A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



annum, and for icven years, in place of a grant for life 

 and without rent, which had been made two years 

 before by Richard III.* 03 



In the first half of the 1 6th 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 ; 1M 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.' wi Some of the bullion required by the Irish 

 army was also exported through Liverpool.* 06 Probably 

 the Irish trade of the port revived as a consequence. 

 Leland, in a brief note on Liverpool, 107 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. 80 * We 

 hear of one Liverpool merchant* 09 trading with 

 Drogheda, who in 1538 had for sale 1 2 Ib. of London 

 silks, and 1 2 pieces of kerseys, white, green and blue ; 

 three of the latter sold for 15 izs. 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, 110 persuaded a Spaniard, Lope de Rivera, 

 to import into Liverpool large quantities of wine ; * u 

 in 1 5 34 the deputy- butler for Lancashire complains 

 that William Collinges has imported 1 8 tuns of wine 

 into Liverpool without paying prisage ; "* while in 

 1545 we hear of a Biscayan ship 'stayed at Liver- 

 poole.' m 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.' * u 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.* 15 From 1524 a deed survives* 16 

 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 is that it shows the burgesses acting as owners of 

 the waste ; and this is still more clearly exhibited 

 in a borough rental of 1523,"' prefixed to the 

 Municipal Records, in which eight tenants pay 

 among them js. ^d. for patches of common. A 

 rental of the king's lands in Liverpool * 18 dating from 

 1539 yields further interesting particulars. The 

 total value was 10 is. ^d. t which was, of course, 

 included in the lease of the farm. It is significant that 

 only 3f 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 I546.* 19 



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.* 20 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) * 21 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 

 I528* 2S 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 as a result of his complaint to the Crown, the 

 mayor was ordered m to put an end to this illegal 

 ferry. The order seems to have been neglected, for 



908 Hist. Muntc. Go-vt. 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 ie that Cook's ferry plied 

 between Liverpool and Runcorn. 



"> State Papers, Hen. VIII, ii, 205. 



* Ibid, ii, 4 !5. 



908 Acts of P.O. 1552-4, p. 104. 



807 Leland, Itin. vii, fol. 50, 44. 



**See Duchy Plead, v, m. 2 (19 

 Hen. VIII). 



* Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lane*, 

 and Ches. xxxv), ii, 119. 



910 In the judgement in the case of 

 Molyneux v. Corporation of Liv. ; Hist. 

 Munic. GO-HI. 411. 



211 Duchy Plead, ix, c. 10, p. 47. 



212 Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches. xxxv), ii, 50. 



918 Acts of P.O. 1542-7, p. 248. 

 814 Ibid. 1554-6, p. 236. 

 a6 Okill Transcripts, xiv, 118. 

 814 In the Municipal archives. 

 V Munic. Rec. i, 5. 

 818 Printed in Gregson, Fragment*, App. 

 Lxv 



219 Raines, Lanes. Chant. (Chet. Soc. 

 lix), 82-93. 



220 Duchy of Lane. Depositions, P. 

 & M. v, m. 3 ; Inventories of CA. Gds. 

 (Chet. Soc. cxiii), 97-8. 



821 Duchy of Lane. Misc. zi ; Hist. 

 Munic. Go-vt. in Li-v. 329. 



222 Duchy of Lane. Misc. 95, 366 ; 

 Hist. Munic. Go-vt. in Li-v. 402. 



828 Duchy of Lane. Misc. 22 ; Hist. 

 Munic. Go-vt, in Li-v. 403. 



224 Duchy of Lane. Misc. 95, fol. 104 b ; 

 Hist. Munic. Govt. in Liv. 403. 



