had dependants not included in this estimate, the population may perhaps be put down at something like 1,200. It probably did not increase—it may have decreased—during the second half of the century, for Liverpool suffered severely from the Black Death ; in 1360 the deaths were so numerous that the dead could not be buried in Walton Churchyard, and a licence was obtained from the Bishop of Lichfield for burials in St. Nicholas’s Churchyard." This population must be regarded as being still, for the most part, except on market days, engaged in agriculture. Every burgess had holdings in the fields. The commonest holding was half a burgage, with about 1 acre in the fields, but some of the leading townsmen held much larger allotments. The will of William de Liverpool," the leading burgess in the second half of the 13th century, survives, and an inventory of his property attached to it shows that his wealth was almost purely agricultural in character. He has grain in his barn worth £6 135. 44$¢., and 24 selions of growing wheat in the fields, worth £7. He has nine oxen and cows worth about ros. apiece, six horses worth about 7s. each, and eighteen pigs valued at 15. 6¢. each. His domestic furniture is valued at £7 6s.8¢. But no merchandise is included in the inventory. As we shall see, William de Liver- pool derived most of his wealth from milling. The trade of the borough was probably mainly local in character. The weekly market, held every Saturday, and the annual fair on St. Martin’s Day, probably mainly dealt in agricultural produce from the neigh- bouring parts of Lancashire and Cheshire. The ferries over the Mersey were of first-rate importance for this purpose ; of these there seem to have been three. There seem to have been two ferries included in 101 Trans, Hist, Soc. loc. cit. 26-7 5 Hist. Munic. Govt. in. Liv. 47-54, 304-6. 102 The original of this is lost. A copy is printed in Gregson's Fragments, 352; there is another copy among Okill's manuscripts in the municipal archives. Printed in Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 306. 108 Elton, ‘Early Recorded Mayors of Liv.’ Trans. Hist. Soc. (new acr.), xviii, Digitized by Microsoft® 119 ff. gives a catalogue of the early mayors, taken from the witnesses to the deeds in the Moore and Crosse collections. 104 They only claim one bailiff in the Quo Warranto Plea of 1292. 105 Willielmo filio Ade tune maiore de Lyverpull, Roberto filio Mathaei tunc altero ballivorum ibidem ; Add. MS. 32105, GG. 219. 106 Thus in 1647 Richard Williamson 8 nominatus et electus est Ballivus pro domino rege et majore burgi predicti; Johannes Sturzaker nominatus et electus est Ballivus pro villa et burgo predicto. 107 On this see Hist, Munic. Govt. in Liv. 51. 108 Original in Liv. Munic. Archives; Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 52 and 159. 109 Lich. Epis. Reg. v, 44-5. 110 Crosse Deeds, 77. WEST DERBY HUNDRED the Liverpool farm," one to Runcorn, the other (probably) to Birkenhead. In addition, the prior of the Benedictine monastery in Birkenhead enjoyed, from 1330 at the latest," the right of ferry from Birkenhead to Liverpool. In 1317 '? Edward II granted to the prior the right of build- ing houses of entertainment for the use of the ‘great num- bers of persons wishing to cross there,’ who were ‘often hindered,’ by reason of ‘con- ' trariety of weather and fre- , quent storms.’ From the re- cord ofa Quo Warranto inquiry, Gisiieomeecee to which the prior was sum- — Qyarterly gules and or, moned in 1354,'* we learn ower all a croxier erect that the ferry tolls from the — proper,in the first quarter Birkenhead side were: for a @ /#0” of England. man on foot, $d. ; for man and horse, 2¢. On Liverpool market days a man on foot was charged $¢., and if carrying baggage 1d. Probably the fares on the Liverpool ferry were the same. The connexion of the Birkenhead monastery with Liverpool was intimate. The prior held in Water Street a house and barn for the storage of corn waiting for the market.'* There is no evidence as to the nature of the tolls charged in the Liverpool market and fair. They yielded in all never less than £10 year during the 14th century. With regard to the sea-going trade of Liverpool the evidence is equally scanty." The appointment by the Crown of the mayor as deputy steward for the prisage of wines in the Port of Liverpool in 1364 seems to indicate that there was some importation of wines from Gascony, and this is borne out by other notices, Probably the sea-going trade of Liverpool at this period, as in the 16th century, was mainly with Ire- land, and consisted of an exchange of rough manufac- tured goods and iron, against cattle and hides. The fact that down to the 18th century Bristol, Waterford, and Wexford were the only ports'"”’ in which Liverpool merchants claimed, and to whose traders the Liverpool burgesses habitually conceded, that right of exemption from dues which the charters granted in universal terms, seems to show that it was the Irish trade which was alone developed to any considerable extent."* In 1350 we get a glimpse of the nature of a Liverpool merchant’s goods from a suit in which William de Longwro sued Adam de Longwro, his bailiff, for an account of his stewardship during the previous year, and his use of twenty entire woollen cloths (pieces), Io quarters of barley, 40 quarters of oats, and iron worth £100, and of 1005., which he had received to trade with."° Lancashire and Yorkshire woollen goods, iron from Furness, and corn seem to be the staples of export trade. Perhaps salt from Cheshire may be added. Nor can much be said about the industries of the LIVERPOOL borough. ‘There is no trace of the existence of craft gilds in the mediaeval period. Two such gilds are recorded to have come into existence in the 16th century, but they were then novelties ; probably the number of craftsmen was too small—a few weavers and smiths may have exhausted the list. Two gold- smiths are named in the burgess roll of 1346. But the industries were doubtless merely the normal industries of a rural market-town. Brewing seems to have been carried on very actively. In the single year 1324 there were thirty-five prosecutions for breaches of the assize of ale, and this involves that many more were brewing and selling ale on legal terms. Not only the demands of market days, but especially the healthy thirst of the soldiers who were constantly encamped in Liverpool during this period, makes it natural to imagine almost every burgess as making some profit in this way. The mills play an important part in the life of the borough.” In 1256 there had been three mills, two water-mills and a windmill, probably all at or near the same place, on the stream which ran into the upper end of the Pool, where a mill-dam remained long after the mills had vanished. By 1296 one of the water-mills had disappeared ;' by 1323 the second had been replaced by a horse-mill,”° probably in Castle Street. The single windmill was that of Eastham, on the rising ground south-east of the Pool, behind the modern art gallery. By 1348 ”° a second windmill had been added. This was the Townsend Mill, which stood close to the Eastham Mill, near the site of the Wellington monument. The horse-mill still survived, and the three mills were included in the leases held by the burgess body from (at the latest) 1348 ; each of them being separately sub leased to a working miller. At one or another of these mills all inhabitants of Liverpool were bound to grind, and they may also have been used by some of the neigh- bouring townships.” Much the most important of the mills was that of Eastham, for which, in the next century, twice as much rent was paid as for the Townsend Mill.* In 13765 it was leased to William son of Adam de Liverpool, the most important burgess of the period.” The lessors were Richard Nunn, the parson, and John Heathorn, who may have acted on be- half of the burgess body. The Townsend Mill, and per- haps the horse-mill, may have been held by the Moore family, who held them both at a later date ; Sir Edward Moore, inthe 17th century, claimed that his ancestors had built the Townsend Mill.’ Thus the mills of the borough were probably in the hands of its two chief families. It would be possible to give, from the Moore and Crosse deeds, the assessments for subsidies, and the burgess roll of 1346, an account of a number of principal families in the town. Some of these were branches of important county families, or landholders in neighbouring townships. Such were the Waltons, lords of the manor of Walton, who held the serjeanty 111 Duchy of Lanc. Mins. Accts. bdle, 103, no. 1821. llla Harl, MSS, 2101, fol. 208. 113 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. 1, m. 14. 118 Chester Pleas, 27 Edw. IIT. 14 Moore D. 280 (20), 297 (38), 309 (50), é&c. : : 115 The pavage grants give long lists of commodities upon which dues may be charged, but in all probability these were conventional lists, and cannot be taken as 4 Digitized by Microsoft® representing the actual commodities dealt in. 16 Close, 40 Edw. III, m. 22. 17 Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 77. 18 Ibid. 119 Duchy of Lance. Assize R. no, 2. pt. 2,m. 4d. 120 Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 74. 181 Tanc. Ct, R. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches. xli), 77. 122 Bennett and Elton, op. 125-210. 128 Duchy of Lanc. Mins. Accts. bdle. 1094, no. II. cit. iv, 9 124 Ing. p.m. 25 Edw. I, no. 51. 125 L.T.R. Enr. Accts. loc. cit. 126 Duchy of Lanc. Accts. various, bdle. 32, no. 17. 127 Everton, e.g. which had no mill of its own. 198 Duchy of Lanc. Mins. Accts, bdle, 101, no. 1800. 129 Moore D. no. 450. 180 Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 63 fF. 87. 2 A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE of the wapentake of West Derby," and provided at least one constable for the Castle of Liverpool ;'* in 1346 Richard de Walton held four burgages in Liver- pool;"? or the Fazakerleys, or the Irelands of Hale, or the Bootles of Kirkdale, or the hereditary reeves of West Derby, all of whom held lands in Liverpool. Among the more purely burghal families something might be said of the Barons, the Corvesors, the Longwros, the Mariotsons, the Tippups. But two families stand out in such marked pro- minence as to deserve special mention. The first of these was the family of Liverpool, which from the mere fact that it habitually used the place-name as its sur- name may be supposed to have been settled in the borough from a very early date. In 1346 the various members of the family seem to hold among them something like fifteen burgages,‘ and the Moore and Crosse deeds show them making constant acjuisitions. The earliest notice of a member of this family, Richard de Liverpool, occurs between 1212 and 1226;' and it may be his son, or grandson, who, as Adam son of Richard, is recorded as one of the first Liverpool members of Parliament. From the beginning of the 14th century their genealogy can be traced in detail."* Adam de Liverpool, who in 1346 held five and five-cighths burgages, had in 1332 paid a larger sum towards the subsidy on goods than any other person in Liverpool ; and he was one of the jurors in the Inquisition into the earl’s lands in 1346. His father, his uncle, his brother, and his nephews, each in their generation appear in more or less prominent positions. But the most distinguished member of the family was William son of Adam, whose will has been already referred to. He lived through the period of the re- vival of burghal liberties, dying in 1383, and he played a principal part in securing this remarkable advance. He was the first recorded mayor of Liverpool in 1351, and though the list of mayors is Watton of Walton. Sable three swans ar- gent. Liverroor., Quarterly gules and or a cross formy argent. 181 See V.C.H. Lancs. iii, 3. 182 Lanc, Exch. R. 20 Edw. I. 138 Extent of 1346 already quoted. 141 From the burgess roll appended to the Extent of 1346. But owing to the 143 Thid. 189 Pat. 2g Edw. III ; see Okill, iv, 415. 140 Duchy of Lanc. Chan. R. no. 2. 141 Close R. of Duke Henry, 52. 142 Moore D. no. 257. © Quoddam gurgitum vocatum far from complete, he is known to have held the office eleven times. As mayor he received, and probably took a large part in obtaining, the writ for the erection of the chapel of St. Nicholas in 1356.'% In 1357 he is named first among the lessees of the great lease of the farm of the borough which forms so remark- able a landmark in the history of burghal liberties.“ In 1361 he was rewarded by Duke Henry, for ‘ the good and free service’? which he had done, by the grant of a pension of 20s. for life from the profits of a West Derby manor." We have already seen him a tenant of the principal mill of Liverpool. In addition he owned a bakery in Castle Street,“? and seems to have controlled a fishery, probably leasing from the duke the weir which he had erected near Toxteth Park. In short, he is at once the wealthiest and the most public-spirited Liverpool burgess of his day.’ William de Liverpool left two sons, by different wives, both named John, one of whom founded the chantry of St. John in the Liverpooi Chapel, perhaps in memory of his father ; but his lands and his mill presently passed into the hands of Richard de Crosse, a son of his wife by another marriage.“© With him begins the connexion with Liverpool of the Crosse family, who are to play an exceedingly prominent part in the affairs of the borough during the next century.” The other branches of the Liverpool family seem to have adopted various surnames, especially William- son “8 and Richardson, and to have become indistin- guishably merged in the mass of burgesses. The other principal Liverpool family of whom mention must be made was that of the Moores, for whom their descendant Sir Edward Moore claims that they were established in Liverpool from the earliest date."® ‘This claim is probably not without justi- fication if, as seems likely, they took their name from the moorish piece of ground which lay to the north of the upper end of the Pool, at the end of Moor Street or Tithebarn Street ; and we may regard them as the rivals of the Liverpool family throughout the first three centuries of the borough’s history. Their seat, More Hall, lay at the northern end of the house-covered area, and its gardens ran down to the estuary. When in Moore wu More Hall. Argent three greyhounds courant in pale sable collared or. TI leave the rest of my goods to Katherine my wife and our children born of her’; Crosse D. no. 77. 14> Raines, Lancs. Chantries (Chet. Soc. lix), 82. 446 Add. MS. 32105, GG. 2301, 2840. dropping of the surname, it is not possible to be certain in the allocation of their lands. 185 Margaret, relict of Adam de Garston, married Richard de Liverpool between 1212 and 1226 3 Lanes. Ing. and Extents (Rec. Soc.), i, 128; Whalley Coucher, "Tes Mr. Elton has given an account of some of the principal members of the family in his paper on ‘ William the son of Adam,’ Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.) xix— XX, 133. 187 Exch. Lay Subsidies. 188 Elton, ‘Early Recorded Mayors of Liv.’ Trans, Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xviii. Digitized by Microsoft® le fisheyard juxta parcum de Toxtath’ is mentioned in the Extent of 1346 (but in no other document) as yielding 6s. per annum. 144 His will contains one of the few personal notes surviving from the me- diaeval period. ‘I bequeath my soul to God and the blessed Virgin and all saints and my body to be buried in the Chapel of Liverpool before the face of the image of the Virgin, where is my appointed place of burial. I leave to be distributed in bread on the day of my burial three quarters of wheat. I leave six pounds of wax to be used about my body. I leave to every priest in the chapel of Liverpool fourpence. 10 147 Perhaps their mansion of Crosse Hall, with its croft sloping down to the Pool near the town’s end on the south side of Dale Street, may represent the original home of William son of Adam. 148 In 1668 Sir E. Moore writes of Richard Williamson and his relations. ‘There is a great faction of them... They have always been enemies of me and all your predecessors time out of the memory of man’ ; Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 58 and note. M49 Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 8, il. 160 Moore D. 377 (120) ef passim. WEST DERBY HUNDRED the 15th century they acquired a large amount of land in Kirkdale,! and built a new mansion, Bank Hall, there, the More Hall came to be called the Old Hall ; and has given its name to a modern street. They appear in prominent parts in the borough affairs, contemporary with the Liverpools. In 1246 Ranulf de More appears as reeve of Liverpool, and in 1292 John de la Mor, along with Richard de Liverpool, represented the burgesses at the Quo Warranto plea already referred to.% Down to the middle of the 14th century they are frequently found acting as bailiffs. The younger members of the family seem often to have acted as clerks, and in that capacity to have written and preserved many deeds of land-transfer ;° hence the archives of the family included numerous deeds not relating to their own lands. In 1346 the holdings of the family in Liver- pool included sixteen and one-eighth burgages,’* so that they slightly surpassed the Liverpools. In 1348 it was John del Mor who held, probably on behalf of the burgesses, the farm of the tolls, market, and mills.'%” But after that date the leadership of the borough seems to have been wrested from them by the Liverpools. While William son of Adam held the mayoralty at least eleven times, and his intimate friend and ally, Richard de Aynsargh, nine times, the name of Moore is conspicuously absent from the roll of mayors until 1382," when William de Liverpool had practically retired. ‘Thereafter the Moores in their turn have almost a monopoly of the mayoralty.’* There seems here to be indicated a keen rivalry between these two leading houses, which would doubtless be accentuated if, as has been suggested above, both were rival millers. This rivalry found vent in the law courts when in 1374 Thomas del More sued William de Liverpool for having dispossessed him of the Castle Street bakery, the fishery and some turbary. The matter was compromised by William’s remaining in possession, but paying More an annual rent of 3s. These are the dim echoes of what was probably a pretty lively feud, Outside of the liberties of the borough, but con- stantly affecting its fortunes, was the castle. It was ruled by a constable, receiving an annual salary of £6 6s. 8d. ;" the constable was generally, if not always, also keeper of Toxteth Park, and sometimes also of Croxteth and Simonswood Parks,'® for which he received a further salary of £2. The connexion of Toxteth Park in particular with Liverpool was so intimate that in the next century the Crown found it necessary to make a special statement in the farm leases reserving it from the farm.'* The names of several constables survive ; 1 the office at this period being not yet hereditary, as it became in the next century. The constable did not usually reside in the castle, but in a house just outside of its gate. In normal times there was no standing garrison in the castle, and the permanent paid staff seems to have con- 151 See under Bootle and Kirkdale for the lands of the Moores outside of Liverpool. done. mayoralty at least 16 times—more often than any other Liverpool man has ever LIVERPOOL sisted of a watchman and a doorkeeper, each of whom was paid 14¢. per diem.° There were, however, several houses within the castle,’ where there may have been permanent rent-paying residents, though they may have been reserved for the use of the officers of the forces, which constantly passed through thetown. A detailed list of the castle plenishment survives ; 1 it includes 186 pallets, 107 spears, 39 lances, 15 ballistae, 2 engines, 7 ‘acketouns, old and weak,’ 1 large vat for brewing, and a considerable amount of domestic furniture. The 15th century, for many English trading ports a period of advance, was for Liverpool a period of retrogression—in population, prosperity, and politi- cal freedom. ‘The process of decay does not perhaps become evident until the reign of Henry VI; but already, before that date, the causes which were to contribute to it were making their appearance: namely, the weakness of the Crown, and the turbulence of the uncontrolled nobility. In 1406’ Sir John Stanley obtained licence to fortify a house in Liver- pool. ‘This was the Tower, at the bottom of Water Street, which remained in the possession of the house of Stanley until the Commonwealth. This is the first appearance in the borough of a family which from that time onward was to play a mightily important part in its history. The reason for it was that, having acquired the Isle of Man as a result of the forfeiture of the Percies after the battle of Shrewsbury, Stanley needed a base for communications with his new dominion. The Tower seems to have been, at any rate occasionally, used as a residence by the family ; it was frequently occupied by troops. Thus the town was burdened by the presence of a second feudal fortress, only a bowshot from the original castle. By the accession of Henry IV, which united the duchy of Lancaster to the Crown, Liverpool again came under direct royal control. It might have been expected that this would redound to the advantage of the borough, but the reverse was the case. The lease of the farm of the borough of 1393 was, it is true, con- firmed by Henry IV ;'” but only for the remainder of its term, which expired in 1410. Immediately on its expiration serious trouble began. From an interesting memorandum inscribed on the back of the confirma- tion it appears that the burgesses had resolved to apply not only for a renewal, but also for a supple- mentary charter, conveying to them new powers, in particular the right to hold courts under the Statute of Merchants and the right to make arrests for debt. Henry V did actually grant a charter’ in the first year of his reign, probably as a result of this applica- tion ; but it was merely a confirmation of the previous charters, and its sole advantage was that by disregard- ing the charter of Richard II it restored to the bur- gess body the right of prohibiting non-members of the gild to trade in the town. But it was over the renewal of the lease that the chief difficulties arose. 165 Moore D. 452 (1692). 166 L.T.R. Enr. Accts. Misc. 14, m. 152 Assize R. 14.04, m. 16. 158 Plac, de Quo War, (Rec. Com.), 381. 154 Moore D. passim. 155 Tid. 156 Extent of 1346, loc. cit. 157 Duchy of Lanc. Accts, various, bdle. 32, no. 17. 158 Elton, loc. cit.; Moore D. 255. 159 Ibid. Thomas del More held the Digitized by Microsoft® 160 Moore D. 190, 230, 231, 257+ 161 e.g, Harl. Cod. 433, fol. 3174. 162 e.g, Reg. Duc. Lanc. 46 Edw, III, fol. 50, 2323; 14 Hen. IV, fol. 29. 168 Duchy of Lanc. Mins. Accts. bdle. 117, NO. 1934. 164 A partial list is given in Gregson’s Fragments. II 7. ‘ 167 Duchy of Lanc. Book of Orders, &c. Edw. IV, 140. 168 L.T.R. Enr. Accts. loc. cit. 169 Pat. 7 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 14. 170 Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 308. 171 Original lost ; printed in Gregson’s Fragments, 352 3 Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 309. 472 Tbid, 161. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE It appears from the memorandum already referred to that the mayor and leading burgesses had to face opposition on the part of a section of the inhabitants described as ‘ those that hold of the king in Liverpool,’ and, in order to frighten these recusants into line, thought of obtaining a privy seal ordering them all to appear before the king’s council in London, unless they came to an agreement with the mayor. ‘Those that held land of the king’ can only have been the tenants in the recent inclosure in Salthouse Moor. It has already been suggested that these tenants had been separately governed up till 1393, when the great lease put them under the control of the burgess body. If they had been since that date forced to pay ‘scot and lot,’ to bear their share of burgess burdens without being admitted to burgess privileges, it is easy to understand why they should object to a renewal of the lease, and should prefer to return to the state of things before 1393. It is probably due to their opposition that the lease was not renewed in all its amplitude. No lease at all, indeed, survives for the period 1411-21. But such evidence as exists goes to show that the burgesses obtained a partial farm con- sisting of the market tolls, ferry and burgage-rents ; the perquisites of courts and the mills, together with other miscellaneous rights, being reserved by the Crown and administered by royal agents, who now reappeared in the borough for the first time since 1393, or perhaps since 1357. The rent paid by the burgesses seems to have been {22 175. 64.8 But trouble at once resulted from this arrangement. In 1413 the royal agents do not appear to have been able to collect any money at all; and in the following years they got only £25 to £26, including the burgesses’ payments, in place of the £38 paid under the old lease. There is no entry at all in their accounts for perquisites of courts; the only moneys they were able to get over and above the ‘rent and farms’ which represent the burgesses’ payment was a payment for mills, generally largely swallowed up in repairs. The explanation of this curious state of affairs is to be found in an interesting petition sent by the burgesses to the House of Commons in 1415,” in which they ask for protection against the ‘ officers and servants’ of the king, who, * since the confirmation (of 1413) and not before . . . have come, usurped and held certain courts’ in the borough, in defiance of the terms of all the burghal charters, and of the king’s own confirmation. By right of the grant of sac and soc contained in these charters, the burgesses claimed to ‘have at all times had and continued a court’ and to ‘have taken and received the perquisites of the said court with all the profits belonging thereto.’ The assertion that the king had no claim to the profits of burghal justice is directly contra- dicted by the whole preceding history of the borough : it was only since 1357 that the burgesses had taken these profits, and then only in virtue of a special grant in the lease. But the episode is a striking illustration of the difficulty of regaining rights once conveyed by lease. One right included in the lease of 1393 was not even claimed by the Crown, 176 Duchy of Lanc. 87. 177 Tbid. fol. 100. 178 Duchy of Lanc. Mins. Accts. bdle. 731, no, 120214; Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 56n. 4, and 58n. 1. 174 Mins. Accts. B 731, 12017, 120194, 12027. ; 8 Rot Parl, iv, 55 ; Hist. Munic, Govt. in Liv. 399+ 179 Dods. MSS. 87, 12 178 Mins. Accts. bdles. 117, 7325 733 3 Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 312, 313. 180 The outrage at Bewsey in 1437 in being forgotten on both sides. This was the control of the waste, which from this time remained burghal property. It is not known what was the result of the petition to Parliament, which was referred to the king’s council, But the burgesses continued to resist the royal agents, and to hold the courts themselves ; and apparently they also quarrelled with the Crown over some question of tolls—possibly customs duties such as the prisage on wine, which in later leases the Crown is careful to define as not being covered by the lease. At length in 14207 the steward of West Derby Hundred was ordered to summon all the mayors and bailiffs of Liverpool for the preceding seven years to appear before the Exchequer Court of the duchy at Lancaster ‘to render us account for the time they have held our courts at Liverpool . . . and for the tolls and other profits levied by them in the mean- time.’ This summons, however, had no better result. In the next year (1421) Henry V found it necessary to grant a lease” of the whole farm, without limita- tion, for a year, pending an inquiry into the terms on which it ought to be held. The rent paid was £23; that is, 2s. 6d. more than the burgesses had been paying for their partial farm, and {15 less than they had paid up till 1410. Before this inquiry could be completed Henry V had died, and during the minority of his son it was not to be expected that rights would be enforced which the vigorous father had failed to defend. The burgesses continued to hold a lease, at the slightly increased figure of £23 6s. 8¢., until 1449." Thus the conflict with the Crown had ended in a burghal victory ; the bur- gesses were left in possession of several royal rights, above all the control of the waste and the supre- macy of the Borough Court over all the inhabi- tants. In the meanwhile, however, the disorder and tur- bulence of the district had been increasing. In 1424 a violent feud broke out between Thomas Stanley and Sir Richard Molyneux.’ Ralph Radcliffe and James Holt, justices of the peace for Lancashire, were sent by the sheriff to keeporder. They found Stanley entrenched in his father’s tower in Liverpool, with about 2,000 men, waiting for the attack of Sir Richard Molyneux, who was advancing from West Derby with 1,000 men or more in battle array. The two pro- tagonists were both arrested by the sheriff, and forced to withdraw, Stanley to Kenilworth, and Molyneux to Windsor. Record of this episode, which nearly made the streets of the borough the scene of a pitched battle, survives because the period of full anarchy was not yet begun. The episodes of the age of the war are left unrecorded.’ In February 1421-2 Sir Richard Molyneux ob- tained a grant of the constableship of Liverpool Castle, together with the stewardship of West Derby and Salford, and the forestership of Toxteth, Crox- teth, and Simonswood.”' In 1440-1 the offices were renewed for the lives of Sir Richard and his son, and five years later they were made hereditary.” In 1442 the castle was further fortified by the erection which the leader, Poole, is described as a Liverpool man, is another significant episode. 181 Reg. Duc. Lanc. Bk. 17, fol. Misc, vol. 17, fol. 5. 182 Thid. ; Com. Hen. VI, fol. 5753 89. Okill Transcripts, iv, 275. Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED of the south-east tower.'® The cost of the addition was £46 135. 104d. The stone was obtained from Toxteth Park, the wood from the royal forest, now controllel by Molyneux, and the money from the Duchy Exchequer. Throughout the period the expenditure in repairs of the castle was large and constant. The effect of the establishment of the Stanleys in the tower, and of the Molyneuxes in the castle, was to leave the borough very much at the mercy of the two great noble houses entrenched STANLEY. Argent on a bend azure three harts’ heads cabossed or. Mo yneux. Azure a cross moline or. in their midst, especially at a period when the Crown was perfectly incapable of maintaining order. Simultaneously, the prosperity of the borough steadily diminished,’ and it was not till the beginning of the 17th century that it again stood on the level to which it had attained at the beginning of the 15th, either in population or in trade. The decay is most strikingly demonstrated in the history of the lease. The last of the continuous series of burgess leases which followed the quarrel with the Crown expired in 1449, and apparently the burgesses found themselves unable to offer to continue it. A royal agent, Edmund Crosse,®* of the local family already noticed, appears ; but could only collect a little less than {19 in 1450, and L15 145. in 1452, as com- pared with even the reduced - rent of £23 6s. 8d. long paid by the burgesses. The most striking decline is in the market-tolls, which in 1450 yield only £2, though in 1327 they had yielded f10, and in 1346 much more. The failure of Crosse to produce increased revenues enabled the burgesses to get a new farm in 1454” at the low rent of £17 6s. 8¢., but they were 55. in arrears on the first year, though they had never been in arrears when they had to pay £38. In 1461 Edmund Crosse again rendered account’: the town was at farm, whether held by himself or by the burgess body it is not possible to say. But it wasa * new farm, ’ and the rent was only £14. Dur- Crosse, Quarterly gules and or a cross po- tent argent in the first and fourth quarters. 188 Okill Transcripts, iv, 208; Cox, ‘Liv. Castle,’ rans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.) vi, 195 ff. 184 Okill, iv, 208, has summarized these 186 Duchy of Lancs. Mins, Accts. bdle. IOI, no. 1800; 117, no. 1941. 187 Ibid. 101, no. 1804, 188 Ibid. 102, no. 1820. LIVERPOOL ing the period of this lease the Crown, disregarding its terms, made a special grant of one of the mills and of one of the two ferry-rights,' apparently with the desire of increasing the yield. The burgesses held a lease at £14 from 1466 to 1471 ; but for the last two years of the period no account was rendered. The civil war had broken out afresh after Warwick’s insur- rection, and the burgesses were either suffering from its effects, or seized the opportunity to withhold pay- ment. When Edward IV was again safely established on his throne, he did his best to exact arrears for these two years; but never succeeded in getting from the poverty-stricken burgesses more than £9 of the £28 due from them.’ He did not renew their tenure, but granted a lease, this time unquestionably a per- sonal lease, to Edmund Crosse (1472) at £14 25.1% The burgesses never regained the lease. But even Crosse was unable to pay so modest a figure. Three years later(1475) his son, on having the lease renewed,’ got the extra 2s. knocked off again, and obtained also a concession of the two rural mills of Ackers and Waver- tree, in addition to the burghal mills. But this was not enough. In the next year (1476) he obtained a revised lease,’ by which the rent was reduced to (11. This represents probably the lowest ebb of Liverpool prosperity. When, in 1488, the lease passed out of the hands of the Crosses and was granted to David Griffith,” the rent was raised to £14; this was in- creased to £14 6s. 8¢. in 1528," and at that figure it remained. Evidence is lacking as to the trade of the port during this period ; but its absence is in itself significant. And indeed itis needless to ask for more striking evidence of the decay of the borough than that afforded by the leases of the farm. At the same time the very misery of the place, removing it from all envy, saved to it some valuable privileges.” The control of the burgess body over the waste, their right to conduct their own courts, and the extension of their governmental authority over the non-burgess inhabi- tants, should probably be regarded as having been estab- lished by usage in this period of helplessness and poverty. It is with the Tudor period that the material for Liverpool history begins to be abundant. To the regular records of the borough, which begin in 1555, there is prefixed a collection of ‘elder precedences,’ some of them dating from 1525; and in addition, the national or duchy muniments provide ampler material than before. But the reign of Henry VII, the period of transition, is still very scantily supplied. Substantially all that is known of this period is that in 1488 Henry VII gave a lease of the farm to David Griffith,® in whose family it remained till 1537'° at the increased rent of £14; that in 1492 he empowered Thomas Fazakerley™ to form a fishing station on the shore of the waste, between Toxteth Park and the Pool; that in 1498 the burgesses were summoned to a Quo Warranto™ plea which does not seem to have been heard ; and that in 1486 he made to one Richard Cook*” a grant of ferry at £3 per 198 Chan. R. 55; Hist. Munic. Govt. 324. 194 Chan. R. 573 Hist. Munic. Govt. 325. 195 Duchy of Lanc. Misc. no, 21. 196 Croxteth Mun. (Liv. box 10, R 2, 189 Duchy of Lanc. Chan. R. 3 Edw. IV, no. §4.3 Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 318. 199 Chan. R. 8; Hist. Munic. Govt. 319. 191 Duchy of Lanc. Mins. Accts. bdle. 102, no. 1818. 192 Duchy of Lanc. Chan. R. no. §5 5 Hist. Munic. Govt, 321. 13 Digitized by Microsoft® no, 2). 197 On this see Hist. Munic. Govt. 62-6. 198 Hist. Munic. Govt. 328. 199 Thid. 329, 330) 331- 200 Duchy of Lanc. Reg. Bk. 201 Hist, Munic. Govt. 401. 202 Thid. 327. expenditures from the Mins. Accts. 185 A like decline is observable in the prosperity of Preston at this period, though the circumstances, apart from the weakness of the Crown and the distress caused by the war, were different from those of Liverpool, A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE annum, and for seven years, in place of a grant for life and without rent, which had been made two years before by Richard III.?% In the first half of the 16th century Liverpool seems to have begun slowly to emerge from the profound depression of the previous period, though even in the second half she is still described as a ‘decayed town.” Perhaps the revival was partly due to the renewed use of the port, under Henry VIII, for transport to Ireland. Skeffington’s army in 1534 shipped from Chester and Liverpool ;** and a memorial of 1537 for the instruction of the king states that the army in Ireland ‘ must be vitelid with bere, biskett, flowre, butter, chease, and fleshe out of Chestre, Lirpole, Northwales and Southwales and Bristow.’ °° Some of the bullion required by the Irish army was also exported through Liverpool.” Probably the Irish trade of the port revived as a consequence. ‘ Leland, in a brief note on Liverpool,” says that ‘Irish merchants come much thither, as to a good haven . . . At Liverpool is small custom paid that causeth merchants to resort. Good merchandize at Liverpool ; and much Irish yarn, that Manchester men do buy there.” Thus already Liverpool was importing raw material for the nascent industries of Lancashire, and exporting the finished product.” We hear of one Liverpool merchant™ trading with Drogheda, who in 1538 had for sale 12 lb. of London silks, and 12 pieces of kerseys, white, green and blue; three of the latter sold for £15 12s. But the trade of the reviving port extended beyond home waters. Edmund Gee of Chester and Liverpool, who is spoken of as the ‘chief man and head merchant’ of Liverpool,” persuaded a Spaniard, Lope de Rivera, to import into Liverpool large quantities of wine ;”" in 1534 the deputy-butler for Lancashire complains that William Collinges has imported 18 tuns of wine into Liverpool without paying prisage ;*” while in 1545 we hear of a Biscayan ship ‘stayed at Liver- poole.’*3_ When the embitterment of the Reforma- tion struggle led English traders to prey upon Spanish ships, Liverpool sailors seem to have taken some part in these piratical adventures: in 1555 Inigo de Baldram, a Spaniard, complained to the Privy Council that he had been robbed by ‘pirates of Lierpole and Chester.’ But the Spanish trade can only have been of the smallest proportions ; even that with Ireland, the staple of Liverpool traffic, was humble enough. Within the borough a modest development can be traced. In 1516 Oldhall Street was, by agreement with William Moore of the Oldhall, made an open road to the fields.”* From 1524 a deed survives *® in which the burgesses granted to Sir William Molyneux at a rental of 6s. a few roods of waste land beside the Moor Green, for the erection of a tithe- barn to hold the tithes of Walton Church, which belonged to the Molyneux family. Moor Street now becomes Tithebarn Street. The importance of this deed isthat it shows the burgesses acting as owners of the waste; and this is still more clearly exhibited in a borough rental of 1§23,”” prefixed to the Municipal Records, in which eight tenants pay among them 7s. 5¢. for patches of common. A rental of the king’s lands in Liverpool ** dating from 1539 yields further interesting particulars. The total value was {10 15. 4¢., which was, of course, included in the lease of the farm. It issignificant that only 3% burgages are enumerated; which appears to indicate that the burgage as a distinctive holding was passing out of use. ‘Twenty-six burgages were included among the endowments of the four chantries in 1546.7" The early years of the century saw the establish- ment of the last of the chantries, that of the priest John Crosse, who provided that the chaplain should also teach a school.” His will contains also a bequest to the ‘mayor and his brethren with the burgesses’ of the ‘new [house] called our Ladie house to kepe their courtes and such busynes as they shall thynke most expedient.’ Thus by one act the borough became possessed of a school and a town hall. The period, however, witnessed a number of dis- putes between the burgesses and the Crown or the lessees of the farm. In 1514 (David Griffith with his wife and son being then the lessees) *! a com- mission *? was appointed by the Crown ‘on the be- half of our farmer of our toll within our said town of Liverpool’ to inquire whether ‘the Mayor and Burgesses . . . for their own singular lucre and advantage now of late have made many and divers foreign men not resident nor abiding in the said town to be burgesses of the same town to the intent to defraud us and our right of toll there.’ The result of this inquiry (which was probably due to dissatis- faction with the yield of the farm) is not known. But it shows the burgesses trying to recoup them- selves for the loss of the farm by taking payments for the admission of non-burgesses to that exemption from dues which was their chartered privilege. In 1528%% another commission was appointed to “survey search and examine the concealments and subtraction of all and every such tolls customs and forfeitures as to us rightfully should belong. . . of any goods . . . conveyed to or from our port of Liver- pool.’ In the next year a new cause of quarrel appears. ‘Thirteen men had been working a ferry from Liverpool to Runcorn. This ferry-right the lessee, Henry Ackers, claimed to be covered by the farm ; and asa result of his complaint to the Crown, the mayor was ordered to put an end to this illegal ferry. The order seems to have been neglected, for 208 Hist, Muntc. Govt. 326. As a ferry- right was also included in the farm lease, this grant is only explicable on the assumption that there were two ferries. The probability is that Cook’s ferry plied between Liverpool and Runcorn. 204 State Papers, Hen. VIII, ii, 205. 205 Ibid. ii, 415. 208 Acts of P.C. 1552-45 Pe 104s 207 Leland, Itin. vii, fol. 50, 44+ 208 See Duchy Plead. v, m. 2 (19 Hen. VIII). 209 Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc, Lance. and Ches, xxxv), iiy 119. 210In the judgement in the case of Molyneux wv. Corporation of Liv. ; Hist Munie. Govt. 411. 211 Duchy Plead. ix, c. 10, p. 47+ 312 Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches. xxxv), ii, 50. M8 Acts of P.C. 1542-7, p- 248. 914 Ibid. 1554-6, p. 236. 96 Okill Transcripts, xiv, 118. 216 In the Municipal archives. 217 Munic. Rec. i, 5. 218 Printed in Gregson, Fragments, App. Ixv. 14 219 Raines, Lancs. Chant. (Chet. Soc. lix), 82-93. 20 Duchy of Lanc. Depositions, P. & M. v, m. 33 Inventories of Ch. Gds. (Chet. Soc. cxiii), 97-8. 221 Duchy of Lanc. Misc. 213 Hist. Munic. Govt, in Liv. 329. 222 Duchy of Lanc. Misc. 95, 3653 Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 402. 228 Duchy of Lanc. Misc. 223; Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 403. 224 Duchy of Lanc. Misc. 95, fol. 104.5 3 Hist. Munic. Govt, in Liv. 403. Digitized by Microsoft® Op Tirue Barn LiverPooL . 1800) (From a Water-colour Drawing, c. 5 186 Joun’s Lang, Sr. LiverPoot : d by Microsoft® ize t Digi Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED in the next year Ackers petitioned the Chancellor of the Duchy for redress.“ The dispute was settled by the lessee granting a sub-lease*® to the burgess body, whereby they undertook to collect all the customs, tolls, and ferry-dues, and pay half of the total proceeds and f10. ‘The royal rents of £10 and the mills (separately leased at 50s.) ”” were excluded from this sub-lease ; and as the sub-lease must have yielded to the lessor at least £20, his income from the town must have amounted to over £32, yielding him a handsome profit after he had paid his £14 6s. 84. to the Crown. Incidentally these figures show that the town was regaining much of its prosperity, and approximating to the conditions of 1394, when the rent was £38; though it should be remembered that the value of money had in the meantime materially declined. Of the effects of the first stages of the Reformation there is little to record. The only monastic property connected with the borough was the house and barn in Water Street and the ferry- right over the Mersey, which belonged to the Priors of Bir- kenhead, and passed with the manor of Birkenhead to Ralph Worsley. But the later con- fiscation of the chantries aftect- ed Liverpool deeply. ‘There were now four chantries in the chapel of St. Nicholas ; their lands in 1546 had been worth beaked legged and belled £21 11s. 34,8 paying in or, chief rents to the king ros. 34.7” The lands of two of these chantries—those of the High Altar and of St. John—were sold, though the priests attached to them seem to have remained resi- dent in the town.” Among the purchasers * were many of the burgesses of Liverpool, who were thus to some extent committed to support of the Reformation. The lands of the chantries of St. Nicholas and St. Katherine remained in the hands of the Crown, and their revenues were respectively devoted to the main- tenance of a priest for the Liverpool chapel and of a schoolmaster for the parish of Walton,” the pre-sup- pression chantry priests remaining to perform these functions.22 In 1565 the administration of these lands seems to have been transferred from the Duchy officers to the mayor and burgesses,"* who added further revenues raised among themselves, and henceforth controlled the appointment both of the priest and of the schoolmaster of the town. Difference of opinion on the religious question may Worstry. Argent a chevercn sable between three falcons of the last LIVERPOOL have helped to precipitate a serious quarrel between the borough and the lessee of the farm. This had been since 1§37 in the hands of Sir William Moly- neux 6 and his son Sir Richard, who however had continued the arrangement of their predecessors whereby the burgesses administered the various powers and collected the dues,” retaining half of them on payment of {10 per annum. In 1552 a mysterious lease was issued by Edward VI to one James Bedyll.** It never took effect, but it may have been intended as an attack by the Protestant court upon the Roman Catholic Molyneuxes. If we suppose the burgesses to have been concerned in obtaining this lease, the quarrel with Molyneux which broke out immediately on the accession of Mary is easier to understand. Moly- neux obtained a renewal of his lease, though his previous lease was still unexpired, and, the sub-lease to the burgesses having expired,”° he put in his own officers to collect the dues and hold the portmoot. The burgesses on their side obtained a confirmation of their charters," though, having apparently over- looked the charter of Henry V,”? it was the less favour- able charter of Richard II of which they obtained a renewal. They seem to have trusted to this to justify their claim to collect the dues and hold the portmoot, which they proceeded to do in spite of the lessee, even throwing his agents into prison.“ The question was tried before the Chancery Court of the Duchy ™ which gave its award on every point in favour of the lessees, awarding them ‘all and singular tolls and other profits in any wise appertaining to the said town,’ whether paid by freemen or by strangers, and also definitely declaring that the lessee had the right to ‘keep courts within the said town . . after such sort ...asthe courts . . have been used to be kept,’ and that suit at these courts must be rendered by all inhabitants.%° This was a serious blow to the bur- gesses ; and, while space does not permit of an exam- ination of the question, it seems clear that the burgesses were deprived of some rights which justly belonged to them.** Two years later, on the intercession of Lord Strange and the attorney of the Duchy court, the quarrel was compromised by the renewal to the bur- gesses of the old sub-lease, which seems to have been continued throughout the remainder of the cen- tury.” The municipal records from 1555 enable a clear account to be given of the mode of government to which the burgesses had now attained. At an as- sembly of burgesses held on St. Luke’s Day,18 October, a mayor and one bailiff were elected, a second bailiff being nominated by the new mayor at the same meeting.™® Other assemblies were held as occasion 225 Duchy of Lanc. Judic. Proc., Plead- ings, iv; Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 404 5 Lanc. Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches. xxxii), i, 186. Probably the ferry in dispute was not the farm-ferry, but a continuance of that district ferry-right granted by Henry VII to Richard Cook. 226 Croxteth Mun. Liv. Box 10. R2, no. 7; Hist. Munic. Govt. 335. 227 Croxteth Mun. loc, cit.no. 33 Hist. Munic. Govt. 333- 238 Raines, Lancs. Chant. (Chet. Soc. ix), 82-93. : 229 Rental of Hen. VIII, loc. cit. 230 Munic. Rec. passim. 281 The list of purchasers is printed in Gregson’s Fragments, Ixiv. Digitized by Microsoft® 282Tn the list of official payments of the Duchy printed in Gregson’s Fragments, 31, “the stipend of a clerk to serve in the chapel at Litherpoole £4 17s. §d. and the fee of a clerk and schoole mr. of Walton £5 135. 4d. 283 Munic. Ree. i, 134 and 394. 234Tbid. 39. 285 Ibid. 135. 286 The details of the history of the farm during this period, and copies of the leases, will be found in Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv., 70-7 and 336-53. 237 Ibid. 338. 238 Ibid. 345 and 71 n. 259 Tbid. 34.9. 2:0 The previous sub-lease had been for 15 years, 15 241 Original in Liv. Munic. Arch. Hist Munic. Govt, 164. 242 This appears from their pleading be- fore the Duchy court, Ibid. 408. 248 Mun. Rec. i, 174. 244 Duchy of Lanc. Misc. xcv, 1045. Hist. Munic. Govt. 403. 945 Hist, Munic. Govt. 412. %46 For an analysis of this question, see Hist. Munic. Govt. 73-6. 247 Croxteth Mun. Liv., Box 10, no. 13, R. 2. Printed in Hist. Munic. Govt, 352. But in 1588 a new quarrel broke out with Sir R. Molyneux over the milling soke; Duchy Plead. cxlvii, m. 2. 248 Mun. Rec. i, 3a A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE Gemamien* Soemtonss was communi or al! due FESS on yenakr of 2 fe af 238 The ssemhir neil Twist soatie. The esse Prcmar immedi Saline She amo! SSE. ant atest al oe mmo ois, among Snover. two (eweliniiess, cur Inpseceses, Tr Inset: amd ian. wr stevens o the sommornal,. a werd, 2 nevwod cw ai tse = ss seater en een Se esa nimrinsen asin eames eye fas sie we eee =o es a 4 — ee | re OSSD Were Tate py = er a Seer es wee Sorgsses: mmenliee ov te Sallie Hits = ess sie “a OO ane se Gow "al sure: 2 ames ic beirws, TKtmensseme me Stara er Tem “Huse: spasesr Ine SSE Teesses:. amt contin Ten airs Tur Te Terr Serer samen oom oe te whos ecmre mames oF te ome. te ali mnt ote who: ee me es ore: = -veaz aiwars: sre = eating: Tern wre Somme pate Tar fe megan. = Dene: esr te crimes e2si on. woe te poms some ew sale te Sretesr or aT. ws Were eee Ee seer ter Tos sere ow goveoerr ves: Uae dipwmn : ant Cowart ees oe HE es To. Tor te ets ea ee See oo ee: se en Te or: ee te ee ro dom sn. ie Teseommesr 0 ee IS te WESTS Tuw Tetnes: or te mings: soli oor ome oF Te Were TOSS. am Ee es SIs: Vea: TOO ar. ott he eee Se fe numme eemger & esrer = Ink os72 a osr meme me te pees: ol amr 22 Ter se Tee Tes. wnie mm sc ter wer our mamex or tie spl of wim oer ISD wer venue |e mes = aE rs = seo Te SER ed: Fcnine feerioe resi Sureeses: a OWES es: ISDE, WE Tay sumer te povumion t= apr Tot wr bos a te mode o ae =r, ISAS SW Ww avo. loos wlio a twee Sr per work. ce oo rary unr suSSeHeo Igeg TIe ypu. vr ta TE igure tt iat area atauet a cset. The scuiamattion uf chin dow grower Bp te Tome ar M Tow ,, 320 Teeeeiy i te eee of the pape which sapecteilly atmos’ Liwerpon forme te pec. Tine watttatinn of ussh we st erie “Got ine Ear wes Gcopped in Sn sen, mw ecies wer dele Sor Se oni, anil wwe 24> peums, a omedpurth af te popiilation, mre Suir Ip iews Ge ™ The pops of siimpme ves sgudliy Asveurt 2 1557™ shove thet thee wer on pnt ship of iD ime mnt Dre 0F SD tons popetieer yuck seven smaller week, whole tor vests of Detween I= and 3 tom wer at ea 5 there zap sails commected with te pert. 155 ere che es DS een ess thot Sey. Tn RE Smcmeen waseii om dee comme mm the omtaeees anil cearancs ior z = se ace aoe = : am euch anc # bb. w wren. ushaps were SUITES: Droweic as prizes into Liverpool, -bmtmet ov Jlremmm: somam:**) “Piary wwe: tampant, and ORSTMITE at IMU ano tp keep it am oheck even an tee ths See er wer, © os ame, one: or a0 Tecan oo “Lreremm! whe teased with Spain 7” ee Sich. amt pr eurnime wat the dst ao pier oe ae ee “Bottke cat: with Spam wes Or BE a dist mm 57 = ala emi eacaress Trmm suahmmission -tp tts eepuiataon: weal are. Eeex From fe paymen: wf sommageauil pom torte: Tivesrpon) wa: =xemmpt mii] “tre meer mf Eicoret2 ox chor pecans the yield went exp smal as mum to ie worth the cot uf zolfecion. Tb -was romabiy for ths treason ‘that chomp fie vege of Eimarctt te soon goeemmment tena = demge costa: Sciemict which 38 Wine Fen. vase. r Bez Tom yt Ke We Theses tras ave some trom obest | | (Coeet Soe. coery), 1B. BE ton. ., In, x porns, 2s tects goto ein oO ois of S88 Acesf PL. SE To, BPA, FH 30 Toes. aed. tne size an Lowery) ais oo te or- | iso, am. TM Spe epee caliy he erercinna O° 9550 OTN 3% Tom 3358 —Te, pp. 278, EB aa kM see. Fee. dy , EE BM. Be Wines Bec. -, Lae 2m “Winentc. Rev. i, 230. ee Wien dee. - ce, Se eT: ie of ceeranost a pro 20 Fits. WEISS. Gon. Fep. ~~, Sopp. 4) Whi dpm. oTan. : fron te fide Kee. or Banren, Deere Be Ton 2 eh. BO Tye ii, 2. youd. cae Fi. 32 Pict, Wiese. Rec. ii, 24. Bien i, oS MF cis, Wane. fe: i, Th. BE Wom, Rew. i, oe. BY doe i, oa we fo oo FL. a 2. gobs Hex. deo PL. ae, Pp. a ee Picton, Wien: Baas. « 38 fice FEL. oben, p. ib. ’ — Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED and ‘Ilbrye’ as one of the ports of Cheshire.”* This was made the basis of a claim on the part of Chester to superiority over Liverpool. This was not merely due to the claim of the Mayor of Chester to be vice- admiral of Lancashire and Cheshire ;7”” Chester claimed that Liverpool was only ‘a creek within its port,’ and that all ships entering the Mersey should pay dues through Chester. This claim, first formally advanced in 1565,7 was, in spite of backing from London, entirely repudiated by the Liverpool bur- gesses.”° They petitioned the Crown for protection; and eventually a commission sent down to investigate reported in Liverpool’s favour.”° When Chester in 1578 made the more limited claim of supremacy over the Cheshire shore of the Mersey,’” equal vigour was shown in repudiation. The question was not settled during this century ; it reappeared in the early part of the 17th century,” and was not disposed of till in 1658 ** an award was given in favour of Liverpool by the Surveyor-General of Customs—an award which was later confirmed by the first Restoration Surveyor- General in 1660. The administrative arrangement which gave to Chester the pretext for this claim had been dictated largely by convenience in organizing the transport of troops to Ireland, which went on with great vigour throughout the period. In 1573 Essex and part of his army were transported from Liverpool,” and sub- stantial forces also left the port in 1565," 1574," 1579," 1588," 1595, and 1596.™ ‘The trans- port of these troops was not unprofitable ; 2s. a head was allowed for food during the passage,”* and the cost of transport was more than {£1 a head, while during the stay of the troops in Liverpool, which lasted sometimes for a long period,™ 3¢. a head was allowed for each meal, and 4d. a day for a horse’s fodder.** But the visits of the troops were trouble- some. Quarters and food had to be compulsorily provided. Even when they were promptly paid for, it must have been difficult for a town of less than 200 houses to provide for large forces; but the payment was often long delayed.** Moreover the troops were often riotous. The town records give a vivid account of an affray which broke out among Lord Essex’ men in 1573,” and which brought out all the burgesses in battle array on the heath, while in 1581 there was a formidable mutiny ** which was only suppressed after sharp and exemplary punishment. A third in- convenience arose from the fact that the shipping of the port was often withdrawn from trade and detained for long periods in harbour, waiting for troops which never came. In 1593 it was only the intercession of Lord Derby *° for ‘the poor masters and owners of vessels stayed at Liverpool’ which obtained their release, though no troops were nearly ready. 316 Acts of P.C. 1558-70, p. 288. 977 Cal, S.P. Dom. 1625-6, p- 430. 278 Munic. Rec. i, 143. 279 Ibid. i, 1594; ii, 31. 280 Ibid. i, 1562. 2 381 Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 37. 288 Cal, S.P. Dom. 1619-23) PP- 24 34 992 Harl. MS. 3° P- 279. 288 Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 153. 295 Ibid. p. 296. M4Tbid. 306. The award is printed in full by Baines, Hist. Liv. 242 n. 988 Acts of P.C. 1571-5, P» 113+ 286 Ibid. 1558-70, p. 264. 287 Ibid. 1571-5, p. 279- 388 Ibid. 1578-80, p. 223. 289 Ibid. 1588, p. 331+ 290 Ibid. 1595-6, pp. 280, 314, 422. 91 Ibid. 1596-7, pp. 165, 478. 1926, Art. 10, 9: 298 Acts of P.C. 1588, p. 331+ 994 Ibid. 1578-80, p. 2963 1571-5 996 Ibid. 1571-5, p. 279. 297 Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 109. 298 ‘Acts of P.C. 1580-1, pp. 64, 96. 299 Ibid. 1592~3, p. 439- 800 Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 44. 801 Pink and Beavan, Parly, Rep. of 4 uP LIVERPOOL This was by no means the only occasion on which Lord Derby came to the aid of the burgesses. He was almost officially described by Walsingham as the ‘patron of the poor town of Liverpool,’ *” and was appealed to on every occasion. One of the seats in Parliament (to which Liverpool had resumed the right of election in 1545),°' was always reserved for his nominee ; the other was usually placed at the dis- posal of the Chancellor of the Duchy, from whom, in all probability, Francis Bacon received the nomination which made him member for Liverpool in the session of 1588-9.5% When in 1562% the burgesses cele- brated their reconciliation with Sir Richard Molyneux by nominating him to the seat usually reserved for the Chancellor, that official was so angry that he made a separate return, so that two sets of Liverpool members appear in the lists for that year,*™ and it was only the protection of Lord Derby which reassured the town against his direful threats. Nothing can exceed the pitiful submissiveness of the burgesses when they have the misfortune to offend Lord Derby,®® nor the lavish enthusiasm with which they welcomed him in his visits to the town.*® He was their one protector against aggressive lessees, greedy rival towns, crushing monopolist companies or angry chancellors, It follows from the use they made of their Parlia- mentary privilege that the burgesses took small interest in the progress of national affairs. ‘They lit bonfires on the Queen’s birthdays,*” but the only reflection of the excitement of 1588 which their records contain is the note of the erection of one gun on the Nabbe at the entrance to the Pool.* Even the change of religious opinion is but faintly reflected in the records. As time went on they became more and more Protes- tant ; their patron, the fourth Earl of Derby, was one of the keenest of Protestants by profession, offering the use of the Tower for the safe-keeping of recu- sants.° ‘Towards the end of the century we find the burgesses ordering the closing of all ale-houses on the ‘Sabbath’ day, demanding a sermon or homily every Sunday, and engaging, in addition to the ‘ minister,’ a zealous and faithful preacher at £4 per annum.*”° For the burgesses indeed, the development of their own institutions (which now entered on a striking new phase) was more vital than political or religious events. Probably it was the series of disputes into which they had been drawn, and which had so seri- ously threatened their liberties, that led to the de- velopment of an executive committee within the assembly of burgesses, hitherto supreme.’ The assembly was unsuited to carry on these struggles,*” and after several experiments with councils elected for a limited period, which all failed through the jealousy of the burgess body, in 1580 a permanent self-renew- ing council of twenty-four ordinary members with Lancs, 350. In this work will be found a full list of the members, with biograph- ical notes, 803 Thid. 184. 808 Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 62 ff. 804 Return of Memb. of Parl. 438. 805 Munic. Ree. i, 43. 806 Thid. 48 and passim. 807 Thid. 48. 808 Thid. 93. 809 Acts of P.C. 1580-1, p. 270. 810 Munic. Rec. passim. 811 On this movement see Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 79-86. 812 Picton, Munic. Ree. i, 68. 3 fol. Digitized by Microsoft® A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE twelve aldermen was appointed.*8 Though it was to go through some vicissitudes, this body remained in control of the borough till 1835. The records of this period present a very vivid picture of the social condition and customs of the borough. Space does not permit of any summary of these, but something must be said on the methods of conducting trade.*4 The regulation of trade was in the hands of the mayor and aldermen, acting under by-laws laid down by the portmoot or the assembly of burgesses. In the weekly market for local traffic no outsider was allowed to purchase corn until the wants of the burgesses had been satisfied. Forestalling and regrating were severely punished. Ingate and out- gate dues were charged for goods brought to or from the market ; from these the burgesses and also the in- habitants of Altcar and Prescot were free. The masters ofships bringing cargoes into the Mersey, after paying anchorage dues, had to obtain permission from the mayor before offering their goods for sale. First the mayor determined whether he should offer to take the whole cargo as a ‘town’s bargain.’ If he decided to do this, a sum was offered which had been es- timated by the merchant prysors. If the importer refused this offer he must either leave the port or agree with the mayor as to the sum he must pay to “make his best market,’ i.e. to offer his goods for sale in open market. It was a system of high protection for the burgesses and minute regulation, so vexatious and hampering to trade that it was already breaking down by the end of the century. The first three decades of the 17th century saw the prosperity and the burghal liberties of Liverpool safely re-established. ‘The port was largely used for transport to Ireland during the reigns of James I and Charles I *'—more largely now than Chester. 1n 1625 five transports containing 550 men were wrecked on the coast of Holyhead on the way to Carrickfergus, and less than two hundred men were saved." The loss of five vessels was a serious blow to a small port, and the mayor feared that ‘unless the king compas- sionates the town, it will be the utter overthrow of that corporation.’ Pirates, too, still haunted the Irish seas ; frequent levies of money had to be raised for dealing with them,*” and even under the firm rule of Wentworth in Ireland a ‘ Biscayan Spanish rogue’ took up his station off Dublin Bay, ‘outbraved the two kingdoms,’ and captured two Liverpool vessels, one of which had cargo to the value of £3,000, while another bore ‘ atrunk of damask’ belonging to the lord-lieutenant himself. Nevertheless the prosperity of the port steadily increased, and gained especially from the development of Irish industries under Went- worth. In 1618 the number of vessels in the port *” was twenty-four, with a total tonnage of 462. In the next year Chester had to represent to the Crown that it possessed no ships, trading only in small barks." The superior rival of the previous century had been distanced ; and this being so, it is not surprising that 818 Picton, Munic. Rec. i, §2 ; and Hist. Munic. Govt. 85. 814 Munic. Rec. passim; the detailed regulations of trade occupy perhaps a larger amount of space in the records than any other single subject. 815 Livy. Munic. Rec. passim; Hist. MSS. Com, Rep. viii, App. i, 380b-66 ; ibid. iv, 2, 3, 6; ibid. v, 3503 Cal S.P. Dom. 1625-6, p. 40, &c. 816 Cal, S.P. Dom. 1625-6, pp» 5 6, 8. ii, 10. 3815. 823 Thid. 3992. 817 Ibid. 1619-23, pp. 24, 43- 818 Hist, MSS. Com, Rep. xii, App. 819 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cix, 9 (1). 820 Cal, S.P. Dom. 1619-23, p. 246 821 Thid. pp. 34, 104. 822 Hist, MSS, Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 894 Livy, Munic. Rec. passim. 835 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 181. 18 Liverpool should have repudiated, with even greater vigour than in 1565, the claim of Chester to supremacy, which was revived in 1619. ‘To retain a share of the trade in Irish yarn, Chester had to make special treaties with Irish exporters ; * but even then Liver- pool more than held its own. Foreign trade as well as Irish trade was increasing,* especially with Spain ; a part of the salt of Cheshire, hitherto almost monopolized by Chester, came to supply outgoing cargoes ; malt was brought from Tewkesbury to Liver- pool by the Severn and the sea ; ** and there is even a record of one cargo of tobacco ** brought direct from the Indies—the beginning of Liverpool’s Ameri- can trade. This growing prosperity is reflected in a growth of population, despite a visitation of the plague in 1609.” The number of freemen rose from 190 in 1589 to 256 in 1620 and to 450 in 1645. Though some of these were non-resident, there was also a con- siderable non-freeman population in the borough, and the population on the eve of the Civil War may, per- haps, be estimated at 2,000 or 2,500. At the same time the corporate revenue undergoes a remarkable expansion. In 1603 it was £55; in 1650 it had risen to £273.° The borough was comparatively little troubled during the early years of the century by the diffi- culties by which it had been faced in the preceding age. In 1617 the copyholders of West Derby, instigated by Sir Richard Molyneux, raised a claim to a part of the Liverpool waste,** now administered by the borough; but the mayor and bailiffs were instructed to ‘make known untc them. . . that time out of mind the liberties which we claim have belonged to our town, and that we have evidence to maintain the same,’ and the question was not pressed. In 1620 there was an obscure dispute with Sir Richard over the levying of prisage duties on wine,” the issue of which is unknown. Several times during the period the borough authoritie: came in conflict with the Duchy courts on the question of the competence of the borough courts to try all cases arising within the liberties,” a right which was vigorously and success- fully maintained. But the questions which occupy most space in the records are internal disputes, espe- cially concerning the powers and duties of the burghal officers. From 1633 to 1637 a fierce controversy raged with the town-clerk,** Robert Dobson, who, having paid £70 for his office, considered himself irremovable, and bore himself with intolerable inso- lence towards the mayor and bailiffs. This controversy eventually led to a dispute with the Chancery Court of the Duchy, to which Dobson tried to remove his case. There were disputes also with the bailiffs. The bailiffs of 1626 “4 were imprisoned in the Common Hall for refusing to carry out the instructions of the Town Council; the bailiffs of 1629°* brought an action against the corporation in the King’s Bench, for which one of them was deprived of the freedom. 896 Thid. 837 Shuttleworth Accounts (Chet. Soc, xxxv), 1863 Hist. MSS. Com, Rep. x, App. iv, 62. 838 Picton, Liv. Munic. Ree. i, 124. 829 Ibid. 174. 880 Ibid. 169. 881 Ibid. 274. 883 Thid. 136, 131, 165, 171. 888 Tbid. 161 ff. 884 Thid. 126. 885 Thid. Digitized by Microsoft® . WEST DERBY HUNDRED Probably the cause of these disputes was the control exercised by the new Town Council over officials, who, before its establishment, had been accustomed to uncontrolled authority. During this period the Town Council seems to have remained on good terms with the body of burgesses ;** partly because its meetings were open ; partly because it appears to have been the practice for the bailiffs, elected on the annual election day, to become thereafter members of the council for life.” This gave to the burgesss-body some control over the membership of the council, and probably left few places to be filled up by the council itself. But the most striking sign of the growing inde- pendence of the borough is to be seen in the use made of its privilege of electing to Parliament. Lord Derby still occasionally nominated one member, but the Chancellor of the Duchy lost his right ; always one, and sometimes both, of the members were now genuinely elected by the borough, wages were paid to them, and care was taken that they earned them. In the elections all freemen took part, and, probably because the Town Council was so recently established and because national politics were beginning to be in- teresting, this power was never usurped from the freemen by the council. An illustration of the mode of treatment of their members by the burgesses may be quoted. In 1611 Mr. Brook ** sent in a bill for £28 10s. for the wages of his attendance during the previous session. Of this he had already ‘ received in allowance and payments {14 5s. 7¢., and so rested due to him £14 45. 5§¢., which 4s. 54. was deducted in regard of his stay in Chester about his own business four days, and so he was allowed £14 absolutely, pro- vided he delivered first the New Charter.’ Mr. Brook did not produce a charter, and we are left to infer that his wages were not paid. This is one of a series of applications for a charter which occur at frequent intervals in the later years of the 16th century and the first quarter of the 17th, inspired by the sense of insecurity in their privileges to which the controversies of the previous fifty years had given rise. There survives a memorandum, dating from about 1580, in which the Recorder gives it as his opinion that the borough had never in any of its charters been incorporated in express words, and that all its privileges must remain insecure until this was rectified. Applications in 1603, 1611,"' and 1617*? were unsuccessful ; but at length in 1626“ a new charter was purchased from Charles I, then embarrassed by the war with Spain and by the quarrel with Parliament. ' The charter of Charles I is the most important of the series, after that of Henry III. It definitely incorporated the borough ; confirmed it in all the powers it exercised, whether enjoyed by grant or by usurpation ; vested in the burgess body full powers of legislation not only for themselves but for all in- habitants of the borough ; and granted, probably for 886 It is impossible to tell whether the assembly had in this period been wholly superseded, the word ‘Assembly’ being used for both types of meetings. There is some evidence that council meetings were open to freemen ; Liv. Munic Rec. i, 127. 887 Hist, Munic. Govt. in Liv. 88 and note, 388 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 157+ 889 Hist, Munic. Govt. in Liv. 90. 649 Ibid, 156. 1-4. 840 Norris Papers (Chet. Soc. ix), 8. 841 Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 157. 348 Orig. in Liv. Mun. Archives ; Hist. Munic. Govt. 165-89. An analysis of the charter is given in the same work, 844 The docquet of the charter speaks of it as ‘a confirmation... liberties with an addition of a clause for 19 LIVERPOOL the first time,*“ the right to hold a court under the Statute of Merchants. The charter did not even name the town council, which was thus left at the mercy of the burgess body ; but in the next year the existing council was re-elected, and as there is no trace of any discussion of the question until the second half of the century, it would seem that no attack on the powers of the council was intended. The existence of the bench of aldermen is only in- cidentally recognized by the appointment of the senior alderman for the time being as a justice of the peace. The charter thus gave ground for a good deal of dispute, though none seems to have arisen. But it was an invaluable grant, for it secured the burgesses in the possession of all the vague rights which they had usurped since 1394, but which had been threatened since the Molyneuxes obtained possession of the lease of the farm ; particularly the ownership of the waste and the sovereignty of the borough officers over the whole population of the borough. It left unsettled, however, several questions at issue between the borough and the lessees of the farm which had remained dormant since 1555. It was fortunate that the charter had been obtained before 1628, for in that year Charles I sold Liver- pool,** with some three hundred other manors, to trustees on behalf of the citizens of London, in acquittance of a number of loans. So long as the Molyneux lease lasted the Londoners’ ownership of the lordship meant nothing beyond the right of receiving the {£14 6s. 8¢. of farm rent, which had to be at once paid over to the Crown, the sale having been made subject to an annual rent-charge of this amount. The lordship was therefore worthless to the Londoners ; it was valuable only to Sir Richard Molyneux, who by buying it from them for £400 in 1636 *® obtained in perpetuity and in freehold the rights he had previously enjoyed by lease, as well as any other rights that might be construed as coming under the lordship. This placed the burgesses more fully than ever at his mercy. In 1638 he commenced an action in the Court of Wards*” to prohibit the burgesses from working an illicit ferry and mill which had somehow got into their possession. The bur- gesses, resisting, petitioned the Crown for a grant of the lease of the farm to themselves ; *® but this, although the king ‘ made a most gracious answer,’ was obviously out of his power since the sale, and they found it necessary to come to an agreement,™® whereby they were to pay Molyneux £20 per annum without prejudice to their rights. Before the question could be raised again, and before Molyneux could attempt to press home other claims, the Civil War had broken out, and the later stages of the dispute were postponed until after the Restoration. The side which Liverpool was likely to take in the great struggle would not have been easy to predict from its action during the preceding years. On the whole the temper of the burgesses, in religious matters, the acknowledgment of statute merchant ;° ibid. 166. 845 The deed of sale is printed in Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 362-81. 346 Deed of sale at Croxteth (Liv. box 10, bdle. R, No. 6), Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 381. 817 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rete iy 132. 848 Ibid. 849 Thid. 133. of ancient Digitized by Microsoft® A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE seems to have been Puritan. Thus it was found necessary to have, in addition to the incumbent of the chapel, a ‘preacher of the Word of God,’ *° who re- ceived {20 or {£30 per annum together with ‘a reasonable milk cow,’ which was to be ‘changed at the discretion of the Council ;’ and in 1629 the mayor petitioned the Bishop of Chester, Bridgeman, for per- mission to arrange ‘once a month two sermons upon a week-day.’*' The list of preachers arranged for the following year in accordance with the licence then obtained, is significant. It includes Kay, Vicar of Walton, who later became a Presbyterian, and Richard Mather, minister of the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth Park, who was driven to America by Laud in 1636. Probably the presence in Toxteth of a little group of Puritan farmers, planted there by Sir Richard Moly- neux when the park was brought under cultivation in 1604,°" had considerable influence upon the Puritan temper of the borough. On the other hand, the influence of the surround- ing gentry was exercised almost entirely on the Royalist side. The Royalism of West Derby Hundred was even stronger than the Parliamentarianism of Salford Hundred, and the centre and support of it was the special patron of Liverpool, Lord Strange, who during the incapacity of his father, until he succeeded to the title in 1642, represented the house of Stanley. The only considerable family in the district which took the Parliamentarian side was that of the Moores, of Liver- pool,*** and, local as they were, they could not balance the Derby influence. Thus torn asunder, the borough followed an extremely vacillating course. To the Parliament of 1623 two Royalist members were re- turned.* In that of 1625 the Puritan, Edward Moore, was balanced by Lord Strange.** In the Petition of Right Parliament there were again two strong Royalist members.** Thus in the first period of the national controversy, the influence ofthe neigh- bouring gentry was able to outweigh the Puritan tendencies of the borough. But during the eleven years of personal government, the tide of opinion turned. On the first levy of ship-money in 1634, Liverpool was required to pay £15 as its share of the cost of a ship of 400 tons, to be raised by the mari- time counties of Wales, by Cheshire, Lancashire, and Cumberland ;*” the same sum was assessed by a com- mittee of mayors and sheriffs upon Carlisle, while Chester had to pay £100. ‘The burden was a light enough one for a town which a little later raised with- out difficulty £160 to fight a single law-suit ;** but there was keen opposition, several burgesses de- clined to pay, and threatened the bailiffs with actions at law if they should attempt distraints; the Town Council had to resolve that the costs of such actions should be borne at the town’s expense, but there were two members of the council itself who protested against this. In the next year John Moore, the regicide, was elected mayor, and on the second levy of ship-money there were similar difficulties. When the meeting of the Short Parliament ended 850 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 197. 859 Thid, 220. 851 Ibid. 200. 852 V7.C.H. Lanes. iii, 42. 858 The Irelands of Hale were a little too far away. 854 Ret, of Memb. of Parl. 865 Thid. 856 Ibid. 3887 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 383a; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1634-5, p. 568. 858 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 133. 861 Ibid. The money was, how- ever, duly paid ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1634-5, P- 569. 8593 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1636-7, pp. 205-6. 860 Ret. of Memb, of Parl. 862 Commons’ Fourn. sub die. 868 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 32a. 864 Ibid, ix, App. ili, 3914. It amounted to 3,000 cwt. of powder in 1637 and 1638 ; the period of personal government, both of the Liver- pool members were in the opposition ;* while to the Long Parliament Liverpool returned the acrid Puritan, John Moore, along with Sir Richard Wynne,” who, though he had accompanied Charles I on his journey to Spain, was by no means a staunch Royalist : he voted against the attainder of Strafford, but he was a member of the deputation to present the Grand Re- monstrance to the king.* It is tolerably clear that had the burgesses been left to themselves, without the influence of Lord Derby and others, Liverpool, like other ports, would have been enrolled on the Parlia- mentarian side. When, on the outbreak of war, the Parliamentarian party in Lancashire began to organize their resistance against the vigorous action of Lord Strange, John Moore of Liverpool was the only gentleman of West Derby Hundred whom they could find to include in their list of deputy-lieutenants. Even he was appa- rently helpless in Liverpool, for he is found with the other Parliamentarian leaders at Manchester in the middle of 1642.%° Liverpool, controlled by the Molyneux Castle and the Stanley Tower, was defence- less against the Royalist party. Lord Strange was able to seize the large stock of powder which lay in the town,** and to garrison both castle and tower. He was actively supported by the mayor, John Walker, who received a royal letter of commendation for his action ; but the presence of a considerable Parliamen- tarian party in the town is indicated by the note that the mayor had been threatened, perhaps by John Moore, with imprisonment and transportation from the country.* Colonel Edward Norris, of Speke, be- came governor, and thirty barrels of gunpowder were sent into the town from Warrington.*® Nothing, however, seems to have been done to strengthen the defence of the town. It remained under Royalist control so long as Lord Derby’s strength was sufficient to hold the western half of the county. When, in the early months of 1643, his main force was called off for service in the midlands, the Parliamentarian forces from Manchester rapidly overran the western half of the county, and by May, Lathom House and Liverpool were the only Royalist strongholds left. Colonel Tyldesley, with the remnant of the Royalist forces, fell back upon Liverpool ;* but he was hotly followed by Assheton with the Manchester Parliamentarians,*” while a Parliamentarian ship entering the Mersey cut off retreat in that direction.*” After two days’ fighting Assheton had captured the whole line of Dale Street and also the chapel of St. Nicholas, in the tower of which guns were mounted which commanded the town. ‘Tyldesley was forced to treat, asking for a free retreat to Wigan with armsand artillery. These terms were refused, and an assault completely routed the Royalists, who lost eighty dead and 300 prisoners, while the loss of the attacking force was only seven killed. *” the date of this first siege is unknown, but it was pro- bably at the end of May 1643. The Parliamentarians, now masters of Liverpool, Cal. S.P. Dom. 1637, p. 5073 1638-9, p> 387. 865 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. iy 137. 866 Ibid. 867 Ibid. 138. 868 Ibid. 137. 869 «Exceeding joyfull News,’ &c. printed in Ormerod, Lanc. Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc. ii), 104. 870 Ibid, 871 Ibid. and 138. 572 Ormerod, loc. cit. 105. 20 Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED proceeded to make very effective use of their capture. Lieut.-Col. Venables was appointed governor,‘ with martial powers overriding the town council. On his recall, early in 1644, he was succeeded, as a result of a petition from the burgesses, by Colonel John Moore,’ who remained in command until the town fell before Rupert. The German engineer Rosworm was brought from Manchester to reconstruct the forti- fications,*” which were, however, not very skilfully laid out. A ditch 36 ft. wide and g ft. deep was cut from the river,*”* north of the Old Hall, to the Pool. Behind it ran a high earthen rampart, which was broken by gates where it was crossed by Oldhall Street, Tithebarn Street, and Dale Street, each gate being protected by cannon. Earthworks with batteries guarded the line of the Pool, and a strong battery of eight guns was placed at the angle of the Pool, below the castle. In addition, a number of guns were placed on the castle. A regular garrison, consisting of a regiment of foot and a troop of horse,*” was kept in the town; but in addition military service was required of the burgesses, for whose use 100 muskets, 100 bandoliers, and 100 rests were delivered to the mayor and aldermen,’ a fine of 15. being imposed on any burgess who failed to turn out for duty ‘at the beating of the drum.’ *” During the period of military occupation the authority of the governor overrode that of the town council. He was present at its meetings, and most of his officers were admitted to the freedom. John Moore seems to have been far from successful as a governor. Adam Martindale, who served as his chaplain,* gives a terrible picture of the governor’s entourage, though he praises ** the ¢ religious officers of the company ’ with whom he ‘ enjoyed sweet commu- nion,’ as they met ‘every night at one another’s quarters, by turnes, to read scriptures, to confer of good things, and to pray together.’ The functions which Liverpool had to perform were threefold. On land, the garrison had to hold a Royalist district in check, and to take part in the siege of Lathom House. In addition it had to keep in touch with the Parliamentarian forces in Cheshire, and be prepared to deal with movements of the Royal- ist garrison of Chester. On the sea the function of Liverpool was still more important. It was the ‘ only haven’ ** of the Parliamentarians on the west coast, and it therefore became the base of naval movements intended to prevent communication between Ormond, in Ireland, and the English Royalists.** For this pur- pose part of the fleet was stationed here as early as June 1643, and five months later this force amounted to six men-of-war,* and Colonel Moore, Governor of Liverpool, became Vice-Admiral for Lancashire and Westmorland. It was under the command of one Captain Danks or Dansk,**” and though the prevalent north-west winds sometimes shut him into the Mersey, he was able very seriously to harass the Royalists, inter- cepting supplies * upon which the Irish Royalists were LIVERPOOL dependent, and preventing the transport of troops. Royalist vessels from Bristol, indeed, disputed with the Liverpool ships the command of the Irish Sea,*° but not very effectively ; the Puritan sailors of Bristol were half-hearted in the service, and one Bristol ship laden with arms and supplies for Chester deserted and sailed into the Mersey.” Ormond felt the position to be so serious for himself that he wrote to the Royalist forces in Cheshire,’ ‘earnestly recommending ’ them to attack Liverpool ‘as soon as they possibly can,’ and urging that ‘no service to my apprehension can at once so much advantage this place (Dublin) and Chester, and make them so useful to each other.’ The same urgent advice was given by Archbishop Williams,*” in command at Conway. The capture of Liverpool was one of the immediate objectives of Byron’s force of 3,000 Irish, which landed in Cheshire in November 1643, and on its arrival supplies were sent in to Liverpool, and forces called up to its aid. The defeat of Byron in January 1644 left the Liverpool garrison free to press the siege of Lathom *° in con- junction with Assheton’s forces from Bolton. But the straits of Lathom formed an additional reason for a vigorous blow from the Royalist side. Lord Derby was urgent ** upon Prince Rupert to relieve Lathom. and to seize Liverpool, ‘which your highness took notice of in the map the last evening I was with you, for there is not at this time fifty men in the garrison.’ Urged by these motives, the capture of Liverpool was one of the tasks which Rupert set himself on his northward march, in May and June, to the relief of Newcastle in York. His approach caused Moore to retreat hastily to Liverpool, while the garrison was reinforced by 400 men sent from Manchester ; *” the ships in the Mersey were drawn up in the port to assist in repelling the attack ; 9° women, children, and suspects were removed from the town, and all who remained ‘ were resolute to defend’ the place. It was on 9 June that Rupert, fresh from a brilliant success over the Parliamentarians, came down over the hill which overlooked and commanded the little town. “A mere crow’s nest,’ he is said to have called it, ‘which a parcel of boys might take.’?*° But two furious assaults of the kind which had carried all before them at Bolton were alike unsuccessful,“ the loss to the besieging force being stated at 1,500. Rupert had then to throw up earthworks” and bring up his artillery, which during several days’ cannonade cost ‘a hundred barrels of munition, which,’ says a correspondent of Lord Ormond, * makes Prince Rupert march ill-provided.’** At length a night attack was led by Caryll, brother of Lord Molyneux,‘ whose local knowledge brought the surprise party through the fields on the north to the outhouses of the Old Hall, the family mansion of the governor of the town, which they reached at three o’clock in the morning. They found the ramparts deserted by the regular garrison, which had been drawn off by Colonel 878 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. iv, 66. 874 Thid. 875 ‘Rosworm’s good service,’ &c. in Or- merod, loc. cit. 229. 876 Seacome, Hist. of the House of Stanley. 377 Martindale, Aurobiog. (Chet. Soc. iv), 36-7. . a 878 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 138. 879 Ibid. 139. 880 Ibid. 881 Martindale, Autobiog. 36-7. 882 Ibid. 37-8. 15 882a Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. i, 7. 888 Ibid. 133. 384 Thid. 713. 885 Thid. 157. 586 Ibid. x, App. iv, 67. 887 Carte, Life of Ormond, iii, 190. 388 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep, xiii, App. i,1 33+ 889 Thid. 153. 890 Ormerod, op. cit. 154. 891 Carte, Life of Ormond, iii, 229. 892 Tbid. 212. 898 Hist, MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. iv, 68. 21 Digitized by Microsoft® 894 Thid. 895 Ormerod, op. cit. 162, 173, 185. 896 Warburton, Rupert, 364. 897 Merc, Brit, in Ormerod, op. cit. 199. 3898 Seacome, House of Stanley, 117. 899 Ibid. 400 Thid. 401 Ormerod, op. cit. 199. 402 S.acome, loc. cit. 408 Ormond MSS. ii, 319. 404 Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 16. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE Moore during the night, and embarked with the military stores on the shipping in the Pool.“ About 400 men of the garrison, however, still remained, and these offered a vigorous resistance. Street fighting went on for several hours ; though there seems to have been some sort of surrender, ‘Prince Rupert’s men did slay almost all they met with, to the number of 360, and among others . . . some that had never borne arms, ... yea, one poor blind man’ ;“* Caryll Molyneux, according to Sir Edward Moore, the runaway Colonel’s son, killing ‘seven or eight poor men with his own hands.’ “” ‘The remainder of the garrison surrendered at the High Cross. They were imprisoned in the tower and the chapel, while Rupert took up his quarters in the castle, and the town was given over to sack. The number of the killed is indicated by the fact that six months later every house- hold had to provide.a man to aid in ‘ better covering the dead bodies of our murthered neighbours’ of the ‘great company of our inhabitants murthered and slain by Prince Rupert’s forces.’ “* The capture of the town probably took place on 14 or 15 June; it is mentioned in the Mercurius Britannicus of 17 June.“ Rupert remained in the castle till the rgth,° when he marched for Lathom. The intervening days were probably spent in drawing up proposals for the refortification of the town, which was intrusted to a Spanish engineer, de Gomme. His excellent plan survives, but was never carried out. The defeat of Rupert at Marston Moor probably gave pause to these elaborate schemes. On his retreat he was expected to call at Liverpool," but does not seem to have done so. Liverpool was now again, except Lathom, the only Royalist stronghold in Lanca- shire."* ‘To garrison it Sir Robert Byron had been left with a large force of English and Irish troops ; there was also a considerable number of cattle within the walls,“ while guns had been mounted on ‘ Wor- rall side’ (probably near the modern New Brighton) to prevent the approach of Parliamentary ships.‘ To deal with Liverpool and Lathom 1,000 horse were detached by Lord Fairfax from the main army on 8 August to join the Lancashire Parliamentarian levies," and the whole force was placed under the command of Sir John Meldrum. During August the Royalists were strong enough to keep the field, and there wasa good deal of fighting between Liverpool and Lathom. But after 20 August, when the Royalists were severely defeated at Ormskirk,*” it is probable that the formal siege of Liverpool began. Meldrum did not waste men on assaults, but sat down before the town and drew formal lines of entrenchment.“ He was as- sisted by a fleet in the river under Colonel Moore,‘® probably the same with which he had escaped in June ; and ‘the sad inhabitants from both sides are deeply distressed.’ The Royalist forces in the neighbour- hood strained every nerve to effect a relief; a new force raised by Lord Derby had to be beaten back on 10 September ; the Chester garrison had to be strictly blockaded to prevent its sending relief ; and on 17 September a force of 4,000 men was met by the Parliamentarians at Oswestry ‘” marching to the re- lief of Liverpool. It was doubtless the value of Liverpool asa point of contact between Ireland and the northern Royalists which accounted for the im- portance attached to it. Well provisioned and strongly garrisoned, the town held out for nearly two months. In the last days of October fifty of the English soldiers in the garrison, fearing to share the fate threatened to the Irish, deserted,” driving with them into Meldrum’s camp the greater part of the cattle in the town. On 1 November the re- mainder of the garrison mutinied, imprisoned their officers, and surrendered the town at discretion.“* An. attempt to imitate Moore’s example by shipping sup- plies and ammunition in some vessels in the river was checked by the commander of the besieging force, who sent out rowing-boats to capture the ships. During the remainder of the war Liverpool re- mained at peace, but for some years seems to have been used as one of the principal places of arms in the county." Colonel Moore for a time resumed command ; but his prestige was ruined by his be- haviour during Rupert’s siege ; and though Meldrum exonerated him from blame, the townsmen them- selves felt that the town had been needlessly aban- doned, and petitioned Parliament to inquire as to whose was the ‘ neglect or default.’ Moore left for Ireland, and was replaced by another governor. His. family never recovered from the discredit into which he had brought it, or from the financial difficulties in which he involved himself. As a recompense for its services and sufferings the town obtained several im- portant grants from the Commonwealth government ; money for the relief of widows and orphans,** licence to cut timber from the Molyneux and Derby estates for the rebuilding of the town,*” the abolition of the Molyneux tenancy of the lease,“ and a grant of £10,000 worth of land, at first assigned from the estates of ‘malignants,’? in Galway,‘ which, how- ever, turned out to be entirely illusory. At the same time the Tower passed from the possession of the house of Stanley, being sequestrated, and on 19 September 1646 sold by the Committee for Compounding.“ The period of the Civil War thus saw the borough re- leased from the feudal superiority which had so long oppressed it ; and though this came back at the Restoration it was less patiently endured, and lasted but a short time. The period also saw the division of the burgesses into two acrimonious political and religious parties, whose strife was to give a new charac- ter to the political development of the next epoch. In the second half of the r7th century the develop- ment of Liverpool, which had begun in the first half of the century and been checked by the Civil Wars, received a remarkable impetus ; so that in 1699 the 405 Ormerod, op. cit. 199. 406 Martindale, Autobiog. (Chet. Soc. iv), 41. 407 Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 16. 408 Picton, Liv, Munic. Rec. i, 140. 409 Ormerod, op. cit. 199. 410 Hist, MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. i, 179. 415 Hist, MSS. Com. Rep. iv, App. 2705. 416 Ormerod, op. cit. 206. 417 Tbid. 418 London Post, in Ormerod, op. cit. 206. 419 Thid. 420 Thid, 207, 41 Tid. 206, #22 Perfect Diurnall, in Ormerod, op. cit. 44 Hist, MSS. Com, Rep. x, App. iv, 73. 45 Picton, Liv. Munie Res : es = 426 Ibid. 144. 47 Thid. 145. 428 Thid. 429 Ibid. 147 ff. 480 Cal. of Com. for Compounding, ii, 118, The purchaser was one Alexander 411 Ibid. iv, App. 275. 207 412 London Post, 30 Sept. 1644, in Ormerod, op. cit. 206. 418 Vicars, Parl, Chron. iv, 62. 414 Ormerod, op. cit. 207. 428 Hist. MSS. Com, Rep. vii, App. i, 494. 428a See Cal. S.P. Dom. 1649-54, where there are numerous references. 22 Greene, who was still in possession in 1663; Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xvi, 136. These points have been brought out by Mr. Peet, Liv. in Reign of Queen Anne, 55 and note. Digitized by Microsoft® A a $ Was NOM ROS (Buzmvsq 4n0j09-431P yy v u04g) g6Z1 tnoav ‘LagyLG axoT +: TOOaNgArT . Sh SNS SSSR Ss =< RX d by Microsoft® ize t Digi Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED borough could claim “! that ‘from scarce paying the salary of the officers of the Customs, it is now the third port of the trade of England, and pays upwards of £50,000 per annum tothe king.’ In 1673 the to- pographer Blome ‘ found that it contained ‘divers emi- nent merchants and tradesmen, whose trade and traffic, especially unto the West Indies, make it famous.’ When in 1689 the Commissioners of Customs were asked to report as to the ports which could best supply shipping for transport to Ireland, they stated “* that while Chester had ‘not above 20 sail of small burden from 25 to 60 tons,’ Liverpool had‘ 60 to 70 good ships of from 50 to 200 ton burden, but because they drive a universal foreign trade to the Plantations and elsewhere,’ it was impossible to tell how many of them would be available. The port continued to control the larger share of the Irish trade. traffic to France and Spain, and also to Denmark and Norway.* But, as the statements above quoted show, it was the opening out of a lucrative trade with ‘the plantations,’ especially the West Indies and Virginia, in sugar, tobacco, and cotton, which made this period mark the beginning of Liverpool’s greatness. Several causes conspired to assist this development. The industries of Manchester were undergoing a rapid development, so that, in the words of Blome,*® the situation of Liverpool ‘afforded in greater plenty and at reasonabler rates than most places in England, such exported commodities proper for the West Indies.’ The plague and fire of London had caused ‘several ingenious men’ to settle in Liverpool, * which caused them to trade to the plantations,’ “* while when the French wars began in 1689 London traders found that ‘their vessels might come safer north about Ireland, unload their effects at Liverpool, and be at charge of land-carriage from thence to London than run the hazard of having their ships taken by the enemy,’ “” and Liverpool profited accordingly. As early as 1668 a ‘Mr. Smith, a great sugar-baker at London,’ was bargaining with Sir Edward Moore “* for land on which to build ‘a sugar-baker’s house . .. forty feet square and four stories high’; and Sir Edward Moore expected this to ‘bring a trade of at least £40,000 a year from the Barbadoes, which formerly this town never knew.’ Even more important than the establish- ment of a sugar-refining industry was the tobacco trade, which grew to large dimensions in these years. In 1701 it was asserted “® that a threatened interfer- ence with the tobacco trade would ‘destroy half the shipping in Liverpool’ ; “ it was ‘one of the chiefest trades in England,’ and ‘we are sadly envyed, God knows, especially the tobacco trade, at home and abroad.’ “! All the tobacco of Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England was supposed to come to Liver- It still maintained a considerable’ LIVERPOOL pool.“? The result of this growing trade was a remarkably rapid increase of shipping ; in the twelve years between 1689 and 1701 the number of vessels in the port had grown from ‘60 or 76’ to Io2, which compares not unfavourably with the 165 vessels owned by Bristol in the same year. Shipping brought with it several new industries, and in par- ticular rope-walks began to be a feature of the town, and remained so for more than a century to come. Many new families of importance begin to appear ; the Claytons, the Clevelands, the Cunliffes, the Earles, the Rathbones, the Tarletons, and the John- sons,“* win the superiority in municipal affairs from the Moores and the Crosses ; ‘many gentlemen’s sons of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, and North Wales are put apprentices in the town,’ “and a new set of names appears in the re- cords. The population was steadily increasing. The ravages of the war, together with outbreaks of plague in 1647 and 1650,“ had kept it down, so that in 1673 only 252 householders were assessed for the hearth tax,“® giving a total population (allowing for ex- emptions) of about 1,500; but by the beginning of the 18th century the number was well over 5,000.47 And now, for the first time, new streets began to be made in addition to the original seven : Moor Street, Fenwick Street, Fenwick Alley, and Bridge’s Alley “* having been cut by Sir Edward Moore out of his own lands, while Lord Street was cut by Lord Molyneux in 1668 through the castle orchard to the Pool, and Preeson’s Row, Pool Lane (South Gastle Street), and several other thoroughfares were being built upon.“® Public improvements on a large scale began to be carried out or talked of. In 1673 a new town hall was built, ‘placed on pillars and arches of hewn stone, and underneath the public exchange for the merchants.’ This building re- placed the old thatched common hall with which the burgesses had been content since it was bequeathed to them by John Crosse; it stood immediately in front of the modern town hall. The difficulty of accommodating the-growing shipping of the port was already felt, and among the modes suggested for re- lieving the pressure was the deepening of the Pool,*! a scheme which, in a modified form, ultimately led to the creation of the first dock. Proposals for improving the navigation of the Weaver‘*” to facilitate the Cheshire trade, and for erecting lighthouses ** on the coast, met indeed with keen opposition at first from the burgesses, who feared to see trade carried past their wharves ; but they were to be converted to both of these schemes before half a century had passed. In the meantime an improvement in the navigation of the Mersey below Warrington, carried out by Mr. Thomas Patten, of the latter place, led to a material increase of Liverpool’s trade, and was the first of a 481 In the case for the establishment of a separate parish, printed in Picton, Liv. Munic. Ree. i, 325. 482 Blome, Britannia, 134. 488 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. vi, 169. ‘es Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 309 and passim. 485 Loc. cit. 486 Case for the new parish, loc. cit. 487 Hist, MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 430. In1694 wehear of noless than 32 ships sent from Liverpool to the West Indies ; Cal. S.P, Dom. 1694—5, p. 237: 488 Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 99. Apparently he did not complete his bargain; but a sugar-house was built by his firm in Redcross Street ; Peet, Liv. in the Reign of Queen Anne, 32 n. 489 Norris Papers (Chet. Soc.), 81. 440 Ibid. 110, 441 Thid, 114. 443 Thid. 89. , 448 Mun. Rec. passim ; Peet, Liv. in the Reign of Queen Anne, 6 and passim. 444 Case for the new parish, loc. cit. 45 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 192, 194. 446 Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xvi, 136. . 23 447 Mr. Peet, onthe basis of the poor- rate assessment of 1708, estimates the population in that year at a little under 7,000 5 Liv. in the Reign of Queen Anne, 16. 448 Moore Rental, passim. 449 Moore Rental, passim ; also Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 314 ff. 450 Blome, loc. cit. 3 Picton, Munic. Ree, i, 286. 461 Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 79 ff 101, 102, 104. 453 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep, viii, App. i, 396. 458 Thid. 3955. 454 Norris Papers, 38. Digitized by Microsoft® A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE series of such improvements which were pushed for- ward during the next period. The rapid growth of the town, and the influx of a new and thriving population unused to the influences by which the town had been so long dominated, reflects itself in a rapid shaking-off of old connexions, which had already been seriously weakened by the Civil War and its consequences. This is perhaps clearest in the case of the Moores, so long the leading family of the town; for Sir Edward Moore, son of the regicide and runagate Colonel John Moore, has left, in the form of instructions to his son, an elaborate description “* of his own properties in the town and of his relations to its leaders which is invaluable as an elucidation of this period of transition. Deeply em- barrassed by the debts incurred by his father, his estates had only been saved from confiscation by the fact that his wife, Dorothy Fenwick, was the daughter of a noted Royalist ; he suffered also, doubtless, from the shadow which hung over his father’s name since his desertion in the siege of 1644. Soured by his misfortunes, he was on the worst of terms with the burgess-body, whose records are full of quarrels with him.“® Moore had a clear prevision of the growth of the port, and hoped by its means to rehabilitate the fortunes of his house ; but the Town Council checked more than one of his schemes. Worse than this, the burgesses refused to elect him either to the mayoralty or as a representative of the borough in Parliament, and this he regarded as ingratitude to his family, as well as a direct injury to his fortunes. His Rental is full of bitterness on this score. ‘They have deceived me twice, even to the ruin of my name and family, had not God in mercy saved me; though there was none at the same time could profess more kindness to me than they did, and acknowledge in their very own memories what great patrons my father and grand- father were to the town .... Have a care you never trust them . . . for such a nest of rogues was never educated in one town of that bigness.’“’ He exhausts an extensive vocabulary for epithets to characterize those who were ‘against him,’ ‘ either for parliament man or mayor.’ One of his greatest troubles was the difficulty which he experienced in enforcing the use of his mill. The ancient feudal milling rights had now quite broken down, and it was only by inserting a special clause in his leases that Moore, though lessee of two of the principal mills, could enforce the use of them even upon his own tenants.“* Sir Edward Moore died in 1678, a worn- out old man at the age of forty-four. His son, Sir Cleave Moore, a ‘ useless spark,’ “ was the last repre- sentative of the family in Liverpool; in 1712 he allowed a foreclosure to be made on his heavily mort- gaged Liverpool lands and retired to estates in the south of England which he had got by marriage.’ The departure of the Moores was the breach of one of the last links with the past of a town rapidly reshaping itself. The same period which saw the departure of the Moores saw also the final settlement of the long feud 455 The Moore Rental, already quoted, has been published by W. F. Irvine, under the title of Liverpool in King Charles II’s Time; also by the Chetham Society (vol. iv). 458 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 154 ff. 457 Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), Io, II. 28. xxx, 469 Ibid. i, 275-81. 458 Ibid. 64 and passim. 459 Hist. MSS. Com, Rep. xiv, App. iv, 4. 460 Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 461 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 34. with the Molyneuxes. At the Restoration the con- fiscation of their lordship during the Commonwealth was of course annulled. Immediately on taking possession, Caryll Lord Molyneux renewed the action * which his father had brought against the burgesses for invasion of his rights as lord of the manor. The burgesses, knowing that the case would go against them, made an accommodation similar to that which they had made in 1639, whereby they paid £20 per annum for a lease of all the lordship rights. But this did not settle the dispute. Lord Molyneux claimed that the burgesses were bound to pay the rent-charge of £14 6s. 8¢. due from him to the Crown over and above the £20 ; they, on their side, contended that this sum was included in the £20. This dispute presently merged in another“? In 1668 Lord Molyneux had made a_ thoroughfare through the castle orchard to the Pool. Wishing to continue it, he consulted counsel, who advised him that as lord of the manor he was owner of the waste and had a right to make a thoroughfare over it. He therefore erected a bridge, thus raising the whole question of the ownership of the waste. ‘The mayor and burgesses pulled down the bridge; Molyneux replied with a whole series of actions at law, con- cerning ‘the interests and title of the Corporation of Liverpool as to'their claim in the waste grounds of Liverpool,’ and also raising anew the old questions of tolls and dues. Had the question been fought out (as the burgesses were prepared to fight it) they would probably have won ; for the charter of Charles I, antedating the sale of the lordship, with its grant of all lands, &c. which they then held, however obtained, certainly covered the waste. After two years’ fighting, however, a compromise was arranged, by which Molyneux was allowed to build his bridge on pay- ment of a nominal rent of 2¢. per annum in recog- nition of the borough’s ownership of the waste ; while on the other hand he granted to the borough a lease of all the rights of lordship except the ferry and the burgage-rents (which he still had to pay to the Crown) for 1,000 years at £30 per annum.“ In 1777 the lease was bought up from the then Lord Sefton, and this purchase included ferry and burgage- rents, which the Molyneuxes had previously purchased from the Crown.“* Thus the ancient connexion of this family with the government of the borough came to an end; and with it feudal superiority vanished from the borough. Molyneux, indeed, remained hereditary constable of the castle,“ which was still outside the liberties of the borough, and received the tithes payable to the parochial church of Walton. But both of these powers also vanished during this period. The castle had been partially dismantled between 1660 and 1678," and it was now mainly used by a number of poor tenants who were allowed to remain within its walls,’ beyond the control of the borough authorities. But when in 1688 and 1689 Lord Molyneux, actively supporting James II, made use of the castle for stores and arms,“* and when in 1694 he was suspected of 468 These documents are printed in Hist. Munic, Govt. in Liv. 391 ff 464 Ibid. 395, 227. 465 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 37 ff. 466 Thid. ; Cox, Liv. Castle. 467 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 40. 488 Hist, MSS. Com, Rep. xiv, App. iv, 234,235. 24 Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED being concerned in the organization of a Jacobite rising,“ he was confiscated, and the constableship passed out of his hands.” In 1699 the burgesses obtained a lease of the castle for a year,” thus for the first time bringing its precincts under their control. In 1704 they obtained from the Crown a lease ‘” of the castle and its site for fifty years with power to demolish its ruins. Disputes with Lord Molyneux, who still claimed the hereditary constableship, delayed the settlement, and it was not until 1726 that the last relics, the wall at the top of Lord Street, dis- appeared.* The acquisition of the lordship and of the castle by the burgesses marks the conclusion of the period of struggle with feudal superiors which has hitherto been the staple of burghal history ; and, no less than the great development of trade, makes this period the real beginning of modern Liverpool. The establishment of Liverpool as a separate parish is another sign of the same tendency. ‘The arrange- ment whereby the tithes paid by Liverpool to Lord Molyneux had during the Commonwealth period been devoted to the provision of a minister for the new parish of Liverpool had, of course, with other Com- monwealth arrangements, been suppressed at the Restoration. But the rapid growth of the town made some readjustment inevitable. In 1673 Blome noted‘ that the chapel of St. Nicholas, though large, was too small to hold the inhabitants of the town, and this inadequacy became accentuated as the influx of popu- lation continued. In 1699, in response to a petition from the Corporation,’ Liverpool was cut off from the parish of Walton, and created into a separate parish with two rectors appointed and paid by the Corporation. Compensation to the rector of Walton and to Lord Molyneux was also paid by the Corpora- tion.“ The borough thus became ecclesiastically as well as administratively independent. Under the same Act which constituted the parish, a new church, that of St. Peter, was erected on the continuation of Lord Molyneux’s road across the waste, henceforth to be known as Church Street. But the creation of the parish involved the institution of the vestry as a separate poor-law authority, levying its own rates ; *” and this marks the beginning of a subdivision of administrative authority which was to be greatly extended during the next century. The new temper of the burgesses, induced by their prosperity, is further exhibited in the use they made during the period of their Parliamentary franchise. Contested elections had been rare before the Restora- LIVERPOOL tion, but almost every election after 1660 was acri- moniously contested. Lord Derby, who had once regularly nominated to one of the seats, was still influential, and his support often sufficed to turn the scale ; but he was now only one of a group of mag- nates who wrote to use their influence at elections,‘ and after the Revolution his preferences were entirely disregarded. ‘The wealthy merchants who now con- trolled Liverpool were not to be dictated to. Party feeling had run high, and influence in elections now mainly took the form of bribery, which became rampant in this period. The bitter feud of two organized parties is indeed the chief feature of municipal history during these years. Since the fever of the Civil War the great issues which divided the nation affected the town as they had never done before ; and under the stress of strife between Puritans and Cavaliers, or Whigs and Tories, the forms of borough government underwent a series of remarkable changes, always influenced by the synchronous events in national history. The rising port had emerged from its backwater into the full stream of national life. Puritanism had been strong in Liverpool, and con- tinued to be strong under Charles I]. The Act of Uniformity drove forth two of the ministers of Wal- ton and Liverpool ; but there remained a substantial number of Nonconformists. No less than five alder- men and seven councilmen, together with the town clerk, refused to take the oaths in 1662-3,*” being almost one in three of the council ; though many who were Puritan in sympathy, like Colonel Birch,” who had been governor of the town under the Com- monwealth, made no difficulty about accepting the oaths. Wandering Nonconformist preachers like Thomas Jolly “' found ‘many opportunities’ and ‘much comfort’ when they came to Liverpool ; and on the issue of the Declaration of Indulgence a licence was obtained for a Presbyterian conventicle in ‘the house of Thomas Christian,’ as well as for two chapels in Toxteth Park.“'* The rector of Walton writes in 1693 of the presence in Liverpool of ‘a number of fanatics from whom a churchman can expect little justice.’ The presence of this substantial element of declared Nonconformists, backed by a number of Conformists who were Puritan in their sympathies in both poli- tical and religious affairs, brought it about that Liver- pool was the scene of acute and acrimonious party strife down to, and even after, the Revolution. In 1662 a 169 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv. App. iv, 292 ff. 302. He received a commission from the exiled monarch giving him ‘in- structions for the care and government of Liverpool.’ 470 There was much competition among the local nobility to obtain the succession, Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. i, 20, 21 ; iii, 2700. 471 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 292 ff. 472 A full abstract of the lease is given by Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 33 ff. The condition was at first imposed that part of the castle should be used as an armoury for the local militia ; but in 1709 Lord Derby as lord lieutenant empowered the removal of these arms to the custody of the mayor. Ibid. 41. 478 Picton, Liv. Munic, Rec. ii, 61. 474 Loc. cit. 475 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 325. 476 Thid. 4 Digitized by Microsoft® 477 It would appear, however, that Liverpool had acted as a poor-law autho- rity for some time before it became a separate parish, no doubt under the terms of 13 & 14 Chas. II, cap. 13, which provided that in certain counties of the north of England populous townships should have overseers of their own, distinct from those of the large parishes of which they formed parts. From 1682, when the records begin, a poor-rate was levied and administered by elected ‘overseers of the poor. The amount raised rose from £40 in 1682 to £100 in 1698, the year before the Act constituting the parish was passed. There is no marked change either in the amount raised or in the mode of administration after the Act. Vestry Minutes, i. 478 Ormond MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com. new ser), iii, 367. 25 4784 In 1669 the Bishop of Chester re- ported to Archbishop Sheldon that at * Leverpoole was held a frequent conven- ticle of about 30 or 40 Anabaptists, mostly rich people,’ while ‘two conventicles of Independents ’ were held in Toxteth Park, ‘the usual number of each is between 100 and 200, some of them husbandmen, others merchants with severall sorte of tradesmen’ ; Lambeth MSS. 639, quoted Bate, Declaration of Indulgence, App. viii. 479 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 238, 240. Cf. for presence of ‘fanatics’ in Liverpool, Cal. S.P. Dom. 1665-6, p. 243- 480 Tbid. 481 Notebook of T. Folly (Chet. Soc. new ser. xxxiii), 60. 48la Bate, op. cit. App. lxx and xxxii. 482 Hist. MSS. Com, Rep. xiv, App. iv, 279+ 4 A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE batch of thirty-eight new freemen were admitted, nearly all powerful local landowners, and presumably good church and king men, and the object of this was doubtless to modify the Puritan complexion of the borough. But in spite of this it seems clear that the Puritans (or, as it will be more convenient and more accurate to call them, the Whigs) remained in a standing majority in the burgess body, throughout the period, and for atime held their own even in the carefully purified council.“ This is especially indicated in the mayoral elections, the only function now left by the council to the burgess body at large. In 1669 a mayor was elected who had refused to take the oaths in 1662 ;** and when a petition against his election was sent to the Privy Council, a majority of the Town Council voted in favour of paying the costs of resistance. From this it would appear that in 1669 the Whigs were still strong in the council. So long as the bailiffs con- tinued to be elected, under the terms of the Charter of Charles I, by the burgess body, and to become thereafter life members of the council, it seemed impossible for Tory predominance to be established. Applications for a new charter were made in 1664 and 1667 ; ‘®” andas the influence of Lord Derby, that sound Cavalier, was enlisted in favour of these appli- cations, it is reasonable to suppose that their object was to obtain a revision in a sense favourable to the Tories. The non-success of these applications may be attributed to the fact that Charles II, until the secession of Shaftesbury in 1672, hoped for Puritan support in his monarchic aims, and was unwilling therefore to weaken Puritan power. In 1672 the Tories, now in a majority in the council though not in the assembly, and led by a Tory mayor, took the law into their own hands. ‘They appear to have assumed the right of nominating the bailiffs ; and when a protest was made, it was com- demned as ‘very scandalous and of bad consequence,’ and a resolution was passed deposing any of the (Whig) members of council who should be proved to have been concerned in it.“ At the next electoral assembly the outgoing mayor, having declared his successor duly elected, adjourned the meeting seemingly without proceeding to the election of bailiffs.“ A number of the burgesses, however, refused to be adjourned, and forcing the mayor to continue in the chair, transacted business for two hours, until the mayor was relieved by force. There is no record of their proceedings, which were regarded as illegal. They may have held that the result of the mayoral election was not truly declared ; they may have demanded an election of bailiffs ; and they may also have insisted upon exercising their chartered right of passing by-laws. For this riotous conduct twenty-six men were deprived of the freedom. In 1676, however, there was again a Whig mayor ;“° who in conjunction with three Whig aldermen, proceeded to admit a number of new free- men without consulting the council, doubtless for the purpose of affecting the next elections. ‘The council refused to recognize these freemen ; and when in 1677 486 0 483 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 240. 484 On this point see Hist. Munic. Govt, in Liv. 102, 103. 485 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 245. 486 Munic. Rec. ili, 779. A‘ley’ of £80 was raised for the purpose. 487 Ibid. 837, 847. 488 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 246. 89 Ibid. 247 3 and Hist, Munic. Govt. in discussed. 491 Tbid, 498 Tbid. 237. Liv. 102-3, where this curious episode is 490 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 248, 492 Hist, Munic. Govt. in Liv. 19 ff. The only allusion to the episode in the Council minutes is a resolution on 1 Noy. 1676 authorizing the mayor ‘to take care about renewing 26 another Whig mayor was elected, declared his election void on the ground that he had been struck off the commission of the peace for the county.’ It is worth noting that these events occurred at the time when the Crown was engaged in its death-grapple with Shaftesbury. On 18 July 1677 the council at last succeeded in obtaining from Charles II a new charter.” In the charter of William III, by which its main provisions were repealed, this charter is described as having been obtained ‘ by a few of the burgesses by a combination among themselves, and without a surrender of the previous charter or any judgement of guo warranto or otherwise given against the same.’ This doubtless means that the application was made by the Tory majority of the council, without confirmation by the assembly, to which under the charter of Charles I full governing powers belonged. The main purpose of the new charter was to secure the predominance of the council, unmentioned in the Charles I charter, and its control over the whole borough government. The number of the council was raised from forty to sixty in order to permit of the inclusion of ‘fifteen . . . bur- gesses of the said town dwelling without that town,’ i.e. fifteen good Tory country gentlemen who would secure the Tory majority. The charter also transferred from the assembly to the council the right of electing both the mayor and the bailiffs, as well as the nomination of free- men. As the election of the mayor and bailiffs was the sole municipal power remaining in the hands of the body of burgesses, this provision deprived them of any shadow of power overthe government of the town. Their only remaining function was that of electing members of Parliament, and the right of nominating freemen gave control even over these elections ultimately into the hands of the council. Thus the result of this charter was to place the absolute control of the borough in the hands of a small self-electing Tory oligarchy. The action of the council in the restless strife of the later years of Charles II was what might have been predicted. They passed vigorous loyal addresses against the Exclusion Bill ** and in condemnation of the Rye-house Plot ; * the latter address con- tains an interesting allusion to Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, which shows how keenly the movement of national affairs was now followed in the borough. But there is visible in the addresses also an under- current of nervousness; their fear of ‘ Popish contri- vances,’ and their ‘adherence to the true Protestant religion’ isa little too loudly insisted upon. This may explain why it was thought necessary to include Liverpool in the list of general revisions of municipal charters at the end of the reign of Charles II and the beginning of that of James II. Issued in the first year of James II, the new charter * simply confirmed its predecessor, but it contained also two new clauses, one reserving to the Crown the right of removing any member of the council or any borough official ; the other conveying the power of exacting from any of our charter, taking to his assistance such as he shall think meet at the charge of this Corporation.’ Munic, Rec, iv, 137. Clearly the assembly of burgesses had not been consulted. 494 Picton, Liv, Munic. Rec. iy 251. 495 Ibid. 253. 496 Hist, Munic. Govt, in Liv, 207 ff Digitized by Microsoft® (unasnyyy joodzaary ays ut arou Sunuwg v fo sutavssuq OSQI NI ToodaaArT 5 6 RIES d by Microsoft® ize t igi D Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED freeman the oaths hitherto required only from coun- cillors, and thus rendering possible a further purifica- tion of the burgess body, still predominantly Whig. Under the terms of this charter, the deputy-mayor and the senior alderman (both Tories) were removed “” by the Crown for persisting in prosecuting two Catho- lics, a surgeon and a schoolmistress, for pursuing their professions, in spite of a licence issued by the Crown. This indicates that in Liverpool, as elsewhere, the loyalty of the Tories to the Crown was limited by their loyalty to the Church. Tory as it was, the council never willingly accepted this charter, which indeed would appear never to have had legal force.‘ The increasing restiveness of the council is still more clearly shown in the answer given “® to commissioners who were in 1687 sent round to obtain promises of aid in securing a Parliament favourable to the repeal of the Test Act. The mayor answered ‘that what is required by his Majesty is a very weighty and new thing ; and that he was not prepared to give any answer but this: when it shall please the King to call a new Parliament, he proposed to vote for such per- sons as he hoped would serve the just interests both of his Majesty and the nation.’ Only ‘four or five customs officers’ were ready to promise their votes.°” The borough as a whole was thus ready to wel- come, and even the ruling oligarchy was ready to accept, the Revolution. A small force of royal troops were for a time in Liverpool, and Lord Molyneux, Constable of the castle, took a vigorous part for James as Lord Lieutenant of the county ;*” but the attitude of Lord Derby, who, Tory as he was, after some wavering, threw himself on the side of the Prince of Orange,’ had more to do with determin- ing the attitude of the town ; and one of the things he protested against was the ‘extravagant methods practised by the new magistrates in the ancient loyal corporations’ of Wigan, Liverpool, and Preston, into which he urged that inquiry should be made.™ Though some of the townsmen made some difficulty about accepting the oaths to the new monarchs, on the whole the Revolution was most enthusiastically received in Liverpool ; and during 1689 the port was very actively employed in the transport of troops for the Irish campaign,”® General Kirke being for a time in command in the town,” while Schomberg passed through it °° on his way to embark at Hoy- lake. So great was the demand for shipping that the merchants complained that they were being ruined.” The Revolution brought about a temporary recon- ciliation between the two parties in the town. Not only the Tory magistrates removed by the Crown,” but some of the Whigs who had declined the oaths in 1678, returned to the council. The charter of James II was dropped by common consent, if it had 497 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 257. 498 Against the docquet of the charter are written the words ‘never past,’ Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 206. Ina list of charters in the House of Lords MSS. it is entered with a note ‘(did not pass),’ Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. vi, 299. 499 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 257-8. 500 Hist, MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. vii, 206. 175, 183, 187 5 App. 250. 250. 511 Ibid. 281. 506 Ibid. Rep. xii, App. vi, 170, 174, 507 Abbott's Fourn. (Chet. Soc. Ixi), z. 508 Hist, MSS. Com. 509 Tbid. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 263. 510 Picton, Liv, Munic. Rec. i, 260. 512 Hist, Munic. Govt, in Liv. 233. LIVERPOOL ever come into force, and in 1690 an inspeximus and confirmation *" of the charter of Charles {I was obtained from William and Mary. In the first Parliament of the Revolution Liverpool was repre- sented *? by Lord Colchester, son-in-law of Lord Derby and a sound Tory, and by Thomas Norris, a strong Whig. But it was inevitable that the Whigs, in a majority in the burgess-body, should desire power in the town government, and the reconciliation did not last long. In 1694, Lord Colchester being called up to the House of Peers, a Whig was elected in his place by 4.00 votes against 15 cast for his Tory opponent,°* in spite of the support given by Lord Derby to the latter. ‘The Tory mayor went so far as to declare the defeated candidate elected,* for which he was repri- manded by the House of Commons. ‘This election was regarded as a triumph for the party which was anxious to overturn the charter of Charles II ; and the two members, Jasper Maudit and ‘Thomas Norris, worked actively to obtain a new charter. The Town Council voted funds for the defence of the Charles II charter,*” and appealed to Roger Kenyon, member for Clitheroe, and to Lord Derby, to fight their case for them at Westminster.°% In 1605, however, a new charter *!® was granted, which first declared the Charles II charter invalid on the grounds already noted, then recited and confirmed the Charles I charter, and went on to reduce the number of the Town Council to forty. ‘This charter remained the governing charter of the borough until 1835. Its general principle (in consonance with the conservative character of the whole revolution of which it was a part) was to restore the system of government as it was supposed to have been before the recent changes. But it was badly drafted ; and left open several vital questions over which there was much discussion dur- ing the next century—notably the question whether it was within the power of the burgess body at its pleasure to override the powers of the Town Council.*” The Whigs were now in power in the council as well as in the assembly ; and though the Tories refused to accept the new charter,”' and the ex- mayor (deposed from the council) refused to yield up the town plate,” they were powerless ; and the Whig predominance remained unshaken until the middle of the 18th century. An attempt to obtain the revocation of the William III charter, made by the Tories during the period of Tory ascendancy in national councils in 1710, was unsuccessful ;* as were also sundry attacks in a different form upon the dominant Whigs, to which we shall have to allude in the next section. The Liverpool members of Parlia- ment during this period were also steadily Whig. 516 Norris Papers (Chet. Soc. ix), 25- vii, 237) 244, 248, 30. 517 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 262. 518 Hist, MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, Rep. xii, App. vii, 378. 519 Hist, Munic. Govt, in Liv. 110-14, and 236 ff. 520 For an analysis in detail of these points see Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 110-14, 501 Ibid. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 201-2. 503 Ibid. Rep. xii, App. vii, 205 ff. 608 Ibid, Rep. xiv, App. iv, 198 ff 604 Ibid. 198. 505 Thid. 223. Digitized by Microsoft® 518 Rer, of Memb. of Parl. ; Norris Papers (Chet. Soc, ix), 21. 514 Hist, MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 3213 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 261. 515 Tbid. 27 521 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. 263-4. 522 Thid. 528 Ibid. ii, 4-7 3 Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 114, 115 3 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 673. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE The chief of them, Sir Thomas Johnson, sat for Liverpool from 1701 to 1727,° and all attacks upon his seat were unsuccessful.* He and his father had been the leaders in the struggle against the Tory supremacy. A representative of the new class of Liverpool merchants, he was assiduous in his atten- tions to the interests of the town, and deserves to be regarded as one of the principal fosterers of its new prosperity. He died a poor man after a labo- rious life, and his memory now survives only in the name of Sir Thomas Street.” Fairly launched on its upward career by 1700, Liverpool was to enjoy during the course of the 18th century a rapidly increasing prosperity, the course of which it will be impossible to follow in any detail. Staunchly loyal to the Protestant succession, the town enjoyed the favour of the Whig party. Its Whiggism may be illustrated by the fact that in 1714 it for- warded an address to the Crown, asking for the punishment of the Tory ministers of Anne, who had endeavoured to restore the exiled Stuarts ;°* by the fact that in 1709 it was the only provincial town to offer hospitality to the exiled ‘ Palatines,’ of whom it took 130 families ;* and above all by the fact that in the rebellion of 1715, during which it was the single stronghold of Whiggism in Lancashire, it threw itself vigorously into a state of defence. When the rebellion was crushed it was not unnaturally chosen as the venue for many of the trials ;' two of the unfortunate prisoners were executed on the gallows in London Road, while many hundreds were transported, to the no small profit of the Liverpool traders who took them out. ‘The later rebellion of 1745 found Liverpool equally loyal ; a regiment of foot was raised and equipped by public subscription, and after having a brush with the Highlanders near Warrington, it played a useful part in garrisoning Carlisle, during the Duke of Cumberland’s northward advance, its conduct earning warm praise.? When the rising was over, the party feeling of the town burst forth in mob riots, in the course of which the only Roman Catholic chapel was burnt.** As might be expected in a town so vigorously Whig, the ascendancy of the Whig party remained almost unshaken both in municipal politics and in the Parliamentary elections. Liverpool was generally regarded as a safe Whig borough, and the power of electing new ireemen, hitherto pretty generously exercised, now began to be used by the Town Council for the purpose of securing party ascend- ancy.*° Under these circumstances the Tory party, extruded from power, made themselves the advocates of the rights of the burgess body as against the Town Council—rights of which they had formerly been the principal opponents. ‘The election of Sir Thomas 524 Ret. of Memb. of Parl. 580 Picton, Liv. Bootle as one of the members for the borough from 1727 to 1734 % represents the partial triumph of this interest. During the same period, and largely under Bootle’s influence, a vigorous attack was made on the ascendancy of the Town Council, which was for some years quite overridden, the government of the town being assumed, in accordance with the popular interpretation of a clause in the William II charter, by a succession of popular mayors acting through the assembly of burgesses. In 1734 Lord Derby was elected mayor, and under his powerful direction, an attempt was made to regularize the position of the assembly, and to establish its right of passing by-laws and electing freemen. Lord Derby died before the end of his year of office; and after his death the agitation quietly and completely died out. There was a partial revival of the controversy in 1757, when Mr. Joseph Clegg,” one of the alder- men who had been mayor in 1748, led a renewed attack upon the council. But though the council tried in vain to obtain a new charter“ establishing beyond question its control of borough government Clegg’s attack came to nothing, and the challenge of the council’s authority was not again renewed until the time of the French Revolution. The chief interest of this struggle is the demonstration which it affords that the ascendancy of the Whigs was as narrowly oligarchic as that of the Tories had been after the Restoration. Indeed, it was even more s0 ; for it is to this period that we must attribute an increasing chariness in granting the freedom of the borough to new-comers.™? Up to the beginning of the 18th century it would appear that almost all resi- dents obtained the freedom without difficulty. By the middle of the century it was rarely granted to new-comers except for the purpose of influencing elections ; and finally in 1777 the rule was laid down ™ that none but apprentices and sons of freemen should be admitted to the freedom. ‘Thus in the second half of the century a minority of the principal merchants of the town exercised political rights in it. This increasing restriction was peculiarly unfortunate at a period when, owing to the rapid growth of trade, the population was increasing with unheard-of rapidity. But it is probably to be attributed to the very fact of this increase of trade, the town council being unwilling to sacrifice the large revenue which they derived from the dues paid by non-freemen. These dues were now for the first time becoming very valuable ; and hence arose a new series of struggles, due to the attempt of boroughs such as London, Bristol and Lancaster, to obtain exemption from the payment of dues in Liverpool under the mediaeval charters which freed them from the payment of dues throughout the kingdom. One such question had Munic. Rec. ii, 783 588 Ibid. 89-99. For a full analysis 525 Even in 1710, when the Tory re- action was at its height ; Hist, MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 579. 528 See Norris Papers (Chet. Soc. ix), passim, 527 The facts of Johnson’s life have been summarized by E. M. Platt, Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xvi, 14.7. 528 Lancs. in 1715 (Chet. Soc. v), 4. 529 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 47a. The reception of the ‘Palatines’ was a very definite party issue ; cf. for example, Swift’s attacks on it, Examiner, nos. 41, 45. Digitized by Microsoft® Ware, Lancs. in 1715, passim. 581 Ware, Lancs. in 1715, 190-2023 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 79 3 Stuart MSS, (Hist. MSS. Com.), ii, 232 ; Milne- Home MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 112. 582 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 108 ff. 588 Walpole, Letters (ed. Toynbee), ii, 165. 584 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 109 ; Hist. MSS. Com, Rep. xv, App. vii, 34: 585 Hist, MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 5793; Rep. xv, App. vii, 121-2 et passim. 586 Ibid. Rep. xv, App. vii, 122-3. 587 Picton, Liv, Munic. Rec. ii, 99. 28 and description of this struggle and its results see Muir, Hist. of Liv. 167-733; also Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 125-8, 269, where full excerpts from the municipal archives are printed, 589 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 101, 2 ; A letter from Mr. Foseph Clegg, etc. 3 A Correct Translation of the Charter etc, by Philodemus ; and other pamphlets and MS. by Clegg preserved in the Liverpool City Library. 540 Hist, Munic. Govt, in Liv. 270-1. 541 For the steps in this development see Hist, Munic. Govt, in Liv 120-1. 543 Picton, Liv, Munic. Rec. ii, 194. WEST DERBY HUNDRED already been raised by the London cheesemongers in 1690 ;** it was revived at intervals during the cen- tury," both on behalf of the freemen of London, and on behalf of those of other towns, and was not finally determined till 1799,°%° when after a long trial, it was laid down that only ‘freemen residing within the liberties’ of the borough which put forward the claim were entitled to the exemption. All these disputes were in themselves evidences of the growing wealth to which they were due. The secret of this rising prosperity was that Liverpool was in this period obtaining an increasingly large share of the trade which was then the richest in the world— that with the West Indies, whence almost all the sugar, tobacco, and other ‘colonial produce ’ consumed by Europe was derived. In comparison with the West India trade, the trade with the American colonies was of very small importance, and as late as 1752 only one Liverpool vessel is said to have plied to New York.“® Not only was there the direct trade with the British West Indies, but, even more lucrative, a large irregular smuggling trade with Spanish America was carried on, in spite of the prohibition of the Spanish government. _In this traffic, the southern ports of Bristol and London possessed at the end of the 17th century a very great advantage. During the early years of the 18th century Liverpool rapidly gained at their expense. For this two reasons are alleged. The first is that her ships were largely manned with apprentices who received next to no wages until they reached the age of twenty-one, and that the customary rate of pay for the captains and officers was lower than the rate which held in the southern ports.“”? More important was the second cause: namely, that the coarse stuffs of mixed linen and cotton, or linen and woollen (linsey woolsey) which were produced by the looms of Manchester were in great request in the West Indian markets, and were produced more cheaply than the correspond- ing German goods with which the southern traders endeavoured to supply the market.“ Thus, as always, the growth of Liverpool trade was concurrent with the growth of Manchester industry. The smuggling trade with the Spanish colonies, and the frequent conflicts with Spanish guard costas to which it gave rise, ultimately led to the Spanish war of 1739, and was almost brought to an end by an Act of Parliament of 174.7, which forbade foreign vessels to frequent British West India ports.“? But while it was at its height (about 1730) this branch of trade alone is said to have brought into Liverpool an annual profit of £250,000 and to have consumed over £500,000 worth of Manchester goods. The legitimate and illegitimate trade of the West Indies and South America equally led on the traders who engaged in it to the still more lucrative African trade which could be worked in combination with it. LIVERPOOL It was in this period that Liverpool first entered upon the slave trade, out of which she was to draw, during the century, fabulous riches ; and which was to earn for her a highly unsavoury reputation. At the end of the century the greatness of Liverpool was generally attributed—by her own citizens as well as by others *! —entirely to the slave trade. Yet it was not until the fourth decade of the century, when Liverpool was already rapidly overtaking Bristol, that this line of trade began to be seriously developed ; and she had long been preceded in it by the two great southern ports. Up to 1698 the monopoly of the African trade had been held by the Assiento Com- pany of London. In that year its formal monopoly was abolished,” though it still retained the sole right of importing slaves into the Spanish dominions. In the early years of the eighteenth century Bristol began to compete with London—led on, as Liverpool was later to be, from the West Indies to the source of their labour supply. Indeed the Bristol merchants seem to have been driven to the African trade largely by the successful competition of Liverpool in the Spanish smuggling trade.’ In 1709 one Liverpool vessel of 30 tons burthen was dispatched to Africa ; but the venture does not seem to have been success- ful, probably owing to the jealousy of the Bristol and London men, for it was not repeated for twenty years. In 1730 an Act of Parliament for the regu- lation of the African trade * established an open company to which any person trading to Africa might belong on payment of 40s. The money was to be used for the up-keep of factories on the African coast; and the administration of these was entrusted to a committee of nine, consisting of three members elected by the merchants of each of the three ports, London, Bristol, and Liverpool. At once, under the new system, Liverpool threw herself energetically into the trade. In the same year, 1730, fifteen vessels of 1,111 tons were dispatched to Africa.®® In 1752 the number had risen to eighty-eight vessels ac- commodating nearly 25,000 slaves,’ though it had sunk by 1760 to seventy-four vessels of 8,178 tons. In 1751 a separate Liverpool company was established *° by Act of Parliament. ‘The Act states that there were 101 African merchants in Liverpool, but though there were 135 in London and 157 in Bristol, ‘their trade to Africa is not so extensive as the merchants of Liverpool.’ The methods and development of this trade cannot here be described. The materials for its history have been fully mar- shalled by Mr. Gomer Williams, to whose valuable book the reader who is inquisitive on this subject may be referred. But it should be noted that the immensely lucrative character of this traffic is to be attributed to the fact that a treble profit was made on every voyage. ‘The cheap guns, ornaments, and stuffs which formed the outward cargo were exchanged for 548 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 265, jor ff. 544 Ibid. ii, 21 fF. et passim. 545 Thid, 212. 546 Smithers, Liverpool, 112. A useful general description of Liverpool trade in the 18th and early 19th centuries, with statistics, is contained in this book, and indeed, forms its best feature. See also, Kaye, Stranger in Liverpool (1825 ed.). 547 Wallace, General Descr. 216. Derrick (Letters from Liv. &c. 1767) attributes the success of Liverpool to the Digitized by Microsoft® fact that owing to the security of the passage through the Irish Sea, insurance could be dispensed with, $48 Williams, Liv. Privateers and Slave- trade, 468. 549 Tid. 550 Edwards, Hist. of the W. Indies. 551 Wallace, General Descr. 229. 562 Williams, loc. cit. 558 Williams, op. cit. 467. 554 Troughton (Corry), Hist, Liv, 265, gives a table of the number and tonnage of slave-ships sailing from Liverpool from 1709 to 1807. 29 555 Williams, op. cit. 467. 556 Ibid. 470. 557 Williamson, Liv. Memorandum Bk. 1753, gives the full list of ships and owners for 1752. The list is reprinted by Williams, op. cit. 675. 568 Troughton, loc. cit. 559 23 Geo. II, cap. 31. The list of merchants incorporated in the new com- pany is printed by Williams, op. cit. 674. 660 Hist. of the Liv. Privateers and Letters of Marque with an account of the Liv. Slave= trade, Lond. 1897. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE slaves at an average cost of about £15; the slaves were then shipped to Virginia or (more often) to Kingston, Jamaica (where the Liverpool merchants combined to maintain permanent agents) and sold at a price which varied from {60 upwards ; the ships were then loaded with sugar, tobacco, and other highly saleable West Indian produce for the homeward voyage. Comparatively few slaves were brought home to England, though occasional advertisements in the Liverpool papers show that a few were im- ported before 1772, when the Somerset case made such importations illegal. This ‘great triangle’ of trade was probably the most lucrative in the history of commerce, for its profits were not only very large but rapid. Thus vast fortunes were made, and a vast capital accumulated in Liverpool, much of which went to develop other lines of trade, or to aid those works, now beginning to be undertaken, for the im- provement of the equipment of the port and its com- munications with inland markets. OF these activities the most important was the creation of the first dock. The idea of deepening the Pool which curved round the town and turning it into a more effective harbour had long been enter- tained by some of the more enterprising townsmen ; it is alluded to by Sir Edward Moore as early as 1668. But in the first years of the 18th century the necessity of some such provision for the increasing shipping became obvious. ‘The first project, put for- ward in 1708 by a Mr. Henry Hun of Derby, was one for simply deepening and walling in the whole length of the Pool. But in the next year Mr. Thomas Steers, an engineer brought from London by Sir Thomas Johnson, proposed the alternative scheme of making a square dock with gates in the mouth of the Pool. This proposal was accepted, and an Act of Parliament obtained to empower the Town Council to borrow the necessary funds and to raise dock dues for the payment of the interest thereon. The con- struction of the dock was begun in 1710 under the direction of Steers. It took longer, and cost more to build, than had been anticipated ; it was opened for use on 31 August 1715, but was not then com- pleted, and a second Act had to be obtained in 1716 °% to empower the council to raise additional funds for the completion of the works. A ‘dry dock’ or basin was added two years later. From the first the dock (whose site is now represented by the Custom House) was fully used, but it was not until 1734 °° that the creation of a new dock, known as the South or Salthouse Dock, was begun. This, as there was no natural inlet to facilitate the work, took nineteen years to build, and was not opened until 1753. The beginning of the dock estate marks an epoch in the history of the town; it is the beginning of modern Liverpool. The Pool, the characteristic feature of mediaeval Liverpool, now vanishes from the maps, leaving as its sole trace the irregularity of 561 Moore, Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 104. et passim. 563 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 47. 568 8 Anne, cap. 123 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 48. 84 3 Geo. I, cap. 1. 565 Picton, Liv. Munic. Ree. ii, 141. 566 Ibid. 133, 143. 567 Ibid, 568 Thid, 49. 569 Hist, MSS, Com. Rep. vili, App. i, cap. 5 3955. cap. 28. 6 570 Picton, Liv. Munic. Ree. ii, 63 ; Acts of 12 Geo, I, cap. 21 3 19 Geo. II, cap. 19 ; 26 Geo. II, cap. 65. 571 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 3962; 7 Geo. I, cap. 10; 7 Geo. I, (1 ap. 56. 574 6 Geo. I, cap. 28. 30 the directions of the streets that had been compressed into the triangle between it and the river. But the creation of docks was not the only enterprise of this period for the improvement of the port’s trading facilities. ‘The channel of the river was buoyed and charted ; * lighthouses were erected, the first good carriage roads out of the town were made with the aid of the Town Council ;* the streams running into the Mersey estuary were deepened so as to make them navigable: the Weaver (not without opposi- tion) in 1720,° the Mersey and the Irwell also in 1720,57 and the Sankey Brook in 1755 ;°% while the deepening of the Douglas from Wigan to the Ribble * cheapened the transport of coal. The Sankey navigation, carried out seemingly by a Liver- pool engineer, and largely financed by Liverpool men,°*” departed frankly from the line of the original brook, and so foreshadowed the era of canals. The increment of trade which produced all these activities may be indicated by the single fact that during the first half of the 18th century the shipping of the port rose from seventy ships with 800 men (in 1700) to 220 ships with 3,319 men in 1751.7 In the same period the population rose from 5,000 (est.) in 1700 to 18,000 (est.) in 1750.5 New local industries were also created or greatly developed in this period: shipbuilding, sugar refining, rope- making, iron-working, watch-making, and pottery, all flourished.” In pottery, in particular, Liverpool enjoyed in this age a brief eminence. By the middle of the 18th century, therefore, the town was already vigorous and thriving ; rejoicing especially in its re- cently acquired mastery of the most lucrative trade in the world. In the second half of the 18th century the com- mercial triumph of Liverpool was secured. This was due to several causes, the first of which was the effect of the wars which almost filled this age. In the Spanish War of 1739 and the War of the Austrian Succession into which it merged, Liverpool seems to have taken comparatively little part, though she had shared so largely in the irregular traffic of the South Seas from which it sprang. Four or five privateers are known to have plied from the town, and they made a number of valuable captures ;* but the non-existence of local newspapers during this period makes it difficult to discover the exact extent of these privateering activities. On the other hand 103 Liverpool vessels are known to have been cap- tured by the enemy.*' Nevertheless the port profited exceedingly from the war, owing to the comparative security of the route through the Irish Sea. A local observer writes in 1753 that the war had brought such wealth that if it had lasted ‘seven years longer it would have enlarged the size and riches of the town to a prodigious degree . . . Trade since the late peace has not been so brisk as formerly.’ War therefore was welcomed in Liverpool. From the Seven Years’ War the town derived even 575 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 144 5 Brooke, Liv. in the xviii Cent. 105-6. 577 Smithers, Liv.185. 578 Ibid. 195-6. 579 Williamson, Liv. Memorandum Bk. 753) 589 Williams, Hist. of Liv. Privateers, 572 > Geo. I, cap. 15. 39, 40. 578 28 Geo. II, cap. 8; 2 Geo. III, » 4.0. 581 Thid. App. i, p. 659. 582 Williamson, Liv. Memorandum Bk. 1753. Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED greater advantages. Though Thurot,* a brilliant French privateer, found his way into the Irish Sea, and in 1758 and 1759 caused much alarm in the Mersey, rendering necessary the fortification of the port, and though ninety-eight Liverpool vessels were during the course of the war captured by the French, the activity of the Liverpool traders in ‘privateering was vastly greater than it had ever been before, and their captures were on the whole exceed- ingly valuable. It is not possible to state the exact number of ships employed ;** but it was very large, and these years in particular were distinguished by the activity of William Hutchinson, perhaps the boldest and most successful of Liverpool privateers.*” ‘The result of the war was practically to sweep French ‘commerce from Atlantic waters, and to establish English ascendancy in the West Indies almost as completely as on the North American continent. In the commercial gains which thus accrued Liverpool had the lion’s share. In the War of the American Revolution the port suffered very seriously. Not only was trade with the revolted colonies practically stopped, but American privateers made West Indian waters unsafe, and under Paul Jones even ravaged the coasts of Britain,*® while the commerce of the Americans themselves was of such negligible amount as to make privateering use- less. “Our once extensive trade with Africa is at a ‘stand ; all commerce with America is at an end,’ and the ‘ gallant ships’ were ‘laid up and useless’ in the docks.** During the war the population actually de- creased, and the shipping of the port diminished from 84,792 to 79,450 tons.™! The distress thus caused led to grave riots, the most serious of which broke out in 1775, when 3,000 unemployed sailors laid siege to the Town Hall, and terrorized the town for a week. ‘The regular troops of the garrison had to be distri- buted through the town. Nevertheless the town took a vigorous and patriotic part in the war. A large fort with barracks was erected on the north shore, where the Prince’s Dock now is ;* a regiment of regular troops known as the Liverpool Blues was raised, mainly at the cost of the Corporation—it was employed in the garrisoning of Jamaica ;** a corps of local volunteers was also raised in 1782 ; °° while the pressgang found a field in Liverpool for its unpopular activity.” When in 1778 France and later Spain and Holland joined in the war, privateering once more became a profitable pursuit, and provided em- ployment for idle ships ; no less than 120 privateers, of 31,000 tons, were plying from Liverpool within a LIVERPOOL year of the French declaration of war, and nearly 9,000 sailors thus found employment.™ The years from 1778 to 1782 were the period of Liverpool’s greatest activity in privateering ;° ‘the merchants of Liverpool,’ we are told, ‘have entered more into the spirit of arming ships than any others in England’; and many brilliant feats are recorded, of which no account can here be given. Some hun- dreds of French prisoners occupied during these years the old tower and the powder magazine in Brownlow Hill. The profits of privateering, however, great as they were, were a poor consolation for the almost com- plete destruction of trade. The declaration of peace was immediately followed by a great revival, and the decade, 1783-93, was an era of amazingly rapid advance. 'The French Revolutionary War did not at first interrupt this advance, but rather accentu- ated it. Thoughit at first caused a commercial panic, which rendered necessary the issue of Corporation notes under Parliamentary powers, this was tempo- rary only; and the port gained far more by the destruction of French trade than it lost by the dislo- cation of its commerce caused by the war. At the outset of the war privateering was again actively under- taken ;® but it never attained the same dimensions as during the American War, because there were not so many idle vessels to welcome this mode of employ- ment; and after a few years privateering almost ceased, for the very satisfactory reason that there were so few ships belonging to France and her allies on the seas as to make it an unprofitable enter- prise.°* French privateers made the seas dangerous, and trading vessels had to be prepared to fight unless they sailed in large convoys ;* many hun- dreds, perhaps thousands, of Liverpool sailors were captured by the enemy and peopled French prisons, from which they sometimes made daring escapes * On the other hand French prisoners in large num- bers (4,009 in 1799) were immured in the gaol in Great Howard Street, and formed a feature of Liver- pool life.°° Deprived to a large extent of the excitement of privateering, the military enthusiasm of the turbulent Liverpool population found other vents. The press- gang was a continual terror, and its ravages frequently passed all reasonable bounds." The fort was strength- ened and armed with fifty guns, while batteries were erected at the mouths of the docks.“ Large forces of volunteers and yeomanry were raised;°? in 1804 180 officers and 3,686 men were reviewed.*8 A 588 Williams, op. cit. 172 and passim. 584 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 1203 Derrick, Letters from Liv. &c. 585 Williams, op. cit. App. ili, 665. 586 Mr. Williams has collected a large amount of material bearing upon this period, op. cit. 79-178. 587 Williams, op. cit. 127 ff. 588 Brooke, Liv. in the last quarter of the xviii Cent. 365-6 ; Williams, op. cit. 223, 262; Mahan, Inf. of Sea-power. 589 Nevertheless, it was carried on not without success; cf. Hist, MSS. Com. Rep. xv, App. vi, 371. 590 Liv. General Advertiser, 29 Sept. 1775. 591 Williams, op. cit. 181. 592 Brooke, Liv. in the last quarter of the xviii Cent. 328 ff. 593 Hist, MSS. Com. Rep. xv, App. Vy 152+ 594 Picton, Rec. ii, op. cit. 371. 59 Brooke, Liv. in the Jast quarter of the xviii Cent. 339, 3793 Amer. MS. in Royal Inst. (Hist. MSS. Com.), i, 178. 596 Brooke, op. cit. 372 3 Williams, op. cit. 319. 597 Williams, op. cit. 189-302, collects many examples from contemporary news- papers and other sources. 398 Ibid. 183. 599 Ibid, 20. 600 Ibid. 183. 601 St. Vincent Gazette, 7 Mar. 1778, apud Williams, 215. 602 Brooke, op. cit. 135. 608 Thus the number of ships engaged in the slave trade, which had sunk as low as 11 (tonnage 1,205) in 1779, rose at 31 181-33 Brooke, Digitized by Microsoft® once to 85 (12,294) in 1783, and to 132 (22,402) in 1792. 604 33 Geo. III, cap. 31 5 Picton, Liv. Munic, Ree. ii, 251-2; Hughes, Liv. Banks and Bankers, 144-58. 605 Williams, op. cit. 315. 606 Thid. 316. 607 Williams, op. cit. 306 ; Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 189. 608 Seacome Ellison, Prison Scenes, gives a typical narrative of such an escape. 609 Brooke, op. cit. 4893; Troughton, Hist. Liv. 226. 610 Williams, op. cit. passim; for a peculiarly flagrant episode, see Liv. Ad- wertiser, 19 May 1794. 611 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 254, 287. 612 Brooke, op. cit. 434. 618 Liv. Advertiser, 11 Jan, 1804. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE regiment of regulars was, after the peace of Amiens, en- listed in the town at the expense of Mr. John Bolton," a wealthy merchant ; and the Duke of Gloucester took up his quarters at San Domingo House, Everton, to command all these forces. The first part of the war unquestionably told heavily in favour of Liverpool trade, in spite of the commercial insecurity caused by the ever-present risk of capture. In the second period Napoleon’s conti- nental system inflicted grave hardship, especially severely felt by the poor of the town ;%° and its result, the American War of 1812, which produced a swarm of dangerous American privateers,°” was disastrous in its effects : the number of ships entering the port declin- ing from 6,729 in 1810 to 4,599 in 1312.%° Yet even this struggle ultimately tended to the increase of Liverpool’s trade, by driving finally all rival shipping from the seas; at the end of the period of war in 1815, Liverpool found herself practically absolute mistress of the trade between America and Europe. While the wars were securing to Liverpool the dominance of the Atlantic trade, the other main source of her wealth, the industries of Lancashire, were being transformed. ‘The amazing story of the great inventions and the great development of roads and canals of this period concern Lancashire at large and the whole of England. But it should be noted that no town more directly profited by these develop- ments than Liverpool, for almost the whole of the districts most affected by the new inventions lay with- in a hundred miles of her harbour ; while the canals and roads made communication with them easy, and for the first time overcame that geographical isolation which had been the main obstacle to her progress. For this reason the merchants at Liverpool took an immense part in devising and carrying through these enterprises, and much of the capital for the new canals was supplied by the wealth earned in the slave trade or the trade with America. Concurrently with these movements, the same period saw a remarkable development of foreign mar- kets. The great expansion of the United States into the Middle West *® began in the last years of the 18th century, and was much stimulated by the Louisiana purchase ; emigration on a large scale, caused by the distress which accompanied the Industrial Revolution, helped to fill up these lands; they provided new sources of raw materials, and it was in this period, in particular, that the supply of raw cotton began to be derived mainly from the Southern States ; as late as 1784 it was so exclusively drawn from the West Indies that a custom-house officer is said to have seized a small consignment brought in an American vessel on the ground that its importation was an infringe- ment of the Navigation Acts. At the end of the period (in 1813) the trade with the East Indies, hitherto confined to the East India Company, was thrown open, and in 1814 the first Liverpool ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope.” In a few years 614 Picton, Mem. i, 301 ; Liv. Adver- Baines’ Liverpool, 738-41. India had become one of the principal markets for the goods exported from Liverpool. The period of the Revolutionary wars also saw Spanish America thrown open to trade. When Napoleon took possession of Spain the Spanish colonies declined to accept his rule, threw off the close restrictions which the mother- country had imposed upon their trade; and, on the restoration of peace, declined to return to their allegi- ance, mainly because they were unwilling to sacrifice their newly-acquired commercial freedom. From the first Liverpool controlled the bulk of this rapidly ex- panding South American trade, which she has held ever since ; and it is more than a coincidence that Canning, the minister responsible for the British recognition of the Spanish-American colonies in 1825, had himself been member for Liverpool for ten years (1812-22). Thus during the years when the com- merce of rival nations was being driven from the Atlantic mainly to the advantage of Liverpool, the un- exampled development of the industrial and mineral advantages of Lancashire and the northern midlands was supplying the Liverpool merchants with an inex- haustible supply of goods for export, and the expan- sion of America and the opening of trade to India and South America were providing enormous new markets. It is not surprising that the trade of the port advanced with a rapidity hitherto unknown in English history, and that the population of the port grew concurrently. The growth of trade during this period is indicated by the fact that the gross tonnage owned in the port, 19,175 in 1751, had risen to 72,730 in 1787, to 129,470 in 1801. Other figures tell the same tale. During the period 1756-1815 four new docks and two tidal basins were opened. ‘The dock area of the port, less than 30 acres in 1756, had risen to over So acres in 1815. Still more rapid was the expansion of the next period, as the table on p. 42 will show. During the same period several local industries rose to their highest prosperity, and then decayed and vanished—destroyed mainly by that localization of industrial functions and that growing ease of com- munication which were the principal causes of Liver- pool’s commercial ascendancy. Thus shipbuilding was at its height in the last quarter of the 18th century ; it decayed thereafter. The Greenland fishery, which began for Liverpool in 1764, and in 1788 employed 21 ships, had almost vanished by 1815, as had the oil-refining industry to which it gave birth. The curing-houses for herring,*® which carried on a large export trade with the Mediterranean, were at their height about 1770, but had almost vanished by 1815. Two or three iron foundries existed in the town in the same period ; ** they were driven out of work by the competition of the coalfield towns. The pottery industry also came to an end during these years.°” The destruction of productive industries is indeed a feature of this period. It did not interfere with the growth of the town’s wealth or population, but it left For insu- 623 Thid. 163. tiser, 30 May, 1803. ; 615 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 289-90. 616 Ibid. ii, 3113 Liv. Courier, 1 Feb. 1809; Liv. Advertiser, 25 Nov. 1811 et passim. 617 Williams, op. cit. 442-9. 618 Ibid. 407. For the general effects on prices and trade in Liverpool see Ewart, Rutson’s trade circular, quoted in Digitized by Microsoft® rance rates, Mercury, 13 May 1813. 619 For a fuller summary of these causes of development, see Muir, Hist. of Liv. chap. xiv. 620 Smithers, Liverpool, 124. 621 Ibid. 160. Within seven years the port possessed one-seventh of the total British trade with India. Ibid. 161. 32 638 Smithers, Commerce of Liv. 190; [Wallace], General Descr. 180 ff. 634 Brooke, op. cit. 241; Smithers, Commerce of Liv. 97-8. 635 Smithers, Commerce of Liv. 953 [Wallace], General Descr. (1795), 26. 626 [Wallace] and Smithers, loc. cit. 637 Brooke, op. cit. 248 ; Jj. Mayer, Liv, Pottery, WEST DERBY HUNDRED it entirely dependent upon sea-borne commerce, and imposed upon it the specific social characteristics in- volved in that fact. The growth of population in this period was very rapid. About 20,000 in 1751, it was 60,000 in 1791, 77,000 in 1801, 94,000 in 1811, 118,000 in 1821. The last two figures do not fully represent the actual growth, for the town had by this time overpassed the limits of the old township, especially on the south and on the north-east, and very popu- lous suburbs had been created in Toxteth and Everton, which contained in 1831 a population of 40,000. The great inrush of new inhabitants represented by these figures came from all parts of the United King- dom. A writer of 1795 notes ‘the great influx of Irish and Welsh, of whom the majority of the inhabi- tants at present consists.’ There were also many Scots, especially among the captains of ships and the heads of great trading-houses. Irish immigration became still more vigorous after the rising of 1798, though it was not to reach its height until the potato- famine of 1846. Though the town was expanding geographically with great rapidity, building did not go on fast enough to accommodate the numerous im- migrants. They were crowded together in the most horrible way in the older part of the town ; in 1790 it was calculated ®* that over one-ninth of the popu- lation lived in cellars, at the rate of four persons to each cellar.*° In the new quarters built for the re- ception of these immigrants the building was so shoddy that a storm in 1823 blew many of the houses down ; ®! there were no building regulations, and the houses were erected back to back, without adequate provision for air and light, and almost without any sanitary arrangements; it is with these slum areas that the government of the city has been struggling ever since. Most of the streets were unsewered. The water supply was exceedingly scanty; before 1800 water was sold from carts ; ®? after the institution of the two water companies in 1799 * and 1802,™ the supply, being conducted for a commercial profit, was naturally inadequate in the poorer quarters. Public- houses were extraordinarily numerous ; as early as 1772 the Town Council had to urge the magistrates to reduce the number, and in 1795 it was calcu- lated that one house in every seven was licensed for the sale of strong drink. Overcrowded, unhealthy, dirty and drunken, the population of the town was also very turbulent, as might be expected from the influence upon them of the slave traders and the privateers-men. ‘The police arrangements were quite inadequate. Under an Act LIVERPOOL of 1748,°7 which established a commission, indepen- dent of the Town Council, for the watching, lighting, and cleansing of the town, the police force consisted of sixty night watchmen ; the number was increased under the Act of 1788,° but no day police was pro- vided until 1811, when the Town Council divided the borough into seven districts and allotted three constables to each.” Thus the evils which had followed the sudden growth of wealth and population seemed to outweigh its advantages. ‘This was in part due to the fact that the system of borough government had been in no way adapted to the new conditions.“° The self- elected Town Council still continued in absolute con- trol of the corporate estate, including the docks, and still possessed the power of regulating the trade of the port. It regarded itself merely as the trustee of the body of freemen, which now formed only a small part, and by no means the most important part, of the population. Even the freemen’s privileges, how- ever, were limited to the right of voting in the elec- tion of mayor, bailiffs, and members of Parliament, and to exemption from the payment of town dues. They were admitted to no further share in the government of the borough, and hence arose, under the influence of the French Revolution, a new chal- lenge to the authority of the council, and a new attempt to establish that of the assembly of burgesses. Begun in 1791, it was brought into the law courts, where a verdict was three times given in favour of the claims of the assembly. ‘The council, however, was always able to claim a new trial on technical grounds, and in the end the attack on their position was abandoned, partly because private resources were unable to stand the conflict with public funds, partly because the reaction against the French Revolution distracted support from this quasi-democratic move- ment, Liverpool had, indeed, by this time become very firmly Tory, and the change in its politics from the Whiggism of the previous age is one of the most curious features of the period. It seems to have begun in the early years of George III, when the Town Council took the side of the king in the Wilkes struggle, sending up addresses of support.™? The body of burgesses still, however, remained pre- dominantly Whig, as is shown by the continual elec- tion of Sir William Meredith as member until 1780. At the outset of the American struggle addresses of protest against the policy of government were sent from Liverpool,“* but the Town Council and the mass of the burgesses very loyally supported the war,“ and in spite of the distress which it caused, its pro- gress only made the town more Tory.“ The first 628 [ Wallace], General Descr. 267. 629 Thid. 650 Ibid. 69. 651 Smithers, Commerce of Liv. 227; Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii. 682 | Wallace], General Descr. 88. 688 Bootle Company, instituted by 39 Geo. III, cap. 36, under the title of the Company of Proprietors of the Liverpool Waterworks, powers enlarged by 50 Geo. III, cap. 165, and 53 Geo. III, cap. 1223; Brooke, Liv. in last Quarter of the xviii Cent. 387. 684 The Corporation obtained power to contract for the supply of water by 26 “Geo. III, cap. 12. A company was formed to carry out the work, which was mcorporated as the Liverpool Corporation 4 Digitized by Microsoft® Waterworks Co. by 3 Geo. IV, cap. 77 5 its powers were extended and its title altered to the Liverpool and Harrington Waterworks Co. by 7 & 8 Geo. IV, cap. 36. 685 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 202. 686 [ Wallace], General Descr. 185. 687 21 Geo. II, cap. 24. 688 28 Geo. III, cap. 13. 689 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 317 ; see also 201-2. 640 On the characteristics of the old system of borough government in_ its latest form, see Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 118 ff. and 137 ff. 641 Hist, Munic. Govt. in Liv. 129 3 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 203 ff. ; Pro- ceedings at an Action at Law brought by 33 the Mayor and Burgesses, &c. (1796) ; Brooke, Liv. in the last Quarter of the xviii Cent. 22-4 ff. 5 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 179. For a summary of the political history of the town, see Muir, Hist. of Liv. 162 ff. 215 ff. 648 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 178-9 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. ix, 299. Dartmouth received the freedom for hay- ing supported the repeal of the Stamp Act, Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. % 47. 644 Bronke, op. cit. 326; Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 180; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. x, 380. 646 Cf. result of the election of 1784; Poll-book and squibs. 5 A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE events of the French Revolution revived Whiggism for a time,“ but the reaction after the September massacres completed the Tory victory; and the group of leading Whigs who surrounded Roscoe had to withdraw from public life.“” In the first years of the new century Whiggism held up its head again. Roscoe was returned to Parliament in 1806,™* but mainly on the ground of his local popularity, and the votes which he cast against the slave trade and for Catholic emancipation earned him an unpopularity which expressed itself in riots on his return to Liver- pool.“? During the struggle on the slave trade ques- tion, indeed, Liverpool had been absolutely committed to the support of the party from which alone it had any prospect of the maintenance of its most lucrative traffic,° while the inrush of Catholic Irish, having produced already the characteristic Orangeism of the Protestant population, formed another motive to Toryism. Not even the unpopularity of the Orders in Council sufficed to enable Brougham (who had been mainly identified with the opposition to them) to defeat Canning in the fiercely-fought election of 1812,! and Liverpool remained steadily Tory down to the eve of the Reform Act. Alongside of its more unpleasant developments, this period witnessed the rise of many promising movements. ‘The administration of the Poor Law * was undertaken with exceptional vigour and enlight- enment, and while in other suddenly-grown industrial and commercial towns the old administrative fabric of the annual Easter vestry and the elected overseers broke down completely, in Liverpool there was gradually developed a system of government through an annually elected committee, which regulated extra- legally the work of the overseers with such success that Liverpool has been described as the model urban poor-law district of this period. The chief credit for the successful establishment of this system, which had assumed its final form by 1775, belongs to Mr. Joseph Brooks, who as unpaid treasurer from 1768 to 1788 exercised almost absolute authority over the affairs of the parish. It was under his direction that in 1770 the new workhouse in Brownlow Hill was erected ; ** it was on the whole so well administered that the poor rates—in a town where poverty was more widespread than in most others—never rose beyond 35. 9d. in the £ even in the height of the Revolutionary war. The committee, that is to say, kept itself free from the extravagant and mischievous methods of indiscriminate relief which were general throughout England from 1795 onwards. ‘This remarkable success is mainly to be attributed to the work of a group of public-spirited citizens, among whom may be named Dr. Currie, the friend of Roscoe.** The Evangelical revival affected Liverpool deeply. Wesley visited the town several times,’ with con- siderable effect, and within the Church of England the Evangelical party became dominant in the town.® This was a period of great activity in church building, as will be seen later. It was also a period of con- siderable activity in the provision of schools for the poor,®* a movement which was carried on in Liver- pool in the last twenty years of the century with a concerted activity greater than was displayed in most other towns. An eager charity, too, was born,® the expression of that new humanitarian spirit, born of the Evangelical revival, of which another expression was to be found in the movement for the abolition of the slave trade. In Roscoe, William Rathbone, Currie, Rushton, and others, Liverpool provided some of the most vigorous apostles of this reform ; their courage is the more noteworthy because the popular feeling of the town was, naturally, intensely strong on the other side. The period witnessed also a remarkable intellectual revival. This showed itself in the wit and humour of the numerous squibs issued during parliamentary elec- tions, many of which still retain some of their salt ; it showed itself in that keen interest in the history and antiquities of the borough which produced no less than four Histories of Liverpool between 1770 and 1823," and was still more profitably displayed in the learning of Henry Brown the attorney, which illu- minates the trials on the powers of the Town Council in 1791, in the researches of Matthew Gregson, whose Portfolio of Fragments was published in 1819, and above all in the monumental collections made by Charles Okill, which are still preserved in the muni- cipal archives and have formed the basis of all later work on the history of the borough. But above all these newborn intellectual interests were fostered by the circle of i/uminati which surrounded William Roscoe, and of which no detailed account can here be given. Roscoe himself wrote lives of Lorenzo de’ Medici and of Leo X which were hailed with delight throughout Europe ; he produced also a great monograph on the Monandrian plants, a good deal of verse, and a large number of pamphlets, including some very enlightened speculations on Penal Juris- prudence ; he took a profound interest in the fine arts, and himself did some etching ; he threw himself into the movement for agricultural improvements ; he corresponded with many of the leading men of his day ; he formed a noble library and a fine collection of pictures. His friend William Shepherd,“ Uni- tarlan minister of Gateacre, wrote a life of Poggio Bracciolini which is still valuable. Dr. James Currie, besides taking up poor-law admini- 646 Life of W. Roscoe, i, 99 fF. 5 Life of F. Currie, passim, 647 Ibid. 648 Poll-book and squibs of the elec- tion. 649 Life of W. Roscoe, i, 392 ff 650 Cf. the addresses of the corporation, on, and grants of freedom for, energy in this cause—the defence of the slave trade; Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 220, 347, &e. 651 Poll-books and squibs of the elec- tion ; Creevey Papers. 652 The administration of the Poor Law in Liverpool is the theme of an admirable chapter by S. and B. Webb, Hist. Local Govt. i, 130 ff. An edition of full extracts Digitized by Microsoft® from the Vestry Minutes, with introduction by W. L. Blease, is in preparation. 658 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 1603 Vestry Minutes s.d.; Brooke, Liw. in the last Quarter of the xviii Cent. 69, 70. This building replaced one in College Lane dating from 1732. 654 Vestry Minutes, April 1802 and passim. 695 W. W. Currie, Life of Fames Currie, passim. 656 Tyerman, Life of Wesley, ii, 196, 274, 328, 566, &c.; Wesley's Fournal, 657 See Morley’s Life of Gladstone, i, chaps. i, ii. 658 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 284 ; 34 Brooke, Liv. in the last Quarter of the xviit Cent. 380 ; Smithers, Liv. 243 ff. 659 See the list of charities below. 660 See the Poll-books and Collections of Squibs of the various elections, especi- ally those of 1806 and 1812. An account of these effusions is given by Picton, Memorials, i, 347. 6°) By W. Enfield (1773), J. Wallace (published anonymously, 1795), J. Corry (known by the name of its first publisher, Troughton, 1810), H. Smithers (1825). 662 For Brown, see G. T. Shaw in Trans, Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xvi, 77. 685 Life of W. Roscoe, by his son, 2 vols. 664 Dict, Nat. Biog. 55 W. W. Currie, Life of ¥. Currie. Liverrpoot: Nortu SHore Mii (From a Water-colour Drawing c. 1860) Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED stration, was the friend and biographer of Burns. Others also might be named if space allowed. Under the encouragement of this group of friends Liverpool became for a time a centre of fine printing and of exquisite bookbinding ; ” Roscoe had his own books printed in his own town. From this intel- lectual revival proceeded a remarkable group of public institutions, The Liverpool Library, founded as early as 1758, became a thriving institution. The Athenaeum was founded in 1798 ®” as a library for scholars, and was later enriched by many of Roscoe’s books. The Botanic Gardens were instituted in 1803. The Medical Library came to birth in 1775. Finally, the Royal Institution, meant to be the focus for every kind of intellectual interest, was projected in 1813 and opened in 1817.°%% These promising beginnings did not lead to any very striking results; partly, no doubt, because they were not spontaneous, but were due to the accidental presence in uncongenial surroundings of a group of fine spirits; partly because they were swamped by the flood of growing wealth ; partly because the coming of the railway imposed, during the greater part of the 19th century, the intellectual dominance of the metropolis upon the provincial towns. The twenty years which followed the great war saw a steady expansion of foreign trade—less swift, indeed, than had been expected ; but more steady in Liver- pool than in England at large. The course of this expansion may be best indicated by the figures of entrances and clearances of vessels engaged in the foreign trade :— Entrances Clearances Total Year Ships | Tonnage|} Ships | Tonnage |, Ships | Tonnage 1816. «| 1,340 | 300,673 || 1,606 | 341,390 || 2,946 | 642,063 1821. «| 1,770 | 391,473 || 15913 | 403,626 || 3,683) 795,159 1826. .| 2,067 | 480,944 || 2,132 | 479,409 || 4,199 | 960,353 1831. «| 2,840 678,965 | 3,037 | 718,987 | 5,877 | 1,397,952 1835. «| 2,978 | 787,009 |) 3,065 | 796,766 || 6,043 | 1,583,775 But the principal interest of these years is to be found rather in the signs of coming political change which they exhibited, and which resulted from the expansion of the earlier period, than in the proof that the earlier causes of prosperity were still at work. ‘Though Liverpool remained predominantly 566 About 150 volumes printed or pub- lished in Liverpool between 1770 and (1898). 670 Shaw, Hist. of the Athenaeum, Liv. LIVERPOOL Tory in sentiment until the eve of the Reform Bill, the twenty years which followed the war saw many movements towards change, and an increasingly clear realization of the necessity of recasting the traditional system of administration. It was, indeed, with the left or progressive wing of the Tory party that the town was associated ; as is shown by the election of Canning by large majorities from 1812 to 1822 and of Huskisson from 1822 to 1830—beyond comparison the most distinguished politicians who have ever repre- sented Liverpool. ‘The steady growth of the popu- lation of the town, which, with its suburbs, had reached the figure of 205,000 in 1831, and the expansion of trade, which has been already summarized, made the earlier system of administration impossible. These y2ars witnessed an awakening on the part of the Town Council to a keener sense of its responsibilities, as is shown by the large schemes of public improvements for which parliamentary authority was obtained ; °”* by the establishment in 1826 of two elementary schools in the north and south of the borough,’ at the ex- pense of the corporation, as a sort of compensation for the old grammar school which had been suppressed in 1802 ;°” by the purchase of lands on a large scale in Birkenhead ** with a view to preventing the creation of a rival port, and providing for the possible future requirements of Liverpool trade ; and by great activity in the extension of the docks, which were increased between 1815 and 1835 from 50 acres to 80 acres of area. ‘The rise of a demand for change is perhaps most clearly seen in the discussions on the administra- tion of the Dock Estate, hitherto under the absolute control of the corporation, which led in 1825 to the addition to the Dock Committee of representatives of ratepayers using the docks.°* The same kind of dis- content was shown in the attempt of a number of non-freemen ratepayers to escape from the payment of town dues, which led to long litigation extending from 1830 to 1833.%° But the most serious aspect of the situation was the fact that the council, regard- ing itself simply as the trustee for the property of the body of freemen, had allowed many of the main functions of urban government to slip, wholly or partially, out of its hands. Thus the control of the watching, lighting, and cleansing of the streets had been since 1748 under the control of a separate com- mission “! consisting partly of the mayor and some of the borough magistrates, partly of representatives of the ratepayers elected at the annual Easter vestry ; while the control of sewerage, except in the ‘old streets,’ had recently been vested in another commis- sion. The corporation had since the 17th century ceased to raise rates, and all public functions which necessitated the raising of rates were performed by cially for the hard-fought elections of 1812, 1818, 1820, provide excellent illustrations 1800 are catalogued in the admirable Cat, of the Collection of Liv. Prints and Docu- ments issued by the City Library, 1908. These include nineteen volumes of poems, fifteen of history and biography, an edition of Burns in four volumes, many volumes on politics, &c., &c. 687 Ibid. J. McCreery’s printing in this period has not since been surpassed. 668 Brooke, op. cit. 89-92 ; papers in Trans, Hist. Soc. ix, xxii. This library claims to be the oldest circulating library in England. 869 [Wallace] General Descr., 171. Digitized by Microsoft® 571 Life of Roscoe, i, 253 ff.; Smithers, op, cit. 367. 672 Smithers, op. cit. 366; Bickerton, Hist. of the Liv. Medical Inst. 678 Life of Roscoe, ii, 151 ff. 874 Compiled from the Reports on Trade and Navigation laid before the Houses of Parliament, 1847. The figures for the coasting trade which are omitted would, of course, enormously increase these totals ; but it is the foreign trade that forms the best barometer of Liver- pool’s prosperity. 8748 The poll-books and squibs, espe- 35 of the sentiments of the borough. 875 1 Geo, IV, cap. 13, and 7 Geo. IV, cap. 57. 876 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 395. 577 Ibid. 394. 578 Ibid. 343, 34.5. 879 26 Geo. IV, cap. 43. For discussions see Munic. Corp. Com.: Rep. of Proc. in Liv., passim, 580 Report of the resistance of payment of town dues in Liverpool by Bolton and others, 1835. 681 Under 21 Geo. II, cap. 24. 652 Under a special local Act, 1 Will. IV,, cap. 15. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE other public bodies of limited powers, so that there was no single body responsible for the general over- sight of the health and well-being of the town. The corporation, while, as we have seen, it retained con- trol of public improvements and of the dock estate, had to perform these functions out of the revenue from its estate and from the town dues and other tradi- tional payments, and as these were inadequate to the purpose these functions had not been fully performed, while their partial performance had formed so grave a strain upon the resources of the corporation that the value of the borough estate had been seriously dimin- ished.* But for this condition of things the borough might very well have been the owner of the greater part of the land on which it was built ; as it was, a large part of the corporate estate, secured originally by the burgesses’ usurpation of the waste in the 15th century, had been sold to meet the corporate debt.“ Finally, the exclusive political privileges of the free- men and their exemption from the payment of town dues had become an anomaly and an injustice, be- cause the body of freemen, which since 1777 had not been increased except by the customary modes of inheritance or service, no longer at all repre- sented the community. There were in 1833 only 3,000 freemen ® out of a population of 165,000, and many of the 3,000 were non-resident. This number included few of the principal merchants, and only seven out of the 200 doctors practising in the town.** Jt was composed principally of artisans, to whom their privileges were chiefly valu- able for the money to be made out of them in bribes at elections. Hence Liverpool had become so notorious for its political corruption that in 1830 a bill for the disfranchisement of the borough was only prevented by the prorogation of Parliament from passing into law.*®” The unsatisfactoriness of the old institutions was shown also in the sphere of poor-law administration, which had been perhaps the most efficient department of borough government. The committee which had for so long controlled the administration of the Poor Law was not recognized by law, and was liable at any time to be overridden by the overseers, if they chose to disregard its orders. In 1814 the committee tried in vain to persuade the open vestry to make an application for a private Act legalizing their posi- tion ;°* after two years’ discussion the proposal was rejected, and in 1817 a Mr. Dennison, being elected overseer, justified these fears by paying no attention to the committee, and launching upon lavish expen- diture. The Sturges-Bourne Act of 1819 ®! came in the nick of time to prevent the breakdown of the system, for its adoption legalized the position of the committee by turning it into a select vestry, and for some years it was able to do admirable work. But in the excitement of the agitation for the Reform Act party feeling crept in here also and showed itself by constant appeals to the open vestry and to polls of the whole body of ratepayers on the smallest points. The survival of the open the Poor-rates . . mittee, 1814.’ 988 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 224-6. 684 Thid. ii, 338-9. 85 Munic, Corp. Com: Rep. of Inquiry in Liv. 50. 686 Tbid. 325. 587 Walpole, Hist. Engi. i, 125 ; Picton, Liv, Munic. Rec. ii, 333. 688 ¢ Address to all who are assessed to 690 Thid. Memorials, i, 391-2. i, 159. « by the Parish Com- 689 Vestry Minutes, 6 Aug. 1816. 1818 and 691 S, and B, Webb, Hist. Local Gov. vestry in so large a population was a nuisance and a danger. Liverpool was thus ready for the Reform movement, and it is not surprising that in the reforming Parlia- ment of 1830 and in its successor the Tory town was for the nonce represented by Whig members. The Reform Act of 1832 itself began the process of local reconstitution. Not only did it enfranchise the rate- payers, placing them on a level, for the purposes of parliamentary elections, with the freemen, but, for the same purpose, it enlarged the borough’s boun- daries, including within them the populous suburbs of Everton and Kirkdale, the northern half of Tox- texth, and part of West Derby, and thus foreshadow- ing the full absorption of these districts for municipal purposes also, But the legislation which followed the Reform Act was of far greater local import. ‘The two great commissions—that on the Poor Laws and that on the Municipal Corporations—which the Reformed Par- liament sent out to investigate the condition of local government both reported not unfavourably on Liver- pool: the Poor Law Commission found the town, indeed, to be among the best administered in England, while the Municipal Corporations Com- mission, though it disclosed many grave defects, found no evidence of serious maladministration.** But the changes introduced by the two great Acts were of such a character as to mark the beginning of a new epoch. The terms of the new Poor Law did not, indeed, involve any such wide change in Liverpool as in other places ; it established finally the authority of the popularly elected select vestry, and put an end to the defects and uncertainties of the Sturges-Bourne Act ; but the authority of this body was still confined to the limits of the old township and parish, the new and populous outlying districts being left to the administration of the Toxteth Board of Guardians or the West Derby Union. The Municipal Reform Act was far more serious in its results. It made the Town Council for the first time in its history a popularly elected body. It placed the election in the hands of the body of ratepayers, to whose level the freemen were now in practice reduced. It empowered the council to take over the functions of the Watching, Lighting, and Cleansing Board; that is to say, it turned it from being the mere admini- strator of the estate of a privileged minority into a body responsible for the health and general well-being of the whole community, and thus rendered possible, and indeed suggested, an indefinite enlargement of municipal functions. Finally, in one of its schedules, it enlarged the boundaries of the municipal borough so as to correspond with those of the parliamentary borough as fixed in 1832. The history of Liverpool since 1835 has been one of rapid and steady development on all sides, un- marked by outstanding or conspicuous episodes. It is impossible to follow its course in detail ; and it will be most convenient to summarize it under headings, in a more or less tabular form. 698 Liv. Chron. April and July 18323 Vestry Minutes, April 1833. 694 The area was increased from 1,860 to 5,210 acres, 93 Poor Law Com, Rep. 66 Munic. Corp. Com, Rep. (Liv.), 295, 400. 18193 Picton, 592 Vestry Minutes, passim. 36 Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED The following table shows the growth of the foreign trade of the port, as measured GROWTH by the entrances and clearances of OF TRADE ye scels from or to foreign or colonial ports *” at intervals of five years :— LIVERPOOL Space does not permit of any detailed analysis of the character and direction of Liverpool trade during this period, but some idea of its principal features may be derived from the following summary of the ten leading articles of import and the ten leading articles of export, with their approximate value, as in the year Forzicn Trape: EnTRaNcEs aND CLEARANCES, 1906 :— 1835-1906 Value in Value in Entrances Clearances Total Imports Millions Exports Millions Year = Ships | Tonnage | Ships] Tonnage Ships | Tonnage Zz L Raw Cotton . . 42°56 Cotton Manufactures | 46°24 Dead Meat . 17°1S Iron and Steel Manu-| 13°98 1835 «|2,978] 787,009] 3,065 796,766| 6,043) 1,583,775 | Corn and Cereals . 14°65 factures. 1840 «| 3,492| 1,042,232] 3,808] 1,103,955] 72300 2,146,187 India-rubber . . 8-42 | WoolleaManufactures| 8°87 1845 «4045 1,406,541 | 45197] 154124473] 8,242| 2,819,014 Wool . . - « 5°74 || Machinery .| 868 1850 « 45531) 1,605,315 |4,807 1,656,938) 9,338| 3,262,253 Live Animals. . 4°84 |, Linen Manufactures 3°88 1855 «14197|2,074,168| 4,483 | 2,223,044) 8,680) 4,297,212 Copper. . + - 4°23 |) Cotton Yarn . 3°61 1860 .14,902| 2,77 39439] 5:358| 2,89%474)/10260| $672,913 Timber. . . « 3°78 || Chemicals 0% 3°43 1865 .|4,827| 2,644,821 | 4,425 | 2,631,827) 9,252 55276,648 Tobacco. . . « 3°18 |) Carriages (chiefly 2°86 1870 «| 5:058| 3,416,933 |42778| 3,356,438) 92836] 6577307! Sugar. . + 3716 railway). 1875 . 155440] 4,388,952 (45640 3,996,288 |10,080) 8,385,240 China and Earthen- 1°54 1880 . |$,263] 4,913,324|4,878| 4,746,489 |t0,141) 9,659,813 ware. 1885. [4,668] 5,17 3,330|4,246| 4,822,021] 8,914) 959959351 | Hardware . 102 1890 «| 4,646 | 5,782)351 [45030] 5,159,450] 8,676|10,941,801 | | 1895 -|3,716 55981347 3,168 4,883,199 ae sqqbt ese 1900598) 3.616] 6,050,526] 3,140] 5,678,114] 6,656)11,725,040 ath Fok A Deas so a eee 6,932,687| 6,413 | 14573995 31 A further striking feature of the first table above, which indicates a characteristic of Liverpool’s de- velopment, is the fact that, especially from 1850 onwards, the number of vessels employed tends to increase slowly, or even to diminish, while the tonnage rapidly grows. Thus in 1906 almost the same number of vessels entered and cleared as in 1835, but their tonnage is ten times as great. This remarkable increase of the tonnage of vessels is due above all to the replacement of sailing vessels by steamships, and to the increasing employment of large ‘liners’ sailing at regular intervals in place of the irregular sailings of an earlier period. The first regular liners begin with the institution of the Cunard 1906 «| 3487|8,1455441| 2,870) 75125,417| 6,357|15,270,858 Two periods only show an actual decline in this table. The first is the quinquennium 1860-65, the period of the American Civil War, when the blockade of the southern ports caused the Lancashire cotton famine and for a brief time brought about a revival, in blockade-running expeditions, of the adventurous spirit of the age of privateering.“’ ‘The other is the quinquennium 1890-95, a period of general bad trade, The periods of most rapid growth are those from 1850 to 1860, from 1865 to 1880, and again from 1900 onwards. The period from 1880 to 1900 is one in which Liverpool was feeling for the first time seriously the competition of the European nations which from 1815 to 1870 had left to Eng- land almost a monopoly of oversea trade. This competition may be said to have begun about 1870, and though the gross increase since that date has been twice as great as the increase in the preceding period of the same length, its effects have been shown in a tendency to more violent fluctuation, which will perhaps better be illustrated by the value of imports and exports than by the record of the actual sailings of vessels that might be either full or empty. Taste oF Imports anp Exports, 1875-1906 Value of Value of aoe Imports Exports otal 1875 . «| 105,095,188 795460,771 184,155,959 1880 . . 107,460,187 84,029,651 191,489,838 1885 . 941912,069 89,954,372 184,866,441 1890 . . 108,476,672 117,741,836 226,218,508 1895 . . 95,630,489 90,620,396 186,250,885 1g00 . , 124,713,436 102,572,890 227,286,326 1905 + = | 139,295,487 138,285,465 27755 80,952 1906 . . | 146,701,650 150,348,511 297,050,161 697 The figures for coasting trade are omitted. This table is compiled from the Annual Reports on Trade and on Shipping Parliament. 37 and Navigation laid before the Houses of line in 1842. The figures of the shipping registered in the port of Liverpool since 1850 bring out this point still more clearly. Suippinc RecistereD 1n LiverrooL Sailing Steam Total Year cc Tonnage Bioal Tonnage en Tonnage 1850 .'1,750|} 503,224 93 11,411 1,843] 514,635 1860 .' 2,228! 933,723 | 223 67,885 | 2,451 | 1,001,608 1870 .| 2,155 | 1,156,566 458) 280,807 2,611 | 1,437,373 1880 .| 1,824] 999,809] 667| 555,062/ 2,491} 1,554,871 1890 .| 1,352] 916,726] 967) 1,006,713 | 2,319] 1,923,439 1900 ./1,018| 614,968 | 1,073 | 1,713,506 | 2,091 | 2,328,474 1906 «| 914) 410,251 | 1,305 | 2,401,432 soi Nariel Though steamboats had appeared in the Mersey as early as 1815, they were for long used purely for 698 Including transports for the South African War. 699 Running the Blockade, Digitized by Microsoft® A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE river or at most coasting traffic ;”° it was not until the forties that they began to be employed for the ocean trade in which Liverpool is mainly concerned. But as soon as this happened, the size of the vessels in the port rose with great rapidity, from an average of 280 tons in 1850 to an average of 1,270 tons in 1906. Liverpool has indeed become peculiarly the home of large vessels. While the number of her vessels is only two-thirds of that of London, their total tonnage is one-third greater ;™! that is to say, the average Liverpool ship is twice as big as the average London ship. Of 271 British vessels which in 1906 measured over 4,000 tons, no less than 146 belonged to Liverpool ; and while in number Liverpool pos- sesses not much more than one-tenth of the British mercantile marine, in tonnage she possesses consider- ably more than one-fifth. In regard to the position of Liverpool among the ports of the world, the following comparative state- ment of the value of the trade of the first six ports of the world may be quoted.™ In 1905 the trade of London was estimated to be worth {261,000,000 ; of Liverpool, £237,000,000; of New York, £221,000,000 ; of Hamburg, £196,000,000; of Antwerp, £147,000,000; of Marseilles, £86,000,000. The following are the census GROWTH OF _ returns during the period, includ- POPULATION ing for theearlier dates the suburban districts later added to the town :— 1841 286,487 1851 376,065 1861 462,749 1871 493,405 1881 611,075 1891 617,032 Igol’ . 684,947 1907 7 746,144 7 These figures, however, do not adequately represent the growth which has taken place, since they omit notice of the growth of Bootle, of the northern suburbs of Seaforth, Waterloo, and Crosby and other outlying districts outside of the municipal boundary, as well as of the population of about 200,000 in Wirral, which almost wholly depends economi- cally upon Liverpool. The whole of this popula- tion has been created during the period under notice, and the urban population dependent upon Liver- pool now exceeds 1,000,000. It should be noticed that the Irish population of Liverpool, always large, was enormously increased by the inrush of immigrants after the Potato Famine of 1845-6 ; over 90,000 entered the town in the first three months of 1846, and nearly 300,000 in the twelve months following July 1847. Most of these subsequently emigrated to America, but many thou- sands, unable to find the passage money, remained to swell the misery of the Liverpool slums. No account can here be given of the rapid expansion of the street-covered area, but it is necessary to note the stages of the expansion of municipal control over this area. 700 Smithers, Liverpool, 186. 701 In 1906 London had 3,300 vessels of 2,100,000 tons ; Liverpool 2,200 ves- sels of 2,800,000 tons, 708 Annual statement of the Chairman of the Dock Board, quoting American official estimates, GEOGRAPHICAL GROWTH (estimated). 708 From the Medical Officer’s Report 704 The birth-rate, which shows a slow but steady decline throughout the later half of the period, was in 1907 estimated at 31°7 per 1,000, as compared with After the enlargement of the boundaries in 1835 nearly sixty years passed without any further en- largement ; in the meantime the borough of Bootle, which was essentially an expansion of Liverpool, had grown up and obtained its incorporation with- out opposition in 1869; beyond it the populous areas of Seaforth and Crosby lay separated from the town; the borough of Birkenhead was similarly incorporated in 1877. At the end of the century, however, the city awoke to the danger of allowing the wealthy residential suburbs which derived their prosperity from the city to escape from their share of the costs of government. In 1895 the township of Walton, a second large section of the extensive township of West Derby, the township of Waver- tree, and the remaining southern half of the town- ship of Toxteth, were added to the city.’ In 1901 the township of Garston, on the eve of apply- ing for an incorporation which would have shut in the city on the south as it was inclosed by Bootle on the north, was also taken in. In 1903 an attempt was made to incorporate Bootle in the city; but though the approval of the Local Government Board was obtained, the vigorous opposition of Bootle pre- vented the passage of the bill through Parliament. In 1904 the township of Fazakerley was incorporated. The increase of the city’s area involved in these successive enlargements may be briefly shown :— 1830. 1,860 acres 1835. 5,210 ,, 1894. . 13,236 ,, 1900. - 14,909 ,, 1907. . 16,619 ,, After the Municipal Re- DEVELOPMENT OF form Act the Whig party MUNICIPAL for a brief period enjoyed GOVERNMENT control of the borough gov- ernment. At the outset they possessed an overwhelming majority, but by 1842 this majority had disappeared. The main cause of this was the unpopularity of the Whig attempt to abandon compulsory Anglican religious teaching in the two corporation schools, which was advocated on the ground that the population served by these schools was mainly Roman Catholic ; but the proposal aroused a fierce opposition. The Whigs, however, also initiated a series of elaborate inquiries into the various depart- ments of borough government, reconstituted the corporation service and effected large economies by reductions of salaries, and commenced a vigorous pro- gressive policy in regard to the regulation of buildings and the safeguarding of the health of the town. In these respects the transference of power to the Tory party led to little change ; and the years from 1835 to 1870 witnessed a vigorous, sustained, and not un- successful campaign for the amelioration of the con- ditions of the borough. The powers of the Watching, Lighting, and Cleansing Board had been taken over by the corporation under the Act of 1835, and were administered by a special Watch Committee; they were now enlarged by a new local Act,’° under which the council took powers to impose numerous penalties for 26°3 per 1,000 for England and Wales. On the other hand the death-rate has sunk from an average of 32°5 per 1,000 in 1861-70 to 20°4 in 1901-7, 705 59 Vict. cap. 7. 706 t Vict. cap, 98. 38 Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED neglect uf civic duties. In regard to the regulation of buildings the new régime was especially vigorous. The council obtained powers by an Act of 18397” to appoint building surveyors who should be required to certify before any new building was permitted to be occupied that it fulfilled the numerous require- ments laid down in the Act. These regulations were made still more exacting by the important Act of 1842,’8 which forbade the erection of inadequately lighted courts; the same Act also empowered the magistrates to order the cleansing at the owner’s ex- pense of any ‘filthy or unwholesome’ house. The most important clause of this epoch-making Act was that which decreed the appointment of a Health Committee to carry out its terms. Another Act of the same year,’ while providing for the widening of certain main streets, provided (section 107) that on the presentment of the grand jury or the complaint of four or more householders the council might de- molish a ruinous house. Meanwhile the Commis- sioners for Paving and Sewerage had continued to perform their duties independently, being expressly safeguarded from any interference by the growing activity of the council ;”° but in 1842 it was pro- vided that half of them should be elected by the council.”! Their authority extended only over the old township, and in the same year a separate commission was created for Toxteth Park.”? The new Health Committee found its work ham- pered by the existence of these independent and unrelated authorities. Moreover, in 1843 a very powerful pamphlet ”* published by Dr. Duncan, then a lecturer in the Royal Infirmary School of Medicine, awoke the town to a new sense of the horrors of its slums. He showed that nearly half of the working- class population lived in cellar-dwellings ; that most of the poorer streets were quite unprovided with sewers ; that the water supply was such as to render impossible even ordinary personal cleanliness ; in short, that the condition of the poorer quarters of the town was such as not only to degrade their inhabitants, but also to form a grave menace to other residents. ‘This powerful statement came at a moment when the cor- poration was already awakening to the difficulty of the problem, and the ineffectiveness of its weapons for coping with it. The immediate result was that a new Act was obtained in 1846,’ which was of the most far-reaching importance. It provided for the first time for the appointment of a Medical Officer of Health—an office to which, with singular appropriate- ness, Duncan was the first to be appointed. It transferred the powers and properties of the Liverpool and Toxteth Paving and Sewerage Boards to the Health Committee of the Town Council, on which it imposed the obligation to pave and sewer every street and house.” It also imposed upon the council a totally new obligation, namely that of laying down pipes and supplying water throughout the borough ; for which purpose the Green Lane Waterworks were transferred to the corporation. LIVERPOOL Under Duncan’s guidance the council now began a systematic campaign against cellar-dwellings; in 1847 over 5,000 such dwellings were declared unfit for human habitation, and absolutely closed, while over 10,000 more were measured, registered, and in some cases cleansed at the owners’ expense.”° But the powers possessed by the council for carrying out such reforms were as yet slight. By the Sanitary Amend- ment Act of 18647” these powers were very largely increased ; so much so that under the terms of this Act the facilities for the demolition of insanitary property are in some respects more useful than any conferred by the later national Acts for this purpose. Even more important than the demolition of in- sanitary property was the provision of an adequate water supply. ‘The supply of water had hitherto been in the hands of two companies—the Company of Proprietors, and the Liverpool and Harrington Com- pany, founded respectively in 1799 and 1802 ; both drew their supply from wells, some of which are still in use. These were now taken over ;7® but in addition the corporation took powers to construct a series of reservoirs on the Rivington moors, north of Bolton.”® The scheme produced much discus- sion, being one of the first of its kind, and several additional Acts”° were passed before it had been finally settled. The Rivington Waterworks were not completed till 1857; their completion for the first time rendered possible a continuous supply of water throughout the city. As population grew, it in turn became inadequate ; and in 1879 the Vyrnwy scheme was entered upon. ‘This involved the acquisition of the valley of the River Vyrnwy in Merionethshire, with its drainage area of 22,742 acres ; the construc- tion across the mouth of the valley of a masonry dam 1,172 ft. long, 161 ft. high, and 127 ft. thick, thus creating a lake 43 miles long, capable of yielding a supply of forty million gallons of water per diem ; and the construction of an aqueduct 68 miles long, including tunnels of 44 miles, one of which passes under the Manchester Ship Canal and the Mersey. The supply was first brought to Liverpool in 1891, after eleven years’ work. The value to the com- munity of this magnificent achievement cannot be exaggerated,” Meanwhile the town had not been altogether neg- lectful of the amenities. St. George’s Hall,’ de- signed to serve the double purpose of a public hall and assize courts, had been projected by private citi- zens in 1835, and was begun in 1838, and completed by the corporation in 1854 at a cost of £238,000. The design was by a young architect, H. L. Elmes, who died before his work was completed, and much of the interior was carried out by R. P. Cockerell. The design was much criticized, but it is now agreed that the building is one of the noblest modern classic buildings in the world. It is enriched bya fine pedi- ment by Alfred Stevens at the south end and by a series of external bas-relief panels ; it contains one of the best organs in England, long played by W.T. Best ; 707 2 & 3 Vict. cap. 92. 708 5 Vict. cap. 44. 709 5 & 6 Vict. cap. 106. 70 1 Vict. cap. 98 ; 2 & 3 Vict. cap. 92. Tl 5 Vict. cap. 26. 712 5 & 6 Vict. cap. 105. 718 Read before the Lit. and Phil. Soc. in 1843. 714 9 & 10 Vict. cap. 127. 715 An excellent account of the sani- Digitized by Microsoft® tary administration of the city is given in Hdbk. of Congress of Roy. Inst. of Pub. Health, 1903. 716 Gore’s Annals, 1847. 77 27 & 28 Vict. cap. 73. 718 Under powers conferred by 39 Geo. III, cap. 365 9 Vict. cap. 35 ; and 10 & 11 Vict. cap. 261. 719 to & 11 Vict. cap. 261. 72013 & 14 Vict. cap. 803 15 Vict. 39 cap. 473; 18 Vict. cap. 663 19 Vict. Cap. 5. 721 On the history of the water supply in general, Hist. and Descr. Account of the Liv. Water Supply (Water Engineer's | Rep. 1899); article in Hdbk. of Congress of : Roy. Inst. of Pub. Health, 1903. 722 R, P. Jones, ‘H. L. Elmes,’ Archit. Rev. 1904; H. L. Elmes, Corresp. rela- tive to St. George's Hall, &c. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE and both the great hall and the plateau without are used for the display of statuary. Another fruitful new enterprise was begun in 1852. As early as 1849—before the Free Libraries Act— the establishment of a public library had been pro- jected. In 1851 the thirteenth Earl of Derby had bequeathed his large natural-history collection to the town. At the same time the Liverpool Academy, founded in 1810, had succeeded ia stimulating artistic interests in the town by its annual exhibitions. In order to meet this triple need a private Act’ was obtained empowering the council to establish and maintain a public library and museum with a gallery of arts, to provide lecture rooms and arrange lec- tures. With this were at first linked the Botanic Gardens, originally started as a private organization by Roscoe, but taken over by the corporation in 1846. A fine classic building for the library and museum was provided by Sir William Brown, re- placing the rather ragged houses at the north of Shaw’s Brow, and facing St. George’s Hall. Thus began a noble group of buildings devoted to know- ledge and the arts, gradually extended by the erection of the Picton Reading Room, a fine rotunda, in 1872, the Walker Art Gallery (the gift of Sir A. B. Walker) asks Waker of Osmas- ton, Bart. Or three pal- lets gules surmounted by a saltire argent charged with a hart’s head erased proper, on a chief azure a garb between two stars of the first. Brown of Astrop, Bart. Gules a cheveron or between two bears’ paws erased in chief ar- gent and four hands con- joined in saltire of the second in base, on a chief engrailed gold an eagle displayed sable. in 1877, and the Museum Extension and Technical School in 1902; a proud adornment to the city, later made still more attractive by the laying out of gardens with statues in the centre of the great place. The development of these institutions during the last half-century can only be briefly summarized. The Central Library, opened in 1852 with 8,296 volumes, now contains close on 150,000 volumes ; it is most strongly equipped on local history and topography, natural history, and the fine arts; the last-named section has been greatly strengthened by the bequest of the Hornby Library, now housed in a beautiful additional room. There are also nine lending libraries in various parts of the city, having among them nearly 140,000 volumes.”® The Museums fall into two sections— the Museum of Natural History, which has been built 738 15 Vict. cap. 3- up round the nucleus bequeathed by Lord Derby in 1852, and is now of great range, probably unsurpassed out of London ; and the Museum of Antiquities and Anthropology, which includes some very valuable col- lections mainly provided by bequest of Mr. Joseph Mayer in 1867. The large extension of the build- ings effected in 1902 for the first time gives adequate room for the display of these collections.”* In the Art Gallery a large permanent collection has been accumulated by gift and purchase. It includes some modern paintings of wide fame, also the Roscoe col- lection of Early Italian art, formerly housed at the Royal Institution. The controlling committee has wisely set itself to obtain as full a representation as possible of the remarkable group of Liverpool painters who flourished in the middle of the 19th century. An exhibition of contemporary art has been held annually since 1871, and many special exhibitions have also been organized.”” The increasing attention to the amenities which the council were now showing was exhibited especially in 1868. Upto that date the town had possessed no public parks, except the small public gardens in St. James’s Mount; for though as early as 1848 the Newsham estate had been purchased, no use had been made of it. In 1868 powers were obtained” for the creation of three parks—Sefton Park, Newsham Park, and Stanley Park—at a cost of £670,000. The expenditure thus begun has been continued without intermission, and supplemented by private munificence, to which the city owes Wavertree Playground and Bowring Park. ‘The total area of parks and gardens laid out in various parts of the city amounts to almost 1,100 acres. The last twenty-five years of the 19th century were largely engaged in a renewed attack on the problem of the housing of the poor. In the earlier period the council had been content with the demolition of insanitary property, a work in which it had been a pioneer; it now began to undertake the re- placement of the demolished property by model dwellings. ‘The first block of cottages to be thus erected was in 1869. In 1885 a large group of dwellings was erected, known as Victoria Square. By 1go0o accommodation had been provided for over 700 families. More recently this work has been pushed on with such vigour that in February 1907 over 2,200 dwellings were either in occupation or almost com- pleted. The total cost has been more than £1,000,000, the interest on which is almost met by the rents paid. The elaborate and efficient tramway service, taken over by the corporation in 1897, has also tended to facilitate the solution of the housing problem. Of other municipal activities no account can here be given. But enough has been said to show that the seventy years since the Municipal Reform Act have been marked by a systematic attempt at the reorganization and reconstruction of thecity. In the last part of the period the establishment of the sepa- rate diocese of Liverpool in 1880, the more recent 734 8 & g Vict. cap. 43. The library of the Botanic Gardens, founded by Ros- coe, was transferred to the City Library in 1907. 75 Cowell, Liv. Public Libraries, a his- tory of fifty years (1903). 726 Forbes, descriptive account of the Liverpool Museums in Hdbk. of the Con- Digitized by Microsoft® gress of Roy. Inst, of Pub, Health, 1903 3 annual reports. 7% Annual Reports, 1872-1907. On the Liverpool painters, Marillier, The Liv. School of Painters, 1904. 728 28 Vict. cap. 20. 738 The following facts are from infor- mation supplied by the Medical Officer of Health. It may be noted that the Royal 40 Com. on the Housing of the Working Classes reported in 1885 that housing re- form was more urgently needed in Liver- pool than in any other Lancashire town. A good account of housing work in Liverpool may be found in the Hdbk. of the Congress of Roy. Inst. of Pub. Health, 1903. WEST DERBY HUNDRED commencement of the erection of a cathedral, and the foundation of a university, have added the dignities of a cathedral, episcopal, and university city to those of a great port. The advance thus made was re- cognized by the first charter of Queen Victoria in 1880,’ whereby the title of ‘City’ became the official designation of Liverpool, and by the queen’s second charter in 1893,”! whereby the chief magis- trate of the city was empowered to assume the style of Lord Mayor of Liverpool. Under the first Dock Act, 1708,” the DOCKS mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and Common Council became the trustees of the proposed dock, and were empowered to construct the dock and to levy dues. They were not incorporated, but used the corporation seal; managing the first and successive docks through committees, which were as completely under their control as any other council committees. By an Act of 1811,* however, they were separately in- corporated and given a seal of their own ; the finances of the docks were separately administered from those of the corporation, by a statutory committee of twenty-one members appointed by the trustees (i.e. the Town Council), but the Town Council still claimed and exercised the right of voting sums from the dock funds, and of overriding the actions of the com- mittee. The control of the docks by a close corpora- tion, which was in no way representative of the rate- payers or of those who used the docks, led to much discontent and discussion, and in the end produced a new Act, that of 1825,’ whereby, though the trust remained unaltered, the committee was changed by the inclusion of eight members elected by dock ratepayers. The council still retained a majority, thirteen of the committee being councillors, while the chairman was also selected from among the members of the committee by the council. The Act also provided that the proceedings of the dock committee could only be overridden by a majority of two-thirds of the council, and only at the meeting of the council immediately following that of the committee. By an Act of 18517 the number of the committee was raised to twenty-four, half of whom were to be dock ratepayers, while the chair- man was to be elected by the committee itself. But the power of revision still remained with the Town Council. Outside of both council and committee there had been from the first an independent body of auditors, numbering nine under the Act of 1708,”° and appointed in equal groups by the corporation, the justices of the county of Lancaster, and the jus- tices of the county of Chester. An Act of 1734 3% raised the number to twelve, four nominated by the council, eight by the dock ratepayers. By an Act of 18417” the mayor, the chairman of the dock committee, and the senior borough magistrate, were appointed revisers of rates. Even with these safeguards, however, and even though the council was now a representative elected body, dissatisfaction was felt with this system of ad- ministration, which identified the interests of the 780 Printed in Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 290. 781 Ibid. 292. 7828 Anne, cap. 12. On the whole history of the administration of the docks, see the Town Clerk’s Report on the Pos- sibility and Expediency of obtaining re- presentation of the Corporation on the Dock Board (1907). 788 51 Geo. III, cap. 43. 784 26 Geo. IV, cap. 43. fects of this system, see Munic. Corp. Com. Rep. of Liv. Inquiry, passim. 733 14 & 1§ Vict. cap. 64. 786 8 Anne, cap. 12. 786a 7 Geo. II, cap. 29. 787 4 & § Vict. cap. 30. 4 41 LIVERPOOL dock estate with those of the municipality. This ex- pressed itself in controversies on the rating of the dock estate, and in the agitation for the Act of 1851, which was originally an attempt to alter the consti- tution of the dock committee so as to leave the council only the mere shadow of control, but which was amended to the effect already described. It also lowered the voting franchise for dock ratepayers. But the strongest opposition came from the merchants of Manchester and the railway companies, which re- sented the traditional charges for town dues; this went so far that a society was founded in Manchester called ‘The Society to secure the right appropriation of the Liverpool Town Dues.’ In 1857 they pro- moted a Bill, based upon the recommendations of the Commissioners of the Board of Trade, who had in 1853 reported in favour of the appointment of in- dependent bodies of conservators for the regulation of public harbours, and of the transference to them of all dues levied by municipal corporations. The Town Council fought the Bill with all its power, especially objecting to the confiscation of its tradi- tional town dues ; but eventually withdrew its opposi- tion in consideration of a payment of £1,500,000 for the loss of the town dues, and of certain other modifications. By the Act thus passed 4’ the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board was constituted, and took over the control both of the Liverpool and of the Birkenhead Docks, and the right of collecting not only dock dues but also the ancient traditional town dues. ‘The board has continued to collect the town dues, despite the fact that opposition to these dues was one of the principal causes of its establishment. The board consists of twenty-eight members, four of whom are nominated by the Mersey Conservancy Com- missioners (the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Presi- dent of the Board of Trade, and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster) ; while the other twenty-four are elected by all persons paying rates on ships or goods to the amount of not less than {10 per annum. Members of the board must be resident within ro miles of the boundary of the borough or port of Liverpool, and must have paid rates on ships or goods to the amount of not less than {25 per annum. The office of Chairman of the Dock Board is commonly regarded as the most honourable at the disposal of Liverpool citizens. The history of the actual dock estate may be conveniently divided into three periods,’”> corre- sponding to the periods in the history of its governing body :— I. Between 1709 and 1825, when the docks were under the direct control of the corporation, the fol- lowing wet docks were opened :— 1. Old Dock, opened 31 August 1715; closed 31 August 1826. 2. Salthouse Dock, opened 1753 ; altered 1842 ; en- larged 1855. 3. George’s Dock, opened 1771; enlarged 1825 ; closed 1g00. 787a 20 & 21 Vict. cap. 162. 787> Figures taken from Memorandum Bk. of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, 1908. Smithers, Liv. 169 ff. and 452, describes the condition of the docks in 1824; Baines, Liv. App. describes them in 1852. For the de- 6 Digitized by Microsoft® A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 4. King’s Dock, opened 1788; closed 1906, the name being preserved for two new branches of the Wapping Dock. 5. Queen’s Dock, opened 1796; enlarged 1816; deepened and half-tide dock added 1856, and closed 1905 ; enlarged 1901 ; branches added IQOI, 1905 ; altered 1906. 6. Union Dock, opened 1816 ; thrown into Coburg Dock 1858. 7. Prince’s Dock, opened 1821; half-tide dock added 1868. The total area of wet docks in 1825 amounted to 46 acres 3,179 sq. yds.; the lineal quayage to a little over 2 miles. The dock dues paid in the same year amounted to £130,911. It may be noted that the first London Dock was not opened until 1802. II. Between 1825 and 1857, when the docks were under the control of the Dock Committee, the Old Dock was closed (1826), and the following new docks were opened :— 1. Canning Dock, opened 1829 ; previously a basin known as the Dry Dock, opened 1753 ; en- larged 1842. 2. Clarence Docks, &c., opened 1830; enlarged 1853. 3. Brunswick Docks, opened 1832 ; enlarged 1848, 1858, 1889; branch dock added 1878; altered 1900. 4. Waterloo Dock, opened 1834 reconstructed as E. and W. Waterloo Docks, 1868. 5. Victoria Dock, opened 1836 ; altered 1848. 6. Trafalgar Dock, opened 1836. 7. Coburg Dock, opened 1840; Brunswick Basin; enlarged 1900. 8. Toxteth Dock, opened 1842 ; closed to make way for new works, 1884. g. Canning Half-tide Dock, opened 1844. 10. Harrington Dock (bought), opened 1844 ; closed to make way for new works 1879. 11. Albert Dock, opened 1845. 12. Salisbury Dock, opened 1848. 13. Collingwood Dock, opened 1848. 14. Stanley Dock, opened 1848; partly filled in 1897. 15. Nelson Dock, opened 1848. 16. Bramley Moore Dock, opened 1848. 17. Wellington Docks, opened 1850; half-tide dock closed 1901. 18. Sandon Dock, opened 1851; half-tide dock added 1gor ; altered 1906. 19. Manchester Dock (bought), opened 1851. 20. Huskisson Dock, opened 1852; branch docks added 1861, 1872, 1902 ; altered 1896, 1897; enlarged 1g00. 21. Wapping Dock and Basin, opened 1855 ; two King’s Dock branches added 1906. altered from 1858; altered The water area in 1857 amounted to 192 acres 129 sq. yds., or an increase of over 82 acres in twenty- five years ; the lineal quayage was about 15 miles; and the river-wall, when the Dock Board came into existence, already extended for just over 5 miles. At 788 These are names of old docks, given to new docks in the same region. the same time the Dock Committee and the Corpora- tion had acquired the Birkenhead Docks, which do not fall within the purview of this work. It is clear that the old Dock Committee did not lack energy. For the ten years preceding the establishment of the Dock Board the dock dues averaged nearly £250,000. It was on the security of these that the capital for the construction of the docks was raised ; and no profits were used for purposes other than the service of the port. III. During the fifty years of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board more time and money have been spent on the enlargement and reconstruction of the existing system than on the creation of new docks. The new docks of this period are :— 1. Canada Dock, opened 1858; enlarged 1896; altered 1903 ; branches opened 1896, 1903, 1906. 2. Brocklebank Dock, opened 1862; known until 1879 as Canada Halftide Dock; enlarged 1871. 3. Herculaneum Dock, opened 1866 ; enlarged and branch dock added 1881. . Langton Docks, opened 1879. . Alexandra Dock (and three branches), opened 1880. . Harrington Dock, opened 1883.7 - Hornby Dock (and branch), opened 1884. . Toxteth Dock, opened 1888.’ . Union Dock, opened 1889.7 COON Nn NP During the last thirty years, however, the board has been mainly occupied in reconstructing large sec- tions of the dock system, so as to accord with that re- markable change in the size of vessels resorting to the port which has brought it about that while the ton- nage of the port has since 1880 increased 66 per cent. the number of vessels has in the same period actually declined from 10,000 to little over 6,000.” The new type of gigantic steamships demanded a wholesale reconstruction of the docks to which they resorted. The docks have accordingly been grouped in systems, each adapted to the needs of different kinds of trade, and each equipped with its appropriate warehouses, sheds, cranes, graving-docks, &c. The southern sys- tem, including the Herculaneum, Toxteth, and Har- rington docks, was vastly enlarged between 1881 and 1888 ; the Canada-Huskisson system, at the north end, was radically reconstructed between 1890 and 1906, with the result that the largest American liners now use it in place of the Alexandra-Hornby system, which at the time of its construction represented the last word in dock engineering ; the Brunswick- Wapping system, in the south-central region, which includes some of the oldest of the docks, was com- pletely rearranged, enlarged, and deepened so as to admit the biggest vessels, between 1900 and 1906. The accommodation, however, being still inade- quate, a large new system of docks is now (1908) under construction at the extreme north end of the line. In 1900 the George’s Dock, one of the oldest of the series, which lay between the city and the pier- head, was closed by arrangement between the Dock Board and the Corporation. Part of its site was 788a See table of entrances and clearances, p. 37 above, 42 Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED utilized for the magnificent domed building in which the offices of the Dock Board are now housed ; two of the main shoreward thoroughfares were continued across the site of the dock direct to the pier-head ; and the main entrance to the city has thus been materially improved and dignified. The total water area of the docks (excluding those on the Cheshire side of the river) now (1908) amounts to 418 acres 320 yds, and the lineal quayage to 26 miles 1,083 yds. The continuous dock-wall fronts the river for a distance of 7} miles. In addition to the docks controlled by the Dock Board, the London and North-Western Railway has three docks at Garston, now within the limits of the city, which have a water area of 14 acres 2,494 yds. As the period of the Dock Board’s administration has been the period of the rapid development in the size of ships, which is in no port more marked than in Liverpool, a large part of the Board’s work has consisted in maintaining a clear channel in the river. The task of dredging the bar which impedes the entrance to the river was seriously begun about 1890. Carried on by dredgers of unusual magnitude and power, it has cost not far short of half a million of money during the last fifteen years, but the result has been to provide a clear deep-water passage, lacking which Liverpool might have found it impossible to maintain her control over ocean trade under the new conditions. No account can here be given of the other works of the Board, of its vast warehouses, of its appliances for the disembarkation of cargo, or of the immense floating stage, 2,478 ft. long, whereby the landing of passengers at all times is rendered possible despite the very great rise and fall of the tides in the Mersey. The erection of a chapel at Liver- pool was probably contemporaneous with the foundation of the borough ; burgages ‘next to the chapel’ are mentioned in a charter of the middle of the 13th century.” The CHURCHES LIVERPOOL del Key (or Quay) which was standing, ‘a great piece of antiquity,’ used as the free school, in 1673.7” It was a chapel of ease to Walton, and without any permanent endowment. In or before 1356 there was built, perhaps at the cost of the town, the larger chapel of Our Lady and St. Nicholas, which then became the chapel of Liverpool. In the year named the king allowed the mayor and commonalty to devote lands of the value of £10 4 year to the maintenance of divine service in the chapel according to an agreement they had made with Henry, Duke of Lancaster,’ who him- self gave an allowance of 125. a year to the chapel.” In September 1361 the Bishop of Lichfield granted a licence for burials in the churchyard, during a visitation of plague; and in the follow- ing February he gave permission for the chapel and cemetery of St. Nicholas of Liverpool to be conse- crated ‘by any Catholic bishop having the grace of the Apostolic See and faculties for his office.’’* Shortly afterwards William de Liverpool gave a rent of 6s. 84. towards the stipend of the chaplain, as long as the chantry should continue.“* The chantry referred to was probably that at the altar of St. John, founded by John de Liverpool to celebrate for the souls of his ancestors, the priest of which was nominated by the mayor and burgesses.“® Another ancient chantry was that of St. Mary at the high altar,’” founded by Henry, Duke of Lancaster;’* while the succeeding duke, John of Gaunt, founded one at the altar of St. Nicholas.“* There were thus three priests in residence serving the chantries from the latter part of the 14th century down to the Reformation. Further endowments were acquired from time to time ;° and in 1459 the Bishop of Lichfield granted an indulgence of forty days on the usual conditions to contributors to the restoration of the old chapel of St. Mary del Key and to the maintenance of a chaplain there and of its ornaments, or to those who building is identified with the chapel of St. Mary 789 Most of the information relating to this ancient chapel is derived from an essay by Mr. John Elton in Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xviii, 73-118, and the documents there printed. Randle del Moore of Liverpool, who occurs from 1246 onwards, granted to Margery his daughter and John Gernet half a burgage next to the chapel ; Moore D. no. 264 (1). In the same deeds ‘the Chapel street’ is mentioned in 1318 (ibid. no. 331 [71]), in a grant by John son of Alan de Liverpool, to which John del Moore was a witness. Liverpool was named as a chapelry in 1327 at the ordination of the vicarage of Walton ; Gastrell, Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 191. 740 Blome, Britannia (quoted by Pic- ton). 741 Elton, op. cit. 80, quoting Pat. 29 Edw. III. The rents were to be paid ‘to certain chaplains to celebrate divine service every day, for the souls of all the faithful departed, in the chapel of Blessed Mary and St. Nicholas of Liverpool, ac- cording to the order of the mayor and commonalty.’ The sum of £10 may in- clude the endowments of the two chan- tries of John de Liverpool and Henry Duke of Lancaster. Digitized by Microsoft® 742 Elton, op. cit. 79, quoting a rent roll of 1395. 748 Thid. 83, from Lich. Epis. Reg. v, fol. 44. 744 Ibid. 82, from Lich. Epis. Reg. v, fol. 45. Facsimiles of this and the pre- ceding entry are given. 745 Elton, op. cit. 86, from Moore D. no. 466 (183), dated 6 Sept. 1361. 746 William de Liverpool’s phrase, ‘as may be ordained by the mayor and com- monalty,’ agrees with the above-quoted licence of Edward III, and with the con- dition of the chantry in 1548; Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.), 82. At this date the priest (John Hurdes) did ‘sing and celebrate there according to the statutes of his foundation’; the plate and ornaments were scanty ; the rents, derived, as were those of the remaining chantries, from burgages, houses, and lands in Liverpool, amounted to 105s. 1d. In 1534 the can- tarist was Thomas Rowley, and the net revenue was 73s. 4d.; the founders’ names were recorded as John de Liverpool and John del Moore ; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), Vy 221, It was the duty of the priest of the altar of St. John to say mass daily be- tween five and six in the morning, so that all labourers and well-disposed people 43 should devoutly pray before her image.” This might come to hear it; Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 31. 747 Raines, op. cit. 86. Ralph Howorth was the incumbent in 1548, ‘celebrating accordingly,’ ‘with the chalice and other ornaments pertaining to the inhabitants of the same town’; the gross income was 116s. 11d.,a chief rent of 2s. 3d. being paid to the king’s bailiff of West Derby. Richard Frodsham was cantarist in 1534, when the revenue was £4 7s. 11d.; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), loc. cit. 748 Duchy of Lanc, Auditors’ Accts. bdle. 728, no. 11987. 749 Raines, op. cit. 89. Richard Frod- sham was in 1548 ‘the priest remaining and celebrating there according to his foundation’ ; there were chalice, two sets of vestments, and missal, and an endow- ment of 114s. §d. Ralph Howorth was cantarist in 1534, when the income was 75s. 11d. the foundation being ascribed to Henry and John, Dukes of Lancaster ; Valor Eccl. loc. cit. Probably there has been some transposition of the names of the incumbents of these chantries. 750 See Elton, op. cit. 86, 88. 761 Lich. Epis. Reg. xii, fol. 1244 It is described as ‘the chapel of Blessed Mary within the cemetery of the chapel of the town of Liverpool,’ A HISTORY ancient chapel continued in use until the Reforma- tion, for John Crosse in 1515 made a bequest to “the priest that sings afore our Lady of the Key.’™ The same benefactor established the chantry of St. Katherine, the priest of which was also to ‘teach and keep a grammar school.’ By this means the endowed staff was raised to four priests. A house was provided for them, with a garden adjoining.” The church, consisting of a nave and a chancel of about equal lengths, with a tower at the west end, a south porch, and an aisle on the north side,” had four or five altars—the high altar, St. Nicholas’s (perhaps the same), St. John’s, St. Katherine’s, and the Rood altar.%* The chapel of St. Mary of the Key, which was a separate building standing on the river bank, a little to the west of St. Nicholas’s, also had its altar.” There is no means of deciding how many priests and clerks were employed, but the size of the chancel indicates a considerable staff. The suppression of the chantries and the change of OF LANCASHIRE continued to be used, and one of the old chantry priests, John Hurdes, was placed in charge in 1548 ; he appeared at the visitation in 1554, but not in 1562.8 Atthe abolition of the ancient services in 1559 it is uncertain what took place at Liverpool ; Vane Thomasson was curate in 1563,’ and next year the Crown allowed the old stipend of one of the chantry priests for the payment of a minister to be nominated by the burgesses. In 1590 the minister was ‘a preacher,” and the corporation afterwards took pains to secure a preacher or an additional lecturer.” In 1650 the Commonwealth surveyors found that the Committee of Plundered Ministers had assigned to the curate of Liverpool all the tithes of the town- ship and {£10 from the rectory of Walton; the duchy rent of £4 15s. was also paid to him; the curate had, on the other hand, by the committee’s order, to pay {11 10s. to the wife of Dr. Clare, the ejected rector of Walton. Shortly afterwards, in 1658, Liverpool was made an independent parish,’ religion made a great difference. St. Nicholas’s chapel 133 Church Goods, 1552 (Chet. Soc.), 98. 758 Raines, Chantries, 84.3 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 221. Humphrey Crosse was the incumbent in 1534 and 1548, celebrating for the souls of his founder and heirs, with a yearly obit at which 35. 4d. was distributed to the poor, and teaching the grammar school. The endowment amounted to £4 15s. tod, For a dispute concerning this foundation see Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 156. John Crosee’s will is printed in full in Church Goods, 97, 98. 754 Raines, op, cit. 85. An account of the chantry lands after the confiscation is given by Elton, op. cit. 97, 98; see also Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), iii, 165; and Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 348-50. The ornaments of the chapel in 1552 are detailed in Church Goods, 96. 755 A south elevation is given in En- field's Liverpool. The spire and the upper atory of the tower were additions to the original building. Perry’s plan of 1769 shows that there were then two aisles on the north side, but one of these had been built in 1697, with an addition in 1718 ; Picton, Memorials, ii, 58. The principal changes were : A west-end gal- lery, erected in 1681; an organ, provided in 1684; the boarded ceiling, painted and starred in 1688; the churchyard wall on the east and south, built in 16g0; a spire, built in 1745; the churchyard extended in 1749 3 a new organ procured in 1764 ; and in 1774 the whole bady of the church was rebuilt in its present form, the in- terior, which must have been very irre- gular, being entirely transformed, and the exterior walls being made uniform ; ibid. ii, 57-9. The following is Enfield’s de- scription of the old building: ‘In its structure there is no appearance of mag- nificence or elegance. ‘The body of the church within is dark and low ; it is irre- gularly thougi. decently pewed; it has lately been ornamented with an organ. The walls have been repaired and sup- ported by large buttresses of different colours and forms, and a spire has been added to the tower’ ; Liverpool, 41. The Corporation arranged the order of precedence in the pews; Munic. Rec. i, 103, 210, 329. The old peal having been reduced to a single bell, three more were ordered in 1628, but were not satisfactory, and Digitized by Microsoft® changes were made in 1636 and 1649; Munic. Rec. iy 211, 212. A new peal was procured in 1725, the number being increased to six. Their ringing brought about the ruin of the tower. The pre- sent peal consists of twelve bells, cast in 1813 5 an account of them will be found in Mr. Henry Peet’s Inventory of the Parish Churches of Liverpool. Mr. Peet has kindly given other information re- specting the churches. A clock was set up in 1622, on the motion of the curate ; Munic. Rec. i, 212. Notes of the arms in the windows, taken in 1590, have been printed in Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxii, 253, with an account of Captain Ackers, by Mr. J. P. Rylands. After the fall of the tower and spire on 11 Feb. 1810, the present tower with its open lantern-spire was built. It stands at the centre of the west end, instead of at the south-west corner like the former one, The church now retains no traces of antiquity, being in a dull modern Gothic style, and is chiefly interesting for the many monuments of 18th and 19th- century date. The spire is, however, a creditable piece of work for its date. 756 St, Katherine’s altar is mentioned in 14643; Munic. Rec. i, 23. 757 This building, ceasing to be used for divine worship, was purchased by the corporation, apparently for 20s. ; it be- came the town’s warehouse, but later was used as the schoolhouse, and so continued until the 18th century, when it was de- molished ; Elton, op. cit. 103, 112-18. At the west end of this chapel was an image of St. Nicholas, ‘to whom seafaring men paid offerings and vows’ ; see Blome, op. cit. and Pa/. Nore-book, iii, 119. 788 The corporation seem to have con- tinued to hold and regulate the chapel ; Elton, op. cit. 99-104. Many details will be found in Picton’s Munic. Rec. The clerk, Sir John Janson, in 1551 went away to Spain ; one Nicholas Smith was clerk in 1555 ; Elton, op. cit. 100, 104. 769 The priest in charge, Evan Nichol- son, appointed in or before 1555, was still there in 1559, but does not appear in the Visitation List of 1562 ; Munic. Rec. i, 97. 760 Visitation List. It is possible that Vane (Vanus) Thomasson was the Evan Nicholson of 1555. In 1564 Master Vane Thomasson, cu- rate of Liverpool, and one of the wardens appeared before the Bishop of Chester, and 44 were enjoined to ‘charge the people that they use no beads’; the curate was to minister the sacrament and sacramentals according to the Book of Common Prayer; Erasmus’s Paraphrase must be procured ; and ¢ all manner of idolatry and supersti- tion’ was to be immediately ‘abolished and utterly extirpated’; Raines, op. cit. 92, quoting the Lider Correct. at Chester. 761 Elton, op. cit. 104. The amount allowed was £4175. §d. a year. 764 Lydiare Hall, 24.9; quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. cexxxv, 4. 768 In 1591 the mayor and burgesses paid £4 to ‘Mr. Carter the preacher,’ in consideration of ‘his great good zeal and pains’ in his ‘often diligent preaching of God’s word amongst us more than he is bound to do, but only of his mere good will’; Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 102. In 1621 a stipend of £30 a year was promised to ‘Mr. Swift to be a preacher here’; in 1622 James Hyatt, afterwards vicar of Childwall and Croston, was ap- pointed ; and in 1629 an arrangement was made with clergy of the neighbourhood to preach week-day sermons; ibid. i, 197, 198, 200. The authorities were in the 17th cen- tury inclined to the stricter Puritan side, as this insistence on preaching suggests ; but in 1602 the portmoot inquest pre- sented the curate ‘for not wearing his surplice according to the King’s injunc- tions’; and in 1610 it was ‘ agreed’ that he should wear it ‘every Sabbath and every holiday at the time of Divine ser- vice.’ The clerk also was to wear one; ibid. i, 102, 196. Laud’s reforms apparently did not reach Liverpool. In 1623 it was ordered by the corporation that, as the place where the first and second lessons were usually read was ‘more convenient for the read- ing of Common Prayer than the place in the chancel where it hath formerly been read, in respect the same place is in the middle of the same church and in full audience and view of the whole congre- gation,’ the whole service should be read there ; ibid. i, 198. In 1687 Bishop Cart- wright had to command the churchwarden to ‘set the communion table altarwise against the wall’ ; Pa/. Nore-book, iii, 124. 764 Commonwealth Church Survey (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), 84; Plund. Mins. Acts, (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 1. 765 Plund. Mins. Accts. ii, 215, 224. Liverroot . SHaw’s Brow, c. 1850 (From a Water-colour Drawing) S! Nicholas's Church . vo) Ct Kovke ps woud . Vi Vie Burdel dein. (From Enfield’s History of Liverpool, 1774) Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED but on the Restoration this Act was adjudged to be null, and St. Nicholas’s became once more a chapel under Walton. The following is a list of the curates :— c. 1563 Vane Thomasson oc. 1577 James Seddon 1585 James Martindale ”® oc. 1590 Hugh Janion’® 1596 — Bentley” 1598 Thomas Wainwright ?1625 Edwin Lappage 7” c. 1634 Henry Shaw 7% 1643 Joseph Thompson 7” 1645 John Fogg’ 1662 John Leigh” 1670 Robert Hunter 7” 1688 { William Atherton Robert Stythe Liverpool had by this time become so important that the governing body thought they might claim full parochial rights for the township.”’ After nego- tiations with the rector and vicar of Walton, and the patron, Lord Molyneux, an Act of Parliament was procured ‘to enable the town of Liverpool to build a church and endow the same, and for making the same town and liberties thereof a parish of itself, distinct from Walton.’™ Two joint rectors were appointed, the first being the two curates then minis- tering, and it was directed that {110 should be LIVERPOOL levied from the parishioners for each of them.’ The church built under this Act was St. Peter’s in Church Street, consecrated in 1704, which has since been regarded as the principal church of the parish, and was therefore appointed the pro-cathedral in 1880. It is a plain building with wide round-headed windows, consisting of a chancel with vestries, nave, and west tower. Its chief merit lies in the woodwork, and it preserves its galleries on three sides of the nave, the general arrangement of the seating having been but little altered since its first building.” It is to be demolished as soon as part of the new cathedral is in use. The patronage was vested in the mayor and alder- men, such as had been alder- men or bailiffs’ peers, and the common council. In 1836 the reformed corporation sold the patronage to John Stew- art, and about the same time provision was made for the union of the two rectories.’® From the Stewarts the patron- age was purchased in 1890 by the late W. E. Gladstone, whose son, the Rev. Stephen E. Gladstone, now holds it.”* There is no rectory- house, but the gross value of the benefice is stated as £1,600 a year, largely derived from fees.” GLADSTONE. a savage’s head wreathed with holly and distilling drops of blood proper within a flowered orle * gules all with an orle of martlets sable. Argent 768 Visitation Lists of 1563, 1564; name crossed out in 1565. 767 Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 97. 768 Thid. 98. 769 Ibid. He was also vicar of St. John’s, Chester. He died in 1596; P- 97: 779 Ibid. 97, 98. He could not endure the interference of the mayor and council, and only remained two years. He is called §Mr.,’ and was therefore a graduate of some university. ™ Tbid. 98. He was also appointed schoolmaster, ‘until God send us some sufficient learned man.’ He was only a ‘reading minister,’ as might be inferred from this; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 13. Accordingly in 1616 the mayor and burgesses considered ‘ the pro- viding of a preacher to live within the town’; Munic, Rec. i, 196. He contri- buted £1 to the clerical subsidy of 1622 ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 65. In 1609 he appears to have had an assistant named Webster; Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 298. The will of Thomas Wainwright, dated 26 June 1625, and proved in the following October, shows that he had a small library, including commentaries, Perkins on the Creed, and Synopsis Papismi ; these two books he left to Thomas son of his half-brother Godfrey Wainwright. To Mr. Hyatt he left Fulke upon the Rhemish Testament, on condition that he preached the funeral sermon. To John Moore of Bank Hall he left his watch. He also mentions his sisters, Ellen Okell and Cecily Blinston, and other relatives. He desired to be buried ‘within the chapel of Our Lady and St. Nicholas under the Communion table there.’ 72 Munic. Rec. i, 199. He is described as ‘minister and preacher.’ Digitized by Microsoft® 778 He contributed to subsidies 1634 to 1639 ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 94,122. He may have been the Henry Shaw who was, in 1649, minister of St. John’s, Chester; Plund. Mins. Acts. i, 208. One Henry Shaw, of Brasenose College, Oxford, took the M.A. degree in 1629; Foster, Alumni. In 1633 the corporation ordered ‘that there shall be morning prayer as formerly hath been’; also that the clerk should, if possible, be ordained deacon, in which case his wages should be raised by 6s. 8d.; Munic. Rec. i, 201. 774 Picton’s Liverpool, i, 92. In 1644 the Corporation provided a second minis- ter, Mr. David Ellison; Munic. Rec. i, 202. Thompson was shortly afterwards placed in the rectory of Sefton. 775 Ibid. i, 203. He was son of Law- rence Fogg of Bolton, educated at Brase- nose College, Oxford ; M.A. 1646 ; Foster, Alumni. He signed the ‘Harmonious Consent’ in 1648. Refusing to take the engagement, he had to abandon his charge in 1651, Peter Stananought (afterwards of Aughton) and Michael Briscowe being appointed. Shortly afterwards John Fogg was reinstated, and remained at Liverpool until he was ejected for Nonconformity in 1662 ; he then retired to Great Budworth; Picton, Liverpool, i, 105. In 1650 he was described as ‘an able, godly minister’; Commonwealth Ch. Surv. 84. 176 Munic. Rec. i, 322. The appoint- ment was made by the corporation, as on previous occasions; but the rector of Walton after some time endeavoured to obtain the patronage. In this he was defeated ; ibid. i, 322-3. 777 Ibid. i, 323. He was described as ‘reverend, learned, and laborious’ ; ibid. i, 324. He had been incumbent of Knuts- ford and Macclesfield; Earwaker, East Ches. ii, 505. In 1681 an assistant curate 45 was appointed to read morning prayers daily (except Sundays and holidays). 778 It was considered, on Mr. Hunter’s death, that two ministers should be ap- pointed, to do equal duty and receive equal wages, and both to reside in the town ; ibid. i, 324. It appears that they also served the chapel of West Derby. 779 Munic. Rec. i, 324-6. 780 to and 11 Will. III, cap. 36. The rectors were to divide the duty and the surplice fees. The tithes of the township, on the then rector of Walton’s death, were to go to the corporation, in relief of the assessment for the rectors’ stipend. The rectors of Liverpool were to pay one-sixth of the tenths and other ecclesi- astical dues levied upon the parish of Walton. Lord Molyneux’s interest was indirect, the separation of Liverpool from Walton rendering his right of patronage of the latter rectory somewhat less valuable. In 1786 an Act was passed ‘for aug- menting and ascertaining the income of the rectors’ ; 26 Geo. III, cap. 15. 781 Gastrell, Noritia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 190-3 ; Picton, Munic. Rec. ii, 86. 782 The building has never excited any admiration. There is « peal of ten bells, added in 1830, In 1715 John Fells, a sea captain, gave £30 towards the expense of forming a library in this church ; a list of the books is printed in Mr, Peet's Jn- ventory, 25-§2. This work contains an inventory of the plate, &c., and a full list of the parish registers, with a reprint of the earliest volume (1661-73), also a list of the churchwardens from 1551. The church was used for a series of musical festivals, commencing in 1766 ; Picton, Liverpool, ii, 155. 788 y & 2 Vict. cap. 98. 784 Information of the patron. 785 Dioc, Calendar. A HISTORY OF The following is a list of the rectors :— I 1699 Robert Stythe, B.A.” 1714-17 vacant, owing to a dispute.’ 1717 Thomas Bell, M.A.” 1726 John Stanley, D.D.™ 1750 Robert Brereton 1784 George Hodson, M.A.”” 1794 Samuel Renshaw, M.A. 1829 Jonathan Brooks, M.A.™ LANCASHIRE II 1699 William Atherton, B.A.” 1706 Henry Richmond, B.A.” 1721 Thomas Baldwin, M.A.™ 1753 Henry Wolstenholme, M.A.™ 1772 Thomas Maddock, M.A.”* 1783 Thomas Dannett ” 1796 Robert Hankinson Roughsedge, M.A.” 1829 Augustus Campbell, M.A. (sole rector, 1855) 739 1870 Alexander Stewart, M.A. 1904 John Augustine Kempthorne, M.A.™ St. George’s Church, for which an Act of Parlia- ment was obtained in 1715,°% was begun in 1726 on the site of the castle ; it was completed in 1734. ‘It had originally an elegant terrace, supported by rustic arches, on one side ; these arches the frequenters of Red Cross market used to occupy.’ %* ‘The church was re- built piecemeal between 1819 and 1825, and its new spire was reduced in height in 1833 ; in its time it was regarded as ‘one of the handsomest in the kingdom.’ It was the property of the corporation and main- tained by them, the mayor and the judges of assize at one time attending it. On Mr. Charles Mozley, who was a Jew, being elected mayor in 1863, the incum- bent preached a sermon denouncing the choice, and from that time the mayor and corporation ceased to to attract a congregation was closed in 1897 and then demolished, the site being acquired by the corpora- tion.** St. Thomas’s, Park Lane, was built in 1750 under the provisions of an Act of Parliament.°® ‘The land was given by Mr. John Skill, who, however, afterwards charged three times the value of the ground for the churchyard when it was required.’ A very tall and slender spire was a feature of the exterior ; after various accidents it was taken down in 1822, and the present miniature dome replaced it. A large part of the churchyard was acquired by the corpora- tion about 1885 for a new thoroughfare.” St. Paul’s, one of the corporation churches, was begun in 1763 in accordance with an Act obtained attend St. George’s. 786 Educated at Brasenose College, Ox- ford; B.A. 16803 ordained deacon and priest by the Bishop of Chester in 1680 and 1682; master of the Free School at Liverpool, 1684. Held the rectory of Garstang for twelve months (1697-8), apparently as a ‘warming pan.’ He is regarded as co-founder, with Bryan Blun- dell, of the Blue-coat School, Liverpool. He died in Dec.1713. See H. Fishwick, Garstang (Chet. Soc.), 185. 786a Picton, Munic. Rec. ii, 68. 787 Educated at Pembroke College, Ox- ford; M.A. 1698; Foster, Alumni. 788 Son of Sir Edward Stanley of Bicker- staffe ; Fellow of Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge ; rector of Winwick 1740 to 1742, and 1764 to 17813; also rector of Bury 1743 to 1778. 789 Son of the Rev. George Hodson, curate of West Kirby ; educated at Brase- nose College, Oxford ; M.A. 1763; died 14 Apr. 17943 Foster, Alumni; Man- chester School Reg. i, 53. 790 Son of John Renshaw of Liverpool ; educated at Brasenose College, Oxford 5 M.A. 17753 died 19 Oct. 1829, nine days after the other rector, Mr. Rough- sedge ; Foster, Alumni. He published a volume of sermons in 1792. 791 He belonged to a mercantile family in Liverpool, being son of Joseph Brooks, Everton. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge ; M.A. 1802 3 Arch- deacon of Liverpool, 1848. He died 29 Sept. 1855. ‘Few men have enjoyed in their day and generation more general respect than fell to the lot of Archdeacon Brooks. Of a dignified and noble pre- sence, his manners were genial, courteous, and, with perfect truth it may be said, those of a gentleman. When presiding at vestry meetings in the stormy times of contested Church rates, when occasionally very strong language was indulged in, a Digitized by Microsoft® The building having long failed quiet, pleasant remark from the “ old rec- tor” would calm the troubled waters and frequently cause all parties to laugh at their own violence. . . . His great popu- larity led to the erection of a memorial statue in St. George’s Hall, by B. Spence’ 5 Picton’s Liverpool, ii, 136, 367, 349. 792 Ordained deacon and priest by the Bishop of Chester in 1678 and 1679 re- pectively. Ancestor of the Athertons of Walton. A William Atherton of Lancashire entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1674, and graduated as B.A. in 1677 ; information of Mr. J. B. Peace, bursar of the college. 798 Son’ of Sylvester Richmond, a Liver- pool physician; educated at Brasenose College, Oxford; B.A. 1695. He was rector of Garstang from 1698 till 17123 he was buried in St. Nicholas’ Church ; see Fishwick, Garstang, 186. 794 Son of John Baldwin, Alderman of Wigan ; educated at Jesus College, Cam- bridge; M.A. 1709. In 1748 he pur- chased the advowsons of North Meols and Leyland ; his son John became rector of the former parish, and himself (1748-52) and his son Thomas were successively vicars of Leyland, He wasa councillor of Liverpool from 1733 to 1748. See Farrer, North Meols, 84; Baines, Lancs, (ed. Croston), iv, 166. 795 Author of two volumes of sermons. 786 Educated at Brasenose College, Ox- ford; B.A. 1735; Foster, Alumni. For his sons see Manchester School Reg. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 23. See Gilbert Wakefield’s Memoirs. 797 Chosen by a majority of the mayor and council. 798 Son of Edward Roughseage of Liver- pool ; educated at Brasenose College, Ox- ford; M.A. 1771. He died 10 Oct. 1829; Foster, dlumni. 46 the previous year,** and opened in 1769. Its chief 799 Also vicar of Childwall, 1824- 70. 800 Educated at Clare College, Cam- bridge; M.A. 1852. Vicar of Cogges, Oxfordshire, 1868-70; Hon. Canon of Liverpool, 1880. 801 Educated at Trinity College, Cam- bridge ; M.A. 1890. Vicar of St. Mary’s, Rochdale, 1895 ; of St. Thomas’s, Sun- derland, 1900; Rector of Gateshead, 1901 ; Hon. Canon of Liverpool, 1905. 802 1 Geo. I, cap. 21. 808 Stranger in Liverpool: From this guide, of which there were many editions, much of the information in the text is derived. At one end of the ‘terrace’ was the office of the clerk of the market ; at the other that of the night watch. There was a vault beneath the church for interments. The interior fittings were good. The east window had a picture of the Crucifixion, inserted in 1832. There were originally two ministers, the chaplain and the lecturer, and the appointment was usually a stepping-stone to the rectory; D. Thom in Trans. Hist. Soc. iv, 161. This essay on the changes and migrations of churches was continued in vol. v, and illustrated with views of the older build- ings. 804 An effort was made to retain the spire. There is an account of this church and St. John’s by Mr. Henry Peet in Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xv, 27-44. 805 21 Geo. II, cap. 24. 808 Stranger in Liverpool. 807 The Bishop of Liverpool’s com- mission in 1902 recommended that the incumbency be extinguished at the next vacancy, the district to be annexed to St. Michael’s, Pitt Street. 808 2 Geo. III, cap. 68; the same Act authorized St. John’s Church. There were formerly two incumbents at St. Paul’s. HOWAH) S MILA “LG + TOOdUAAI'T % eee -_, Bee 88S igg 5388! Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED feature is a dome ; internally this had the result of rendering the minister’s voice inaudible. In time this defect was remedied, but changes in the neigh- bourhood deprived the church of its congregation, and falling into a dangerous condition, it was closed by the corporation in 1900.5 St. Anne’s, also erected under the authority of Parliament,°" was built by two private gentlemen in 1772; it was ‘chiefly in the Gothic style.’ The first minister, the Rev. Claudius Crigan, was appointed to the see of Sodor and Man in 1783, in the expecta- tion, as it was said, that he would live only a short time, until the son of the Duchess of Atholl, sove- reign of the Isle, should be old enough; he lived thirty years longer, surviving his intended successor.*" The old church was removed a little eastward to enable Cazneau Street to go through to St. Anne Street, the corporation replacing it by the present church, consecrated in 1871. In 1776 a Nonconformist chapel in Temple Court was purchased by the rector of Aughton and opened in connexion with the Established Church. In 1820, some time after his death, it was purchased by the corporation and demolished.” In 1776 also another Nonconformist chapel, in Harrington Street, was opened as St. Mary’s in connexion with the Established Church ; the congregation is supposed to have acquired St. Matthew’s, in Key Street, in 1795, after which St. Mary’s was demolished." St. John’s, like St. Paul’s, was built under the auspices of the corporation, and consecrated in 1785 : the style was the spurious Gothic of the time. There was a large public burial ground attached, consecrated in 1767. Becoming unserviceable as a church, there being but a scanty congregation, it was closed in 1898, demolished, and the site sold to the corpora- tion.°™ Trinity Church, St. Anne Street, was erected by private subscription in 1792.%° Inthe same year a Baptist Chapel in Byrom Street was purchased and opened as St. Stephen’s Church."® This was taken down in 1871 in order to allow the street to be widened, the corporation building the present church further north. In 1795 the English Presbyterian LIVERPOOL or Unitarian Chapel in Key Street was purchased for the Established worship, being named St. Matthew’s. It was consecrated in 1798. The site being required in 1848 for the Exchange railway station, the Lan- cashire and Yorkshire Company purchased a Scotch Presbyterian Chapel in Scotland Road, which was thereupon consecrated as St. Matthew’s.°” In 1798 a tennis court in Grosvenor Street was converted into a place of worship and licensed for service as All Saints’ Church. It continued in use until the present church of All Saints’, Great Nelson Street, was built in 1848.58 Christ Church, Hunter Street, was built in 1797 by John Houghton.*? It was intended to use an amended version of the Book of Common Prayer, but the design proving a failure, the church was ‘put on the establishment,’ and consecrated in 1800. Originally there was a second or upper gallery, close to the roof, but this was taken away about 1865. St. Mark’s was built by subscription in 1803, and consecrated in 1815, becoming established by an Act of Parliament ;* the projector was the Rev. Thomas Jones, of Bolton, who died suddenly on a journey to London before the opening.” St. An- drew’s, Renshaw Street, was erected by Sir John Gladstone in 1815 ;* the site being required for the enlargement of the Central Station, a new St. An- drew’s was built in Toxteth in 1893. St. Philip’s, Hardman Street, was one of the ‘iron churches’ of the time; it was opened in 1816 and afterwards regulated by an Act of Parliament.* It was sold in 1882, the Salvation Army acquiring it, and a new St. Philip’s built in Sheil Road.* More costly churches were about the same time designed and slowly carried out by the public authorities. St. Luke’s, Bold Street, was begun in 1811, but not completed and opened till 1831 ; it is a florid specimen of perpendicular Gothic, the chancel being a copy of the Beauchamp Chapel, War- wick.*? St. Michael’s, Pitt Street, in the Corinthian style, but with a lofty spire, was begun in 1816 under Acts of Parliament, and opened in 1826. There is a large graveyard around it. The chapel of the Blind Asylum was built in 1819 809 It is proposed to abolish the in- cumbency and sell the site. 810 12 Geo. III, cap. 36. The church was remarkable for being placed north and south. It stood on the line of Cazneau Street between Rose Place and Great Richmond Street. A part of the ground remains open. A district was assigned to it under St. Martin’s Church Act, 10 Geo. IV, cap. 11. 811 Church Congress Guide, 1904. This contains much information as to the pre- sent condition of the churches, of which use has been made. 812 Trans. Hist. Soc. iv, 139. It had been called the Octagon. It is mentioned in Brooke’s Liverpool as it was. 818 Trans, Hist. Soc. iv, 157. Other ‘private adventure’ chapels were tried with greater or less success. A Rev. Thomas Pearson opened the Cockspur Street Chapel from 1807 to 1812, calling it St. Andrew’s ; then he went to Salem Chapel in Russell Street, which he re- named St. Clement’s, until 1817. The curious history of the latter building is given in the essay in Trans. Hist. Soc. v, 33- 814 An effort was made in 1885 to se- Digitized by Microsoft® cure the site for a cathedral for the newly erected Anglican diocese ; but it failed, although an Act of Parliament (48 & 49 Vict. cap. 51) was obtained authorizing the scheme. See Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), XV, 27-44. 815 32 Geo. III, cap. 76. 816 Trans. Hist. Soc. iv, 178. A district was assigned to it under St. Martin’s Church Act, 10 Geo. IV. 817 Ibid. iv, 143. The old building was demolished in 1849. A district was assigned under St. Martin’s Church Act. 818 Tbid. iv, 166. The incumbent and sole proprietor, the Rev. Robert Ban- nister, was the most popular minister of the time locally ; he died in 1829. Some singular occurrences in the church’s his- tory are related in the essay referred to. It does not seem to have been licensed until 1833. 819 A small burial ground was attached, and a vault was constructed below the church, The endowment was £105 a year, derived from the rents of twenty- four pews. The upper gallery was free, for the poor. The view from the cupola was in 1812 recommended to the Stranger in Liverpool, 47 820 39 & 40 Geo. III, cap. 106—‘ for establishing a mew church or chapel (Christ’s), lately erected on the south side of Hunter Street’; Trans. Hist, Soc. iv, 167. It is proposed to extinguish the incum- bency, and sell the church and site. 821 56 Geo. III, cap. 65 ; amended by 2 & 3 Vict. cap. 33. It isnow proposed to extinguish the incumbency and sell the church and site. 823 Stranger in Liverpool. 828 St. Mary’s, an oratory or cemetery chapel in Mulberry Street, now disused, was consecrated about the same time. 844 1 Geo. IV, cap. z. 825 The old church seems to have been consecrated in 1816, though this is questioned. 826 An Act was obtained in 1822 3 3 Geo. IV, cap. 19 ; also 2 & 3 Vict. cap. 33. 827 The cost was over £44,000; the architect was John Foster. 828 54 Geo. III, cap. 111 5 4 Geo. IV, cap. 89; 2 & 3 Vict. cap. 33. ‘The parish authorities, after spending £35,000 upon it, handed it over to the corpora- tion, who finished it at an additional cost of £50,000.’ More than a third of the seats were free. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE in Hotham Street in imitation of the Temple of Jupiter at Egina. The site being required for Lime Street Station, the building was taken down and care- fully re-erected in its present position in Hardman Street in 1850.°" It is the Liverpool home of Broad Church doctrine. St. David’s, for Welsh-speaking Anglicans, was built in 1827.5 As far back as 1793 Welsh services had been authorized in St. Paul’s Church.’ Another special church was the Mariners’ Church, an old sloop-of-war moored in George’s Dock. It was used from 1827, but ultimately sank at its moorings in 1872.52 St. Martin’s in the Fields, a Gothic building with a western spire, was erected out of a Parliamentary grant in 1829, the land being a gift by Edward Houghton.** It was the first Liverpool church to be affected by the Tractarian movement.™ St. Catherine’s, Abercromby Square, was conse- crated in January 1831,%° a fortnight after St. Bride’s.°° The first church of St. Matthias was built in 1833-4 in Love Lane, but the site being required by the railway company, the present church in Great Howard Street was built in 1848; the old one was accidentally destroyed by fire.” St. Saviour’s, Falkner Square, was built by subscription in 1839 ; it was burnt down in 1900 and rebuilt in 1901 on the old plan.* In 1841 a congregation which had for some five years met in the chapel in Sir Thomas’s Buildings, which they called St. Simon’s, acquired a chapel previously used by Presbyterians and Independents, and this was consecrated as St. Simon’s.“° The site being required for Lime Street Station, a new church was in 1848 built close by, and this was taken down and rebuilt in its present position in 1866-72, on an enlargement of the station. A building in Hope Street, erected about fifteen years earlier for the meetings of the ‘Christian Society,’ and in 1838 occupied by the Rev. Robert Aitken, an Anglican minister who adopted ‘revivalist’ methods, was in 1841 acquired for the Established Church and called St. John the Evangelist’s. It was abandoned in 1853, but under the name of Hope Hall is still used for religious and other meet- ings. In 1841 also the churches of St. Bartholomew and St. Silas were opened.“? St. Alban’s, Bevington, dates from 1849-50. In 1854 Holy Innocents’ in Myrtle Street, pri- marily the chapel of the adjoining orphan asylums, was opened, All Souls’, begun in the same year, had as first incumbent Dr. Abraham Hume, one of the founders of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society.“ ‘As the population of this parish is mostly Roman Catholic’ it is proposed to abandon the building.“ A Wesleyan chapel was acquired and in 1858 consecrated as St. Columba’s; soon afterwards St. Mary Magdalene’s was erected for an object indicated by its dedication ;%° and more recently St. James the Less’ “* and St. Titus’ *” have been built, the former serving to perpetuate the High Church tradition of St. Martin’s when this had re- sumed its old ways.™® The new cathedral is being erected within the township. The Church House in Lord Street provides a central meeting-place and offices for the different societies and committees ; it contains a library also. Scottish Presbyterianism was first represented by the Oldham Street Church, opened in 1793 ;*° St. Andrew’s in Rodney Street in 1824 ; ® and Mount Pleasant in 1827.1 Others arose about twenty years later: St. George’s, Myrtle Street, in 1845 ; © Canning Street * and Islington in 1846,% and St. Peter’s, Silvester Street, in 85° Another was 829 Trans. Hist. Soc. iv, 1533 10 Geo. IV, cap. 15. 880 7 Geo. IV, cap. 51. 881 This was supposed to be the first instance of the kind in England; the corporation allowed an additional £60 salary on account of it; Stranger in Liverpool. The services were still held in 1852. aoa The vessel was the Tes, and was presented by the government to the Mariners’ Church Society, formed in 1826. 888 Out of two millions voted £20,000 was spent on this church. The Act Io Geo. IV, cap. 11, vested it in the mayor and burgesses, and made provision for the division of the parish into districts. 834 Church Congress Guide. 885 It exhibited ‘the Grecian style in its purity and perfection,’ according to the opinion of the time. A district was given by a special local Act, 10 Geo. 1V, cap. 51. 886 A district was assigned to it under St. Martin’s Church Act. For its en- dowment an Act was passed, 1 & 2 Will. IV, cap. 49. 887 Trans. Hist. Soc. iv, 159. 888 A district was assigned to it under St. Martin’s Act, and it was consecrated in 1854. One of the incumbents, the Rev. John Wareing Bardsley, was pro- moted to the bishopric of Sodor and Man in 1887 and of Carlisle in 1892 ; he died in 1904. 889 Trans. Hist, Soc. iv, 155. The site was above the centre of the present Lime Street Station. 840 In St. Vincent’s Street. Digitized by Microsoft® 841 Trans, Hist. Soc. iv, 182. 842 They were consecrated in 1841 and 1843 respectively. 348 Dr. Hume considered that only an endowed church could minister to the needs of the poorer districts, and pointed to the regular migration of Nonconformist chapels from the poorer to the richer districts, ie. the building followed the congregation. All Souls’ appears to have been built to illustrate his theories, He remained its incumbent until his death in 1884. See Dict. Nat. Biog. 844 Church Congress Guide. 845 Districts were assigned under St. Martin’s Church Act, 10 Geo. IV. St. Mary Magdalene’s was built in 1859 and consecrated in 1862. 846 Opened January 1863 ; consecrated, 1873. 847 Built in 1864 and consecrated in 1865. It is proposed to extinguish the incumbency and dispose of the site. 848 The patronage of many of the new churches is in the hands of trustees. The Crown and the Bishop of Liverpool pre- sent alternately to All Saints’, All Souls’, St. Alban’s, and St. Simon’s ; the Bishop alone to Holy Innocents’; the Bishop, Archdeacon, and Rector of Liverpool Jointly to St. Mary Magdalene’s; the Archdeacon and Rector of Liverpool and the Rector of Walton to St. Titus’s ; the Rector of Liverpool to St. Matthew’s, St. Matthias’s, and St. Stephen’s. Mr. H. D. Horsfall has the patronage of St. Paul’s. The incumbent of St. David’s, the Welsh church, is appointed by trustees jointly with the communicants, 48 1849. 849 Previously, it is said, they wor- shipped with the Unitarians, who still re- tained their old title of Presbyterians in consequence of the legal penalties attach- ing to a denial of the Trinity. Oldham Street Church was built by a combination of shareholders or proprietors, among them being (Sir) John Gladstone. In 1792 the Scotch Presbyterians used Cockspur Street Chapel, previously the Liverpool cockpit ; Trans. Hist. Soc. v, 38, where an account of the many uses of the building may be seen. 850 A full account of the Scottish churches in Liverpool, by Dr. David Thom, may be seen in Trans. Hist. Soc. ii, 69, 229. 851 This was built by the Scotch Seceders, afterwards the United Presby- terians ; it replaced a smaller chapel in Gloucester Street, built in 1807—after- wards St. Simon’s. The United Presby- terians used a meeting room in Gill Street about 1868. 852 The congregation were seceders from St. Andrew's, Rodney Street, under the influence of the Free Church move- ment. 858 A secession, under the same in- fluence, from Oldham Street Church. 854 This was connected with the Irish Presbyterians. It is now a Jewish Syna- gogue. 855 An earlier St. Peter's, built in 1841, in Scotland Road, had to be aban- doned owing to the Free Church contro- versy breaking up the congregation ; it is ae St. Matthew's; Trans. Hist. Soc. iv, 148, WEST DERBY HUNDRED built in Vauxhall Road in 1867. Except the first two, which remain connected with the Established Church of Scotland, they are now associated with the Presbyterian Church of England. The formal union which constituted this organization out of many differing ones took place at Liverpool in 1876.5 The German Evangelical Church occupies New- ington Chapel, formerly Congregational. It seems to have originated in a body of converted Jews speaking German, who met for worship in the chapel in Sir Thomas’ Buildings from about 1831, and were considered as attached to the Established Church. Wesleyan Methodism made itself felt by the middle of the 18th century. Pitt Street chapel was built in 1750," enlarged 1765, rebuilt in 1803, and altered in 1875 ; John Wesley preached here for a week in 1758. A second chapel within the township was built in 1790, and Cranmer Chapel at the north end in 1857.%! These are now all connected with the Wesleyan Mission, formed in 1875, which has also acquired the old Baptist Chapel in Soho Street, now Wesley Hall, and a mission room near.*? Leeds Street Chapel, of some note in its day, was opened about 1798 and pulled down in 1840." Formerly, from 1811 to 1864, the chapel in Benn’s Gardens was also used by Welsh-speaking Wesleyans.“* Trinity Chapel, Grove Street, erected in 1859, is the head of a regular circuit ; the conference was held here in 1881. The Wesleyans have also mission rooms. The Wesleyan Methodist Association, later the United Methodist Free Church, had a chapel in Pleasant Street before 1844, now St. Columba’s ; it was replaced in 1852 by Salem Chapel or St. Clement’s Church, in Russell Street, recently given up, the Pupil Teachers’ College now occupying the site. Another chapel in Scotland Road, built in 1843, is still used, as also one in Grove Street, built in LIVERPOOL 1873.°" The Welsh-speaking members used a chapel in Gill Street from 1845 to 1867.5 The Methodist New Connexion, who appeared as early as 1799, had Zion Chapel, Maguire Street, by St. John’s Market, before 1813; they removed to Bethesda in Hotham Street about 1833, after which the old building was converted into a fish hall.® They had also a chapel in Bevington Hill. Both have long been given up.” The Primitive Metho- dists also had formerly meeting-places in Liverpool.™ At the Bishop of Chester’s visitations in 1665 and later years Anabaptists were presented, and it was said that conventicles were held. The Baptists, who had from 1707, if not earlier, met in Everton, opened a chapel in Byrom Street in 1722.57 A much larger chapel was erected in 1789 in the same street, and the old one sold to the Established Church. The later building is still in use as Byrom Hall.** Myrtle Street Chapel, the successor of one in Lime Street, built in 1803, was opened in 1844 and enlarged in 1859.°% In 1819 a chapel was built in Great Cross- hall Street.** Soho Street Chapel, begun for ‘ Bishop West,’ was used by Baptists from 1837 to 1889, when Jubilee Drive Chapel replaced it.%® The Welsh-speaking Baptists had a chapel in Ormond Street, dating from 1799, but it has been given up, one in Everton succeeding it.*” The Sandemanians or Glassites long had a meeting- place in the town." Newington Chapel was in 1776 erected by Con- gregationalists dissatisfied with the Unitarianism of the Toxteth Chapel, and wishing to have a place of worship nearer to Liverpool.”® It was given up in 1872, and is now the German Church. A youth- ful preacher, Thomas Spencer, attracting great con- gregations, a new chapel was begun for him in 1811 in Great George Street ; he was drowned before it was finished,*” and Dr. Thomas Raffles, who was its 857 The Reformed Presbyterian Church or Covenanters had a meeting-place in Hunter Street in 1852, afterwards moving to Shaw Street, Everton ; see Trans. Hist. Soc. ii, 73, 230. 858 Ibid. iv, 1745 Vv, 49. 859 Thid. v, 46. 860In Mount Pleasant ; called the Central Hall. 861 Less permanent meeting-places were in Edmund Street, used in 1852, and Benledi Street, in 1863. For the former see Trans. Hist. Soc. v, 49. 862 The head of this mission for many years was the late Rev. Charles Garrett, one of the notable figures in local Methodism. He died in 1900. The site of the Unitarian church in Renshaw Street has been acquired for the Charles Garrett Hall, in connexion with the work he organized. 868 Trans, Hist. Soc. v, 47. The chapel in Great Homer Street, Everton, re- placed it. 864 [bid. v, 51. The chapel in Shaw Street, Everton, took its place. Another meeting-place of Welsh Wesleyans was in Burroughs Garden, which seems to have been replaced by a chapel in Boundary Street East about 1870. Services have also been held in Great Crosshall Street (1871-84) and Hackins Hey (1896). 866 For the history of this building, occupied by preaching adventurers and different denominations, including the Swedenborgians, see Trans. Hist. Soc. ¥, 33-7 afterwards 4 Digitized by Microsoft® 867 The same body has a preaching place in Bostock Street. In 1852 it had one in Bispham Street. 868 Trans, Hist. Soc. (new ser.), vii, 322. 869 Trans. Hist. Soc. v, 50. They had previously had Maguire Street, Cockspur Street, and other places, 43, 40. 870 Bethesda was given up about 1866 ; it is represented by a chapel in Everton. The old building was for some time used as adancing room. Bevington Hill was given up about the same time. 871 Trans. Hist. Soc. v, 42, 44. One in Rathbone Street was maintained until about 1885. It seems to have belonged to the Independent Methodists. 872 Trans. Hist. Soc. iv, 178. The first minister, J. Johnson, offended some of his congregation by his doctrines, and a chapel in Stanley Street was in 1747 built for him, where he preached till his death. This congregation migrated to a new chapel in Comus Street in 1800; ibid. Vy 51. 878 Ibid. v, 233 services were discon- tinued from 1846 to 1850 on account of its purchase by the London and North Western Railway Company. 874 Ibid. v, 263 the stricter Calvinists separated about 1800 from the Byrom Street congregation. 875 Ibid. v, 49 3 the Particular Baptists, who had had Stanley Street Chapel from 1800, succeeded the first congregation, and moved in 1847 to Shaw Street. The Welsh Baptists had it in 1853 and 1864. The building has ceased to be used for worship. 49 Other places are known to have been used at various times by Baptist congre- gations ; ibid. v, 33, 48, 49. Two, in Oil Street and Comus Street, existed in 1824 ; the latter was still in use in 1870, and seems to have been replaced in 1888 by one at Mile End, now abandoned. 876 Ibid iv, 177. This congregation had sprung from a split in the Byrom Street one in 1826, and had had places of worship in Oil Street and Cockspur Street. A somewhat earlier division (1821) resulted in the Sidney Place Chapel, Edge Hill. 877 This was perhaps the Edmund Street Chapel mentioned in the Directory of 1825; later were the chapels in Great Crosshall Street (already named) and Great Howard Street. The last-named, begun in 1835, was removed to Kirkdale in 1876. A later congregation (1869) met in St. Paul’s Square for some years. 878 For details see Truns. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), vii, 321. The places were Matthew Street, and then Gill Street to about 1845. 879 For the history of these buildings see Trans. Hist. Soc. v, 3-9 3 and Night ingale’s Lancs. Nonconformity, vi, 120 on. 880 See his Life by Dr. Raffles (Liver- pool, 1813). Thomas Spencer was born at Hertford 21 Jan. 1791 ; commenced. preaching when fifteen years of age ; was called to Newington Chapel in Aug. 1810, and after a remarkably successful ministry there, was drowned while bathing at the Dingle, 5 Aug. 1811. 7 A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE minister for nearly fifty years, became one of the most influential men in Liverpool.®' This chapel was burnt down in 1840, and the present building erected. Seceders from All Saints’ Church in 1800 met for worship in Maguire Street and Cockspur Street, and in 1803 built Bethesda Chapel in Hotham Street ; from this they moved in 1837 to Everton Crescent.” Burlington Street Chapel was bought as an exten- sion by the Crescent congregation in 1859 ; about 1890 it was weakened by a division, most of the congregation assembling in Albert Hall for worship ; this is now recognized as a Congregational meeting, but Burlington Street was worked for a time as a mission by the Huyton Church. The Welsh Congregationalists have a chapel in Grove Street, in place of Salem Chapel, Brownlow Hill, given up in 1868. Formerly they had one in Great Crosshall Street, built in 1817, but the congre- gation has migrated to Kirkdale and Everton. In Elizabeth Street is a United Free Gospel Church, built in 1871 to replace one of 1845 as an Independent Methodist Church. The Calvinistic Methodists, the most powerful church in Wales, are naturally represented in Liver- pool, where Welshmen are very numerous. ‘The first chapel was built in Pall Mall in 1787, and rebuilt in 1816, but demolished to make way for the enlarge- ment of Exchange Station in 1878, a new one in Crosshall Street taking its place.* ‘There are others in Chatham Street and Catherine Street built in 1861 and 1872 respectively ; at the latter the services are in English. The Society of Friends had a meeting-place in Hackins Hey as early as 1706, by Quakers’ Alley ; this remained standing until 1863. The place of meeting was removed to Hunter Street in 1790; this continues in use. The Moravians held services ‘for many years’ in the Religious Tract Society’s rooms. The Berean Universalist Church was opened in 1851 in Crown Street, but had only a short existence. The Bethel Union, an undenominational evange- listic association for the benefit of sailors, maintains several places of worship near the docks.*? The Young Men’s Christian Association has a large institute in Mount Pleasant, opened in 1877. It has been shown above that Nonconformity was strong in the town after 1662. A chapel was built in Castle Hey, and the minister of Toxteth Park is said to have preached there on alternate Sundays from 1689.% This was replaced by Benn’s Gardens Chapel in 1727, from which the congregation, which had become Unitarian, moved to Renshaw Street in 1811, and from this recently to Ullet Road, Toxteth. Another Protestant Nonconformist chapel was built in Key Street in 1707; in this case also the congre- gation became Unitarian.’ A new chapel in Paradise Street replaced it in 1791, and a removal to Hope Street was made in 1849, the abandoned building being turned by its new owners into a theatre. The Octagon Chapel in Temple Court was used from 1762 to 1776 to meet a desire for liturgical services, the organ being used ; but it proved a failure and was sold to the Rev. W. Plumbe, Rector of Aughton, who preached in it as St. Catherine’s. The Uni- tarians have a mission room in Bond Street.® The Christadelphians formerly (1868-78) had a meeting-place in Gill Street. The Catholic Apostolic Church (Irvingite) was built in 1856. The choir is a rich specimen of fiamboyant Gothic. The ancient religion appears to have been stamped out very quickly in Liverpool, which became a decidedly Protestant town, and there is scarcely even an incidental allusion to its existence until the beginning of the 18th century. Spellow and Aig- burth were the nearest places at which mass could occasionally be heard in secret. Fr. William Gilli- 881 His biography was written by his son, Thomas Stamford Raffles, who was for many years the stipendiary magistrate of Liverpool; see also Dict. Nat. Biog. Dr. Raffles was born in London in 1788, educated at Homerton College, LL.D. Aberdeen 1820, died 18 Aug. 1863, and was buried in the Necropolis. 882 Salem Chapel in Russell Street was used from 1808 to 1812 by seceders from Bethesda. 883 Gloucester Street Chapel was occu- pied by Congregationalists from 1827 to 1840, when it became St. Simon’s Church. 834 Salem Chapel in Brownlow Hill was bought in 1868 by the Crescent congrega- tion, and occupied until 1892. It is now a furniture store. 886 In 1825 they had two chapels, in Pall Mall and Great Crosshall Street ; in 1852 they had four, in Prussia Street (i.e. Pall Mall), Rose Place (built 1826), Bur- lington Street, and Mulberry Street (built 1841). The last-named, having been re- placed by the Chatham Street Chapel, was utilized as Turkish baths, Burlington Street seems to have been removed to Cranmer Street, built in 1860, now dis- used. The Rose Place Chapel was at the corner of Comus Street ; it seems to have been disused about 1866, a new one in Fitzclarence Street taking its place. 887 The old meeting-house had a burial ground attached. The building was used Digitized by Microsoft® as a school from 1796 to 1863, when it was sold and pulled down. 888 Its minister was Dr. David Thom, whose essay on the migration of churches has been frequently quoted in these notes. He had been minister of the Scotch Church in Rodney Street, but seceded ; in 1843 he had a congregation in a chapel in Bold Street. 889 The society had a floating mission vessel, the William, in the Salthouse Dock in 1821. Afterwards three buildings on shore were substituted, in Wapping, Bath Street, and Norfolk Street. 890 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 231; the ‘new chapel in the Castle Hey in Liverpool’ and Toxteth Park Chapel were licensed ‘for Samuel Angier and his congregation.’ See also Peet, Liverpool in the Reign of Queen Anne, 100. Castle Hey is now called Harrington Street. 891 For the Unitarian churches see Trans. Hist. Soc. v, 9-23, 513 Nightin- gale, op. cit. vi, 110, 892 Tbid. 894 In the catalogue of burials at the Harkirk in Little Crosby is the following : “1615, May 20. Anne the wife of George Webster of Liverpool (tenant of Mr. Crosse) died a Catholic, and being denied burial at the chapel of Liverpool by the curate there, by the Mayor, and by Mr. Moore, was buried’ ; Crosby Rec. (Chet. Soc.), 72. The Crosse family did not change their religious profession at 50 once, for in 1628 John Crosse of Liver- pool, as a convicted recusant, paid double to the subsidy ; Norris D. (B.M.). John Sinnot, an Irishman, who died at his house in Liverpool, had been refused burial on account of his religion in 1613 ; Crosby Rec. 70. The recusant roll of 1641 contains only five names, four being those of women ; Trans. Hist, Soc. (new ser.), xiv, 238. In 1669 four ‘papist recusants’ were presented at the Bishop of Chester’s visi- tation, viz. :—Breres gent., Mary wife of George Brettargh, and William Fazaker- ley and his wife. In 1683 there were thirty-five persons, including Richard Lathom, presented for being absent from church, and in the fol- lowing year thirty-nine ; Picton’s Munic. Rec, i, 330. The revival of presentations was no doubt due to the Protestant and Whig agitation of the time. James II endeavoured to mitigate the effects of it ; in 1686, being ‘informed that Richard Lathom of Liverpool, chirurgeon, and Judith his wife, who keeps also a board- ing-school for the education of youth at Liverpool,’ had been presented for ‘their exercising the said several vocations with- out licence, by reason of their religion (being Roman Catholics), and being assured of their loyalty, he authorized them to continue, remitted penalties in- curred, and forbade further interference ; ibid, i, 256, WEST DERBY HUNDRED brand, S.J., who then lived at Little Crosby, in 1701 received £3 from Mr. Eccleston ‘for helping at Liverpool.’*® The first resident missioner known was Fr. Francis Mannock, S.J., who was living here in 17103 and the work continued in the hands of the Jesuits until the suppression of the order. The next priest, Fr. John Tempest, better known by his alias of Hardesty, built a house for himself near the Oldhall Street corner of Edmund Street, in which was a room for a chapel.* In 1746, after the retreat of the Young Pretender, the populace, relieved of its fears, went to this little chapel, made a bonfire of the benches and woodwork, and pulled the house down.®” Henry Pippard, a merchant of the town, who married Miss Blundell, the heiress of Little Cros- by, treated with the mayor and corporation about re- building the chapel. This, of course, they could not allow, the law prohibiting the ancient worship under severe penalties, whereupon he said that no one could prevent his building a warehouse. This he did, the upper room being the chapel.®® It was wrecked during a serious riot in 1759, but was enlarged in 1797 and continued to be used until St. Mary’s, from the designs of A. W. Pugin, was built on the same site and consecrated in 1845. In con- sequence of the enlargement of Exchange Station it was taken down, but rebuilt in Highfield Street on the same plan and with the same material, being reconsecrated 7 July 1885. ‘The baptismal register commences in 1741. After the suppression of the Jesuit order in 1773 the two priests then in charge continued their labours for ten years, when the Bene- dictines took charge, and still retain it. LIVERPOOL They at once sought to obtain an additional site at what was then the south end of the town, and in 1788 St. Peter’s, Seel Street, was opened. It was enlarged in 1843, and is still served by the same order. The school in connexion with it was opened in 1817. About the same time Fr. John Price, an ex-Jesuit, was ministering at his house in Chorley Street (1777), and by and by (1788) built the chapel in Sir Thomas’s buildings, which was used till his death in 1813. It was then closed, as St. Nicholas’ was ready, work having been commenced in 1808, and the church opened in 1812.° Since 1850 it has been used as the cathedral. At the north end of the town St. Anthony’s had been established in 1804; the present church, on an adjacent site, dates from 1833, and has a burial ground.% St. Joseph’s in Grosvenor Street was opened in 1846, a new build- ing being completed in 1878. These buildings *® sufficed till the great immigra- tion of poor Irish peasants, driven from home by the famine of 1847. St. Vincent de Paul’s mission had been begun in a room over a stable in 1843, but after interruption by the fever of 1847 a larger room in Norfolk Street was secured in 1848, and served until in 1857 the present church was erected. Holy Cross was begun in 1848 in a room over a cowhouse in Standish Street, and in 1850 was given to the care of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who are still in charge. The church was built in 1860, and the chancel opened in 1875. St. Augustine’s, Great Howard Street, was an offshoot in 1849 from St. Mary’s, and is still in charge of the Benedictines. 895 Foley’s Rec. S. F. v, 320. It may be inferred that some attempt was made to provide regular services, and, of course, that there was a congregation. 896 «While I lived in the foresaid town I received, one year with another, from the people about one or two and twenty pounds a year, by way of contribution towards my maintenance, and no other subscrip- tion was ever made for me or for the buildings. From friends in other places I had part of the money I had built with, but much the greatest part was what I spared, living frugally and as not many would have been content to live.... ‘ Nor do I regret having spent the best years of my life in serving the poor Catho- lics of Liverpool ;’ Letter of Fr. Hardesty in Foley, op. cit. v, 364. Edmund Street at that time was on the very edge of the town. On Palm Sunday 1727 there were 256 palms distributed here; N. Blundell’s Diary, 224. 897 Picton’s Liverpool, i, 180. An ac- count by Thomas Green, written in 1833, is preserved at St. Francis Xavier's Col- lege; his mother witnessed the scene. It was printed in the Xaverian of Feb. 1887, and states: ‘The incumbents, the Revs. H. Carpenter and T. Stanley, met the mob, which behaved with the greatest respect to the priests and several of the principal Roman Catholic inhabitants at- tending there—among the rest, Miss Elizabeth Clifton (afterwards Mrs, Green) —and without noise or violence opened a clear passage for the Rev. Mr. Carpenter to go up to the altar and take the ciborium out of the tabernacle and carry it by the same passage out of the chapel.’ 898 Subscriptions were collected for it. The site was at the upper end of Edmund Digitized by Microsoft® Street. Considerable precautions were taken for its safety, The writer just quoted states that on the street front three dwelling-houses were built, one to serve for the resident priests ; at the back was a small court, and then the ‘ ware- house,’ the outside gable of which had the usual teagle rope, block and hook, and wooden cover. The folding doors were, however, bricked up within. He adds the following : ‘ After 24 Sep- tember, 1746, when Mr. and Mrs. Green went to their house in Dale Street, while the new chapel was being built, mass was said, Sundays and holidays, in their garrets, the whole of which, as well as the tea and lodging rooms of the two stories under- neath, and the stairs, were filled by their acquaintances of different ranks and ad- mitted singly and cautiously through different entrances, wholly by candle light, and without the ringing of a bell at the elevation, &c., but a signal was commu- nicated from one to another. The house adjoining on each side to the dwellings of two very considerable, respectable, and kind neighbours, Presbyterians, and their wives, aunts of the present Nicholas Ashton, esq., of Woolton.’ 899 These particulars are from articles in the Liv. Cath. An. for 1887 and 1888, by the Rev. T. E. Gibson, and in the Xaverian of 1887. Among the last Jesuits in charge were Frs, John Price and Raymund Hormasa alias Harris. The former, after the sup- pression of the society, settled in Liver- pool, continuing his ministry as stated in the text. The latter, who was a Spaniard, published a defence of the slave trade in reply to a pamphlet by William Roscoe, issued in 1788, and was cordially thanked by the Common Council, He had in 51 1783 been deprived of his faculties by the Vicar Apostolic, on account of bitter dis- putes between him and his colleague at Liverpool over the temporalities of the mission, and he lived in retirement till his death in 1789. On account of the dis- putes the charge of the mission was given to the Benedictines. A full account of these matters is given in Gillow, Bibi. Dict. of Engl. Cath. iii, 392-53 Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xiii, 162. Harris preached and printed a sermon ‘ on Catho- lic Loyalty to the present Government,’ noticed in the Gent. Mag. Feb. 1777. 900 Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xiii, 164. Fr. Archibald Macdonald, the founder, engaged in the Ossianic controversy ; Dict. Nat. Biog ; Gillow, op. cit. iv, 369. 901 It was afterwards used at intervals by a number of religious bodies in turn ; then as a warehouse ; till a few years ago it was taken down and the school board offices erected on the site. 902 Tt is rather surprising to find it de- scribed in 1844 as ‘an elegant building in the Gothic style’ ; Stranger in Liverpool, 270. 903 In the original building divine ser- vice was performed by the ‘Rev. Jean Baptiste Antoine Girardot, a French emigrant priest by whom it was erected. M. Girardot was held in high respect for his many virtues and unostentatious mode of living ; and besides was much celebrated in this part of the country for numerous cures performed by him in cases of dropsy’; Dr. Thom in Trans. Hist. Soc. Vy 32. $04 It had been built on the site of a famous tennis court as an Anglican church, All Saints’, in 1798, and closed in 1844. 905 St, Patrick’s, erected in 1824, is in Toxteth, A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE Later came St. Philip Neri’s Oratory near Mount Pleasant, 1853. All Souls’, in Collingwood Street, was erected in 1870 by the efforts of a Protestant merchant, who was anxious to provide a remedy for the horrible scenes at wakes ; the middle aisle of the church was for the bodies of the departed to lie in previous to interment, and was quite cut off from the aisles where the congregation assembled, by glass partitions. This has recently been changed. St. Bridget’s, Bevington Hill, was also opened in 1870, and rebuilt in 1894. St. Sylvester’s in Silvester Street began with schools in 1872 ; at the beginning of 1875 a wooden building was erected adjacent, continuing in use until 1889, when the present permanent church was opened. There are two convents: Notre Dame, at the train- ing college, Mount Pleasant, 1856; and St. Catherine, Eldon Place, 1896. The followers of Emmanuel Swedenborg have long had a place of meeting in Liverpool, where they had been known from 1795.% ‘The present building, New Jerusalem, in Bedford Street, was opened in 1857. The Mormons have an institute.°” The Jews have had a recognized meeting-place since about 1750. ‘The earliest known was at the foot of Matthew Street ; it had a burial place attached ; afterwards Turton Court, near the Custom House, and Frederick Street were places of Jewish worship.* The synagogue in Seel Street was built in 1807, the congregation migrating to Princes Road in 1874. A disused Presbyterian church in Islington has recently (1908) been purchased and reopened as the Central Synagogue. ‘The Hope Place Synagogue of the New Hebrew Congregation was built in 1856.°° The establishment of the diocese of Liverpool®® immediately gave rise to the demand for the erection of a cathedral ; the parish church of St. Peter, which had been assigned as pro-cathedral by an Order in Council of 1880, being manifestly inadequate, being indeed the most modest church to which that dignity has been allotted in any English diocese. A com- mittee was formed in 1881, and a lively discussion as to sites was carried on, the St. John’s churchyard site (west of St. George’s Hall) being eventually decided on. In 1885 an Act was obtained empower- ing the erection of a cathedral, and a competition was held for designs,” and the premium was awarded to Mr. William Emerton. The problem of raising funds, however, was found too great, and in 1888 the project was abandoned. Under Bishop Ryle the main strength of the diocese was devoted to the urgently-needed provision of new churches and the augmentation of poorer livings. At the beginning of Igo, however, the project was revived "* by Bishop Chavasse, who appointed a committee to discuss the question of sites. Amid much public discussion, CATHEDRAL 906 They occupied Key Street Chapel from 1791 to 1795. In 1795 Maguire 907 In 1863 their meeting-place was at the corner of Crown Street and Brownlow St. James’s Mount, in the south-central district of the city, was decided upon—a rocky plateau occupied in part by public gardens and overlooking an ancient quarry, now used as a cemetery. ‘The site presented a clear open space of 22 acres; the steep side of the plateau, clothed with trees, gives it something of the picturesqueness of Durham, while the deep hollow of the cemetery will serve to isolate the cathedral and give to its architecture its full effect. Over 150 ft. above sea-level, the site will enable the cathedral to dominate the city and the estuary. The drawbacks of the site were two: its shape forbade a proper orientation, and made it necessary to put the ‘east’ end of the cathedral to the south, while the fact that the southern part of the plateau was made ground involved a large expenditure for foundations. The scheme was formally initiated and committees appointed * at a town hall meeting on 17 June 1901, and on 2 August 1902 an Act was obtained authoriz- ing the purchase from the corporation of the St. James’s Mount site. After a preliminary competition, com- petitive designs were submitted by five selected can- didates on 30 April 1903; the assessors, Mr. G. F. Bodley and Mr. Norman Shaw, selected the design of Mr. G. Gilbert Scott, who was accordingly appointed architect in conjunction with Mr. Bodley. On 19 July 1904 the foundation stone was laid by His Majesty the King. ‘The general character of the design is Gothic, but it is not a reproduction of the style of any particular period. The main qualities aimed at are simplicity and massiveness. The most striking features will be the twin central towers and a third tower at the north end, respectively rising 415 and 355 ft. above sea-level ; the vast height of the nave and choir, and the six high transepts, which are carried to the full roof height, and will produce unusual light effects. Both in height and in area the dimensions considerably exceed those of any other English cathedral. The principal dimensions are as follows :— Total external length (including Lady chapel) . . . . . 584 ft. Length of nave, without narthex 192 ,, Width of nave between centres of pillars . b -% 5345 Width across transepts . . 198 ,, Width of north fagade . . 196 ,, Height of arches in nave and choir. . : 65 Height of barrel-vaulting in o naveand choir. . . . . 116 ,, Height of vaulting in high tran- septs Me Ge des ace 140 ,, Height of vaulting under towers 161 ,, Height of central towers . 260 ,, Height of northern tower 200 y ” Superficial area + 90,000 sq. ft. 909 The congregation had previously met in Pilgrim Street. Street Chapel was built for them, but the donor became bankrupt and the place was sold. From 1815 to 1819 the Sweden- borgians used Cockspur Street Chapel, from 1819 to 1823 they shared Maguire Street with the Primitive Methodists, and from 1838 to 1852 they occupied Salem Chapel in Russell Street, removing to the Concert Room in Lord Nelson Street until the Bedford Street Church was ready ; Trans. Hist, Soc. vy 335 385 43- Digitized by Microsoft® Hill ; later in Islington, and Bittern Street. 908 For fuller accounts see Trans. Hist. Soc. v, §3, and (new ser.), xv, 45-84. There were burial places at Frederick Street and at the corner of Oake and Crown Streets. One of the results of the Jewish settle- ment in Liverpool was a series of three letters addressed to it by J. Willme of Martinscroft near Warrington, printed in 1756. 52 910 1.C.H. Lancs. ii, 96. 911 Articles in Nineteenth Century, 1881 and 1884, &c. $12 Copies of designs are preserved in the City Library. 918 A collection of papers, &c., &c., in seven volumes, in the City Library, pro- vides full material for the history of the movement. : 4 Rep. of Proceedings published by Cathedral Committee. WEST DERBY HUNDRED It is estimated that the cost of erecting the whole cathedral will be at least £750,000 ; of the Lady Chapel, choir, and twin towers, which are being first built, about £350,000. Towards this sum over £300,000 has been already contributed, including over £70,000 for special purposes, among which may be named the Lady Chapel, to be erected by the Earle and Langton families, the chapter-house, to be crected by the Masonic Lodges of the West Lancashire pro- vince, as well as several windows, the organ, the font, &c., which have been already given by various donors. The first attempt to establish in UNIVERSITY Liverpool an institution for higher education was the foundation of the Royal Institution, opened in 1817 ; it maintained collections of scientific objects and paintings, it also organized series of lectures in its early years. But, though highly valuable as a nucleus for the meetings of various learned societies, it never developed, as its founders had hoped, into a great teaching institution. In 1857 an attempt was made to develop, in connexion with the Mechanics’ Institute (now the Liverpool Institute), a system of courses of instruction in prepara- tion for London degrees."* This organization was called Queen’s College ; but, based upon the fun- damentally false idea that instruction of this type could be made to pay its own expenses, it never attained any success, and being merely a drain upon the re- sources of the flourishing schools to which it was at- tached, it was finally suppressed in 1879. Meanwhile, in 1834, the physicians and surgeons of the Royal Infirmary had organized a Medical School, wh‘ch attained considerable success, though quite un- endowed. ‘This school was to be the real nucleus of the university. It was from the teachers in this school —all leading medical men in the city, among whom should be especially named the late Sir W. M. Banks and Dr. R. Caton—that the main demand came for the foundation of a college, during the seven- ties, when such institutions were springing up in most large English towns.” They received warm support from a few of the most enlightened citizens, especially from the Rev. Charles Beard, whose influence in the early history of the university can scarcely be over- valued ; and the proposal to found a university college was formally initiated at a town’s meeting in 1878. But the merchants of the city were found to be hard to convert to any interest in the scheme. It took a year to collect £10,000; and it was not until Mr. William Rathbone,’® relieved from Parliamentary duties by a defeat at the election of 1880, took up the cause that money came in freely. In a few months, mainly by his personal efforts, £80,000 were collected. In October 1881 a charter of incorporation was obtained, based on the lines laid down in London, Manchester, and elsewhere; in January 1882 the institution, under the name of University College, Liverpool, commenced its work in a disused lunatic asylum on a site beside the Royal Infirmary and the Medical School, provided by the corporation. At the outset there were six chairs and two lectureships. The next stage in the history of the university was marked by its admission in 1884 as a member of the 915 Life of W, Roscoe, ii, 151 ff.3 Rep. of the RI. 516 Rep, of the Liverpool Institute and of Queen’s College. 917 J. Campbell Brown, First Chap. in the Hist. of Univ. Coll. ; R. Caton, article on The Making of the Univ.(1907); Univ. LIVERPOOL federal Victoria University, in association with Owens College, Manchester, and (after 1887) Yorkshire College, Leeds. In order to obtain this admission an additional endowment of £30,000 was raised by public subscription, out of which two new chairs were founded; while the old Medical School was formally incorporated with the college as its medical faculty. The association with the Victoria University lasted for nineteen years, and was in many ways advantageous. The progress of the college in equip- ment and teaching strength during this period was both rapid and steady. A series of admirably equipped buildings was erected ; a spacious chemical laboratory (opened 1886, enlarged 1896); a large engineering laboratory (the gift of Sir A. B. Walker, 1889) ; the main Victoria building, including a fine library pre- sented by Sir Henry Tate, and the clock tower erected from the civic subscription to commemorate the jubilee of 1887 (opened 1892); magnificent laboratories of physiology and pathology, given by Rev. 8. A. Thompson Yates (opened 1895); and a handsome botanical laboratory given by Mr. W. P. Hartley (1902). During the same period eight additional chairs were endowed, and many lecture- ships and scholarships were founded. Throughout the early history of the college it had rested mainly on the support of a comparatively small group of friends; among those whose munificence rendered possible the rapid development of the college, special mention should be made, in addition to those already named, of the fifteenth and sixteenth Earls of Derby, successive presidents of the college, both of whom founded chairs ; of Mr. George Holt, most princely of the early benefactors ; of Sir John Brunner, Mr. Holbrook Gaskell, and Mr. Thomas Harrison, all of whom founded chairs; and of Mr. E. K. Muspratt, Mr. John Rankin, Mr. J. W. Alsop, Mr. A. F. Warr, Mr. C. W. Jones, Sir Edward Lawrence, and others. But the chief feature of the later part of this period was the gradual acquisition of the confidence and respect of the city at large. This came slowly ; but it was due especially to the demonstration of the utility of the institution which was afforded by the creation of a remarkable series of special schools, due in large measure to the vigour and inventiveness of the teaching body, among whom may be especially named Professor (now Sir Rubert) Boyce and Professor J. M. Mackay. A training college for teachers, a school of architecture and the applied arts, the first of its kind in England, a school of commerce, a school of law, a school of public health, and, most remarkable of all, the now world-famous school of tropical medicine, were successively organized. These organizations brought the college into intimate contact with the most important intellectual professions of the city, demonstrated to the community the direct value of higher studies, and earned the growing support both of the public and of the city council, which co- operated in the organization of most of them. They also gave to the college a distinctive character of its own, and rendered its continued association with other colleges, developing along different lines, more and more inappropriate. The establishment of an independent university in| i Coll. and the Univ. of Liv.: a Retrospect | (1907). 918 E, Rathbone, Life of W. Rathbone. 53 Digitized by Microsoft® A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE Birmingham sharpened this feeling, and in 1901 a movement began for the securing of a separate univer- sity charter. ‘This demand, which involved the dis- solution of the Victoria University, met with keen opposition. But it also aroused a quite remarkable and unexpected popular interest in the city. An endowment fund of £180,000 was raised in a few months ; the city council unanimously supported the application, and later voted an annual grant of £10,000 ; and in 1903, after a searching inquiry by the Privy Council, a royal charter was granted establishing the University of Liverpool. It began its career distinguished among British universities by the intimate relations in which it stands to the city which is its seat, an intimacy which time increasingly accentuates. Since the grant of the charter, the growth of the university has been remarkable; despite the large subscription of 1903, each year since that date has brought gifts of the average value of £30,000. A series of new buildings, including the George Holt Physical Laboratory, the William Johnston Laboratory of Medical Research, a new medical school building, laboratories of zoology and electrical engineering, and the first British laboratory of physical chemistry, built by Mr. E. K. Muspratt, have been erected. Thir- teen new chairs have been endowed, besides numerous lectureships, fellowships, and scholarships. The num- ber of students has grown rapidly, from 581 in 1901 to 1,007 in 1907. But perhaps the most striking feature of these years has been that while the more utilitarian studies, to which some hostile critics ex- pected the whole strength of the new university to be devoted, have by no means been starved, the greatest developments have been in the field of advanced research in pure arts and science. Several chairs exist exclusively for the encouragement of research. Perhaps the most astonishing result of the establish- ment of the university has been the institution, in a trading town, of the most powerfully-organized school of archaeology in Britain, a school which possesses three endowed chairs, has got together admirable teaching collections, and has organized expeditions for the excavation of sites in Egypt, Central America, and Asia Minor. The university is governed by the king as visitor, by a chancellor, two pro-chancellors, a vice-chancellor and a treasurer, by a court of over 300 members represent- ing donors and public bodies, a council of 32 members, a senate of 42 members, a convocation of graduates, and five faculties. Its capital amounted in 1907 to £735,000, entirely provided by private gifts, and its annual income to £61,000, derived in part from inter- est in endowments (£17,000), in part from government grants (over £12,000), in part from municipal grants (over £14,000, of which the largest item is £11,750 per annum from the Corporation of Liverpool), and in part from students’ fees (£15,000). The university is divided into five Faculties—Arts, Science, Medicine, Law, and Engineering. Of these the Faculty of Arts is the largest, both in the number of students and in the number of its endowed chairs ; the University of Liverpool having been from its initiation distinguished among modern English universities by the prominence which it has given to arts studies. All the principal hospitals of the city are connected for clinical pur- 919R, Muir, The Univ. of Liv, : its pre- sent state, 1907. poses with the Faculty of Medicine, while St. Aidan’s College, Birkenhead, Edge Hill Training College, and the Liverpool Training College are affiliated to it. Elementary education began in Liver- SCHOOLS pool with the provision of a number of Sunday-schools for the poor, founded as the result of a town’s meeting in 1784.°%° These were rapidly followed by the institution of day- schools, provided either by various denominations or by endowment. The earliest of these schools were the Old Church School in Moorfields (1789), the Unitarian Schools in Mount Pleasant (1790) and Manesty Lane (1792), and the Wesleyan Brunswick School (1790). In 1823 there were thirty-two day- schools ‘ for the education of the poor’! educating 7,441 children, of which 14 were Church Schools with 2,914 pupils, 2 Roman Catholic with 440 pupils, and 18 Nonconformist with 4,087 pupils. The number of schools largely increased between 1823 and 1870, so that there was no very serious deficiency of school places when, in 1870, education became univer- sal and compulsory. When the school board began its work in Liverpool in 1871 there were already two public elementary schools, founded by the cor- poration in 1826, and transferred to the administra- tion of the board ; and the provision of school places in voluntary schools was above the average for England; but many new places had to be gradually provided by the erection of board schools. The following table shows the state of elementary education in 1871, and the progress made up to 1902 :— %” ELEMENTARY ScHooLs 1871 1902 Type of School No. of | School | No. of | School Schools} Places |Schools} Places Church of England . . «| 47 | 25,773 66 43,180 Roman Catholic. . . . 16 12,145 37 32,614 Undenominational and Wes- leyan . «. . «© « «| 16 8,084 | 10 6,519 Board . . . 6 « 6 _ _ 49 49,765 Total . . . «| 79 = | 46,002 | 162 132,078 920 Picton’s Lrv, Munic. Rec. ii, 284. 921 Smithers, Liverpool, 264. 54 No detailed account can be given of the work of the board during the thirty years of its work, but two or three features deserve note. In a city which beyond most others is torn asunder by religious strife, the intru- sion of this strife was throughout avoided, owing to the wise policy initiated in the early years, largely by Mr. S. G. Rathbone and Mr. Christopher Bushell. The school board was distinguished almost from the be- ginning by the attention which it gave to the training of teachers. Asearly as 1875 a Pupil Teachers’ College was established in two houses in Shaw Street, the rent of which was provided by Mr. 8. G. Rathbone. In 1898 the college entered upon its handsome premises in Clarence Street, and in 1906 it became the Oulton Secondary School. It was largely also through the zeal of members of the school board that the Edge Hill Training College for women teachers was founded in 1884. A further striking feature of the work of the board was its intimate association with the Liver- pool Council of Education, founded in 1873, which in the days before any public authority was empowered to undertake such work provided a scholarship ladder 929 Information supplied by the Educa- tion Office. Digitized by Microsoft® Liverroot : THe Orp Brugcoar ScHoor (From an old Print) Liverpoot : Gorge Buixpines, 1828 (From an Engraving) Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED from the elementary schools to the secondary schools of the city, by which many poor boys have climbed to the universities and thence to important positions in the world. The Council of Education still exists. It administers a scholarship trust fund of over £20,000, as well as the Waterworth Scholarship fund, the in- come of which is over £300 per annum. Its scholar- ships are now merged in the scholarship system instituted by the City Education Committee. The elementary schools now controlled by the City Education Committee are as follows ;—** P Teachers Be. yf a) e @ |28les *“J8lel¢e la] * | fa leg o 2 . > a Ye ot < a < & Council 50] 134) 162) 1,361) 315] 57,011] 1,140) 374 Schools Church of 64}155)154| 899]101| 37,631] 588136 England Roman Catho-| 36/102/102] 689|193] 32,466| go2/41 lic Wesleyan 7| 17) 16] 106] 7] 4,040] 577/33 Undenomina- 4| 8] 7]| 48! 4] 1,543] 386/28 tional Totals . |161/416/ 441 a 132,691| 824/378 There are also five day industrial schools, to which children from drunken homes are committed on a magistrate’s order, and receive food as well as instruc- tion; ten ordinary certified industrial schools, a reformatory ship, the 4&éar, five schools for physically and mentally defective children, and one truants’ industrial school. The total cost of the elementary system in 1906-7 was £625,623. During the last few years the Education Committee has been engaged in providing facilities for higher education, in which, thanks to the failure to develop the ancient grammar school,™ Liverpool was behind most other English cities. Of the older secondary schools some account has been already given.” Of these schools three—the Liverpool Institute, Black- burne House, and the Liverpool Collegiate School (formerly Liverpool College Middle and Commercial Schools)—have passed under the direct control of the Education Committee. ‘The Pupil Teachers’ College in Clarence Street has been turned into the Oulton Secondary School, with 873 pupils ; one of the most highly developed of the elementary schools has been turned into a secondary school (Holt Secondary School), and a large secondary school for girls has been built. Eight city scholarships, tenable at the University of Liverpool, are thrown open to the competition of pupils of these and other secondary schools in the city. Outside of the system controlled by the Education Committee, there are, in addition to the schools enumerated in V.C.H. Lancs. il, §95, four denominational pupil teacher centres, two of which, 23 Rep, for 1907. #°a Omitting Pupil Teachers. 824 V.C.H. Lancs. ii, $93. 9°5 Thid. 595. 936 For the grammar school, see /.C.H. Lancs, ii, 593. 927 See Digest of Lancs. Charities (House of Commons Papers, 1869). income at that date was £2,037. was mainly derived from the interest on the Molyneux foundation, which was wisely invested in lands in the township of Liverpool (the Rector’s Fields, formerly 55 LIVERPOOL St. Edmund’s College (Church of England) and the Catholic Institute, have been transformed into se- condary schools. Note should also be made of the school-ship Conway, moored in the Mersey, which trains boys to be officers in the mercantile marine, and for Dartmouth. The Technical Instruction Committee conducts classes in the Central Technical School, Byrom Street ; it has three branch schools in other parts of the city, and conducts regular evening classes also in ten other institutions, There are also a nautical college, a school for cookery, and a school of domestic economy. The City School of Art is largely attended, and has now incorporated the School of Applied Arts, formerly associated with the University School of Architecture. The city also contains two training colleges for teachers, the Liverpool Training College, Mount Pleasant, founded in 1856, and conducted by the sisters of the Notre Dame, and the Edge Hill Train- ing College (undenominational) founded in 1884. Both are for women, and both are affiliated to the university. For the training of Roman Catholic priests there is St. Edward’s College, in Everton. The earliest Liverpool charities, apart from the grammar school, were the almshouses.”” In 1684 twelve almshouses were built by David Poole near the bottom of Dale Street; in 1692 Dr. Silvester Richmond founded a small group of almshouses for sailors’ widows in Shaw’s Brow; in 1706 Richard Warbrick established another small group, also for sailors’ widows, in Hanover Street. Successive small gifts during the 18th century, amounting in all to over £2,500, increased the endowment. In 1786 the almshouses were consolidated and removed to their present site in Arrad Street (Hope Street). They are administered in part by the corporation, in part by the rector, in part by trustees. In 1708 the Bluecoat Hospital was founded by the Rev. R. Styth, one of the rectors, and by Bryan Blundell, master mariner, as a day school for fifty poor boys, on a site granted by the corporation in School Lane. Blundell, by liberal gifts and assidu- ous collection, raised sufficient funds for the erection of a permanent building where they could be housed. The graceful and dignified building, still standing, was begun in 1714 and completed in 1718. The number of inmates has been successively increased ; there are now 250 boys and Joo girls. In 1905 the school was removed to a spacious and handsome new building on open ground in Wavertree. ‘The Bluecoat Hospital ranks as the premier charity of the city, and has always received the warm support of Liverpool merchants. One hundred and twenty-eight distinct charitable institutions now in existence are enumerated by the Charity Organization Society.”* They cannot all be enumerated, and it will be convenient to group them. i. Medical Charities—The Royal Infirmary, which is the second oldest medical charity in the north of England, was instituted in 1745. Its first building CHARITIES part of the Moss Lake). When leases fall in the charity will be very rich. 928 Trans, Hist. Soc papers in vols. xiy xiii, xvi, xxxi. 929 On charities, Liv. Charities (an- nual); Burdett, Hosp. and Charities ; re- ports of the individual charities. The annual This Digitized by Microsoft® A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE was on the site of St. George’s Hall, and was opened in 1749. In 1824 it was removed to Pembroke Place, and it was again rebuilt in 1890. From 1792 to 1879 a lunatic asylum was connected with it ; it also maintained a lock hospital ; and in 1860 it insti- tuted, under the guidance of William Rathbone, a nurses’ home which formed the basis of the first English experiment in district nursing. In 1834 a medical school was established at the infirmary ; it has since developed into the medical faculty of the university. The other general hospitals are the Northern, instituted in 1834, rebuilt by aid of a grant from the David Lewis fund in 1896-7, whence it is now known as the David Lewis Northern Hospital ; the Royal Southern Hospital, instituted in 1814 and rebuilt in 1872, which provides clinical teaching for the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine ; and the Stanley Hospital, established in 1867. ‘These three hospitals, together with some of the special hospitals, unite to form the United Hospitals Clinical School in connexion with the medical faculty of the uni- versity. There is also a homeopathic hospital, opened in 1887. In 1778 a dispensary was opened in John Street, eight years after the opening of the first English dispensary in London. There are now three dispensaries, for the north, south, and east of the city. The special hospitals, in the order of their foundation, are :—the Ladies’ Charity (founded in 1796; Lying-in Hospital opened 1841); the Eye and Ear Infirmary®’ (Eye 1820, Ear 1839); the St. George’s Skin Hospital (1842); the Children’s Infirmary (instituted in 1851, rebuilt in 1905-7) ; the Dental Hospital (1860) ; the Cancer Hospital (1862) ; the Consumption Hospital (1863, rebuilt 1904), to which is attached a fine sanatorium in Delamere Forest, founded in 1901; the Liverpool Convalescent Institution at Woolton (1873); the Hospital for Women (1883); the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat, Nose, and Ear (1884); the Home for Epileptics (1887) ; the County Hospital for Children ; the Home for Female Incurables ; and the Vergmont Institution for Female Inebriates. To the same group belongs the District Nursing Associa- tion, in Prince’s Road, founded by Mr. William Rathbone in 1862, the first of its kind in England. The income of these charities from endowments and subscriptions amounted in 1906 to more than £80,000. But in addition to these voluntary hos- pitals the corporation maintains six hospitals for infectious diseases, with 881 beds; and the select vestry not only maintains a workhouse infirmary, but also, in conjunction with the Toxteth and West Derby Guardians, a consumption hospital at Heswall on the Dee. The total number of beds available in all the Liverpool hospitals is over 4,000. For the blind, deaf, and dumb, there are :—The School for the Indigent Blind (founded 1791), the oldest institution of its kind, with 210 inmates ; the School for the Deaf and Dumb (1825) with 110 pupils ; the Catholic Blind Asylum (1841) with 199 inmates ; the Workshops and Home Teaching Society for the Outdoor Blind (1859) ; the Adult Deaf and Dumb Benevolent Society (1864); and the Home for Blind Children (1874). 980 Life of W. Rathbone. 981 Now North John Street. 1781 removed to Church Street. It was in 982 Originally Ophthalmic Infirmary. In 1820 was also founded the Liverpool ii. Homes, Orphanages, €3c., for Children.—In addi- tion to the Bluecoat Hospital, already described, the following institutions exist for the rescue of chil- dren :—Female Orphan Asylum (1840), Orphan Asylum for boys (1850), Infant Orphan Asylum (1858), each accommodating 150 inmates ; the Shel- tering Homes for Destitute Children (1872) annually train and send out to Canada 250 children; the Seamen’s Orphan Institution, which is comparatively well endowed, maintains 350 children ; the Indefati- gable training ship (1865), with which is connected a sailing brigantine, prepares about 250 boys for the mercantile marine ; the Lancashire Navy League Sea- training Home does similar work; the Children’s Friend Society (1866) maintains a Boys’ Home ; the Newsboys’ Home takes in sixty-five street boys; and there is a group of homes for training poor girls, chiefly for domestic service, including the Magdalen Institution (1855) for fifty girls; the Mission to Friendless Girls (1862); the Preventive Homes (1865) for forty-four girls; the Training Home for Girls (1894) for thirty-two girls; and the Bencke Home; while the Ladies’ Association for the Care and Training of Girls maintains four distinct homes. There also exist a Children’s Aid Society for clothing poor children attending elementary schools, and a Police-aided Clothing Association, which provides clothes for children engaged in street-trading (who are in Liverpool required to be registered) and with the aid of the police prevents parents from selling the clothes. The Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has been at work for a longer time than the National Society. ili. Penitentiary Charities. —The Lancashire Female Refuge (1823) maintains a home for women coming out of prison, and is the oldest charity of its kind. The Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society does the same work on a more general plan. For fallen women there are the Female Penitentiary (1811), the Bene- volent Institution and Rescue Home (1839), the Home of the Midnight Mission (1875), and the Home of the Liverpool Rescue Society (1890). iv. Homes for the Aged.—These include the Widows’ Home (1871) ; the Homes for Aged Mariners (1882), including a large central building founded by Mr. William Cliff, and seventeen detached cottages in the grounds in which married couples may live ; and the Andrew Gibson Home for the widows of seamen (1905). v. Pension Charities—These are numerous. The Aged Merchant Seamen and Widows’ Fund (1870) gave 166 small pensions in 1906; the Governesses Benevolent Institution (1849) distributes {900 per annum in pensions ; the Seamen’s Pension Fund was founded by Mr. T. H. Ismay in 1887 with a capital of £20,000, to which Mrs. Ismay later added £10,000 for seamen’s widows; the Shipbrokers’ Benevolent Society (1894) distributes annuities of not more than £30 to old employees; and the Merchant Guild administers ten distinct pension funds, chiefly for the relief of distressed persons of the middle and upper classes ; it awarded 179 pensions in 1906, the largest being of £42. vi. Of Miscellaneous Charities there are too many to Institute for Curing Diseases of the Eye, now defunct, 56 Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY HUNDRED be enumerated, but mention should be made of the Sailors’ Home, founded in 1852, which provides cheap lodging and help for sailors when they are paid off. And it should be noted that its continuous existence, since in 1809 it was founded as the Society WIGAN for Preventing Wanton Cruelty to Brute Animals, makes the local branch of the R.S.P.C.A. an older body than the national institution. The David Lewis Club and Hostel is an immense Rowton House with a very handsome club in relation with it. WIGAN WIGAN BILLINGE HIGHER UPHOLLAND ABRAM PEMBERTON END DALTON HAIGH BILLINGE CHAPEL WINSTANLEY INCE ASPULL END ORRELL HINDLEY ‘This large parish was at the time of the Conquest included within the hundred of Newton, with the exception of its western townships, Upholland and Dalton, which were within West Derby, and perhaps also of Haigh and Aspull in the north-east. The parish with the same exceptions became part of the fee or barony of Makerfield. Aspull was either then or later placed in the hundred of Salford, in which it has remained till the present. Except in the town- ship of Abram the geological formation consists entirely of the Coal Measures. Coal was discovered and used in the rsth century, or earlier; the mines were ex- tended, and during the last century became the pre- dominant feature of the district. Other industries have also grown up. Though Wigan was the meeting place of Roman roads which traversed the parish, but few remains of the Roman period have been discovered, and these Acshurse, Markland Se YP ORRELL:? fworley Tunslesd <8 Bisphamtiol \WINSTANLEYS, ees ‘ i ¢ chiefly at Wigan itself. From that time practically nothing is known of the history of the district until after the Norman Conquest. A town with busy traders grew up around the church, and became a centre for the business of a large part of the hundred, political and mercantile. The rebellion of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in 1321-2, affected it through its rector and also through the Holands, one of the chief local families, who adhered to his cause. The only monastery in the parish, Upholland Priory, was founded in 1317, and Edward II stayed there a fort- night when he passed through the district on his way to Liverpool in 1323. The landowners were hostile to the Reformation, and in 1630-3 the following compounded for the sequestration of two-thirds of their estates for re- cusancy by annual fines: Abram, Henry Lance, iMightield ‘ ~ ASPULL wat Salford Hund) § 3 R an f B =A : e S&S foes Peel % i Nees, A—hestwood OU ~ f " Ny . Seen at yA N \ esas \\ B$6{[. GGG Digitized by Microsoft® A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE £10; Richard Ashton, £15; Aspull, Ralph Haugh- ton, £6 135. 4¢d.; Billinge, Edmund Bispham, £3 ; Birchley, Roger Anderton, {£21 125. 4¢.; Dalton, Thomas Bank, £2; John Reskow, f2; Haigh, William Bradshaw, £3 6s. 8¢.; Hindley, Abraham Langton of Lowe, £10 ; Ince, Thomas Gerard, £40 ; Thomas Ince, £8 ; Pemberton, Edmund Winstanley, £2 10s. The Civil War found the district as a whole loyal to the king; but the Ashhursts and some other families were Parliamentarians. There was fighting at Wigan in 1644 and 1651, and much confiscation by the Commonwealth authorities. ‘The Restoration appears to have been generally welcomed. At the Revolution there was much more division, but no open opposition was made, and the Jacobite rising of 1715 does not seem to have had any adherents in the parish. ‘The march of the Young Pretender through Wigan, Ince, and Hindley in 1745 brought in no recruits. The more recent history has, as in the north of England generally, been that of the growth of manufactures and commerce. The total area of the parish is 29,0334 acres. Of this at present 12,938 acres are arable, 7,179 per- manent grass, and 854 woods and plantations. ‘The population in 1901 numbered 157,915. The county lay of 1624 was arranged so that the parish counted as six townships and a half, Wigan itself answering for two. The other groups were—Pemberton and Ince, Hindley and Abram, Holland and Dalton, Orrell, Billinge and Winstanley ; Haigh was the half town- ship. Aspull, being in Salford Hundred, was grouped with Blackrod. When the hundred paid {£100 Wigan parish, excluding Aspull, paid £12 10s. The ancient fifteenth was more irregularly levied thus : Wigan £3, Haigh 7s., Hindley 16s. 8¢., Ince 9s., Dalton 19s., Abram 115. 8¢., Upholland £1 75. 82, Billinge cum Winstanley 17s., Orrell 6s., Pemberton 18s. 4¢., or £9 125. 4d. when the hundred paid £106 gs. 6d. Aspull paid 7s. 8d. in Salford. The church of ALL SAINTS? has a chancel of two bays with north and south chapels, the Legh chapel on the north and the Bradshagh or Bradshaw chapel on the south, a nave of six bays with aisles, and a tower at the north-east angle of the north aisle of the nave, with the Gerard (now Walmesley) chapel adjoining it on the west. East of the tower is a modern vestry. Though the plan of the church is ancient, the building has undergone even more than the general amount of renewal which has been the lot of so many of the neighbouring churches. The chancel is re- corded to have been rebuilt in 1620 by Bishop Bridgeman, and was again rebuilt in 1845. The Bradshagh and Legh chapels, which had been re- paired if not rebuilt in 1620, were also rebuilt in 1845, and the nave taken down and rebuilt from the foundations in 1850, much of the old material being however used. The Gerard chapel, rebuilt about 1620, escaped the general fate. The tower and the lowest parts of the stair turrets at the west end of the CHURCH 1 From the list in Lucas’s ‘Warton’ (MS). 2 By an inquisition in 1370 it was found that Roger Hancockson of Hindley had, without the king’s licence, bequeathed a rent of 4od. to the church of Blessed Mary of Wigan. Possibly the gift was dedication. Mich. 6 Ric. II. dates from 1258. ser.), i, 282, to the Bradshagh chantry, which had this See Q. R. Mem. R. 160 of The All Saints’ fair For burial places in the church in 1691, see Genealogist (new Arms in the church; Trans, Hist, Soc. xxxiii, 248, 58 chancel were not rebuilt, and contain the oldest work now existing. With such a history, any definite idea of the development of the plan is out of the question. The tower is at least as old as the 13th century, and in the course of rebuilding some 12th-century stones are said to have been found. The nave arcades, as noted by Sir Stephen Glynne,? have somewhat the appearance of 14th-century work, with moulded arches and piers of four engaged shafts of good proportion. All the old stone has been re- tooled at the rebuilding of 1850, and the capitals are entirely of that date, so that it is impossible to deduce the former details of the work. A clearstory runs for the whole length of the nave and chancel, and the nave roof retains a good deal of old work, being divided into panels by moulded beams. The figures of angels on the roof corbels are terra-cotta substitutes for old oak figures. All the windows of the church before 1850, except the east and west windows, were like those still remaining in the Gerard chapel, with uncusped tracery and four-centred heads. ‘The tower opens to the north aisle by a pointed arch, with half octagon responds, and its ground story is lighted by a two-light window on the north, and a three-light window on the west. The latter was built up, per- haps when the Gerard chapel was added, and was opened out again in 1850; it is of three lights, apparently of the second half of the 13th century, though much repaired. In the sill of the north window is set an effigy of which only the face can be seen, the rest being entirely plastered over. It is said to be that of an ecclesiastic, wearing a mitre, and was found under the tower. In the east jamb of the same window is set a panelled stone with two scrolls on the top, locally believed to be part of a Roman altar. It is impossible to examine it satisfactorily in its present condition. The tower has been heightened to make room for aclock, and has pairs of windows on each face of the belfry stage, and an embattled parapet with angle pinnacles. In its upper stages no ancient detail remains, but it seems probable that all above the first stage was rebuilt in the 15th century. Of the ancient fittings of the church nothing remains. The turret stairs at the west end of the chancel doubtless led to the rood-loft, and before 1850 a gallery spanned the entrance to the chancel, carrying an organ given to the church in 1708, and afterwards moved into the Legh chapel. At the west end of the nave was a gallery with seats for the mayor and corporation, and a ‘three-decker’ pulpit and desk stood against the fourth pillar of the nave arcade. The altar-table is of the 17th century, of oak with a black marble slab. A piece of tapestry with the story of Ananias and Sapphira, formerly hung as a reredos to the altar, is now above the south doorway of the nave, A font dating from c, 1710, removed from the church in 1850, is now in St. George’s church, and the present font is modern. Two 14th-century gravestones with floriated crosses are built into the walls of the tower, and near them lies a slab with a plain cross and the inscription, ‘o1 1585.’ In the Bradshagh chapel is an altar-tomb with two effigies, 8 Cbs. of Lancs. (Chet. Soc. xxvii), 58. 4 The octagonal bow] of a 14th-century font, used successively as a water trough and flower pot, lies in the garden of Wigan Hall; Trans, Hist, Soc. (new ser.), xvii, 68. Digitized by Microsoft® sHOwING TOWER WEST, Wican Cuurcu, FRoM THE NorrH InTERIOR, LOOKING Easr Upuotitanp Priory CHuRcH : Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® WEST DERBY said to be those of Sir William de Bradshagh and his wife Mabel, the effigy of the lady alone being old. Sir William’s effigy was much damaged, and a new figure has taken its place, the remains of the old effigy being put inside the altar-tomb. Against the south wall of the chapel is the monument of Sir Roger Bradshagh, 1684, and there are several 19th-century Balcarres monuments.° There are eight bells ; the first seven of 1732, by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester, and the tenor of 1876, by Taylor of Loughborough. ‘There isalso a priest’s bell of 1732, by Rudhall. The church plate was for the most part given by Richard Wells in 1706, but was remade about 1850, the former inscriptions recording the gift being pre- served. One large paten is, however, old, having an embossed centre with the Adoration of the Magi. There are three sets of large silver-gilt communion plate, and a smaller set, also silver-gilt. Of plain silver are three flagons and three cruets, and two alms- dishes, the last dating from 1724. ‘There are also seven brass almsdishes of various dates, two pewter dishes of 1825, and twelve of 1840. The registers begin in 1580, and are contained in over seventy volumes,® and the churchwardens’ account books are complete from 1651. The sex- ton’s day book has much detailed information about the burials in the church. In 1066 ‘the church of the ADVOWSON manor’ of Newton had one plough- land exempt from all dues.’ It may be assumed that the lord of Newton, who at that time was the King, was patron. When the Makerfield HUNDRED WIGAN naturally went with it, although owing to frequent minorities the kings very often presented.® This led to disputes. On a vacancy in 1281 the patronage was claimed by Edward I, but judgement was recorded for Robert Banastre.? At the following vacancy, 1303, William son of Jordan de Standish claimed the right to present, but failed to justify it.'? The value of the benefice in 1291 had been estimated at 50 marks a year."' The value of the ninth of sheaves, wool, &c., was only {24 25. in 1341, but Wigan borough was not included." In 1349 the crown revived its claim to the patronage and this time obtained a verdict. It was certainly an erroneous decision, and the Bishop of Lichfield seems to have been unwilling to accept the royal nominee,“ John de Winwick. It is to the credit of this rector that some time before resigning in 1359 he persuaded the king to restore the advowson to the Langtons.® The Standish family afterwards revived their claim to the patronage, and the matter appears to have been closed only in 1446 by a verdict for James de Langton, then rector.” In the 16th century the Langtons began to sell the next presentations,” and in 1598 Sir Thomas Langton appears to have mortgaged or sold ‘the parsonage of Wigan’ to the trustees of John Lacy, citizen of London ; the latter in 1605 sold it to a Mr. Pears- hall, probably a trustee for Richard Fleetwood, of Calwich, the heir of the Langtons."* Bishop Bridge- man, then rector, agreed about 1638 to purchase the advowson for {1,000 from Sir Richard Fleetwood, but Sir Richard Murray, D.D., warden of Manchester, offering £10 more, secured it, and then tried to sell barony was formed the patronage of this church 5 The monuments are fully described in Canon Bridgeman’s Wigan Ch, (Chet. Soc.), 689-715. 6 The first volume, 1580-1625, has been printed by the Lancashire Parish Register Society. The volume for 1676-83 is among Lord Kenyon’s family deeds ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 102. 7 See V.C.H. Lancs. i, 286a. 8 This, it will be found, was the case in the earliest recorded presentation, 1205. About ten years later Thurstan Banastre granted the patronage to the canons of Cockersand, but this gift does not appear to have had effect; Cockersand Chart. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 676. The Wigan charter of 1246 was witnessed by Robert Banas- tre, lord of Makerfield, as ‘true patron’ of the church. 9 Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.). 201; Dep. Keeper's Rep. 1, App. 262. A few years earlier there had been a dispute as to the patronage, but the particulars are not recorded ; De Banco R. 7, m. 39. 10 William de Standish alleged that his ancestor Ralph, living in the time of King Richard, had presented his own clerk, Ulf by name, to the chapel of Wigan ; and that Ulf was instituted and received the tithes, oblations, and dues, ‘amounting to half a mark and more.’ Nothing otherwise is known of this Ulf. Although it is unlikely that such a claim would have been put forward by the Standishes against great personages like the lords of Makerfield unless there was justification for it, the description as a ‘chapel’ and the very small amount of dues received raises a doubt. The dis- tinction of ‘church’ and ‘chapel’ was at once seized upon by the defence ; ‘ We can- Digitized by Microsoft® not yield up what plaintiff demands, for we hold the advowson of a church, and at present we do not know if he demands the advowson of a chapel in that church, as we have seen in other cases, or if he means to say that there is another chapel.’ See the late Canon Bridgeman’s Hist. of the Ch. of Wigan (Chet. Soc.), quoting Year Bk. of Edw. I (Rolls Ser.), 358. The information in the present notes is largely drawn from his work, in which documents quoted are usually printed in full. Many of them are from the family records, The Standish claim was still pending in 1312 5 Bridgeman, op. cit. 797. The following references to the suit may be added: De Banco R. 153, m. 98 d—an extent of the chapel of Wigan; R. 161, m. 11—the chapel extended at £9 a year, but the case adjourned because Robert de Langton was setting out for Scotland on the king’s service. Thomas de Langtree released his claim to the advowson of the church or chapel of Wigan in favour of Standish ; Coram Reg. R. 297, m. 20. 11 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 249. In the claim made by the rector against John del Crosse in 1329 it was alleged that the gross value was about £200 a ear. 12 Ing, Non. (Rec. values were: Haigh 47s. 84}d.; Hindley 32s. 2hd.; Ince 32s. 24d.; Pemberton 64s. §4d.3; Billinge 64s. sdd.; Orrell 32s. 24d.; Holland 64s. 5$¢.; Dalton 32s. 24d. The value of the ninth of the movable goods of the men living in the borough of Wigan was 109s. 4d. 18 De Banco R. 358, m. 50. The king alleged in support of his claim that Ralph 59 Com.), 41. The 47s. 84d.; Aspull 64s. std.; Abram it to the crown for £4,000.” Charles I not being de Leicester and John Maunsel had been presented by Henry III. Sir Robert de Langton replied that he had himself pre- sented Master John de Craven, who was admitted, John de Craven, and Ivo de Langton ; while his father John had pre- sented Master Robert de Clitheroe, and before that Robert Banastre had pre- sented Master Richard de Marlan in the time of Henry III; he had thus the prescription of a century in his favour. See also Coram Reg. R. 357, m. 21. No allusion was made to the presentation of Adam de Walton, which renders it almost certain that he was the clerk presented in 1281, when the king had before claimed the patronage. 14 See De Banco R. 361, m. 42d; the king v. the Bishop of Lichfield, who had refused to admit John de Winwick to the vacant rectory. Adam de Hulton was also nominated 3 Cal. Pat. 1348-50, pp. 4731 496, 514, 524. 15 Dep. Keeper’s Rep. xxxii, App. 336. 16 Bridgeman, op. cit. 61-7, quoting Standish papers in Local Glean. Lancs. and Ches. ii, 60, 61. A fine concerning it, dated 1432, may be seen in Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 6, no. 59. 17 Bridgeman, op. cit. 102, 107, 121, 131. 18 Ibid. 477-80, where abstracts of fifteen deeds relating to the transfers are printed. 19 Dr. Bridgeman appears to have thought of purchasing the advowson soon after he became rector; ibid. 197. For his later attempt to purchase, see 416-18. Laud’s letter in reply shows the demands made by Dean Murray ; 418, 419. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE able to afford this, Sir John Hotham became the pur- chaser shortly afterwards ;* and his trustees about 1661 sold it to Sir Orlando Bridgeman,” son of the bishop, in whose family it has since descended, the Earl of Bradford being the patron. Sir Orlando and his son adopted a ‘self-denying ordinance,’ and formed a body of trustees to exercise the patronage,” and thus it happened that for nearly half a century the Bishops of Chester were presented to the rectory.” Meanwhile the value had very greatly increased. In the 16th century, and perhaps earlier, the system of farming the tithes prevented the rectors receiving the full revenue,™ and in 1535 the gross value was set down as {110 16s. 8d., from which had to be deducted a pension of £20, anciently paid to the cathedral of Lichfield, and other fees and dues,” so that the net value was reported as {80 135. 4¢. In the first half of the next century Bishop Bridgeman found that the clear yearly value was £570 on an average.” Bishop Gastrell, about 1717, recorded it to be ‘above £300 clear, all curates paid.’” In 1802 the receipts from tithes amounted to £1,306 8s. and afterwards receipts from the coal mining under the glebe were added. The value is now estimated at {1,500.% The rector of Wigan pays a considerable sum from his income to the in- cumbents of various churches built in the parish. The following is a list of the rectors and lords of the manor of Wigan :— Instituted Name oc: 1199. « « Randle. 2 a 2 4s es ex 23 Aprilrz05 . Robertde Durham®?! . . . . . The King . 2 Nov. 1226 . Ralph de Leicester”? . . . . . 35 P oc. 1241 . . . John Maunsel ® 20 Bridgeman, op. cit. 4833; quoting the Wigan ‘Leger,’ in which Sir Johr Hotham is in 1641 called ‘the new patron.’ At Michaelmas 1638 an agree- ment seems to have been arrived at between Charles Hotham and others and the Bishop of London and others as to the advowson ; Com. Pleas, Recov. R. Mich. 14 Chas. I, m. 3. In a fine of Mar. 1642 relating to the adyvowson, John Murray, esq., and Marian his wife were deforciants ; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 140, no. 15. 21 Bridgeman, op. cit. 484. In a fine of 1659 Charles Hotham and Elizabeth his wife were deforciants ; Pal. of Lanc, Feet of F. bdle. 164, no. 16. See also Com. Pleas, D. Enr. Mich. 1662, m. sd. . 22 Bridgeman, op. cit. 484 ; ‘ bearing in mind the corrupt practices of former pa- trons, who had turned the advowson intoa means of private gain,’ and wishing to avoid such abuses, Sir Orlando associated with himself as trustees the then Arch- bishop of Canterbury and others. 23 Ibid. 601. In 1713 the Bishop of Chester made inquiries as to the condi- tions of the trust, supposing that some preference was to be given to the Bishops of Chester ; ibid. 613. 4See the Kitchin lease described under Rector Kighley. Apart from dis- advantageous leases it was not always easy to secure the tithe ; see Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), ii, 111 3 and the complaint of Rector Smith in 1553, quoted by Canon Bridgeman, op. cit. 123-7, 1303 see also 158, 159. The difficulties of the rectors concerning their tithes were quite independent of those they had with the corporation of Wigan as lords of the manor. Besides disadvantageous leases and open violence the rectors lost through prescrip- tion, by which a modus or composition in lieu of tithes was established. Thus the Earls of Derby had long held the tithes of the townships of Dalton and Upholland ata low rent ; and about 1600 William, the sixth earl, claimed an absolute right to the tithes, paying only £12 135. 4d. a year to the rector. Rector Fleetwood tried to defeat this claim, and Bishop Bridgeman made a still more vigorous effort, but in vain; and the same modus is still paid by the Earl of Derby’s Digitized by Microsoft® . . . . ” . assigns in lieu of the tithes ; Bridgeman, op. cit. 161-3, 254-9, 647-50. Pre- scription was likewise established in the case of Ince, £4 being paid by the Gerards and their successors ; ibid, 190, 655. 25 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 220. The gross value was made up of the rents of tenants, free and at will, £25 ; rent of two water-mills 66s. 8d.; tithes of corn, hay, wool, &c., £61 35. 4d. ; oblations, small tithes, and roll, £18; perquisites and profits of the markets, 66s. 8d. Robert Langton as chief steward had a fee of £4. % Bridgeman, op. cit. 417. A state- ment of his receipts and payments for his first year of occupation ending at Christ- mas 1616 is printed 188-203; many curious details are given. A later account of the profits of the rectory will be found on pp. 307-19. Bishop Bridgeman com- piled his ‘ Leger,’ extant in a copy made by Rector Finch in 1708, recording all the lands and rights belonging to the rector and the endeavours he had made to recover and preserve them. In 1619 he compiled a terrier of the demesne lands of the rectory ; op. cit. 244-6. The names of the fields include Parson’s Meadow, Diglache or Diglake, the Mesnes, Conygrew, Rycroft, Carreslache, Parsnip Yard, and Cuckstool Croft. Potters used to come for clay to the par- son’s wastes, undertaking to make the land level again; 268. Another terrier was compiled in 1814, and is printed ibid. 651-8. 27 Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.). ii, 242. The rector was instituted to ‘Wigan with the chapel of Holland.’ There were two wardens and eighteen assistants, serving jointly for the whole parish; seven of the assistants were for the town. 28 Bridgeman, op. cit. 642. ‘ The tithes were valued by two competent persons and offered to the farmers at their separate valuations, which they all accepted, and paid their respective shares on the first Monday after Christmas, which is the day usually appointed for payment.’ The tithes of Wigan itself were gathered in kind. The mode of tithing is thus described : ‘The corn in this parish is bound up in sheaves. Eight sheaves set up together make one shock, and every tenth shock is the rector’s property, and 60 Presented by Cause of Vacancy res. of Randle if under the number of ten the rector had none. The practice was so common on small farms to have eight or nine shocks in each field bound up in large sheaves— the farmers called it “binding the tithe- man out "’—to puta stop to this I (Rector G. Bridgeman) now take every tenth sheaf when small quantities of corn are grown. Beans and peas which were hoed in rows or drills were not tithed.... The practice in this parish was so com- mon for corn growers to claim waste land corn exempt from tithe that in the year 1809 I was advised to make them pay an ackncewledgement or to take it in kind’ ; ibid. 645, 646. 29 Liverpool Diocesan Cal, 80 Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 4363; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxi, App. § 3 a charter Ly which the king appointed Adam de Freck- leton perpetual vicar of the church of Wigan, ‘which is of our donation,’ at the request of Randle treasurer of Salisbury and rector of Wigan; the latter was to receive a pension of a mark, 51 Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 147. A few years later the church of Wistow was given to the same Robert ; ibid. 177. The patronage at this time was in the king's hands through the minority of the heir of Warine Banastre. The new rector was one of the king's clerks, and probably never visited Wigan; the ‘vicarage’ of Adam was expressly reserved in the pre- sentation. 82 Cal. Pat. 1225-32, p. 88. The cause of vacancy is not stated, but Robert de Durham was living in 1222; see Cal. Pat, 1216-25, p. 332. In 1228 Ralphde Leicester was presented to the chapel of Cowesby ; ibid. 195. Seealso De Banco R. 358, m. 50, where it is stated that he and John Maunsel were nominated by Henry III. A Ralph de Leicester was Treasurer of Lincoln Cathedral in 1248 ; he died in 1253; Le Neve, Fasz. ii, 88. 83 John Maunsel was one of the most important of the royal officials; for a sketch of his career see Bridgeman op. cit. 4-30, and Dict. Nat. Biog. He was a great pluralist, adding Wigan to his other benefices before 1241, when he charged Thurstan de Holand with setting fire to a house in Wigan ; Cur. Reg. R. 121, m. 26d. As Robert Banastre is supposed to have come of age about 1239, the presen- tation must have been earlier than this ; WEST DERBY HUNDRED Instituted 1265... PTARR ek 22 Sept. 1303. 15 June 1334. 13 Nov. 1344 26 Dec. 1344. oc. 1347 . 6 12 Mar. 1349-50 3 May 1350. to July 1359; 4 Sept. 1359 . 2 Jan. 1361-2 . Lancs, Ing. and Extents, i, 147. In local history he is notable as procuring the first borough charter. He died abroad in great poverty at the end of 1264 or be- ginning of 1265. There are numerous references to him in Cal. of Papal Letters. Alexander IV, in 1259, approved the dispensation granted, at the king’s request, by Pope Innocent, allowing Maunsel to be ordained and promoted although his mother married his father, a man of noble birth, not knowing that he wasa deacon ; his father repenting, resumed his orders, and a di- vorce was declared; the dispensation should hold good, even though the mother’s plea of ignorance and the reputation of a lawful marriage could not be sustained ; ibid. i, 362. Many documents refer to his superabundance of benefices; see specially ibid. 378. 34 He in July 1265 joined with the patron, Sir Robert Banastre, in assigning an annual pension of 30 marks to the mother church of Lichfield. Canon Bridgeman states: ‘A sum of £16 isnow (1887) paid annually by the rector of Wigan to the sacristan of Lichfield Cathe- dral.’ Master Richard was still living in 1278; Assize R. 1238, m. 33d. His surname shows that he was a local man. He had a son Nicholas, who in 1292 was summoned to warrant William, rector of Donington, in the possession of a mes- suage in Wigan claimed by Robert Sper- ling and Sabina his wife ; Assize R. 408, m. 35d. 35 This rector was probably appointed at the vacancy in 1281, when the king, as stated in the text, claimed the patronage, Adam was the rector summoned in 1292 to show his title to manorial rights in Wigan ; Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 371. He was chancellor of Lichfield Cathedral from 1276 till 1292, whea he was made precentor, retaining the latter effice till his death in August 1303; Le Neve, Fast. i, §79. His executors were Adam de Walton, rector of Mitton, Adam de Walton, junior, and Richard de Ful- shaw ; De Banc. R. 164, m. 300d. 36 Lichfield Epis. Reg. i, fol. 95. He was not ordained priest till he became rector ; ibid. i, fol. 984. John de Lang- ton, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, pre- sented as guardian of Alice Banastre, heiress of the barony of Newton. The new rector was a king’s clerk and held several public appointments ; Parl. Writs, ii (3), 685-6. Leave of absence was granted by the bishop in September 1322 ; Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 7. He sided with Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and in (323 was called upon to answer for the part he had taken in the rising of 1321. Ry the jury of the wapentake of West Mr. Richard de Marklan™® . . . Mr. Adam de Walton® . . . Mr. Robert de Clitheroe *® . Ivo (John) de Langton® . . . . John de Craven® 2. 2. 2... Mr. John de Craven® , . . . Henry de Daley MA 2... } John de Winwick® 5. 0 wy Richard de Langton”. . 2. . Robert de Lostock # a) Gilt a Walter de Campden“. . m4 Name The King . Derby it was presented that Robert de Clitheroe, rector of Wigan, who had for thirty years been a clerk in the king’s chancery and for some time escheator this side of Trent, had at his own cost sent two men at arms to the earl’s assistance, one of them being his own son Adam de Clitherow, accompanied by four men on foot, all properly armed ; also, that on a certain solemn day, preaching in his church at Wigan before all the people, he had told them that they owed allegiance to the earl and must assist him in his cause against the king, which was a just cause 3 in consequence whereof divers of his hearers joined the earl, Robert at once denied that he had sent anyone to swell the earl’s forces; and all he had said in church was to ask his parishioners to pray for the king and the nobles and for the peace of the realm. He was, how- ever, convicted, and made peace with the king by a fine; Parl. Writs, ii (2), App. 24.0. At the beginning of the next reign he sued for relief as to the payment of his fine of 300 marks, alleging that most of it had been paid, though the sheriff, since deceased, had not accounted for it to the Exchequer. He did not obtain his request. He acknowledged that he had sent aman mounted and armed for the earl’s service, as indeed he was bound to do by the tenure of his rectory ; Rolls of Parl. ii, 406, He died 4 June 1334 and was buried in Sawley Abbey. He granted his ¢ manor of Bayley’ to the abbey of Cockersand in 13303 Harland, Salley Abbey, 64, 65 3 Whitaker, Whalley (ed. Nichols), ii, 471. 87 Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 1094, where he is called John, son of John de Langton. On the day of his institution two years’ leave for study within England was granted him, on condition that he proceeded to the higher orders, ibid. ii, fol. 85. The new rector was a younger brother of the patron, with whom in 1343 he had a dis- pute as to the tithes of Hindley ; it was alleged by Robert that Ivo was bound to pay him twenty marks a year, and £20 every other year, and that the tithes taken had been assigned in lieu of the pension ; Assize R. 430, m. 8d. 3 434, m. 3 (quoted by Canon Bridgeman). Ivo was still rector in 1344 3 Assize R. 1435, Mm. 37- Clarice de Bolton, ‘ formerly aunt of the rector of Wigan,’ in 1354 brought a suit against the Langtons to recover an an- nuity; Duchy of Lanc. Assize R. 3, m. 4q4,1. 88 Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 118, may re- fer to his nomination. See De Banc. R. 358, m. 50. Though presented it is not certain that he was instituted ; he is prob- ably the John de Craven indicted two 61 Digitized by Microsoft® Presented by Robert Banastre . . . Jotn de Langton. . . Sir Robert de Langton . Sir Rob. de Langton. . John Earl of TLanéaster F WIGAN Cause of Vacancy d. of J. Maunsel d. of Rob.de Clitheroe de Langton de Lostock res. R. res. R. years previously for entering into a con- spiracy to procure the presentation of him- self to the rectory ; Lancs. and Ches. Recs. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), ii, 362. 89 Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol.118 5 De Banc. R. 358, m. 50. Master John de Craven was a canon of St. John’s, Chester, from 1344 (or earlier) until 1363; Ormerod, Ches, (ed. Helsby), i, 308, 309. Before 1348 he was commissary for Peter Gomez, Cardinal Bishop of the Sabines, as arch- deacon of Chester; Cal. Pat. 1345-8, PP- 2455 297+ In 1351 he was fined £40 for extortion in his capacity as official of the deanery of Warrington ; Assize R. 431, m. 2. 40 In 1347 the pope reserved to Henry de Dale, M.A., B.C.L., B.M., a dignity in Wells, not episcopal ; he held various canonries and the churches of Higham and Wigan, but was ordered to resign the latter ; Cal. of Papal Letters, iii,242. See also Cal. Close, 1349-54, p. 54. Nothing further seems known of this rector’s pos- session. 4l Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 126, 1255. The dispute as to the patronage has been related above; John de Winwick was twice presented and instituted. He was another busy public official ; see Rymer, Foed. (Syllabus), 330, &c. Among his ecclesiastical preferments he held the treasurership of York Minster ; Le Neve, Fasti, iii, 160. He was entrusted with the wardship of William de Molyneux in 1359; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 346. He died about the end of 1359 and was buried at Huyton, where a chantry for him was founded. In 1352 the pope granted him the union of the rectory with the Treasurership of York, of which he was not yet in actual possession; Cal. of Papal Letters, iii, 460. A detailed account of his career will be found in Canon Bridgeman’s work, 47- 56. 42 Lich. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 6; he pro- mised to pay the £20 4 year to Lichfield Cathedral. 48 Lich. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 6 (quoted by Canon Bridgeman). 44 Lich. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 80 ; he took the oath to pay the pension. John of Gaunt presented, owing to the minority of Ralph de Langton. The new rector had leave of absence granted him in Jan- uary 1365-6 ; ibid. v, fol. 124. This rector complained to the pope as to the pension he had to pay to Lichfield; the Bishop of London was thereupon, in 1367, directed to inquire into the matter, and if the facts were found to be as alleged he was to relax the rector’s oath regarding this payment ; Cal. of Papal Let- ters, iv, 66. Walter de Campden died at Plymouth 10 July 1370, as appears by the Lich. Reg. A HISTORY OF Instituted 24 Aug. 1370 Oc. I41§-31 . Oc. 1432-47. . oc. 1451 . oc. 1485 . . g Aug. 1504. 16 Aug. 1506. 10 Oct. 1519. oc. 1528-32. . oc. 1532-3... 24 Mar 1534-5. Richard Kighley®. . . . . . 8 Aug. 1543 . John Herbert *. ? March 1550. John Standish, D.D.”. 1. . . 1550 . Richard Smith * 2 Mar. 1554-5 1o Aug. 1558 . 45 Lich. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 8543 v, fol. 284, 30. He had received only the ton- sure, but was made priest 11 April 1371 ; ibid. y, fol. 100d. James de Langton is mentioned as rec- tor down to 1414, about the end of which year he died; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 12, ‘late rector.” He was one of the feoffees of Richard de Molyneux of Sefton in 13943; Lancs. Ing. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 70 5 ibid. 103. 48 William de Langton is mentioned as rector a number of times from 1417 to 1430 3 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, 13, &c. In 1431-2 he was ‘late rector ’; ibid. 32. 47In a plea of 1441 mention is made of William de Langton as rector before 10 Hen. VI, and James de Langton as rector in the same year; a note is added, recording a pardon to the latter, dated 1446-7; Pal. of Lanc. Plea R. 3, m. 314. In 1436 James de Langton, rector of Wigan, was proceeding to France in the retinue of the Duke of York; Dep. Keeper's Rep. x\viii, App. 310. He appears to have been a violent and lawless man, and his name frequently occurs in the plea rolls. In 1442 the sheriff was ordered to arrest Christopher, Edward, Edmund, and Oliver de Langton, sons of James de Langton, the rector ; also Margaret Holerobyn of Wigan, the rector’s mistress ; Pal. of Lanc. Plea R.4 (quoted by Canon Bridgeman). 48 Oliver Langton in 1451 covenanted to pay the £20 yearly to Lichfield ; Bridgeman, op. cit. 69. He was still living in 14.62 ; ibid. 70. In 1457 the Bishop of Lichfield issued a commission to Dr. Duckworth, vicar of Prescot, and others to inquire as to the pollution of the churchyard of Wigan by bloodshed, forbidding it to be used for in- terments until it should be reconciled ; Lich. Epis. Reg. xi, fol. g14. 49 John Langton, rector of Wigan, occurs in July 1485 ; Local Glean. Lancs. and Ches. i, 266. In 1498 he was called upon to show by what title he claimed various manorial rights in Wigan ; Pal. of Lanc. Writs, Lent, 13 Hen. VII. 50 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 53 ; the patrons were James Anderton, Wil- liam Banastre, Thomas Langton (brother of Gilbert Langton of Lowe), and William Woodcock, feoffees of Ralph Langton, de- ceased. 51 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 545; Act Bks. at Chester ; the king presented on account of the minority of Thomas Langton. Dr. Wyot was a man of some university distinction, being at one time Digitized by Microsoft® James de Langton® . . . . . William de Langton®. . . . . James de Langton” . . . . . Oliver de Langton® . . . . . John Langton * Thomas Langton ®. Se geen Richard Wyot, D.D.*. eg Thomas Linacre, M.D”... . Nicholas Towneley® . . . . Richard Langton™®. . . . . . Richard Gerard ® attach eal bal 2s Thomas Stanley . Name The King . Thos. White The King . master of Christ’s College, Cambridge ; and he held several benefices ; see Athe- nae Cantab. i, 26. 52 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 604, The biography of this distinguished man may be read in Dr. J. N. Johnson’s Life of him ; also in the Dict, Nat. Biog., and Canon Bridgeman, op. cit. 73-95. He appears to have exchanged the Precentor- ship of York Minster for the rectory of Wigan, Dr. Wyot receiving the former office on 13 November 15193; Le Neve, Fasti, iii, 156. It was only in his later years that Linacre, though made rector of Mersham in 1509, devoted himself to theology, and he was not ordained priest until 22 December 1520, the rectory of Wigan giving him a title. 58 Nicholas Towneley,as rector of Wigan and chaplain to Cardinal Wolsey, com- plained of a disturbance in his court at Wigan in Apr. 1528; Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), i, 173. He was appointed to a prebend in York Minster in Dec. 1531; Le Neve, Fasti, iii, 181 5 and died at Hampton Court on or about to Nov. 15323 Duchy Plead. ii, 111 (where there is an error in the year; cf. Le Neve). 54 There is mention of him in Piccope’s Wills (Chet. Soc.), ii, 247 n. 55 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii—xiv, fol. 34 5 he made oath that he would pay the £20 to the dean and chapter of Lichfield, according to ancient custom. Soon after his appointment he leased the rectory for five years for £106 13s. 4d. a year, the odd £6 135. 4d. being payable to the curate in charge. Thelessee, John Kitchin, a lawyer, had become surety for the first-fruits, which had now become part of the royal revenue. This transac- tion was the origin of much disputing. Kitchin was not satisfied with this short lease, and appears to have obtained the promise of an extension for thirty-three years, and to this he obtained the patron’s consent. When, therefore, the rector attempted to regain possession in 1540 he was resisted, and though he had the as- sistance of a number of persons ‘of cruel demeanour,’ who ‘in a riotous and forcible manner’ entered the glebe lands and turned the lessee’s cattle out, the inquiry which took place was so far favourable to Kitchin that the rector granted a lease for thirty years at the same rent ; Ducatus Lanc. (Rec. Com.), i, 164; ii, 64. The evidence is given very fully in Canon Bridgeman’s History, 102-7. 56 Act Bks, at Ches. Dioc. Reg. ; Bridge- man, op. cit. 113. Paid first-fruits 6 Aug. 62 Langton feoffees ore Thos. Langton. . . . Sir T. Langton - a ote Earl of Derby, &c. . . John Fleetwood. . . ~ < S Peter Farington. . . LANCASHIRE Presented by Ralph de Langton. . . Cause of Vacancy d. W. de Campden d. J. Langton d. T. Langton res. R. Wyot . . . d. R. Langton d. R. Kighley d. R. Smith d. R. Gerard 1543 3 Lancs. and Ches. Recs. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), ii, 408. John Kitchin had purchased the right of next presenta- tion from Sir Thomas Langton in 1538, and afterwards sold it to Sir Richard Gresham and Thomas White, citizens of London, John Herbert became one of the canons of St. Stephen’s, Westminster, in Dec. 1530; L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, 6803 (19). He was vicar of Penistone from 1545 to 1550, the patron being the dean of the Chapels Royal ; Hunter, Doncaster, ii, 339. 57 It is possible that Dr. Standish was never actually rector of Wigan, though Edward VI presented him on the death of John Herbert; Strype, Mem. iv, 260. He does not appear to have paid first- fruits. His singular and discreditable career is sketched by Canon Bridgeman, op. cit. 115-21. See Foster, Alumni Oxon, ; Dict. Nat. Biog. 58 He paid his first-fruits 11 Feb. 1550-1. He had much trouble with the tithepayers, or rather the sub-lessees under Kitchin’s lease; Ducatus Lanc. (Rec. Com.), ii, 141 ; Bridgeman, 123-7. 59 Act Bks. at Chester. The patrons were the Earl of Derby, Lord Strange, and others, under a demise by Sir Thomas Langton in 1551. Thenew rector, a son of William Gerard of Ince, had been pre- sented to Grappenhall as early as 1522, and to Bangor on Dee in 1542, resigning the former on becoming rector of Wigan ; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 600. He took part in 1554 in the examinations of George Marsh at Lathom ; speaking of the second Prayer Book of Edward VI he remarked, ‘ This last Communion was the most devilish thing that ever was devised’ ; Foxe, Acts and Monuments (ed. Cattley), vil, 42. ““ Act Bks. at Chester; Bridgeman, op. cit. ; the patrons acted under a grant made by Sir Thomas Langton on ro May 1558. Thomas Stanley, supposed to have been an illegitimate son of Lord Mounteagle, was Bishop of Sodor and Man from 1558 to 1568 ; Moore, Sodor and Man, 96, 138. He also held the rectories of Winwick and North Meols in Lancashire and Bar- wick in Elmet, He was living quite un- disturbed in South Lancashire about 1564 to the great indignation of the Protestant Bishop of Durham ; Parker, Corres. (Par- ker Soc.), 222. The metrical history of the house of Stanley is attributed to him. See Foster, Alumni Oxon. ; Dict. Nat. Biog. WEST DERBY HUNDRED WIGAN Instituted Name Presented by Cause of Vacancy Apl.1569 . William Blackleach, B.A.? . . John Fleetwood . . . da. Bp. Stanley 8 Feb. 1570-1. Edward Fleetwood? . . . . . The Queen. . . . ~~ res. W. Blackleach g Oct. 1604 Gerard Massie, D.D.* . . . . The King - + « . dE. Fleetwood 21 Jan. 1615-16. John Bridgeman, D.D.™. 2. . . i . 2. . « . dG. Massie c. 1643. . . James Bradshaw,M.A.% . . . Parliamentary Comm’rs, . 1653. . . Charles Hotham, M.A... . . . (Hotham Trustees] . . [d. Bp. Bridgeman] 1662 . . . George Hall, DD . . . . . Sir O. Bridgeman. . . ejec. C. Hotham 1668 . . . John Wilkins, D.D.8. . . . . Bridgeman Trustees . . d. Bp. Hall 1673. . . John Pearson,D.D.®. . . . . Ps . . dd. Bp. Wilkins 61 Church P. at Chester. First-fruits paid 22 June 1569. 62 Ches. Reg. (quoted by Canon Bridge- man) ; first-fruits paid 12 Feb. The queen presented by reason of the minority of Thomas Langton, and opportunity was taken to place in this important rectory a staunch adherent of the newly-established religious system. Edward Fleetwood was a younger son of Thomas Fleetwood of the Vache, Buckinghamshire. He was but a young man, and established a good example by residing in his rectory; he was ‘the first beginner’ of monthly com- munions at Wigan ; Bridgeman, op. cit. 235. He also caused forms to be placed in the nave ; they were made from the timber of the rood-loft ; ibid. 272. He instituted various suits for the recovery of the revenues and rights of his church ; Bridgeman, op. cit. 143-63. He took part in the persecution of ‘Popish recusants,’ and it is clear from the letter printed in Bridgeman, 166-71, as from his not wearing the surplice in 1589 (Visit. Bks.), and his joining in the petition to Convocation in 1604, that he was a Puritan; he was indeed charged with ‘neglect and contempt’ in not ob- serving the forms of the Book of Common Prayer, op. cit. 160 ; also Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 597. A sympathizer with the victims of his zeal ‘could not stay his pen from writing unto him to commend him to leave off blaspheming against this our Catholic faith or else he would drink of Judas’ sop,’ and threw the protest into the rector’s pew ; Bridge- man, op. cit. 174. For some of the present- ments made by Rector Fleetwood against parishioners alleged to have received priests, see Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 239, 240. 68 On 21 June 1604 the benefice was sequestered to preserve the fruits for the next incumbent; on 6 Oct. Brian Vin- cent, B.D., was presented by John Sweet- ing and William Hobbes, acting by demise of Sir Thomas Langton; but this grant not being satisfactory, the Bishop of Ches- ter referred the matter to the king, who had presented Gerard Massie, B.D., as early as 17 July; Bridgeman, op. cit. 179. The first-fruits were paid 23 Feb. 1604-5. See also Pal. of Lanc. Plea R. 296, m. 5, where it is stated that the advowson was held by the fifth part of a knight’s fee. The new rector was son of William Massie of Chester and Grafton, near Malpas ; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 706. He was educated at Brasenose Col- lege, Oxford; B.A. 1592; D.D. 1609; Foster, Alumni Oxon, In 1615 he was nominated to the bishopric of Chester, but died in London, 16 Jan. 1615-16, before consecration ; Bridgeman, op. cit. 180, 64 Bridgeman, op. cit. 181-455, the whole of pt. ii. The following is a brief outline :—John son of Thomas Bridgeman Digitized by Microsoft® was born at Exeter in 1577 3 educated at Oriel College, Oxford, and Peterhouse, Cambridge, being elected fellow of Magda- lene in the latter university in 1599; he also took degrees at Oxford; D.D. at Cambridge, 1612. He soon obtained pre- ferment, and married; having attracted the attention of James IJ his advance was rapid (pp. 181-6). At Wigan he recovered many rights of the church, and thus greatly increased the rectorial income (pp. 188- 262). In 1619 he was appointed Bishop of Chester, retaining in commendam the rectory of Wigan and the prebends he held at Exeter and Lichfield (p. 236). He compiled the valuable ‘ Wigan Leger’ ; caused the church to be repaired, procured the erection of an organ (destroyed under the Commonwealth), and made the seats in the body of the church uniform ; with- out interfering with claims to particular sitting places, ‘he advised them to rank the best in the highest seats, and so place on the one side only men and on the other side their wives in order; and to seclude children and servants from sitting with their masters or mistresses’ (pp. 272, 273). Down to 1629 he usually resided at Wigan (p. 333). In ecclesiastical matters he was a somewhat strict disci- plinarian, though not unduly harsh to the Puritans. Adhering to the king at the outbreak of the Civil War, he was ejected from the bishopric and rectory and fined £3,000 by the Parliament (pp. 437-40). He died at his son Orlando’s residence, Morton Hall, near Oswestry, in Nov. 1652 (p. 440). This son was made a judge on the Re- storation, and was Lord Keeper from 1667 to 1672; the Earl of Bradford is his descendant and heir. Foster, Alumni Oxon. ; Dict. Nat. Biog. 65 James Bradshaw, son of John Brad- shaw of Darcy Lever, was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford ; M.A. 1637; Bridgeman, op. cit. 462; Foster, Alumni Oxon. He was placed in the rectory by the Committee of Plundered Ministers ‘upon the delinquency of Dr. Bridgeman,’ but was never legally the rector; in 1650 he was described as ‘a painful, able, preaching minister,’ but he had refused to observe the last fast day; Common- wealth Ch. Surv. §9 3 Plund. Mins, Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 41. He lost the benefice in 1653 because of the legal rector’s death, but was soon after- wards appointed to Macclesfield, where he remained till the Act of Uniformity of 1662 was enforced ; ibid. 470. After- wards he ministered as a Nonconformist in Lancashire. 66 Charles Hotham was a son of Sir John Hotham and ancestor of the present Lord Hotham. He was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge ; M.A. 1639 ; fellow of Peterhouse, 1640-51, being de- prived by Parliament. He was probably presented by his father’s trustees, after the death of Bishop Bridgeman, and paid 63 his first-fruits 9 May 1653. Soon after the restoration of Charles If John Burton was presented to the rectory by the king, Hotham being accused of heterodoxy ; but on 8 October 1660 the latter was re- instated, only to be ejected in 1662 on refusal to comply with the Act of Uni- formity ; Bridgeman, op. cit. 473-6 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xliv, App. 34,68. He after- wards resided in the Bermudas ; returned to England and became a fellow of the Royal Society ; Dict. Nat. Biog. 7 Son of Dr. Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich; educated at Exeter College, Oxford , of which he became fellow ; M.A. 16343 D.D. 1660. He was made Bishop of Chester in 1662, and held the arch- deaconry of Canterbury and the rectory of Wigan in commendam. While he was rector communion was administered at Wigan six times a year. Bishop Hall died 23 Aug. 1668 from a wound inflicted by a knife in his pocket when he chanced to fall in his garden at Wigan. See Bridgeman, op. cit. 485-96; Foster, Alumni Oxon. ; Dict. Nat. Biog. An inventory of the church goods in Apr. 1668 is printed by Canon Bridge- man, op. cit. p. 551 3 the vestments con- sisted of two surplices; there was a green carpet cloth for the communion table ; the books included a copy of Fuell and Hardin; there were an hour-glass, a great chest, and other miscellaneous ar- ticles. 63 Son of Walter Wilkins of Oxford ; educated there, graduating from Magdalen Hall; M.A. 1634. He was made vicar of Fawsley in 16373; conformed to the Presbyterian discipline under the Com- monwealth ; D.D. 1649 ; readily accepted the Prayer Book on the Restoration and rose rapidly, being made Bishop of Chester in 1668, and receiving with it the rectory of Wigan. As bishop he was extremely lenient to the Nonconformists. He was devoted to scientific studies, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society in 1660. He died 19 Nov. 1672. See Bridgeman, op. cit. 497-513; Foster, Alumni Oxon. ; Dict. Nat. Biog. 59 Bishop Pearson, the most famous of the modern rectors of Wigan, was the son of Robert Pearson, archdeacon of Suffolk. He was born in 1613, educated at Queens’ and King’s Colleges, Cambridge, becoming fellow of the latter in 1634; M.A. 1639. He retired into private life on the success of the Parliament and devoted himself to study and controversy, his Exposition of the Creed first appearing in 1659. In 1662 he was made master of Trinity Col- lege, Cambridge. In 1673 he was ap- pointed Bishop of Chester and also rector of Wigan. He resided part of the summer at Wigan, employing three curates, two being preachers and the third a reader in deacon’s orders. He died 16 July 1686 at Chester, and was buried in the cathedral. See Bridgeman, op. cit. 513-64; Dict. Nat. Biog. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE Instituted Name Presented by Cause of Vacancy 1686. . . Thomas Cartwright,D.D.” . . . Bridgeman Trustees . . d. Bp. Pearson 1689 . . . Nicholas Stratford, D.D” oy Bs - 3 . . d. Bp. Cartwright Mar. 1706-7. Hon. Edward Finch,M.A.”. . « 33 $3 . + d. Bp. Stratford 30 April 1714. Samuel Aldersey, M.A.%. 2. «2 + is . «res. E. Finch 12 May 1741. (3 July) 1750. 27 Feb. 1776. 30 July 1790 4 Jan. 1833 —«w 17 Oct. 1864 Hon. Roger Bridgeman, DD.“ . . . Shirley Cote, M.A” . 2. . Guy Fairfax, M.A.% 2. 6 ee George Bridgeman” . . . . . Sir Henry John Gunning, M.A” . George Thomas Orlando Bridgeman, M.A.” 24 Feb. 1896. The earlier rectors of Wigan, when presented by the kings, were busy public officials, who probably never saw the church from which they drew a small addition to their incomes; and when presented by the hereditary patrons were, with few exceptions, 70 Thomas Cartwright was a grandson of his namesake the famous Puritan of Queen Elizabeth’s days. His parents were Presbyterians, and he was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, while it was under Puritan rule; M.A. 1655. This makes it the more noteworthy that he ignored the laws in force and was ordained in the year just mentioned according to the Anglican form by Dr. Skinner, who had been Bishop of Oxford, but was then living in retirement. He took a benefice under the existing rule, but as might be expected, at once conformed on the Resto- ration, and received various preferments. He also secured the firm friendship of the Duke of York, and was one of the very few who thoroughly devoted them- selves to his cause when he became king. He was made Bishop of Chester and also rector of Wigan in 1686, and retired to Ireland with the king, dying in Dublin 15 Apr. 1689. His diary, printed by the Camden Society, contains many particulars of local interest. See Bridgeman, op. cit. 564-78 ; Fos- ter, Alumni Oxon.; Dict. Nat. Biog. ; Chester Arch. Soc. Trans. (new ser.), iv, 1-33. i He was the son of a tradesman at Hemel Hempstead ; educated at Trinity College, Oxford ; M.A. and fellow 1656 ; D.D. 16733; warden of Manchester 1667-84 ; dean of St. Asaph 1674 ; noted for his tolerance of Dissenters ; Bishop of Chester and rector of Wigan, 1689, being one of the first bishops nominated by William III. He resided at Wigan oc- casionally, and rebuilt the parsonage house in 1695. See Bridgeman, op. cit. 578-601 3 Foster, Alumni Oxon. ; Dict. Nat. Biog. 7 The bishopric of Chester was at this time kept vacant for a year, while the rectory of Wigan was filled by the appoint- ment of the Hon. Edward Finch, a son of the first Earl of Nottingham, and a brother of Henry Finch, dean of York and rector of Winwick. He was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, of which he was a fellow; M.A: 1679. He represented his university in the Parliament of 1690; Le Neve, Fasti, iii, 650. The patrons were Sir John Bridgeman, the Bishop of Lon- don, Lord Digby, and John and Orlando Bridgeman. The old organ, situated in a gallery in or near the arch between the nave and chancel—‘ between the two hollow pillars which divide the new and Digitized by Microsoft® Roland George Matthew, M.A.® old chancel,’ was the phrase used—had been pulled down in the Commonwealth period, and in its place the mayor and corporation had in 1680 made themselves a pew. This was pulled down in 1709 and a new organ erected, the rector being himself a musician ; while the rents from the west end gallery, originally in- tended for the singers, were appropriated to the organist’s salary. Members of the corporation did not take kindly to this ejection from their gallery, and it was probably owing to the ill-feeling and dis- putes thus engendered that Rector Finch resigned in 1713, apparently before the new organ had been brought into use. He died at York, where he had a canonry, in 1738. See Bridgeman, op. cit. 601-13 5 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 447 3 Dict. Nat. Biog. ; Le Neve, Fasti, tii, 223 3 i, 48. 78 He was the second son and eventual heir of Thomas Aldersey of Aldersey ; was born in 1673, educated at Brasenose Col- lege, Oxford; M.A. 1700. He no doubt owed this promotion to his marriage with Henrietta, daughter of Dean Bridgeman of Chester ; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 740. He appears to have resided at Wigan. Among the improvements in the church during his incumbency were the recasting of the bells, including ‘the little bell called the Catherine bell,’ a new clock, ‘repairing the curtains at the altar,’ a new gallery, &c. At other times (e.g. p- 658) ‘a small bell called the Ting- tang’ is named. The dispute as to the corporation seat was settled by assign- ing them the western gallery. See Bridge- man, op. cit. 614-28; Foster, Alumni Oxon. 74 He was a son of Sir John Bridgeman ; educated at Oriel College, Oxford, of which he became fellow; M.A. 1725; D.D. 1736. He held several benefices, and was appointed vicar of Bolton in 1737. He appears to have resided at Wigan from time to time. He died unmarried in June 1750. See Bridgeman, op. cit. 628-34 ; Foster, Alumni Oxon. 78 Lord Digby was the only surviving trustee. The new rector was a son of John Cotes of Woodcote in Shropshire, &c. ; educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford ; M.A. 1737. He appears to have resided at Wigan until the last years of his life. He died at Woodcote, 11 Dec. 1775. His eldest son John was member for Wigan 64 ” ” Wm. Lord Digby. . . Sir H. Bridgeman. . . Sir H. Bridgeman, &c. . Earl of Bradford . . Bishop of Chester- . . Earl of Bradford . . d. S. Aldersey d. R. Bridgeman d. S. Cotes res. G. Fairfax d. G. Bridgeman res. Sir H. Gunning d G.T. O. Bridgeman men of no distinction, whose only recommendation was their family connexion. The Vabr of 1535 does not record any chapelries or chantries nor mention any clergy except the rector and the Bradshagh chantry priest, but Upholland from 1782 to 1802. See Bridgeman, op. cit. 635-8 ; Foster, Alumni Oxon. 76 Guy Fairfax, a son of Thomas Fair- fax of Newton Kyme, and a cousin of Lady Bridgeman, was educated at Christ Church, Oxford; M.A. 1759. A new church, St. George’s, was built in 1781. It appears that the ‘prayer bell’ was rung twice a day on week days. Mr. Fairfax resided at Wigan during his tenure of the rectory, which he resigned for Newton Kyme in 1790. See Bridge- man, op. cit. 638-40; Foster, Alumni Oxon. 77 The other patrons were Richard Hopkins and John Heaton. The new rector was a son of Sir Henry Bridgeman, who in 1794 was created Lord Bradford. He was educated at Queens’ College, Cam- bridge; M.A. 1790. He also became rector of Weston under Lizard and of Plemstall. He died 27 Oct. 1832. See Bridgeman, op. cit. 640-59. 78H. J. Gunning was a younger son of Sir George W. Gunning, bart., and a nephew of the patron. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford; M.A. 1822. On the death of his brother Sir Robert in 1862, he succeeded to the baronetcy. The parish church was restored during his tenure of the rectory; and in 1837 he obtained an Act of Parliament en- abling the rector of Wigan to grant min- ing leases for working the coal under the glebe. In 1860 with the consent of the patron he sold the manorial rights to the mayor and corporation. See Bridgeman, op. cit. 659-73 ; Foster, Alumni Oxon. 79 The new rector, a son of the second Earl of Bradford, was collated by the Bishop of Chester, to whom the right had lapsed. He was educated at Trinity Col- lege, Cambridge ; M.A. 1845 3 ordained in 1849, and held various preferments. He was chaplain to Queen Victoria, rural dean of Wigan, hon. canon of Chester and then. of Liverpool. He procured the passing of the Wigan Glebe Act, 1871, enabling him to rebuild the rectory, much shaken by coal-mining, and to sell part of the glebe. Canon Bridgeman died in 1896. See his work, already cited, 673-83. 80 Son of David Matthew of London ; scholar of Wadham College, Oxford ; M.A. 18773 vicar of St. Michael and All Angels’, Wigan, 18813; hon. canon of Liverpool, 1904. WEST DERBY HUNDRED Priory was still in existence.” The Céergy List of 1541-2 shows that there were four priests within the parish, apart from rector and cantarist ; one of these was the curate, Ralph Scott ; two were paid by Robert Langton and Thomas Gerard ; the mainten- ance of the other is not recorded. In the Visitation List in 1548 is left a blank for the rector’s name; then follow eight names, one being that of the chantry priest; but two of the clergy seem to have been absent. In 1554 Master Richard Smith, rector ; the curate, and three others appeared, including the former chantry priest. No improvement took place under the episcopate of Bishop Scott, though he had a personal interest in the parish. In 1562 the Bishop of Sodor and Man did not appear, being ‘excused by the Bishop of Chester.” Ralph Scott appeared and exhibited his subscription, so that he was prepared to accept the Elizabethan order, as he had accepted all the previous changes ; two other names also appear in the list, one of an old priest, the other a fresh name. In 1565 only three names are shown in the list—Bishop Stan- ley, who ‘did not exhibit,’ his curate Ralph Scott, and Thomas Baron or Barow, whose name had appeared in each list from 1548, and who perhaps had no minis- terial office. Thus it appears that by this time the working clergy had been reduced to one, the curate of the parish church.™ The short incumbency of William Blackleach, of whom nothing is known, was followed by that of a decided Protestant, Edward Fleetwood. He was one of the two ‘preachers’ in 1590 at the parish church ; there were no preachers at the two chapelries, Uphol- WIGAN land and Billinge.® The Puritan rector and his curate in 1592 were reported to ‘wear no surplice,’ nor did they catechise the youth, and were admon- ished accordingly ; it is also stated that ‘they want a chancel.’ In 1610 there was ‘a preacher’ at the parish church, but none at either of the chapels.” The Commonwealth surveyors of 1650 recom- mended the subdivision of the parish; Holland Chapel had already been cut off by an Act of 1646, and the committee of Plundered Ministers had made several increments in the stipends of the incumbents of the chapelries out of Bishop Bridgeman’s sequestered tithes. After the Restoration both the rector and alarge number of the Protestants remained firm in their attachment to the Presbyterian discipline, while the rectory was till 1706 held by the Bishops of Chester, among them the learned Pearson. Here, as in other parishes, the great increase in population during the rgth century has led to the erection of many new churches and the subdivision of the ancient parish, there being now twenty parochial churches in connexion with the Establishment, besides licensed churches and mission rooms.” There was only one endowed chantry ; it was founded in 1338 by Mabel, widow of Sir William de Bradshagh, who endowed it with a messuage in Wigan and tenements at Haigh. In 1548 the chantry priest was celebrating at the altar of our Lady in the church according to his foundation.” The charities of Wigan * comprise a large number of separate benefac- tions, mostly for the poor in general, but some especially for clothing or apprenticing boys.® CHARITIES 81 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 220. 82 Printed by the Rec. Soc. of Lancs. and Ches. p. 14. 88 A Thomas Baron, perhaps the same, had been chantry priest in 15343; Valor Ecel. v, 220. 84 These details are taken from the Visitation Lists preserved in the Diocesan Registry at Chester, A communion table had replaced the altar by 1561; Bridgeman, op. cit. 136. 85 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 248, quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, 4. The second preacher at the parish church was paid by the lord of Newton, apparently in con- tinuation of the old custom. 86 Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), x, 192. Bishop Bridgeman gives a full account of the ‘old chancel’ as it was in 1620. Rector Fleetwood had removed the ‘goodly, fair choir seats’ formerly there and allowed ‘plain, rude seats’ to be placed instead. The communion table stood in the middle of it ; the bishop as rector was placed at the west end, his ‘wife, &c.,’ at the east end, his servants on the south side; the ‘minister’s box’ was on the north side, where also the clerks had a seat. In the old rood-loft the bishop had lately placed an organ ; and he built up a ‘new chancel,’ at the east end of the old one. See Bridgeman, op. cit. 263, 264. This new chancel was several steps higher than the old, and contained the altar, 271. 87 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 13. 88 Commonwealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), 59-643; Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 25, 413 ti, 129. A list of the modern curates is given by Canon Bridgeman, op. cit. 723-9. 89 An account of the sale of a pew in 4 Digitized by Microsoft® the parish church‘ in 1796 is given in Lancs. and Ches. Antiq. Notes, i, 128. 90 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 213, no. 16-21; Cal. Pat. 1334-8, p. 468. The chaplain was to celebrate at the altar of St. Mary in Wigan Church for the soulsof Edward II, Sir William de Bradshagh, Mabel his wife, and others. Very few names of the chantry priests have been preserved ; Raines, Lancs. Chant. (Chet. Soc.) i, 66 :— 1338. John de Sutton, presented by Dame Mabel de Bradshagh, Richard Fletcher. 1488. William Holden, presented by James Bradshagh, on the death of R. Fletcher. oc. 1521. Geoffrey Coppull, vicar of Mountnessing and chantry priest of our Blessed Lady at Wigan, aged 56, gave evidence ina plea of 1521— 23 Duchy Plead. i, 102. oc. 1534. Thomas Baron. 1535. Vacant. 1544. Hugh Cookson. In 1541 he was paid byThomas Gerard, and soon afterwards ap- pointed to this chantry. In 1553 he had a pension of 60s. 3d., and was fifty- one years of age. He was not summoned to the visitation of 1562, so that probably he had died be- fore that time. 91 Lancs. Chant. loc. cit. His duty was *to celebrate for the souls of the founders and to sing mass with note twice a week.’ There was no plate, as he used the orna- ments of the church. The total rental was 66s. 10d., but 1s. was paid to the rector as chief rent, perhaps for a burgage in Wigan. 65 93 There was an inquiry at Wigan in the time of Jas. I concerning £100 given in 1616 by Hugh Bullock the elder, citizen and haberdasher of London, for setting the poor of the borough to work ‘in spinning of cotton, wool, hemp, flax, and making of fustians, and other stuffs ;” it was alleged that the fund was misap- plied ; and an order was made, 3 Mar. 1624-5, to rectify it; Harl. MS. 2176, fol. 324, 34. %8 The particulars hereafter given are taken from the Char. Com. Rep. xxi (1829), 271-319. An inquiry into the endowed charities of the parish, except the township of Wigan, was made in 1899. For Wigan township Hugh Bullock of London, as recorded in the previous note, and Henry Mason, rector of St. Andrew Undershaft, London, each gave £100, the latter adding £140 later, which in 1632 and 1639 were conveyed to the corpora- tion ; and a farm in Rainford, and lands called Bangs in Wigan, and Hall Meadow in Pemberton, were purchased. In 1828 these were underlet at rents amounting to £60 a year, of which only part was received by the charity. This was used in binding apprentices. In a feoffment of 1665 lands at Angerton Moss, Brough- ton in Furness, are described as the gift of Oliver Markland, citizen and inn- holder of London; this land was sold in 1706, and with the proceeds, £25, a rent- charge of 20s, a year on premises in Standishgate, Wigan, was purchased ; but in 1828 no payment had been received for many years, and it was not known upon what premises the charge was made, John Guest, by will in 1653, charged £3 15s. upon premises in Abram called Bolton House, for cloth to the poor, to be 9 A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE Some have been lost. of 1829. distributed by the minister of the parish church ; in 1828 £3 10s. was divided among Wigan and the other townships in the parish. Robert Sixsmith, by his will dated 1688, gave two closes in Wigan and one in Ince, for the needy people of the town, half the rents being applicable to schools. In 1828 the nominal income was about £30; the usual practice was to give to each poor person in the districts into which the town was divided for distribu- tion, so that from 2d. to 15. was all that each received. Gilbert Ford, in 1705, left the moiety of a close at Wigan called the Bannycroft; in 1828 the half-rent amounted to £3, which was spent in linen or flannel garments, In 1707 Ellen Wells left £100 for the poor, and Richard Wells, her husband, £200 for apprenticing boys; Edward Holt in 1704 bequeathed £150 and £75 for oat bread or other sort for a Sunday distribution of bread; these sums and other charitable funds were in 1768 used in building a workhouse, and in 1828 £27 6s. 3d. was paid to the churchwar- dens out of the poor-rate as interest, which was to be laid out according to the wishes of the donors in linen, apprentic- ing boys, doles of bread, and school fees. An inquiry respecting the Wells charity is printed in Local Glean. Lancs. and Ches. ii, 143. John Baldwin in 1720 left closes called Barker’s Croft and Pilly Toft, charged with the payment of £roo, which had been entrusted to him by Orlando Bridge- man for apprenticing two boys each year ; £3 4 year was still paid in 1828, William Brown in 1724 augmented a bread charity founded by his uncle George Brown ; and £2 a year was paid by the owner of a farm in Poolstock as interest, and laid out in bread. Ellen Willis, widow, by her will of 1726 left a bond for {£100 to her sons Thomas and Daniel Willis, as trustees, and added another £1003; Margaret Diggles, widow, gave £100 also ; and in 1737, Daniel Willis, the surviving son, and William Hulton, conveyed to trustees closes called the Page fields in Frog Lane, Wigan ; two-thirds of the interest was to be spent in clothing for poor per- sons ‘frequenting the communion of the Lord’s Supper in the parish church of Wigan,’ while the other third might be used for apprenticing boys. In 1828 the rental amounted to about £42, which was distributed with the Sixsmith and Guest charities. Thomas Mort of Damhouse, in 1729 gave money for the Throstle Nests or Baron’s fields, near Gidlow Lane, the interest to be spent in binding children as apprentices. The rent in 1828 was £16, but the trustee being in difficulties, a con- siderable sum was in arrears. John Hard- man in 1742 left £200 to found a clothing charity, and £9 10s. a year was available in 1828, being spent on woollen coats and cloaks distributed by the curate of Wigan. James Molyneux, by his will of 1706, left his lands of inheritance, as also a leasehold messuage in the Wiend, until 4100 should accrue from the rents to Digitized by Microsoft® The most important used to be the Edmund Molyneux bread charity, being the profits of his estate at Canewdon in Essex.” In the following notes the Report of the 1899 inquiry has been used ; in it is reprinted the Report factions.® ties.97 Abram has certain lands, the rents of which are devoted to charitable uses, and some minor bene- Pemberton also had some small chari- At Ince, linen, oatmeal, and gifts of money were provided,® but part of the fund is lost ; while at Aspull of the two charities one survives.” At founda charity for the poor, or for ap- prenticing boys. The money was not paid, but in 1757 Richard Barry, son and executor of Lord Barrymore, who had given a bond for the execution of the will, gave Houghton House and another burgage in Wigan to the corporation to fulfil the trust. The lands were leased for 1000 years, bringing in total rents of 11 5s.; but the buildings upon them, including tbe Woolpack Inn, were worth over {100 a year in 1828. Philippa Pennington in 1758 gave £200 to found two charities, one for the poor generally, the other for apprenticing boys in Stan- dishgate ; this seems to have been intact in 1828, In 1899 the following changes were reported in some of the charities named. John Guest’s Charity:—The rent- charge on Bolton House has been re- deemed, and £140 consols produces the income required for the charity. Holt’s Charity :—The workhouse hav- ing been sold £302 was invested in consols as the share of this charity. The income was practically unused, and has recently been applied to found exhibitions for poor boys in the grammar school. “4 John Bullock left arent-charge of £5 a year on premises in St. Dunstan’s in the East, and St. Botolph’s to the cor- poration of Wigan for the poor; but in 1828 no information could be obtained. Ralph Sale in 1722 bequeathed to his wife Hannah a burgage in Wigan, on which, after paying 20s. as lord’s rent and four groats as chief rent to the rector, he charged ros. a year for the poor. His widow gave £15, the messuage being chargeable. In 1828 the Charity Com- missioners could not find which the pre- mises were; only one house in Wallgate paid four groats to the rector, and the owner, Sir R. H. Leigh, was not aware of any charge of that kind upon it. John Baldwin, brother of Thomas Baldwin, rector of Liverpool, by his will of 1726, charged his house with £3 a year for the apprenticing of a child; but no informa- tion as to the premises or the charity was forthcoming in 1828. Robert Forth in 1761 left a charge of 20s. for the purchase of religious books for the poor; up to December, 1816 this sum had been yearly paid to a Wigan bookseller for the purpose named, but in 1828 nothing could be ascertained as to who was liable. Anne Lyon in 1803 left £40 for the poor ; but the acting executor died insolvent, and the money was lost. 9° Edmund Molyneux was a citizen of London, whose will was dated 8 October 1613 sixty poor people at Wigan and thirty at Upholland were to have each a penny loaf every Sunday. In 1828 it was producing £55 a year, and the in- terest was distributed in bread, A new scheme was approved in 1889, by which the net income is applied for the benefit of schools at Wigan and Up- holland. Owing to agricultural depres- sion the net income has fallen very much, being at best only £9 a year. 9% Abigail Crook gave £12, Thomas Ince £40, and others various sums, so that 495 was laid out in lands, on which a 66 schoolhouse and cottages had been erected, producing £18 a year in 1825, laid out in linen and blankets. The trustees of Thomas Crook distributed {1a year from his foundation in accordance with their father’s will; and 6s. 6d. was re- ceived for woollen cloth as the interest of Lito left by William Newton in 1724. Elizabeth Bevan of Lowton, widow, left £700 in 1833 for a church and school in Abram, and the Rev. Nicholas Robin- son in 1839 left £20 for the Sunday school. Frances Elizabeth Chadwick in 1878 be- queathed £200 for the benefit of the poor. Dissatisfaction existing as to the ad- ministration of the older charities a scheme was prepared in 1877, and a new one was made in 1897, under which the charities are administered by the same body of trustees, who have greater liberty in the application of the income, which now amounts to £114 a year. % Thomas Molyneux gave £20 and James Rainford {£10 for the benefit of the poor; the money was devoted to building the school, and 30s. a year wasin 1828 paid out of the rates and given to the poor in sums of 6d. to each, a ‘ use- less mode of distribution.’ Similarly £5, arising from £100 given by James Kitts, was distributed in sums of 1s. each. William Worthington’s gift of £10 had been lost. Molyneux’s and Rainford’s benefactions have since 1829 been lost, and Kitts’ is applied improperly—to the benefit of the schools, The Rev. Joshua Paley in 1849 left £1,000 for the endowment of the church, but the greater part was lost in 1886 by the bankruptcy of a solicitor; £200 re- mains, the interest of which is applied to the schools, and a ground rent of 49 16s. 2d. applied to the choir. Pem- berton also shares in the Algernon Eger- ton Memorial Fund. 98 John Walmesley, by his willof 1726, gave £100 to his son John and others to purchase a rent-charge or estate, the in- come to be spent on linen for the poor. Edward Richardson directed that for fifty years after his death five loads of oatmeal should be given to the poor, and this was still in operation in 1828. Mary Collier in 1684 left £20, for which it was con- jectured 20s. a year had been given by a Mrs, Anderton, though this her son re- garded asa voluntary gift. Peter Whittle in 1727 bequeathed qos. out of his mes- suage in Ince; £2 10s. had for long been received out ofa close called Fillyhey, but for some years before 1828 Mr. Legh’s agent had refused to pay. In 1899 it was found that the Walmes- ley charity had been in existence as late as 1863. For the Whittle charity £2 is still paid by Lord Newton out of Rothwell’s or the manor-house estate, and is distri- buted by the overseers to the poor. 89 Houghton’s charity was a charge of £5 upon an estate called Kirk Lees; it was in 1828 given in doles of 1s. each. James Hodkinson’s benefaction produced 10s. a year, given in money or calico. In 1899 the rent-charge of £5 out of Kirk Lees was still paid and distributed to the poor; the £10 belonging to Hodkin- son’s charity had disappeared since 1863. WEST DERBY Haigh Dame Dorothy Bradshagh about 1775 erected a building called the Receptacle, being an almshouse for twenty poor persons ;' there were also a poor’s stock and some minor charities, most of which have Hindley has linen or flannel charities been lost.!° and one or two others.!? For the Billinge townships the principal foun- dation is that of John Eddleston, who in 1672 bequeathed his house and lands here for charitable 100 The Receptacle in 1828 contained ten dwellings, each having a sitting-room and pantry below and a chamber above, with a little garden attached. The town- ships of Haigh, Wigan, Aspull, and Blackrod were to benefit. The donor's charitable bequest of £3,000 was void by the Statutes of Mortmain, but the Earl and Countess of Balcarres decided to give effect to her charitable designs. The in- come in 1828 was about £110, of which £80 was given to the almspeople, £10 to the chaplain, and £12 on an average to the apothecary. In 1899 the annual income was found to be £139. Some of the rules—as that against the use of Bohea or green teas— are now inapplicable; but preference is still given to Haigh people who have worked in the mines ; applicants must be over fifty, and adherents of the Established Church, 101 Ellen Kindsley charged an estate in Whittington Lane with £1 a year, which was usually distributed with other chari- ties, Ralph Greaves in 1696 gave £20 for apprenticing children or for the poor ; James Monk £20 in 1723 for cloth or apprenticing ; William Higham in 1729 a similar sum for linen or woollen; and Sir Roger and Lady Bradshagh in 1767 each gave [20 to augment the fund ; it appears to have been lost before 1828 by the practical bankruptcy of the person to whom it had been lent. A poor’s stock of £68 5s. existed in 1744, but no infor- mation could be obtained in 1828. James Grimshaw in 1822 left £40 for the poor. For Kindsley’s charity in 1899 the rent- charge of £1 on Hilton Farm was found to be paid by the Wigan Coal and Iron Company ; the money is distributed in doles of flannel. All the other charities have been lost. 102 Frances Dukinfield in 1662 left four closes in Mobberley for the minister of Hindley Chapel, ‘So as he should be elected or approved by the trustees for the time being, by any two or more godly ministers, and by the greater number of the householders and masters of families in Hindley,’ and for other charitable pur- poses; in 1828 £4 was given for the poor of Hindley and Abram from this source, being £2 8s. for the former and £1 12s, for the latter, and laid out in linen cloth, Randle and Mary Collier also left £60 for linen cloth and a further £10; and Ed- ward Green and Robert Cooper £30 for the poor; all was in practice used for gifts of linen. In 1899 it was found that £7 10s. was paid out of land at Mobberley in respect of the Dukinfield charity; under a scheme sanctioned in 1890 £2 10s. was paid to the vicar of All Saints’, Hindley, £1 to the grammar school, £1 12s. to the trustees of the Abram United Chari- ties, leaving £2 8s. for distribution in Hindley. The other charities have a capital of £151 consols, the interest being spent on flannel, which is distributed on New Year’s Day. Digitized by Microsoft® uses ;!°3 there were several other benefactions.! At Winstanley are two charities founded by James and William Bankes, with incomes of about {20 and £17, used to provide cloth and blankets.'” out of a number of gifts, about £6 a year is still dis- WIGAN In Orrell, tributed in doles of calico.* Pimbo Lane House Richard Mather in 1852 conveyed cer- tain lands to trustees for the use of a school and for bread for the poor; but the school has been given up, and a new scheme was in 1899 being prepared. Thomas Winnard in 1860 left £40 for the benefit of the poor attending St. Peter's, Hindley. The public park and the library are also noticed. 103 The estate consisted of a house and about 14 acres of land, part of the Black- leyhurst estate, on which was a quarry called Grindlestone Delph ; it was sub- ject to a fee-farm rent of 20s, to John Blackburn and his heirs (to Sir William Gerard in 1828 by purchase). The use was for the maintenance of ‘a pious and orthodox minister’ for Billinge chapel, for the school, and the relief of the poor. In practice the house and land were occupied by the incumbent of the chapel, and the profits of the quarry, let for £50 ayear in 1828, to the schools and the poor of the two townships of Billinge. The gross income in 1899 was £98, out of which £1 ground rent was paid to Lord Gerard. The beacon on the hill stands on this property. As the quarry is becoming exhausted the trustees have ceased to distribute the income from it, but £10 a year has been given to the poor. 104 William Bankes in 1775 left £20 to each of the Billinges, and in 1828 18s, was paid yearly out of the estate of Mey- rick Bankes, For Chapel End from the same estate was paid (2 12s. a year for bread for the poor, which was distributed every other Sunday ; in 1786 there was a poor’s stock of £23 55., the accumulation of numerous small gifts, producing in 1828 235. 4d. from the overseer’s accounts and expended in linen and woollen cloth ; £57 resulting from the sale of William Birchall’s estates, and supposed to have arisen from a gift of £40 by — Okill, was in 1799 used to purchase a cottage, the rent of which was also spent in linen for the poor. The cottage in 1899 pro- duced a net income of £4 3s. 6d., distri- buted by the vicar in money and cloth- ing ; and 18s. was paid to the overseers by Mrs, Bankes of Winstantey, and dis- tributed in doles of calico or flannel. Nothing is now known of the other ancient funds, Elizabeth Comber in 1896 left £100 for the provision of coals and food for the poor at Christmas. For Higher End the Digmoor estate in Upholland in 1828 produced £10 a year, which was added to other charities and spent in linen andcloth, The net income is now £13 tos.; this is added to the township’s share of the Eddleston and other charities, and distributed in doles of calico. 105 The Rev. James Bankes, rector of Bury, in 1742 gave £40 for linen cloth for the poor; William Bankes in 1775 gave £50; Robert Bankes in 1747, £100 ; Frances Bankes in 1764, £50; Catherine Bankes in 1766, £20; and there were smaller sums, the total being £402 10s, yielding in 1828 £19 115, 67 and other tenements in Upholland were given by Henry Bispham in 1720 and 1728 for the benefit of that and neighbouring townships ;'” there are which was laid out in linen for the poor. William Bankes in 1798 left £400 for blankets ; this yielded about £19 in 1828, and was spent according to the benefac- tor’s wishes. On account of the former setof charities £19 8s. 6d. is now paid by Mrs. Bankes at Winstanley : the overseers distribute it in cloth. Wil- liam Bankes’ benefaction is represented by £600 consols ; the income is distri- buted in blankets, and ‘it is supposed that every cottager in the township re- ceived a blanket every alternate year.’ 106 Jane Leigh in 1707 gave £10 to the poor, William Naylor £8, and Peter Parr £43; Anne Sandford in 1746 gave £253 in 1828 the agent or trustee of Sir Robert Holt Leigh and Meyrick Bankes paid {1 and £1 7s. as interest on these sums. Out of the poor rates 5s. was paid as‘ Widow Naylor’s Charity.’ One Holt in 1723 left land called Cross- brook, which brought in a rent of £2 10s. These sums were all placed together and distributed on St. Thomas’s Day to poor persons in sums of 1s. or 1s. 6d. James Thomason in 1786 left £200, of which £100 had been lost ; the £5 interest on the other half was distributed to the poor on 25 July. In 1899 it was found that £1 is paid yearly by Mr. Roger Leigh, and £1 7s. by Mrs. Bankes, on account of the Leigh, Naylor, and Parr, and Sandford gifts ; Thomason’s charity has an income of £3 17s. 4d. The whole sum is given in doles of calico. Holt’s charity has failed ; the land called Crossbrook was owned by the late Colonel Blundell. 107 In 1720 he surrendered a messuage and tenement with right of turbary on Upholland Moss, and land called Moss Close, to trustees for the townships of Upholland, Orrell, Billinge, and Pember- ton, also Rainford and Windle, the yearly profits to be spent in apprenticing chil- dren ; it was let for £70 a year in 1828, Part of the income was used for repairs and legal expenses, and the rest divided among the townships named and used as intended. In 1728 by his will he gave Pimbo Lane House and another tenement called Sefton’s Estate to provide woollen garments and oat bread for the poor of Pemberton, Orrell, Upholland, Billinge, Winstanley, Windle, and Eccleston. The grossincome in 1828 was £117 10s. a year, but owing to heavy expenses in buildings only about £50 was used for the charity, of which £20 was spent on wool- len cloth and £30 on oatmeal loaves, The income of the charity has greatly increased, owing to the development of coal mines on the lands, and now amounts to about £250, the estate consisting of lands and £2,120 consols, chiefly the products of mining leases. The charity is supposed to be regulated by a scheme giving larger powers, authorized in 1891 5 but no practical change has been made in the distribution of the income, the three- fold system of apprenticing, clothing, and bread doles being continued. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE here also other charities of considerable value, though several gifts have been lost. Dalton has nothing for itself.1 WIGAN Wigan, 1199 ; Wygayn, 1240; Wygan, common. Pronounced Wiggin (g hard). The River Douglas, in its unrestricted days, flowed down from the north and turned to the west round the hill upon which Wigan Church stands, thence running north-westward and northward to the Ribble. ‘The township of Wigan consists of the tri- angular area inclosed by the river and a line drawn across in a north-easterly direction from one part of the river’s course to the other ; in addition there are the district called Scholes on the eastern side, inclosed between the Douglas and a brook once called the Lorington, and now the Clarington,’ which formerly joined it near the southernmost point of its course ; and a small area to the south of the river. It is curious that Wigan is cut off by the river from the rest of the parish and hundred, and has on the north no marked physical separation from Standish, in a different parish and hundred. The area is 2,188 acres, including 4.7 of inland water. The population in 1901 numbered 60,764. The church stands on the crest of the hill, which slopes away rapidly to the south and more gently to the north. To the north-west is the hall or rectory, with Hallgate leading to it, and beyond this again the Mesnes—part of it now a public park—or rectory demesne lands. Further away in the same direction lie the districts known as Gidlow and Brimelow,? the latter on the Standish boundary ; while to the west is Woodhouses, near the river. On the eastern side of the church is a_ street representing the ancient Roman road to the north, opening out just at that point into the irregular area in which the market was formerly held, and from which Market Street goes off to the north-west. As the main road goes northward it is called in succession Standishgate and Wigan Lane, with Mab’s Cross as dividing mark, and has Swinley and Whitley on the 108 Henry Prescot in 1638 gave {20 ing from the investment of mining rents; In west and Coppull on the east. The ground once again rises as the northern limit is neared, attaining about 250 ft. The same road, descending south from the church and turning to the west through the more level ground running nearly parallel to the Douglas, is there called Wallgate. The border district to the south of Wallgate is called Poolstock. Another road, called Millgate, begins at the old Market-place, and proceeding south-east, crosses the Douglas by a bridge,*® near which was formerly the principal corn-mill of the town, and then goes north- ; east through the Scholes and Whelley. There is an easterly branch called Hardy Butts, starting near the river and proceeding through Hindley towards Man- chester, probably on the line of another ancient Roman road. Around the church and along the main roads men- tioned the town of Wigan grew up. As the head of a great coal-mining district, the Douglas navigation scheme of 1720,‘ and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, opened in 1774, have been of great service ; the Lan- caster Canal followed in 1794, and a branch to Leigh connected the town with the Worsley Canal. The railway companies have also contributed to the pro- gress of the place; the London & North Western Company’s main line from London to Scotland passes through the place,’ having a station in Wallgate, to the south of the church. The Lancashire and York- shire Company’s Liverpool and Bury line, opened in 1848, has a station (1860) in Wallgate, near to the church ; the company’s Wigan and Southport branch (1855) turns off here. More recently the Great Central Railway has found access to the town, having a station near Millgate, opened in 1892. Wigan is identified with the Coccium of the An- tonine Itinerary; it stands at the point where the Roman road, north and south, was joined by another important road from Manchester. Its position on a hilltop, surrounded on two sides of its triangular area by a rapid stream, suggests that it had been a British fort. Various Roman remains have been found.® The town continued to grow and prosper through- out the mediaeval period, and Leland thus describes 1348 Henry Banastre of Walton for poor householders ; Richard Walthew in 1643 gave £1303; James Fairclough, £250, and others smaller sums ; the 1829 information concerning the total sum of £446 135. 4d. was that in 1771 £376 had been placed out on private security. James Fairclough also gave {£100 to establish a bread charity, and in 1828 £5 a year was received from the rents of the Moss estate, and added to the share of Edmund Molyneux’s benefaction. Thomas Barton in 1674 gave to the poor of Up- holland £3 6s. 8d. charged on an estate there, and paid in 1828; Thomas Mawdesley, by his will of 1728, devised his copyhold lands—the Little, Rushy, and Meadow Baryards—to the use of the poor as an addition to ‘Barton’s dole’ ; in 1828 {£17 los. was received, and, with the preceding gift, divided among the poor in sums of 2s. or 2s. 6d. The Rev. Thomas Holme in 1803 left {100 for a gift of blankets ; it was in operation in 1828. Of the above the Fairclough charity has benefited by the working of mines, and now hasan income of £40 from the Moss estate and £124 from consols aris- Digitized by Microsoft® the money has been distributed indiscrimi- nately in doles of bread and flannel, &c. The rent-charge of £3 6s. 8d. on Barton House Farm is still paid, and distributed with Mawdesley’s charity, the total vary- ing from £16 to £23 a year; tickets worth 2s. 6d. each are given to the selected applicants. The Holme bequest produces £4 16s. a year, expended on blankets for the poor. 109 It shared in the charities of Peter Latham (Croston), and Edmund Moly- neux and John Gaunt (Wigan). Thomas Ashhurst was supposed to have made a rent-charge of 25s. to the poor, paid in 1786 by the owner of Ashhurst Hall; but in 1828 nothing could be ascertained. The share of the Latham charity coming to Dalton is now £68, and is distributed in doles of clothing, valued at from ros. to £1, and rarely in money gifts. 1 Bridgeman, Wigan Ch. (Chet. Soc. new ser.), 239. Bottling Wood was in the northern part of Scholes. 2 Between these and Wigan town the Birley Brook flowed south to the Douglas. 8 This is supposed to have been the first bridge constructed over the Douglas. 68 granted to John son of Oliver (? Amory) the Walker, a strip of land stretching from the Millgate and the Stanrygate to the Douglas; also land called the Mill Meadow, with a cottage adjoining Schole Bridge; Towneley MS. GG, no. 2221, In 1477 John Crosse of Liverpool con- firmed to John Burgess of Wigan a par- cel of land near Schole Bridge, between Scholes and the lane leading to Ince; ibid. no. 2335. ‘Atam’ Bridge, between Wigan and Pemberton, was the subject of a dispute in 13343 Coram Rege R. 297, m. 11 Rex. Each township should keep in re- pair its own half of the bridge, which had, however, become so broken that there was no longer any crossing. 4 This scheme was formed as early as 1711 (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 450); the Act was passed in 1720 (g Geo. I, cap. 28). It was purchased by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1783. 5 As the Preston and Parkside (New- ton) Railway this portion of the system was opened in 1838. ® Watkin, Roman Lanes. 1993; Pal. Note Bk. iv, 133. WEST DERBY HUNDRED its appearance about 1536: ‘Wigan paved ; as big as Warrington and better builded. There is one parish church amid the town. Some merchants, some artifi- cers, some farmers.’? Apart from its internal growth, the history of Wigan is interesting on account of the part taken in the Civil War. The townspeople were Royalist,® and the Earl of Derby appeared to make it his head quarters, its central position rendering it very fit for the purpose. He placed a garrison there,’ but on 1 April 1643, the town was captured by the Parliamentary forces under Colonel Holland, after only two hours’ resistance. Many prisoners were taken, and the soldiers were allowed to plunder and carry away what they could.” The Earl of Derby, who was 12 miles away, marched to its relief, but hearing that the town had surren- dered, and that the Parliamentary forces had retired after breaking down some of the defensive works, he desisted and went to Lathom." A second assault and capture took place three weeks later.” In 1648 Duke Hamilton’s forces occupied Wigan after their defeat by Cromwell near Preston, but after plundering the people ‘almost to their skins,’ retired to Warrington, pursued by Cromwell." A pestilence followed.” When, in August 1651, the Earl of Derby was raising a force for Charles II, he again tried to secure Wigan. On 26 August a hot fight took place in Wigan Lane between his forces and those of Colonel Lilburne. At first the former were victorious, but a reserve of horse coming to Lilburne’s assistance, put the Royalists to flight. Lord Derby took refuge in Wigan for a brief time, and after his wounds had been dressed, he went south to join Charles at Worcester. Sir Thomas Tyldesley and other notable Royalists were killed in the battle.’ ; The Restoration and Revolution do not appear to have affected Wigan much.'® Some of those con- demned for participation in the rising of 1715 were executed here.” The Young Pretender with his 7 Itin, vii, 47. 1660, addressed to Charles II, states that 70. WIGAN Highland army passed through the town on 28 No vember 1745, on his way to Manchester, and again on 10-11 December on his retreat northward. The inhabitants were not molested, but no recruits joined the force.'® At present the whole of the district is thickly popu- lated, the industrial town of Wigan occupying the greater part of the township, whilst its collieries, fac- tories, &c., fill the atmosphere with smoke. There is, however, a fringe of open country beyond the town itself, on the north, and here are arable and pasture lands, the crops raised being chiefly potatoes and oats. The soil is clayey and sandy. The woodlands of Haigh in the adjoining township make an agreeable background. ‘The Douglas, turning many a factory wheel on its way, winds erratically across the district. The south-westerly part of the township lies very low, and is almost always flooded, the result of frequent subsidences of the ground. The worthies of the town include Ralph Brooke or Brooksmouth, York Herald in the time of Elizabeth ;* Henry Mason, divine and benefactor, 1573 to 1647 ;” John Leland, nonconformist divine and apologist for Christianity, who died 1766 ;*! Anthony Wilson, alias Henry Bromley, publisher of catalogues of En- graved British Portraits, 1793 ;* John Fairclough, a minor Jesuit writer, 1787 to 1832;%% John Roby, author of the romances entitled Traditions of Lancashire, 1795 to 1850; John Howard Marsden, antiquary, 1803 to 1891 ;* John C. Prince, minor poet, 1808 to 1866 ;* and John Fitchett Marsh, antiquary, 1818 to 1880.” A number of tokens were issued by local tradesmen in the 17th century.* The printing press is said to have been introduced into Wigan about 1760; books dated in 1780 and later years are known.” ‘There are three newspapers, two published three times a week and the other weekly. James Blundell, James Finch, John 8 © Wigan was better manned with sol- diers than Preston, it being the next gar- rison to the earl’s house and the most malignant town in all the county; for there were (for anything that was heard) not many in it that favoured the Parlia- ment ;’ Lancs. War (Chet. Soc.), 16. Wigan, however, had joined in the Pro- testation of 16423 Pal. Note Bk. i, 81. 9 The Wigan garrison, ‘full of desper- ate cavaliers,’ had made several assaults upon Bolton; Lancs. War, 323 Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 63, 81-3. 10 Lancs. War, 36 ; also Stanley Papers, {Chet. Soc.), iii, p. lxxxvi, where a facsimile of the Countess of Derby’s letter, an- nouncing its fall, is given. See also Civil War Tracts, 93, 225-7- 1 Lancs. War, loc. cit. 13 Civil War Tracts, 98. 18 Ibid. 263 5 ‘a great and poor town, and very malignant,’ is Cromwell’s descrip- tion of the place; see Carlyle, Cromwell Ler, i, 286, &c., for the details. 14 Civil War Tracts, 278 3 there were *two thousand poor, who for three months and upwards had been restrained, no relief to be had for them in the ordinary course of law, there being none at present (April 1649) to act as justices of the peace.’ The Wigan registers contain many entries re- ferring to the deaths from plague, the last burial being on 23 July 1649. A petition by the mayor and others in Digitized by Microsoft® the people of the town had garrisoned it at their own charge for the king ; that it had been seven times plundered, burdened with free quarters, &c., by the Parliament army ; and that many estates had been se= questered ; Cal. S.P, Dom. 1660-1, p. 119. 15 Stanley Papers (Chet. Soc.), clxxxiv— ix. For the monument to Sir T. Tyldes- ley near the spot where he fell, see cccxxxiii ; Lancs. and Ches. Hist. and Geneal. Notes, iii, 62. A graphic account of the battle is given in Lancs. War, 74-6. 16 Ogilby, writing about 1670, called it *a well-built town, governed by a mayor, recorder and twelve aldermen, &c., and electing Parliament men.’ It had two markets, on Monday and Friday, but the former was discontinued, and three fairs. It was noted for its pit coal, ironworks, and other manufactures. A somewhat later description, by Dr. Kuerden, giving many details, may be read in Local Glean. Lancs. and Ches. i, 209, 211, 212, 214. Bishop Cartwright procured an address to James II from the mayor and corpora- tion in 16873 Bridgeman, op. cit. 570. Their action was not popular ; Hist. MSS. Com, Rep. xiv, App. iv, 189. Several persons went to Chester in 1687 to be touched by the king for the evil; their names are given in Trans. Hist. Soc. i, 26. W See Lancs. and Ches. Antig. Soc. iii, 69 Macilliwray, William Whalley, and James Burn, who had been tried and sentenced at Preston, were executed at Wigan 10 Feb. 1716 ; see Pal. Note Bk. iv, 93. 18 The town was then famous for its manufactures of coverlets, rugs, blankets, and other sorts of bedding, brass, copper, &c., as well as for the adjacent Cannel coal mines ; Ray, Hist. of Rebellion, 154. There is a brief notice of the place as it appeared in 1791 in Pal, Note Bk., ii, 275, and a description written in 1825 in Baines, Lancs. Dir. ii, 610. 19 Pal. Note Bk. iii, 33. ; 20 Dict. Nat. Biog, “Ibid. ™ Ibid. 3 Gillow, Bibl. Dict. of Engl. Cath. ii, 218. 24 Dict, Nat. Biog. Fora note on the Rev. James Clayton of Wigan, the inven- tor of gas, see Local Glean. Lancs. and Ches. i, 14.0, 248. % Dict, Nat. Biog, Ibid. % Ibid. 28 Lancs. and Ches. Antig. Soc. v, 93, 94: 29 See Local Glean. Lancs. and Ches. i, ii. The 1780 book was a translation of Gessner’s Death of Abel, printed by R. Ferguson, ii, 57. The ‘Local Catalogue’ issued from the Wigan Free Library gives a list of nineteen books printed at Wigan between 1780 and 1796. At the end is a list of printers. 80 The offices of the Examiner were formerly the Public Hall or Mechanics’ Institute. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE Coal-mining is the characteristic trade of the place, but there are large cotton mills also; ginghams, &c., are made. Forges, iron and brass foundries, wagon, screw and nail, oil and grease works, and breweries are also in operation. The ancient walk-mills show that cloth was made here from early times. A gold- smith was killed at Wigan in 1341.°! The potters’ right to dig clay on the wastes was vindicated in 1619.” ‘Digging and delving mines for coals’ was common in 1595." Bell-founding is a lost trade ; it was formerly in the hands of the Scott and Ashton families.* In 1624 Bishop Bridgeman notified his objection to the ‘barbarous and beastly game of bear baiting’ at the wakes; but on the mayor’s request he allowed the baiting to take place on the market hill after the market was over and the people had packed up their wares, An old Wigan nursery rhyme is printed in Har- land and Wilkinson’s Legends.*® The stocks were formerly near the main entrance to the churchyard from Wallgate. There was a cross in the market place, where proclamations were made, and the base of Mab’s Cross, already mentioned, is in Standishgate.* There was formerly a spa in Scholes.3® The curfew bell, anciently rung at eight o’clock, was in 1881 rung at half-past ten.” A body of volunteers, called the Wigan Rifles, was raised in 1804.°% The present volunteer force con- sists of five companies of the 6th battalion of the Manchester Regiment. In Domesday Book WIGAN is not named ; it was only ‘the church of the manor’ of Newton,” and a century later it is the church that brings it forward once more, a resident vicar being appointed.*° The rectors were thus from before the Conquest until recently lords of the manor of Wigan under the lords of Newton, and the rectory was the hall. From the account of them already given it will be seen that a large number were non-resident, and exercised their authority by de- puties. Among the rights which gave most trouble to the rectors were those over the mills. Rector Fleetwood in the first year of his incumbency (1571) had insti- MANOR tuted a suit against Hugh, Gilbert, and James Lang- shaw to recover seisin of two ancient water-mills, described as walk mills.“ |The dispute went on for many years.” Bishop Bridgeman, thirty years later, complained that William Langshaw was en- deavouring to deprive the rector of his ownership of the mill.“* The mills were situated at Coppull and a little lower down the river by the school; in 1627 they paid a rent of £4 a year to the rector. The corn mills, of which in the year just named there were five, also caused trouble. The principal was that on the Douglas in Millgate, of which Miles Leatherbarrow was the tenant in 1617. In Rector Fleetwood’s time a new water corn-mill was erected by Miles Gerard of Ince upon Lorington or Clarington Brook, the boundary of the manors of Wigan and Ince, and the water-course was diverted to feed it. The rectors complained of the injustice done to them, but Dr. Bridgeman allowed the mill to stand on con- dition that 20s. a year should be paid for tithe.*® In his first year Dr. Bridgeman received £16 135. 2d. as manor rents,” and ros. each for seven mortuaries,** It is an indication that there was a strong community existing around the church to find one of the absentee rectors, the busy official John Maunsel, procuring from the king a charter creating a borough. This was granted on 26 August 1246 to John Maunsel ; the town of Wigan was to be a borough and a free borough for ever; the burgesses should have a gild merchant, with a hanse and all the liberties and free customs pertaining to such a gild; and no one but a member of the gild should do any business in the borough except by consent of the burgesses. Further, to the burgesses and their heirs the king conceded that they should have soke, sac, toll, theam, and attachment within the borough, infangenthef, ut- fangenthef ; that they should throughout the country and sea ports be free of toll, lastage, pontage, passage, and stallage ; that they should do no suit to county or wapentake for tenements within the borough ; also that traders, even foreigners, provided they entered England peaceably and with the king’s leave, should be allowed to pass in safety to and from the borough with their merchandise upon paying the usual dues.® BOROUGH 81 Assize R. 430, m. 12d. 82 Bridgeman, Wigan Ch. 222. 88 Ibid. 1613; see also 242. The Industries of Wigan, by H. T. Fol- kard, R. Betley, and C. M, Percy, published in 1889, gives an account of the develop- ment of coal-mining and other trades. 84]. P. Earwaker, Trans, Hist. Soc. (new ser.), vi, 170; NV. and Q. (Ser. 10), v, 257. The will of John Scott was proved in 1648, and that of Jeffrey Scott in 1665. William Scott occurs 1670- 1700; R. Ashton 1703-17, and Luke Ashton 1723-50. 85 Bridgeman, op. cit. 286. 86 Op. cit. 182. 86a Lancs. and Ches. Antig. Soc. xix, 228, 232. 3icb Thid. 234.3 quoting from England Described, 1788. It had been ruined by 1824; Baines, Lancs. Dir. ii, 612. 87 Lancs. and Ches. Hist. and Geneal, Notes, ii, 33. 88 Docal Glean. Lancs. and Ches. ii, 182, 217. The Earl of Balcarres was colonel ; there were eight companies, and §52 men. 89 V.C.H. Lancs. i, 286. Digitized by Microsoft® 40 Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 436. See also Engl. Hist. Rev. v, 395. 41 Bridgeman, op cit. 143. In 1316 Edmund de Standish granted to Aymory the Fuller land adjoining a narrow lane leading towards the Coppedhull mill ; Crosse D. (Trans. Hist. Soc.), n. 27. 42 Bridgeman, op. cit. 144-6. 43 Ibid. 225. The defendant relied upon the charter of John Maunsel ; he was a burgess of Wigan, and had by descent from his ancestors divers bur- gages in the said borough; and those ancestors had enjoyed his share in the mills as parcel of their own inheritance, paying the accustomed rent for the same. The rector’s right to the mills, as part of his glebe, was affirmed by a decree of June 1618 ; ibid. 227, 229. 44 Ibid. 309. 45 Ibid. 220, 231. Miles seems to have claimed ownership. He died early in 1628, and his widow Alice begged that either she or her son Orlando might be admitted as tenant. The bishop told her to take comfort, as he had never dealt unkindly with his tenants; but as his 7O right to this mill had been questioned he had determined te take it into his own hands for a time that there might be no possibility of dispute in future. On re- ceiving this answer the widow refused to give up possession, and Lord and Lady Strange took up her cause. The bishop promised them that the widow should have the mill after a while; but as she still remained obstinate, the matter came before the quarter sessions. It was not till the end of March 1630 that she finally submitted, gave up the key, and allowed the bishop to take possession. He re- tained it for three weeks, and then ad- mitted her as tenant ; ibid. 320-8. 46 Ibid. 240, 243. Two horse-mills were allowed to stand, rent being paid to the lord ; ibid. 240, 243. 47 Ibid. 189. 48 Ibid. 192. 49 This charter is known by its recital in that of Edw. II ; see Bridgeman, op. cit. 9) 32. The charters are printed in Sin- clair’s Hist. of Wigan. See Chart. R. 7 Edw. I, m. 4, 3 3 24 Edw. III, 145, m. 2,43 m. 3, 7 The charter of 1314 is still preserved at Wigan, WEST DERBY HUNDRED The rector’s concomitant charter grants that the burgesses of Wigan and their heirs and assigns should have their free town, with all rights, customs, and liberties as stated in the king’s charter; that each burgess should have to his burgage 5 roods of land ; that they should grind at the rector’s mill to the twentieth measure without payment, should have from his wood sufficient for building and burning, quittance of pannage and other easements ; and that . they should have their pleas in portmote once in * three weeks, with verdict of twelve men and amerce- ments by the same; paying annually to the rector 12d. a year for each burgage for all services. Robert Banastre, lord of Makerfield and patron of the church, added his confirmation ; as did also Roger, Bishop of Lichfield. The burgesses,” regarded as equals, thus became the free tenants of the rector, as lord of the manor, with the usual liberties, and the special privilege of a portmote. The royal charter looks on the place as a trading centre and gives internal and external privileges accordingly ; these last, which the rector could not give, were doubtless the reason for invoking the king’s help. A later charter, 1257-8, granted that the rectors should have a market at their borough of Wigan on Monday in every week, and two fairs there of three days each, viz., on the vigil, day and morrow of the Ascension and of All Saints. In 1292 Adam de Walton, then rector, was called upon to show by what warrant he claimed certain liberties ; it was asserted that Master Adam and his bailiffs had exceeded the terms of the charters by trying persons accused of felonies beyond their juris- diction, when those persons had placed themselves on a jury of their country. In reply to particular charges the community of the vill appeared by twelve men of the vill. As to the court and liberty of the vill they said that these belonged to the rector, and they were suitors there. The jury decided that soke and sac and other liberties had been granted to the burgesses, who did not claim them, and not to the rector, who did; let them therefore be taken into the king’s hands. As to the taking of emends of the assize of bread and beer on the market and fair days the rector’s claim was allowed; but as he had punished some frequent transgressors at his discretion and not judicially, he was at the king’s mercy.* ‘The 50 Bridgeman, op. cit. 9, 10. Not many years later William de Occleshaw day, All Saints’ fair was changed to the vigil, and morrow of St. WIGAN liberties claimed by the rectors were afterwards re- stored, on the application of the guardian of Robert Banastre’s heiress.*4 The commonalty of Wigan were sued for a debt in 1304." In 1314 Robert de Clitheroe obtained from the king a confirmation of the charter of 1246." About 1328 the rector complained that the burgesses, his tenants, every day held a market among themselves, and with strangers, in divers goods, although these be ill-gotten or stolen ; taking toll for such merchandise and appropriating it to themselves. They also made assay of bread and tasting of beer every day except Monday, taking amercements and profits by force and power ; all to the prejudice of the rector’s market.” Possibly it was on this account that the charter was confirmed in 1329. A further confirmation was granted in 1350; with a special indemnity to the rector and the bur- gesses for any abuse or non-claim of the liberties and acquittances of former charters. The king also granted a view of frankpledge, freedom from the sheriff’s tourn, cognizance by the bailiffs of the rector of all pleas concerning lands, tenures, contracts, &c., within the borough ; with many similar and comple- mentary liberties. ‘Moreover, whereas there has been a frequent concourse at the said borough, as well of merchants and others, for the sake of trading and otherwise,’ the rectors, as lords of the borough, might for ever ‘ have a certain seal, by us to be ordained, of two pieces, as is of custom to be used, for recognisances of debts there according to the form of the statutes published for merchants ; and that the greater part of the seal aforesaid may remain in the custody of the mayor or keeper of the borough aforesaid for the time being, or other private person of the greater or more discreet men of the borough to be chosen for this purpose (with the assent of the rector) if there shall not be a mayor or keeper there.’ ® Asa result of this charter suits by Wigan people were frequently stopped in the assize court by the bailiffs of the rector appearing to claim the case as one for the local court. Another result was prob- ably the regular election of a mayor, the language of the charter implying that the burgesses had not hitherto had such a generally recognized head. There are numerous instances of ‘statutes merchant’ before 57 Thid. 44. Wilfrid the 58 Ibid. 45. The king granted a tax granted to Simon son of Payn de War- rington and Emma his wife a burgage and an acre of land in Wigan, rendering to the rector of Wigan 12d. yearly, and to the grantor a peppercorn. In 1284 Simon Payn, son of the said Simon (son of) Payn, claimed the land; Assize R. 1268, m.11. Simon Payn and Amabil his wife were engaged in suits in 1292 3 Assize R. 408, m. 77d. 60. Simon Payn of Wigan obtained a house and land here in 13363 Final Conc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), ii, 101. 51 There does not seem to be any means of ascertaining the number of burgages. The earliest poll-book, 1627, shows that there were then about a hundred in-bur- gesses, but does not state their qualifica- tions; Sinclair, Wigan, i, 197. 52 Bridgeman, op. cit. 33. A charter for a fair at All Saints and a market on Monday had been secured in 1245 ; Cal. Chart. R. 1226-87, p. 284. In 1314 the Digitized by Microsoft® Bishop; Chart. R. 7 Edw. II, m. 4, 44.3 but in 1329 reverted to the old day; ibid. 3 Edw. III, m. 6, 14. The autumn fair was afterwards held on the vigil, feast, and morrow of St. Luke ; Wm. Smith, Deser. of Engl. 1588 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 4. 58 Bridgeman, op. cit. 31-6, from Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 371, 372. The rector stated that he did not claim utfan- genthef, though named in the charter, 54 Bridgeman, op. cit. 37. There exists a petition by the people of Wigan for the restoration of their franchises made after the death of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, 1296; Anct. Petitions, P.R.O. 316, E 226, 53 De Banco R. 151, m. 112. In 1307 there were complaints that Welshmen, returning probably from the Scottish wars, had been maltreated and killed at Wigan; Assize R. 422, m. 4 d. 56 Bridgeman, op. cit. 41. Ft called pavage (for the mending of the ways) to the men of Wigan in 1341, Cal. Pat. 1340-43, p. 163 3 see also p. 313. 59 Bridgeman, 48-53. In the same year is mentioned the smaller seal for the recognizances of debts; Cal, Par. 1348- 50, Pe 553. 60 At the instance of Rector James de Langton the borough charters were con- firmed by Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V at the commencement of their reigns in 1378, 1400, and 1413 3 Bridge- man, op. cit. §7, 59. 61 Thus in 1350, when Richard de Mitton claimed in the King’s Bench a messuage in the town from William del Cross, who had entry by Robert son of John del Cross, the rector’s bailiffs appeared, made a statement of the jurisdictions conferred by the charter and drew the case to the local court; De Banco R. 363, m. 203. In subsequent years the same thing happened. A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE the mayor of Wigan commencing about 1370.” From a petition of Rector Wyot (1506-19) it appears that, ‘for a long time past,’ the custom had been that on a vacancy in the mayoralty the bur- gesses elected three of their number and presented them to the rector, who chose one to act for the ensuing year.® The rectors in the time of Henry VIII, and probably much earlier, exercised their authority as lords of the borough through a steward and a bailiff, with an under-steward who was clerk of the court. About 1560 Bishop Stanley began to assert his rights as lord of the manor, and he challenged the claim to hold markets,® fairs, and courts leet put for- ward and exercised by the mayor and burgesses. ‘Those accused of withdrawing ‘did not know’ whether suit was due to the rector’s law-day or leet, or to his three weeks court, though ‘most of them had done so, until now of late’; and they endeavoured to draw attention from this aspect of the question by an allegation of outrage upon the mayor by one of the bishop’s servants. Nothing seems to have been done, except that the bishop confirmed Maunsel’s charter to the burgesses. He yielded ‘upon fear and for a fine of money received,’ according to Dr. Bridge- man.” Under Rector Fleetwood the struggle was more determined. The corporation about 1583 laid claim to the lordship of the manor, as lords improving the wastes and commons, and letting the houses built thereupon ; also digging for coal within the demesnes of the manor, and in many other ways usurping the rector’s rights. They stated that a mayor, two bailiffs, and sundry burgesses were annually elected for the town and borough of Wigan, which had also five aldermen, the Earl of Derby being one; that Maunsel’s charter gave the burgesses all the liberties in dispute; and that the moot-hall was their in- heritance. They had kept courts, taken waifs and strays, &c., in accordance with their right. The rector’s reply traversed all this, alleging in particular that the burgesses had no grant enabling them to elect a mayor to be head of the corporation, though they had done so ‘for divers years’ by usurpation, and that the appointment of aldermen was a recent usage, ‘without due rite.’ A charter was granted about this time, viz. in 1585. A decree in the nature of a compromise was made in 1596 by the Chancellor of the Duchy. It was ordered that the corporation should keep such courts as they had usually kept, except the leets, and take the profits to their own uses ; that, as to the leets, the rector should appoint a steward to sit with the mayor and burgesses or their steward and take half the profits. Clay and stone might be dug as cus- tomary, but the ways must be mended as quickly as possible, and any damage done to the moat round the rectory must be repaired. As to the fairs and markets and the profits arising from them, the corporation should have them as before, but the rector’s tenants must not be required to pay any increase upon the customary tolls. The rents claimed by the rector must be paid, with arrears. The question as to the improvement of the wastes does not seem to have been decided.” The corporation were then left at peace for twenty years. Dr. Massie seems to have been very yielding.” Bishop Bridgeman, however, an able man and strong in the royal favour, upon being appointed to the rectory made a vigorous and fairly successful effort to recover certain of his manorial rights as against the corporation.” The ownership of the markets and fairs, with the tolls belonging to them, had been held by the town for upwards of fifty years. On 17 Octo- ber 1617, being the eve of the fair, the rector sent his man to the mayor, entreating him not to deal or meddle with the fair until the controversy as to all these matters had been decided, and inviting the mayor and aldermen, &c., to meet him at the pentice chamber next morning. At this conference the rector desired them to allow him the rights his predecessors had enjoyed, without any lawsuits ; they answered that he had what his predecessors had, and ought not to ask more. The mayor was bold enough to challenge the rector’s right to the manor, but met no support from the burgesses, who acknowledged their obligation to pay 12d. for each burgage plot. On matters of land-ownership no opposition was made ; but when the rector claimed the fairs, markets, courts leet, courts of pleas, and courts baron and other privileges, the burgesses’ reply seems to have been firm and unanimous: ‘’They had a right to them and hoped so to prove in law.” No compromise was possible, the answer being that they were ‘all sworn to maintain the privileges of the town.’ ® A special tribunal was appointed, and at the begin- ning of 1619 a decision was given: the rector was lord of the manor, with a right to the wastes and court baron and suit and service of the freeholders and inhabitants ; the moot-hall to be common to the rector and corporation for the keeping of their courts, of which the pentice plea and court of pleas should be the corporation’s, the leets at Easter and Michael- mas being adjudged, the former to the rector and the latter to the corporation ; the Ascension-day fair and 62 Early in 1406 Adam de Birkhead, mayor of Wigan, and William de Mede- wall, clerk, for taking recognizances of debts at Wigan, certified that in March, 1372-3, Sir William de Atherton came before Thomas de Heywood, then mayor, and Thomas Clerk, then clerk, and acknowledged that he owed his brother, Nicholas de Atherton, £100 sterling ; which he ought to have paid at the Christmas next following, but had not done so; Pal. of Lanc. Chan. Misc. bdle. i, file 9, m. 38. 68 Bridgeman, op. cit. 72. 64 Ibid. ror, Sir Thomas Langton, who, as lord of Newton, was chief lord of the manor, about this time laboured hard to secure appointment as the rector’s Digitized by Microsoft® steward, and though rejected he took it upon himself to act, making himself very obnoxious to the corporation. In 1539 the mayor and burgesses complained that whereas it had been their custom to elect a mayor on the Saturday after Michael- mas Day, Sir Thomas with a number of associates had disturbed the election, and declared that he would not take Adam Bankes for mayor, though he had been duly chosen. A few weeks after- wards there was an invasion of the town by the Langton faction, which necessitated an inquiry by the Crown. It then appeared that the disturbers asserted the election of mayor to belong to the rector of Wigan or his steward ; ibid. 108-11. 55 A book of tolls 1561-7 is among 72 Lord Kenyon’s deeds ; Hist. MSS. Com, Rep. xiv, App. iv, 4. 86 Bridgeman, op, cit. 133-8. 67 Ibid. 213. 68 Ibid. 147-57. 69 A contemporary paper copy is extant at Wigan. In Pal. of Lanc. Plea R. 253, m. 26, are copies of the earlier charters, 70 Bridgeman, op. cit. 157, 158. “1 Ybid. 213. Dr. Bridgeman affirmed that ‘none of his predecessors, except Dr. Massie, were without the use and possession of all those things which he claimed ; or did at least claim and sue for them as Mr. Fleetwood did.’ Dr. Massie was rector from 1605 to 1615, 72 Thid. 205. 3 Ibid. 213-15. WEST DERBY HUNDRED the Monday market to be the rector’s, but St. Luke’s fair and the Friday market to be the corporation’s.”! In October 1620 the mayor of Wigan appeared in the moot-hall where the justices were sitting at quarter-sessions, and, ‘putting on his hat before them,’ claimed the ordering of the alehouses in Wigan, as belonging to his leet. ‘The justices objected to his manners, and as he refused to find sureties for good behaviour sent him to prison ; but their action was annulled, though the mayor’s action for false im- prisonment also failed.” Bishop Bridgeman in 1622 claimed the pentice chamber in the moot-hall as built upon his waste within living memory, and appears to have succeeded.” His next correction of the assumptions of the corpora- tion was provoked by the latter ; they refused liberty to one William Brown to sell his goods, on the ground that he was not a burgess. ‘The bishop pointed out that they had no right to elect burgesses; the true burgesses were those who paid the lord of the manor 12d. rent for a burgage, and he had made William Brown a burgess by selling to him a burgage house recently bought of Thomas Gerard of Ince. The mayor and burgesses were by this time convinced that it was useless to contend with their lord; they made no demur, and asked him to appoint his son Orlando as one of their aldermen ; he, however, did not judge it well to do so.” From this time, 1624, till after the Restoration there appears to be no record of any dispute between rector and corporation. It can scarcely be doubted that the Commonwealth period would be favourable to the latter, and when in 1662 Sir Orlando Bridge- man was selected as arbitrator in a fresh misunder- standing, he ruled that though the rector was lord of the manor and must keep a court baron, yet in view of the municipal court of pleas it was of little im- portance except for inquiring into the chief rents due to the rector, and preventing encroachments on the waste. Hence the court baron was to be held once in two years only, in the moot-hall ; no pleas were to be held between party and party ; and the mayor and such aldermen as had been mayors should be exempt from attending. The streets and wastes were to be regulated as to encroachments by the rector and mayor. Sir Orlando’s father had, by his advice, leased the rector’s Ascensiontide fair and weekly market to the corporation ; and the arbitrator recom- WIGAN mended the continuance of this system as ‘a great means to continue peace and goodwill’ between the parties, a lease, renewable, for 21 years being granted at arent of five marks a year. The lease included the yearly fair, weekly market, and court leet, and all tolls, courts, piccage, stallages, profits, commodities, and emoluments belonging to them.” Forty years ago the corporation purchased the manorial rights, an agreement being made g July 1860 between the rector and patron on the one side, and the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses on the other. The rights transferred were the summer fair, the Monday market, and various tolls ; quit rents and manorial rights in slips of waste lying uninclosed adjoining streets in the borough and in mines under these slips ; rights in Bottling Wood and the wastes ; and the ancient quit rents amounting to £45 35. 4d. The price paid was £2,800. The conveyance was signed by the rector on 2 September 1861.” The charter of 1662, under which the borough was governed down to the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, confirmed to the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses of Wigan all their ancient liberties, and ordained that the corporation should consist of a mayor and eleven other aldermen, a recorder, two bailiffs, and a common clerk. The mayor was to be not only a magistrate for the borough, but also for the county, but this pri- vilege was not maintained.” A supplementary charter was granted by James II in 1685," providing in par- ticular that eighteen burgesses might be chosen to act as ‘assistants,’ so that there should be a common council of thirty-two in all. The mayor was to be chosen yearly ‘on the Sabbath day next after the feast of St. Michael.’ ‘The corporation, like others of the time, was a close or self-electing one, the towns- men being able to make their wishes known only through the jury and court leet. The mayor was coroner ex officio.® The election of burgesses was in the jury and court leet. The corporation had the power of admitting non-resident and honorary burgesses to vote at elec- tions without limitation ; in 1802 they made a hun- dred burgesses in order to rid themselves of the Duke of Portland’s ¢ patronage.’ ® Under the Act of 1835 Wigan was classed with other boroughs having a commission of the peace ; it was divided into five wards, to each of which were as- signed two aldermen and six councillors.* In 1888 it 74 Bridgeman, op. cit. 221, 222. The bishop, accordingly, as rector, held his first court leet and court baron for the manor of Wigan just after Easter 1619, and at Ascension-tide his first fair. The matter was of great importance as preserving the lord’s rights, but the profits of the courts were barely sufficient to pay the fees of the officers ; ibid. 237. The following year he discharged one William Brown from his service because though no burgess he had served in the mayor’s court, ‘as they call it,’ upon the jury. He did so because in former times the corporation had claimed the courts as their own on finding that servants of the rector had sued or served in them ; ibid. 270, 271. 75 Ibid. 265, 266. 76 Ibid. 268, 274. On Christmas-eve in the same year, ‘and properly no market day,’ he prohibited the serjeants and bailiffs of the town from receiving toll, ‘because the wastes and streets are the 4 Digitized by Microsoft® parson’s’; and the jury were instructed to find that the town officers had wronged the lord of the manor by receiving such tolls on the Saturday before the wake day. The jury demurred to the contention that the streets were part of the wastes, but gave way, and the tolls collected that day were given to the rector ; ibid. 274. 77 Bridgeman, op. cit. 287. The dispute marks another step in the growth of the rights of the community ; first was the election of mayor ; next, the appointment of aldermen ; and thirdly, the co-option of burgesses. The last was important, because the burgage plots had a tendency to become the possession of a very few persons. 78 Bridgeman, op. cit. 486-91. See also Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 441, for a declaration in this sense by the cor- poration in 1708, In 1743 Dr. Roger Bridgeman refused to renew the lease, and a lawsuit followed which lasted for many years ; ‘the result 73 appears to have been that the fair and markets remained in the rectors’ hands, but the cuzrts leet were never afterwards held by them’; Bridgeman, op. cit. 632. 79 Bridgeman, op. cit. 664-71. A list of the quit rents is given. They range from 4d. up to £6 145. 8d., this sum being paid by the Canal Company. A considerable number were of the exact 1s., probably re- presenting ancient burgage rents. 80 Pat. 14 Chas. II, pt. xviii, m. 5. The charter specially mentions the loyalty of the town to the late king ; it therefore allowed a sword to be borne before the mayor. 81 The charters of 1662 and 1685 are in the possession of the corporation. 82 Baines, Lancs. Dir. ii, 616. 88 Ibid. ii, 607. 84 The wards were: All Saints, the central portion of the town around the church ; St. George’s, a narrow strip along the Douglas ; Scholes ; Queen Street, in the south ; and Swinley, in the north. Io A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE became a county borough, and in the following year a rearrangement of the wards was authorized; the borough was divided into ten wards, each with one alderman and three councillors, the membership of the council being thus unchanged in number.® The inclusion of Pemberton in 1904 has caused the in- crease of the council to fifty-six members, chosen from fourteen wards. The old town hall, rebuilt in 1720 at the expense of the members for the borough, stood at the western side of the market-place. It was pulled down and rebuilt in the first half of last century. It stood on pillars, the space underneath being subsequently filled with shops. The moot-hall, a stone building in Wallgate, with meeting-room above and shops below, was demolished in 1869, and ‘the new town hall’ in 1882, the present town hall and borough courts having been finished in 1867. A new council cham- ber was opened in 1890. The county police courts date from 1888. ‘The Fish-stones, which were at the northern side of the market place, were removed in 1866. The new market hall was opened in 1877 ; there is a separate fish market. The ancient cloth hall was superseded by a commercial hall in the market-place, erected in 1816. The Public Libraries Act was adopted in 1876, and two years later there was opened the new free library building, presented to the town by Thomas Taylor, who died in 1892. A Powell Boys’ Reading- room, presented by the member for the borough, was added in 1895. A school board was created in 1872. The mining college was founded in 1858 ; in 1903 the present mining and technical building was opened. The corporation have acquired or inaugurated a number of works and institutions for the health and convenience of the people. The first Wigan Water Act was passed in 1764; the waterworks were pur- chased by the corporation in 1855; the gasworks, established in 1822, were acquired in 1875 ; and the tramways, opened in 1880, in 1902. An electric- power station was erected in 1900, and the following year the corporation electric tramways started run- ning. The Mesnes Park was opened in 1878, the sewerage works in 1881, public baths in 1882, and a sanatorium in 1889. Victoria Hall was built in 1902. The cemetery was established in 1856. A dispensary was started in 1798, and a building in King Street provided in 1801, now the Savings Bank. ‘The Royal Albert Edward Infirmary was opened by the King, then Prince of Wales, in 1873. A court of quarter-sessions was granted to the borough in 1886. Impressions of the borough seal of the 1§th century are known.® ‘The device upon it—the moot-hall— is used as acoat of arms for the borough. As a borough Wigan sent two burgesses to the Parliaments of 1295 and 1306, but not again until 1547. From this year the borough regularly returned two members until 1885, except during the Common- wealth, when owing to its royalist tendencies it was disfranchised by Cromwell.” In the 17th century the burgesses were of two classes—in and out; the latter were principally neighbouring gentry, and do not seem to have availed themselves to any great extent of the privilege of voting. On theother handa large number of the townsmen made strenuous efforts to obtain a vote, and in 1639 the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses prepared a memorial to Parliament on the subject. ‘This stated that they were ‘an ancient cor- poration by prescription, and that all such persons as are or have been burgesses of that corporation have always been received into that corporation by election made by the burgesses for the time present of that corporation, and have been afterwards sworn and en- rolled as burgesses in the burgess roll,’ and that from time immemorial only such enrolled burgesses had voted for the burgesses who served in the Parliament ; but at the recent election, after the choice had been made—but apparently before a formal declaration— ‘divers inferior persons, labourers, and handicrafts- men, being free only to trade within the said town and not enrolled burgesses,’ demanded voices. The mayor and bailiffs had replied asking them ‘to make it to appear that they or any others of their condition had any time formerly any voices in election of the burgesses for the Parliament’; they could not prove anything of the sort, and so their votes were not allowed ; but the mayor and bailiffs, at the instance of the elected burgesses, judged it right to inform the Parliament concerning the matter.* By the Redistri- bution Act of 1885 Wigan was allowed but one member instead of two as previously. A number of families come into prominence from time to time in the records. One of the early ones took a surname from Wigan itself, another from Scholes.” Other surnames were Jew,” Botling,” 85 The central ward is called All Saints; to the north is Swinley ward, and to the west of both St. Andrew’s ward. The small but populous district in the south has three wards, Victoria and St. Thomas, on the west and east, being divided by Wallgate ; and Poolstock, to the south of the Douglas. Scholes has four wards: St. George and St. Patrick the inner- most, divided by the street called Scholes ; and Lindsay and St. Catherine outside, divided by Whelley. 86 Lancs. and Ches. Hist. and Geneal, Notes, iii, 100 5 an impression of it occurs among the De Trafford deeds. 87 Pink and Beaven, Parl. Rep. of Lancs. 217, where an account of the members will be found. 88 Sinclair, Wigan, i, 222. 89In 1292 in various suits appear Quenilda widow of Nigel de Wigan, Thurstan de Wigan, Henry son of Hugh de Wigan, and others; Assize R. 408, m. 544, 97, &c. Digitized by Microsoft® About 1290 Roger son of Orm de Wigan was defendant; De Banco R. 167, m. 8d. In 1307 Maud widow of Adam son of Orm de Wigan claimed dower in Wigan lands from Adam son of Roger son of Orm; De Banco R. 162, m. 258d.; Assize R. 421, m. 4. Lands of Richard son of Adam son of Orm are mentioned in 13103 Crosse D. (Trans. Hist. Soc.), no. 19. Margery widow of Roger de Wigan (son of William son of Hugh de Wigan) in 1331 claimed certain lands as her inheritance. A deed granting portion of them to her brother John atte Cross was produced, but she denied it to be hers; De Banco R. 287, m. 106. 90 In 1291 and 1292 Richard son of Adam de Scholes claimed various tene- ments in Wigan; his legitimacy was denied, but he appears to have recovered possession ; Assize R. 407, m. 13 408, mM. 3. 1 Alice widow of Thomas the Jew, 74 and Alice wife of Robert the Jew, occur in local suits in 13503; Aesize R. 1444, m. 4, 7- Robert son of Richard de Ince in 1352 granted land in the Scholes, adjoining John de Longshaw’s land, to Hugh son of Henry the Jew; Towneley MS. GG, no. 2618, In 1383 William de Whittington re- leased to William the Jew, chaplain, his claim to the land called Jewsfield near Whelley Cross; Add. MS. 32106, no. 1351. William the Jew was a trustee in tars Crosse D. (Trans. Hist. Soc.), no. 126, $3 William Botling was a burgess about 1300. Richard Botling made a feoffment of his estate in 13333 Crosse D. no. 6, 44. John son of William Botling of Wigan claimed three messuages, &c.. from Richard Botling and others in 13443 Assize R. 1435, m. 45 d. WEST DERBY HUNDRED Birkhead,® Duxbury,” Prs- [= ton,® Ford,® and Scott.” The Crosse family, afterwards of Liverpool and Chorley, were son," long closely connected with % This family held a good posi- time Adam del tion in the town, and furnished Crosse obtained several of the mayors. ‘There is a from the same Wil- quaint note concerning the Birk- Crosse. Quarterly liam and Eleanor heads in Leland’s Itinerary, vi, 14 3 he suggests a relationship with the Windermere Birkheads or Birketts. In 1308-9 John de Birkhead, son of Ralph, granted a burgage to Richard del Stanistreet; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 253. John de Birkhead attested various local charters down to 1324; Adam de Birk- head others from 1377 to 14173 in the last-named year his son and grandson, Henry and John, also attested ; Crosse D. nos. 41, 72,126. John Birkhead was living in 14343 Towneley MS. OO, no, 1301. In 1471 Richard was son and heir of Henry Birkhead; ibid. no. 148. John Birkhead appears in 1504 ; ibid. no. 165. In 1338 Hugh son of Robert de Birk- head claimed from Richard de Birkhead, litster, various tenements in Wigan, but did not prosecute his claim; Assize R. 1425, m..