WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



LIVERPOOL 



south it was recessed so as to be commanded from the 

 towers ; on the west it formed an obtuse angle, the 

 angle touching the edge of the rock ; (4) the hall 

 and a chapel probably lay respectively along the 

 western and southern walls, and were connected with 

 the south-western tower ; (5) there were also a brew- 

 house and a bakehouse, the sites of which cannot be 

 determined ; they may have been in the north-west 

 angle, near which a postern gate led to an under- 

 ground passage from the moat to the edge of the 

 river.*' The courtyard seems to have been divided 

 by a wall running from north to south. A survey 

 of 2 October 155 9'*' gives further interesting details 

 of the building. It was at the time ' in utter ruin 

 and decay,' there having been no lead on any of 

 the buildings within the memory of man. The 

 great tower, probably that at the south-west, had 

 a slated roof, and the commissioners suggested that 

 it should be repaired and used for the keeping of 

 the ' Queues Majesties Courtes for Her Graces 

 Wappentacke of West Derbyshyre, being a very greate 

 soken,' and for the storage of the court rolls. The 

 ' ringe walle' or curtain and the masonry of the 

 towers seem to have been fairly sound, and only 

 needed protection from the weather, and the com- 

 missioners strongly advised the putting of the castle 

 into substantial repair at a cost of about £100, 

 ' otherwaies it were a grate defacement unto the said 

 towne of Litherpole.' No mention is made of any 

 moat in the report, and there is some tradition that 

 none existed till the Civil Wars, but no proof of this 

 is obtainable. 



There was a dovecot under the castle wall, and an 

 orchard ran down the slope to the Pool on the east. 

 Out of this orchard Lord Street was cut in the 17th 

 century. Thus the first period of baronial suzerainty 

 had resulted in the overawing of the burgesses by a 

 formidable fortress. 



On the rebellion and forfeiture of Robert de 

 Ferrers Liverpool, with other possessions between 

 Kibble and Mersey, passed to the hands of the 

 Crown. Henry III at once granted them with the 

 honour of Lancaster to his second son, Edmund ; to 

 whose representatives Mary de Ferrers, wife of the 

 forfeited earl and niece of the king, was ordered to 

 surrender the castle of Liverpool in July iz66." 

 This begins the second part of the baronial period of 

 Liverpool history, extending over the earldoms of 

 Edmund and Thomas of Lancaster, 1266-1322. 

 Both of these earls seem to have treated the borough 

 with some harshness. In the first place the lease of 

 the farm was not renewed. Earl Edmund took the 

 administration of the town into his own hands,'* or 

 at least broke up the farm into several parts ; and the 

 total yield under the new system in place of the old 

 rent of j^io amounted to £2^ 10s. in the latter 

 years of Earl Edmund and about £jo by the end of 



the reign of Earl Thomas ; the tolls of market and 

 fair alone brought in as much as the old rent ; but 

 there seems reason for believing that a farm of these 

 tolls was held by the burgesses." 



The greatly increased yield of the town affords 

 evidence, however, that the earl was doing his best 

 to develop its resources, and the beginning of a period 

 of prosperity may perhaps be attributed to this time. 

 In addition to the suppression of the lease of the farm, 

 Edmund overrode the chartered rights of the burgesses. 

 In 1292 the bailiffs and community of Liverpool 

 were summoned on a fuo warranto '^ plea to Lancaster. 

 No bailiffs came ; but several men came for the com- 

 munity, and, producing the charters of John and 

 Henry III, stated that they had been a free borough 

 with a gild, &c. ; but that Earl Edmund suffered 

 them not to have a free borough, or to elect a bailiff 

 ' of themselves ' ; wherefore they did not claim these 

 liberties at present. The further hearing of the case 

 was adjourned, but there is no record of the decision. 

 Whatever the decision, the burgesses did not regain 

 their rights till the beginning of the reign of 

 Edward III. 



During this period the growing importance of the 

 town (or the power of its masters) is recognized in the 

 summons of burgesses from Liverpool to the Parliament 

 of 1295, and again to that of 1307." The first 

 Liverpool members of Parliament were Adam son of 

 Richard, and Robert Pinklowe. After 1307 the 

 borough did not again return members to Westminster 

 until the middle of the 1 6th century. 



During the earldom of Thomas of Lancaster the 

 steady progress of Liverpool appears to have continued. 

 It is to this period that we 

 must attribute the inclosure of 

 Salthouse Moor, of which no 

 mention is made in 1296, but 

 which was in occupation and 

 yielding rent in 1322.'' This 

 is the only large approvement 

 from the waste of which there 

 is any trace, before the 1 7th 

 century. The area first in- 

 closed amounted to 45 acres ; 

 which were in 1346 " divided 

 among 5 1 free tenants and 47 

 tenants-at-will, and in 1322—7 

 yielded 40/. of rent. Most of the tenants in these new 

 lands already held burgages in the borough, but 32 

 of them were not included in the burgess roll, and 

 this involved that they were a new class of tenants, 

 not sharing in the liberties, but directly under the 

 control of the lord. He could hold a distinct court 

 for them if he wished ; and though this does not 

 seem to have been done at this period, that was only 

 because the lord's steward was presiding over the 

 borough-court. At a later date questions of the first 



Thomas, Earl of Lan- 

 caster. England ivith 

 a label of France. 



'^ A rock-cut passage still runs under 

 James Street, from somewhere near the 

 position of the castle, towards the river. 

 It was entered and examined in May 1862 

 by Mr. P. M. Coogan (Rep. in vol. ^, 

 p. 132 of the Misc. Rep. in the City En- 

 gineer's Office), and a plan and sections 

 were made, showing that it varied in 

 height and width, averaging about 8 ft, in 

 height, and has in its floor on the south 

 side a channel, which, when lately sounded 

 OB the suggestion of Mr. Robert Glad- 

 stone, junr., has proved to be as much as 



7 ft. 6 in. deep. It was again examined 

 by the city engineer in 1908, and a new 

 plan made. That it had some connexion 

 with the ditch of the castle seems pos- 

 sible, and its depth is said to be sufficient 

 to allow the river water to reach the ditch 

 at high water. 



'^ Duchy of Lane. Special Commis- 

 sions, no. 9. 



'» Pat. 50 Hen. III. 



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

 L.T.R. Enr. Accts. Misc. no. 14, m. 77. 

 Perhaps this may have been the result of 



his visit to Liverpool in 1283 ; Whalley 

 Coucher, 507. 



'* Tram. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xxi, 

 II. 



»« Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 

 38 li.; Hht. Munk. Go'vt. in Liv.\\, and 



397- 



S7 Pari. Writ!, i, 39 (18). 



'* L. T. R. Enr. Accts. Misc. no. 14, 

 m. 77. 



'9 Extent of 1346, Add. MS. 32103, to 

 which a full list of burgesses and tenants 

 in Salthouse Moor is appended. 



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