WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



remained inactive. The parliamentary commissioners 

 found much work in the parish in connexion with the 

 forfeited or sequestered estates of Royalists' and 

 recusants. 1 



After the Restoration the lists of contributors to the 

 hearth tax provide a basis for judging the condition of 

 the inhabitants. 3 In Childwall in 1666 only three 

 houses had three hearths or more liable, Gilbert 

 Tarleton's having seven and the vicarage five. In 

 Wavertree William Ellison's of Greenside was the 

 largest, with five hearths. In Much Woolton only two 

 houses had as many as three hearths, but in little Wool- 

 ton there were nine, including Brettargh Holt with 

 nine hearths. Speke Hall had twenty-one hearths, and 

 Allerton Hall eight. In Garston there were only four 

 houses with three hearths at least. In Hale the great 

 houses of Sir Gilbert Ireland, with seventeen hearths at 

 Hale and twenty-two at the Hutt are prominent. 



The growth of Liverpool in more recent times has 

 had its inevitable effect on a large portion of the parish. 

 Wavertree and Garston have become populous urban 

 districts, and were incorporated in the borough of 

 Liverpool in 1895 and 1903 respectively; Child- 

 wall, the Wooltons, and Allerton, have also a suburban 

 character, while Speke, Hale, and Halewood still re- 

 main agricultural. 



The agricultural land in the parish is occupied as 

 follows : Arable land, 8,934 acres ; permanent grass, 

 2,838 ; woods and plantations, 337.' 



There were races held at Childwall early in the 

 eighteenth century. 5 



A report on the wasting of the lands by the Mersey 

 was made in i SaS. 6 



In 1804 a company of volunteers was formed from 

 Hale, Halewood, and Garston, under the commander- 



CHILDWALL 



ship of John Blackburne of Hale, and with Richard 

 Weston as captain. 7 



The church of All Saints 8 is situated 

 CHURCH on the north-eastward slope of the hill 

 about half-way up. The building has 

 has but little ancient work to show. It consists of 

 chancel with north chapel and vestry, nave with 

 north and south aisles, south chapel and south 

 porch, and west tower and spire. 



A few twelfth-century stones have been found in the 

 course of repairs, but nothing in the building appears 

 to be older than the fourteenth century. The north 

 arcade and aisle were rebuilt early in the nineteenth 

 century, and are now again (1906) in process of 

 complete rebuilding. The chancel 9 has on the south 

 side a square-headed two-light window which may be 

 of fourteenth-century date, while the east window and 

 a north window like that on the south are modern, of 

 fourteenth-century style. The chancel arch of two 

 chamfered orders dies into the walls at the springing. 

 The south arcade of the nave is of fifteenth-century 

 date, with octagonal columns and moulded capitals, and 

 pointed arches of two orders. Originally of five bays, 

 one of its columns has been removed and two of the 

 arches thrown into one, in order to improve the view 

 of the nave from the south nave chapel (the Salisbury 

 chapel), which is an eighteenth-century building with 

 a large round-headed south window. 



The south aisle has several fifteenth-century two- 

 light windows, and the embattled south porch is of the 

 same date, while the clearstory over the south arcade 

 has square-headed windows which may be of the 

 sixteenth century. In the south aisle are two arched 

 recesses in the wall, probably sepulchral, and in the 

 same place are preserved the figures of a man in plate 



1 The Royalists included James, earl of 

 Derby, lord of Childwall, Woolton, and 

 Halewood ; Royalist Camp. Papers (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 225, &c. 



tithes of Childwall ; ibid, i, 75-80. 



William Norris, of Speke, and his son 

 were disaffected, while the late Edward 

 Norris (eldest son) had fought against 

 the Parliament ; ibid, iv, 219, 227 ; i, 175. 

 Edward Norris's lands had been secured 

 on a lease, though ' at the highest rate,' by 

 George Ireland, of Hale, who was 'ever 

 desirous to advance the public benefit ' ; 

 which lease he in 1653 desired to have 

 confirmed that he might recoup the heavy 

 charge he had been subject to, both for 

 lays and other taxes and for draining and 

 improving the property, it being ' subject 

 to the overflowing of salt water,' and 

 otherwise in decay ; ibid, iv, 14. 



Humbler people suffered. Richard Rose 

 and a number of others describing them- 

 elves as labourers, living in Hale and 

 Garston and Speke, complained that their 

 property had been sequestered, not for their 

 own fault, but through the * delinquency ' 

 of others, and they were too poor to take 

 witnesses to London to prove their titles ; 

 ibid, iv, 47, 53. The editor says : 'Most 

 of the cases seem to have been disposed of 

 by a marginal note, " Petitioner to enjoy it 

 if not a recusant." ' 



'William Ballard, a leaseholder in 

 Speke, had had two-thirds of his estate 

 sequestered for recusancy ; Robert Holme, 

 similarly treated, was supposed to be a 

 delinquent' also, but this seems not 

 to have been proved; ibid, i, 119; iii, 

 306. 



Thomat Molyneux, of Speke, and 



Thomas Plumb, of Garston, had less rigid 



sequestered' they took the oath of ab- 

 juration, but the officers of the Pipe were 



tioners had for the last three years at least 

 (i.e. 1648-51) been conformable to the 

 doctrine of the Church of England, attend- 

 ing their parish church on Lord's days and 



had 



tered for moi 

 C*mp. Papers, 



I l.i 



lancy it had been seques- 

 than ten years ; Royalist 



of Ha 



i freely contributed to the Parlia- 

 ment's service ; Royalist Comp. Papers 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iv, 97-100, 

 Richard Quick, of Much Woolton, was 



(Index Soc.), 43 ; Cal. of Com. for Comp. 

 v, 3201. 



3 Lay Subsidies Lane. 250/9 ; for a brief 



til,/ i 



had had the two-thirds of her estate 

 sequestered for recusancy, and on her death 

 her grandson, Thomas (son of William) 

 Harrison, applied for the removal of the 

 sequestration ; there was evidence that he 

 was a good Protestant, 'for he was a 

 constant hearer of the Word of God at the 

 chapel of Hale' ; ibid, iii, 165. Thomas 

 Harrison, of Oglet, who was a Protestant 

 and 'ever had been a friend of the Parlia- 

 ment,' prayed for the restitution of the 

 land of his late mother Elizabeth, widow 

 of Richard Harrison, sequestered many 

 years before for her recusancy ; ibid, iii, 



had two-thirds of his leasehold estate 

 sequestered for recusancy ; but as he died 

 in 1654, and the lease had expired with 

 him, there was no further cause for the 

 sequestration ; ibid, iv, 70-1. Elizabeth 

 Fazakerley's estates, similarly sequestered, 

 were likewise released by her death in 

 1 6 5 5 ; Cal. of Com. for Comp. v, 3 2 3 8. 



In Woolton a mistake seems to have 



been made. Cliffe House, in Woolton, 



which had been sequestered for recusancy, 



was restored on evidence that the peti- 



103 



Hi,,. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 33-5. 



4 The following are details : 



Arable Grass Wood, 



ac. ac. &c. 



Childwall . 2378 . 1752 . 49 

 Garston . . 489 . 302 . 7 

 Speke and 



Hale . . 3165 . 493 . 218 

 Halewood . 2902 . 291 . 63 



5 N. Blundell's Diary, 32, 35. 



6 Trans. Hist. Soc. xxii, 220-8. 



7 Local Gleanings Lanes, and Cbes. ii, 

 206-7. 



8 In one of the Norris Deeds (B.M. 

 n. 189) the final remainder is to the work 

 (opus] of St. Peter of Childwall. This was 

 in 1354. 



There is a view of the building, drawn 

 in 1775, in Gregson's Fragments (ed. Har- 

 land), 1 88, and a description in Glynne'. 

 Lar.cs. Churches (Chet. Soc.), 113. 



The list of pewholders in 1609 is 

 printed in Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), 

 vii-viii, 327. 



9 Sir S. Glynne (op. et. loc. cit.) notes 

 that the chancel has been shortened. 



