A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Moore during the night, and embarked with the 

 military stores on the shipping in the Pool. 405 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 ' ; 406 

 Caryll Molyneux, according to Sir Edward Moore, 

 the runaway Colonel's son, killing 'seven or eight 

 poor men with his own hands.' 407 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.' 408 



The capture of the town probably took place on 

 14 or 15 June; it is mentioned in the Mercurius 

 Britannicus of 1 7 June. 409 Rupert remained in the 

 castle till the igth, 410 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, 411 but does not 

 seem to have done so. Liverpool was now again, 

 except Lathom, the only Royalist stronghold in Lanca- 

 shire. 411 To garrison it Sir Robert Byron had been left 

 with a large force of English and Irish troops ; 41S 

 there was also a considerable number of cattle within 

 the walls, 414 while guns had been mounted on ' Wor- 

 rall side ' (probably near the modern New Brighton) 

 to prevent the approach of Parliamentary ships. 415 

 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, 416 

 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 was a 

 good deal of fighting between Liverpool and Lathom. 

 But after 20 August, when the Royalists were severely 

 defeated at Ormskirk, 417 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. 418 He was as- 

 sisted by a fleet in the river under Colonel Moore, 419 

 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 ; 420 the Chester garrison had to be 

 strictly blockaded to prevent its sending relief ; and on 

 1 7 September a force of 4,000 men was met by the 

 Parliamentarians at Oswestry 421 marching to the re- 

 lief of Liverpool. It was doubtless the value of 

 Liverpool as a 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, 42 * driving 

 with them into Meldrum's camp the greater part of 

 the cattle in the town. On I November the re- 

 mainder of the garrison mutinied, imprisoned their 

 officers, and surrendered the town at discretion. 4 * 3 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. 483 * 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, 4 * 4 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.' m 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, 426 licence 

 to cut timber from the Molyneux and Derby estates 

 for the rebuilding of the town, 427 the abolition of the 

 Molyneux tenancy of the lease, 428 and a grant of 

 i 0,000 worth of land, at first assigned from the 

 estates of ' malignants,' in Galway, 429 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. 43 " 

 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 1 7th 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 t ^ e 



406 Ormerod, op. cit. 199. 



409 Martindale, Autobiog, (Chet. Soc. 

 iv), 41. 



*> Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 16. 

 408 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 140. 

 ** Ormerod, op. cit. 199. 



410 Hist. MSB. Com. Re/>. xiii, App. i, 179. 

 * u Ibid, iv, App. 2756. 



4U London Post, 30 .Sept. 1644, in 

 Ormerod, op. cit. 206. 



4U Vicars, Pad. Chron. iv, 62. 

 414 Ormerod, op. cit 207. 



416 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iv, App. 270*. 



416 Ormerod, op. cit. 206. 



V Ibid. 



418 London Post, in Ormerod, op. cit. 206. 



Ibid. "20 Ibid> 207 . 



431 Ibid. 206. 



4M Perfect Diurnall, in Ormerod, op. cit. 

 207. 



* w Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. i, 

 449". 



428a See Cal. S.P. Dom. 1649-54, where 

 there are numerous references. 



22 



424 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. iv, 73. 



426 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. 1,226. 

 488 Ibid. 144. 



427 Ibid. 145. 



4i Ibid. Ibid. 147 ff. 



480 Cal. of Com. for Compounding, ii,. 

 1 1 8. The purchaser was one Alexander 

 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,, 

 5 5 and note. 



