493 



LIVERPOOL. 



Uie sen. Dr Enfield wishes to consider Leverpoole 

 as the true orthography, and some suppose that 

 it was thus derived from the family of Lever, of 

 ancient standing in the county. Others would con- 

 chide that the Cormorant in its corporation seal, by 

 the heralds called a Lever or Liver, gave its appel- 

 lation ; but the coat of arms is evidently a rebus 

 from the name of the town. Others imagine that it 

 is derived from the abundance of liverwort growing 

 on the shore, but unluckily the liverworts are not 

 marine plants, and the various species of Ulva 

 thrown up by the sea are called laver, and therefore 

 cannot have been the origin of the name, which it 

 serins more safe to consider as a corruption from the 

 original British Lyrpul. 



The early history of Liverpool is extremely 

 meagre. Originally a fishing village, belonging to 

 the parish of Walton, it is not mentioned in Dooms- 

 day Book. It fell with the rest of the country 

 between the Kibble and Mersey to the share of 

 Roger of Pictou, who it is supposed built a castle 

 here about the year 1C76, on the site of what is now 

 St George's church, which thus became the nucleus 

 of a town. Liverpool is said to have received a 

 charter of incorporation from Henry I. in 1129, and 

 another from Henry II. soon after his conquest of 

 Ireland; but both these charters are of very doubt- 

 ful authenticity, if not confessedly spurious. The 

 earliest really authentic document is a charter from 

 king John, dated 1207, still preserved amongst the 

 records of the town. So few incidents occur, in the 

 lapse of five centuries, that the history of Liverpool 

 may be summed up in relating that the Molineux 

 family remained during this long period wardens of 

 the castle ; that in the thirteenth century a build- 

 ing was erected called the tower, at the bottom of 

 Water street, as an outguard to keep watch for the 

 safety of the castle, and that about the year 1360 it 

 became vested in the Stanley family, by the marriage 

 of Sir John Stanley with the heiress of Lathom. 

 This building was occasionally the residence of 

 the earls of Derby, and afterwards became a 

 prison ; its remains were replaced by warehouses 

 in 1819. Between the Stanleys and the Mo- 

 lineux a feud so violent took place, in the reign 

 of Henry VI., that government was obliged to inter- 

 fere. At this period, and for many ages after, the 

 knightly family of More, of Bank Hall, held large 

 possessions and had a mansion in Liverpool. In the 

 reign of Henry VIII. Leland describes the town as 

 in a flourishing condition : " Lyrpole, alias Lyver- 

 poole, a pavid towne, hath but a chapel, Walton a 

 iiii miles of, not far from the Se is paroche chirch, 

 the king has a castelet there, and the earls of Darbe 

 hath a stone house there. Irisch marchauntes cum 

 much thither as to a good haven ; after that Mersey 

 water ramming up to Runcorne in Cheshire, liseth 

 among the commune people the name, and is Lyr- 

 pole. At Lyrpole is smaule custume payed that 

 causith marchauntes to resorte. Good marchandis at 

 Lyrpole, and moch Yris yarn that Manchestre men 

 do buy there.'' After this period the town seems to 

 have fallen somewhat into decay, as in the year 1565 

 a town record states that the number of householders 

 was only 138, and in a petition to queen Elizabeth, 

 in 1571, it is styled her majesty's poor decayed 

 town of Liverpoole ; but at the latter end of this 

 reign it appears to have somewhat recovered itself, 

 as Camden's description of it is very similar to 

 Iceland's ; but even at the period of the civil wars its 

 relative inferiority to Bristol may be inferred from 

 the former city being rated at 1000 for the illegal 

 exaction of ship money, whilst Liverpool was required 

 to furnish only 25. In the year 1644 the town 

 was defended bv colonel More against the army of 



prince Rupert for three weeks, at the expiration 

 of which it was taken by storm, but the royal cause 

 being soon after utterly ruined, at the battle of Mar- 

 ston Moor, Liverpool again fell into the hands of the 

 parliament. In 1690 king William embarked at this 

 place for Ireland, three days before the battle of the 

 Boyne, which fixed the crown upon his head, and 

 established the security of the protestant faith and 

 the liberties of England. It was honoured, in 1806, 

 by another royal visit, in the person of the prince 

 of Wales, accompanied by the duke of Clarence, his 

 present majesty. Liverpool escaped the vortex of 

 the rebellions in 1715 and 1745. Its history subse- 

 quent to the Restoration is the detail of its increasing 

 commercial prosperity, one principle of which seems 

 to be hinted at by Leland, in " the smaule custume 

 payed." At the time of its erection into a separate 

 parish, 1699, Liverpool appears to have contained a 

 population of about 5000 persons ; its great increase 

 and prosperity have been occasioned by the enter- 

 prize and skill of its inhabitants, by its local advan 

 tages, commanding the trade of Ireland and America, 

 and by the enlarged wisdom of the corporation, in 

 abolishing all exclusive laws, and encouraging by an 

 entire freedom every species of industry and com- 

 mercial talent. 



The streets of Liverpool are mostly spacious, airy, 

 some of them elegant, and the greater part of them 

 lighted with coal gas. The older and more confined 

 parts of the town are in a state of improvement. 

 The public buildings are elegant. The principal of 

 these are the town hall, exchange buildings, corn 

 exchange, lyceum, athenaeum, Wellington rooms, 

 infirmary, workhouse, blue-coat school, dispensary, 

 and asylum for the blind. There are at present 

 about twenty churches belonging to the establish- 

 ment, many of them of much architectural beauty ; 

 a greater number of chapels belonging to various 

 denominations of dissenters; with four Roman 

 Catholic chapels, a meeting-house for Quakers, and 

 a Jews' synagogue. The charitable institutions are 

 numerous and well conducted. About 1500 patients 

 are admitted annually into the infirmary. The blue- 

 coat hospital maintains and educates about 200 boys 

 and girls. The school for the blind is on a most 

 extensive scale. A handsome and spacious theatre, 

 and a circus, are open during great part of the year. 

 At the royal Liverpool institution, public lectures 

 are given ; and attached to it is a philosophical 

 apparatus and a museum of natural curiosities. A 

 botanic garden was also established in 1801, at an 

 expense of about .10,000. The lyceum and the 

 athenaeum consist each of a news-room and library. 

 There are also the Union news-room, the music-hall, 

 the Wellington rooms, opened in 1816, for balls, con- 

 certs, &c., the town hall, the exchange buildings, 

 erected in 1803 8 for commercial purposes. The 

 area enclosed by the fronts of these buildings and 

 the town hall, is 197 feet by 178. In the centre of 

 the area is erected a superb group of bronze statuary, 

 supposed to be the largest in the kingdom, to com- 

 memorate the death of lord Nelson. 



But the peculiar feature of Liverpool consists in 

 its extensive docks, which have been both the cause 

 and effect of its prosperity. The area of these exca- 

 vations, including the various basins, graving and 

 dry docks, embraces a space little short of 100 acres. 

 From the flatness of the shore, shipping must always 

 have been liable to great inconveniences ; for vessels 

 were obliged to ride as in a road rather than a har- 

 bour, exposed to sudden gales and hurricanes, which 

 even at present cause much damage. The act of 

 parliament for excavating the old dock was obtained 

 in 1710 ; its surface was 3 acres, but it is now filled 

 up, and the new custom house built on its site. 



