WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



in the next year Ackers petitioned the Chancellor of 

 the Duchy for redress. 225 The dispute was settled 

 by the lessee granting a sub-lease 226 to the burgess 

 body, whereby they undertook to collect all the 

 customs, tolls, and ferry-dues, and pay half of the total 

 proceeds and 10. The royal rents of jio and 

 the mills (separately leased at 5O/.) 227 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 1 4 6s. %d. 

 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 affect- 

 ed Liverpool deeply. There 

 were now four chantries in the 

 chapel of St. Nicholas ; their 

 lands in 1546 had been worth 

 21 us. 3//., 228 paying in 

 chief rents to the king I o/. 3</. 22 * 



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. 230 Among the purchasers 2S1 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, 232 the pre-sup- 

 pression chantry priests remaining to perform these 

 functions. 233 In 1565 the administration of these lands 

 seems to have been transferred from the Duchy officers 

 to the mayor and burgesses, 234 who added further 

 revenues raised among themselves, 234 and henceforth 

 controlled the appointment both of the priest and of 

 the schoolmaster of the town. 



Difference of opinion on the religious question may 



WORSLEY. Argent a 

 cheveron sable between 

 three falcons of the last 

 beaked legged and belled 



LIVERPOOL 



have helped to precipitate a serious quarrel between 

 the borough and the lessee of the farm. This had 

 been since 1537 in the hands of Sir William Moly- 

 neux 236 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, 237 retaining half of them on 

 payment of .10 per annum. In 1552 a mysterious 

 lease was issued by Edward VI to one James Bedyll. 238 

 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 2S9 of his lease, though his 

 previous lease was still unexpired, and, the sub-lease 

 to the burgesses having expired, 2 " 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, 241 though, having apparently over- 

 looked the charter of Henry V, 242 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. 243 The question was 

 tried before the Chancery Court of the Duchy 244 

 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 

 ... as the courts . . have been used to be kept,' 

 and that suit at these courts must be rendered by all 

 inhabitants. 144 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. 14 ' 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. 247 



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,! 8 October, 

 a mayor and one bailiff were elected, a second bailiff 

 being nominated by the new mayor at the same 

 meeting. 248 Other assemblies were held as occasion 



225 Duchy of Lane. Judic. Proc., Plead- 

 ings, iv ; Hist. Munic, Go-vt. in Li-v. 404 ; 

 Lane. Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 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. 



228 Croxteth Mun. Liv. Box 10. R2, 

 no. 7 ; Hist. Munic. Go-vt. 335. 



M 7 Croxteth Mun. loc. cit. no. 3 ; Hist. 

 Munic. Go-iit. 333. 



228 Raines, Lanes. Cbant. (Chet. Soc. ix), 



*2-93- 



* Rental of Hen. VIII, loc. cit. 



230 Munic. Rec. passim. 



231 The list of purchasers is printed in 

 Gregson's Fragments, Ixiv. 



233 In the list of official payments of the 

 Duchy printed in Gregson's Fragments, 3 1, 

 ' the stipend of a clerk to serve in the 

 chapel at Litherpoole ^4 \js. $d. and the 

 fee of a clerk and schools mr. of Walton 



5 i3'-4^' 



283 Munic. Rec. i, 13^ and 390. 

 231 Ibid. 39. 



235 Ibid. 13*. 



236 The details of the history of the 

 farm during this period, and copies of the 

 leases, will be found in Hist. Munic. Go-vt. 

 in Liv., 70-7 and 336-53. 



23 ' Ibid. 338. 

 238 Ibid. 345 and 71 n. 

 *> Ibid. 349. 



2:3 The previous sub-lease had been for 

 15 years. 



15 



241 Original in Liv. Munic. Arch. Hist, 

 Munic. Go-vt. 1 64. 



942 This appears from their pleading be- 

 fore the Duchy court, Ibid. 408. 



8 "Mun. Rec. i, 17*. 



844 Duchy of Lane. Misc., xcv, 104*. 

 Hist. Munic. Go-vt. 403. 



M6 Hist. Munic. Go-vt. 412. 



946 For an analysis of this question, see 

 Hist. Munic. Go-vt. 73-6. 



"W Croxteth Mun. Liv., Box 10, no. 

 13, R. z. 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, 3* 



