A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Street to the west, and Dale Street and Moor Street to 

 the east. All these streets are known to have existed 

 in the 14th century,' and no others were added until 

 the 17th. 



The geography of the fields of early Liverpool forms 

 a very obscure and difficult subject. The chief authori- 

 ties for them are the numerous deeds of transfer of 

 lands from the 13 th century onwards, which were 

 preserved in the muniments of the Moore and Crosse 

 families ; but it has not yet been possible to construct 

 a detailed map of the mediaeval field system. Many 

 field-names are given in the deeds, the chief being the 

 Old Fields (Great and Little), the Heathy Lands 

 (Nether and Over), the Brecks, the Dalefield, the 

 Wallfield, the Milnefield, the Sheriffacres, the Castle 

 field, the Whiteacres, the Wetearth.^ Some of these 

 doubtless represent approvements from the waste ; but 

 only one of these approvements can be definitely 

 dated. This was the Salthouse Moor, of which 

 4.5 acres were inclosed between 1296 and 1323,' 

 and 19 more between 1327 and 1346.* The Salt- 

 house Moor probably lay at the north-west of the 

 township by the Mersey shore, but it is not possible 

 to be certain.' 



Next to nothing is known of LIVER- 

 MJNOR POOL before the creation of the borough 

 in 1207. In Domesday it is almost cer- 

 tainly one of the six unnamed berewicks attached to 

 the manor of West Derby.'" What degree of depen- 

 dence upon the parent manor was involved in the 

 berewick period cannot be determined ; but probably 

 the Liverpool tenants did suit at the West Derby 

 halmote, as the tenants of the other berewicks long 

 continued to do." At some date between 1 166 and 

 1 1 89 Liverpool was granted by Henry II to Warine 

 de Lancaster, along with other lands, and this may 

 have involved separation from West Derby and the 

 institution of a distinct court. The deed of grant 

 does not survive, but is referred to in an undated 

 confirmation " granted to Henry son of Warine by 

 John Count of Mortain, after his succession to the 

 honour. But Liverpool was not long permitted to 

 remain in the hands of a mesne lord. On 23 August 

 1207 John reacquired it," giving the township of 

 English Lea near Preston in exchange. Five days 

 later the so-called ' charter ' " was issued which turned 

 the vill into a borough. Henceforward the descent 

 of the lordship of the borough follows the descent of 

 the honour of which it formed a part ; except during 

 the brief interval, 1315-22, when it was held by 



Liverpool. Argent 

 a cormorant sahle beaked 

 and legged gules holding 

 in his keak a branch of 

 seaiveed called laver in- 

 verted 'vert. 



Robert de Holand under grant from Thomas Earl of 



Lancaster.'* 



Liverpool is distinguished from most 

 BOROUGH other boroughs by the fact that it owes 

 its foundation absolutely to an exer- 

 cise of the royal will ; there is no evidence that the 

 place was a centre of any trade before the date when 

 John fixed upon its sheltered 

 Pool as a convenient place of 

 embarkation for men and sup- 

 plies from his Lancashire lands 

 for his Irish campaigns. He 

 may have visited the place in 

 February 1206, on the way 

 from Lancaster to Chester ; "^ 

 and probably the creation of 

 the borough should be re- 

 garded as part of the prepara- 

 tion for the great expedition 

 of 1 209. Some part of the 

 new population which was 

 necessary may have been found 

 by a transplantation from West 



Derby, which is described in 1208 as having been 

 remota usque ad Livei'pul ; " others doubtless came in 

 response to the 'charter,' which may more accurately 

 be described as a proclamation of invitation ; and the 

 original tenants of the township appear all to have 

 been enfranchised. For the reception of the new 

 population John had set apart a number of burgages 

 facing on the seven main streets of the borough. 

 The number of the original burgages it is impossible 

 to determine. There were 168 in 1296,'' and there- 

 after the number remained fixed. But it is probable 

 that there were fewer to begin with. Nor is it pos- 

 sible to be precise about the area of the burgage 

 proper, i.e. the building lot. It was big enough to 

 be divisible into minute fractions, as small as -^ or 

 ^.'* Probably each burgage was a selion. In 1 346 

 the commonest holding was half a burgage, and it is 

 likely that the burgages were divisible from the outset. 

 At the same date large holdings are found of 2, 3, 4, 

 5, and even 8 burgages. To each burgage proper was 

 attached one Cheshire acre in the town-fields, usually 

 consisting of two strips in diiferent fields.^" The rent 

 for burgage and field-holdings together was i zti. per 

 annum,'" payable half-yearly, a figure which suggests 

 the influence of Norman parallels. Or, rather, it 

 would be more accurate to say that the rent was charge- 

 able for the burgage, but ' acquitted ' also the corre- 



^ Moore and Crosse deeds, passim. 



^ The positions of tilese lands (in some 

 cases conjectural) are indicated in the 

 map. The names of most frequent 

 occurrence are the Oldfields, the Heathy 

 Lands, and the Dalefield, and it is prob- 

 ably in these that we should look for 

 the original town-fields. It may be con- 

 jectured that the Dalefield formed origi- 

 nally a part of the Little Oldfield, which, 

 lying round the village, was naturally 

 broken up by the streets ; that the two 

 Oldfields thus reconstructed formed the 

 lands of the township on a two-field sys- 

 tem before the constitution of the bor- 

 ough -, and that the Heathy Lands (as the 

 name itself suggests) were an approvement 

 from the waste on the north between 

 Liverpool and Kirkdale, made at an early 

 date, probably to meet the requirements 

 of the new population whom King John 



introduced at the creation of the borough. 

 Other field-names may represent either 

 the original demesne (e.g. Castlefield), or 

 distinct portions of the older fields (e.g. 

 Milnefield, part of one of the Oldfields), 

 or more recent approvements (e.g. Wet- 

 earth). 



7 See Muir in Trans. Hist. Soc. (new 

 ser.) xxi, i6, 17. Cf. Inq. p.m. 25 

 Edw. I, no. 51, with L.T.R. Enr. Accts. 

 Misc. 14, m. 76 d. 



* Ibid, and Add. MS. 32103, foL 140. 



^ The name seems to have been an 

 official one, not popularly adopted, for it 

 does not appear in the Moore or Crosse 

 deeds. 



i« F.C.H. Lanes, i, 283. 



" See Lanes. Ct. R. (Rec. Soc. of Lanes, 

 and Ches. xli), passim, 



^2 Original at Hoghton Tower. Printed 

 in Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 432. 



" Chart. R. (Rec. Com.), lyii. In 

 the Charter Rolls the date is given as Aug, 

 xxviii ; but this is a mistake for xxiii. The 

 deed is dated from Worcester, where John 

 was on the 23rd (Itin. of John) ; on the 

 28th he was at Winchester. 



'■' Orig. in Liv. Munic. Archives. 

 Printed in Hist. Munic. Govt, in Liv. 153. 



" Inq. p.m. I Edw. Ill, m. 88. 



" Itin. of John prefixed to Pipe R. of 

 John. 



1' Pipe R. of 1207-9 'f Lanes. Pipe R. 

 220, 228, 234 ; where an allowance of 

 ^9 8j. is made to the sheriff ' in defaha 

 de West Derbei quae est remota usque ad 

 Liverpul, per breve Regis.' 



" Inq. p.m. 25 Edw. I,' no. 51. 



" Moore and Crosse deeds. Also Add. 

 MS. 32103 (extent of 1346). 



'"' Moore deeds, passim. 



»i Add. MS. 32103. 



Digitized by IVIicrosoft® 



