WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



LIVERPOOL 



borough could claim 431 that ' from scarce paying the 

 salary of the officers of the Customs, it is now the 

 third port of the trade of England, and pays upwards 

 of 50,000 per annum to the king.' In 1673 the to- 

 pographer Blome 432 found that it contained ' divers emi- 

 nent merchants and tradesmen, whose trade and traffic, 

 especially unto the West Indies, make it famous.' 

 When in 1689 the Commissioners of Customs were 

 asked to report as to the ports which could best supply 

 shipping for transport to Ireland, they stated 433 that 

 while Chester had ' not above 20 sail of small burden 

 from 25 to 60 tons,' Liverpool had' 60 to 70 good 

 ships of from 50 to 200 ton burden, but because they 

 drive a universal foreign trade to the Plantations and 

 elsewhere,' it was impossible to tell how many of them 

 would be available. 



The port continued to control the larger share of 

 the Irish trade. It still maintained a considerable 

 traffic to France and Spain, and also to Denmark and 

 Norway. 434 But, as the statements above quoted show, 

 it was the opening out of a lucrative trade with ' the 

 plantations,' especially the West Indies and Virginia, 

 in sugar, tobacco, and cotton, which made this period 

 mark the beginning of Liverpool's greatness. Several 

 causes conspired to assist this development. The 

 industries of Manchester were undergoing a rapid 

 development, so that, in the words of Blome, 434 the 

 situation of Liverpool ' afforded in greater plenty and 

 at reasonabler rates than most places in England, such 

 exported commodities proper for the West Indies.' 

 The plague and fire of London had caused ' several 

 ingenious men ' to settle in Liverpool, ' which caused 

 them to trade to the plantations,' 436 while when the 

 French wars began in 1689 London traders found 

 that 'their vessels might come safer north about 

 Ireland, unload their effects at Liverpool, and be at 

 charge of land-carriage from thence to London than 

 run the hazard of having their ships taken by the 

 enemy,' 43r and Liverpool profited accordingly. As 

 early as 1668 a 'Mr. Smith, a great sugar-baker 

 at London,' was bargaining with Sir Edward 

 Moore 43S for land on which to build * a sugar-baker's 

 house . . . forty feet square and four stories 

 high ' ; and Sir Edward Moore expected this 

 to * bring a trade of at least 40,000 a year from 

 the Barbadoes, which formerly this town never 

 knew.' Even more important than the establish- 

 ment of a sugar-refining industry was the tobacco 

 trade, which grew to large dimensions in these years. 

 In 1701 it was asserted 439 that a threatened interfer- 

 ence with the tobacco trade would ' destroy half the 

 shipping in Liverpool ' ; 44 it was * one of the chiefest 

 trades in England,' and * we are sadly envyed, God 

 knows, especially the tobacco trade, at home and 

 abroad.' 441 All the tobacco of Scotland, Ireland, and 

 the north of England was supposed to come to Liver- 



pool. 442 The result of this growing trade was a 

 remarkably rapid increase of shipping ; in the twelve 

 years between 1689 and 1701 the number of vessels 

 in the port had grown from '60 or 70' to 102, 

 which compares not unfavourably with the 165 

 vessels owned by Bristol in the same year. Shipping 

 brought with it several new industries, and in par- 

 ticular rope-walks began to be a feature of the town, 

 and remained so for more than a century to come. 

 Many new families of importance begin to appear ; 

 the Claytons, the Clevelands, the Cunliffes, the 

 Earles, the Rathbones, the Tarletons, and the John- 

 sons, 443 win the superiority in municipal affairs from 

 the Moores and the Crosses ; ' many gentlemen's sons 

 of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, 

 Cheshire, and North Wales are put apprentices in the 

 town,' 444 and a new set of names appears in the re- 

 cords. The population was steadily increasing. The 

 ravages of the war, together with outbreaks of plague 

 in 1647 and i65O, 445 had kept it down, so that in 1673 

 only 252 householders were assessed for the hearth 

 tax, 446 giving a total population (allowing for ex- 

 emptions) of about 1,500 ; but by the beginning 

 of the 1 8th century the number was well over 

 5,ooo. 447 And now, for the first time, new streets 

 began to be made in addition to the original seven : 

 Moor Street, Fenwick Street, Fenwick Alley, and 

 Bridge's Alley 448 having been cut by Sir Edward 

 Moore out of his own lands, while Lord Street was 

 cut by Lord Molyneux in 1668 through the castle 

 orchard to the Pool, and Preeson's Row, Pool Lane 

 (South Castle Street), and several other thoroughfares 

 were being built upon. 449 Public improvements on a 

 large scale began to be carried out or talked of. In 

 1673 a new town hall was built, 'placed on pillars 

 and arches of hewn stone, and underneath the public 

 exchange for the merchants.' 450 This building re- 

 placed the old thatched common hall with which the 

 burgesses had been content since it was bequeathed to 

 them by John Crosse ; it stood immediately in 

 front of the modern town hall. The difficulty of 

 accommodating the growing shipping of the port was 

 already felt, and among the modes suggested for re- 

 lieving the pressure was the deepening of the Pool, 451 

 a scheme which, in a modified form, ultimately led to 

 the creation of the first dock. Proposals for improving 

 the navigation of the Weaver 452 to facilitate the 

 Cheshire trade, and for erecting lighthouses 45S on the 

 coast, met indeed with keen opposition at first from 

 the burgesses, who feared to see trade carried past 

 their wharves ; but they were to be converted to both 

 of these schemes before half a century had passed. In 

 the meantime an improvement in the navigation of 

 the Mersey below Warrington, carried out by Mr. 

 Thomas Patten, 454 of the latter place, led to a material 

 increase of Liverpool's trade, and was the first of a 



481 In the case for the establishment of 

 a separate parish, printed in Picton, Liv. 

 Munic. Rec. 1,325. 



482 Blome, Britannia, 134. 



488 Hiit. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. vi, 

 169. 



484 pi c ton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 309 and 

 passim. 



485 Loc. cit. 



486 Case for the new parish, loc. cit. 



48 7 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 

 430. In 1 6 94 we hear of no less than 32 

 hips sent from Liverpool to the West 

 Indies ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1694-5, p. 237. 



488 Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 99. 

 Apparently he did not complete his bargain; 

 but a sugar-house was built by his firm in 

 Redcross Street ; Peet, Liv. in the Reign of 

 Queen Anne, 32 n. 



489 N orr i s Papers (Cher.. Soc.), 81. 

 4 Ibid. no. 441 Ibid. 114. 

 442 Ibid. 89. 



448 Mun. Rec. passim ; Peet, Liv. in tie 

 Reign of Queen Anne, 6 and passim. 



444 Case for the new parish, loc. cit. 



445 Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. i, 192, 194. 

 448 Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xvi, 



136. 



23 



44 7 Mr. Peet, on the basis of the poor- 

 rate assessment of 1708, estimates the 

 population in that year at a little under 

 7,000 ; Liv. in the Reign of Queen Anne, 16. 



448 Moore Rental, passim. 



449 Moore Rental, passim} also Picton, 

 Munic. Rec. i, 3 14 ff. 



450 Blome, loc. cit. j Picton, Munic. 

 Rec. \, 286. 



451 Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 79 ff, 



101, IO2, 104. 



4S3 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 

 39611. 45S Ibid. 395*. 



454 Norris Papers, 38. 



