WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



LIVERPOOL 



a port of embarkation ; and it is probably to the 

 attention thus directed to it that we must attribute 

 the revival of the town's political fortunes. 



In 1327 the constable of Liverpool Castle was 

 ordered" to receive within the castle men fleeing 

 from the invading Scots. Next year the bailiffs of 

 Liverpool were ordered to have all vessels in the port 

 of 40 tons burthen in readiness to resist the king's 

 enemies from Normandy and Poitou." In 1333 the 

 bailiffs were commanded to retain all vessels of 

 burthen sufficient for 50 tuns of wine, and to pre- 

 pare them hastily with double equipment for the 

 defence of the kingdom against the Scots,'" and the 

 mandate was repeated in the next year, a royal com- 

 missioner being told off to supervise the preparations." 

 In 1335 a clerk of the Exchequer was told off to pro- 

 vide two ships of war fully manned and armed, to 

 sail from Liverpool in pursuit of a great ship loaded 

 with wine and arms, coming from abroad, and destined 

 for the aid of the king's enemies in the castle of Dum- 

 barton.*' These ships seem also to have been used to 

 carry supplies for the royal army to Skymburnesse, at 

 the mouth of the Solway." In the same year six of 

 the largest ships to be found on the west coast be- 

 tween Liverpool and Skymburnesse were ordered to 

 be manned and armed and sent against the Scottish 

 ships.** 



In the French wars of the middle part of the reign 

 Liverpool naturally took less share ; '* but the inse- 

 curity of English waters which marked the first part 

 of the war is indicated by the receipt of an order to 

 the Liverpool bailiffs not to permit vessels to leave the 

 port for foreign parts save in great fleets and under 

 escort,** while on more than one occasion Liverpool 

 ships were summoned to southern ports to help in 

 dealing with threatened French attacks." 



In the later part of the reign of Edward III, and 

 during the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV, Liverpool 

 was still more actively engaged in connexion with the 

 Irish wars than she had been at the commencement 

 of the period with the Scottish wars. In 1361 ' the 

 whole navy of the land, competently armed,' was 

 brought to transport Lionel of Clarence and his army 

 to Ireland from Liverpool and Chester;*" in 1372 

 all ships between 20 tons and 200 tons burthen 

 between Bristol and Liverpool were ordered to be 

 collected at Liverpool for the transport *' of William 

 de Windsor, ' governor ... of our realm of Ireland, 

 and of the men at arms and others about to depart 

 in our service in the retinue of the said William.' 

 In the next year all ships between Southampton and 

 Furness were ordered to be brought to Liverpool for 

 a similar purpose.'" The port was constantly uti- 

 lized for the embarkation of troops, and the Patent 

 Rolls contain frequent notices of the assemblage of 



ships and considerable forces of men in the town on 

 the way to Ireland."' 



This frequent use of the port for royal purposes, 

 which doubtless brought with it an expansion of trade 

 to both Scotland and Ireland, is beyond question the 

 main reason for the favour now shown to Liverpool 

 both by the king and by the earl." The first sign of 

 this is the grant of the right to collect certain dues for 

 paving the town, first made in 1328 for a period of 

 three years, and renewed several times during the 

 century."' The collection of these dues and the 

 spending of them represent a new kind of corporate 

 action on the part of the burgesses, and therefore 

 mark a stage in the development of municipal govern- 

 ment. The money does not seem always to have 

 been used for the purpose for which the grant was 

 made, for in 1341 a commission of investigation had 

 to be sent to Liverpool, as the king was informed that 

 much of the money collected had been misappro- 

 priated."'' In 1333 a still more valuable favour was 

 received from the king in the grant of a new charter."' 

 The charter contains no new grant, being merely a 

 confirmation of its predecessors. But we have seen 

 that such a confirmation was highly necessary, and we 

 may assume that from this date the free exercise of 

 chartered liberties, prevented since the accession of 

 Edmund of Lancaster, recommenced. 



Still more important than the charter, the lease 

 of the firm of the borough is gradually regained 

 during this period."* At the beginning of the reign 

 of Edward III the burgesses seem to have held a 

 lease only of the tolls of the market and fair."' 

 The first great advance is marked by the extent 

 of the lands of the second Henry of Lancaster, 

 made in 1346 after his succession to the earldom. 

 In this deed there is a combined farm of the 

 mills, tolls, and ferry for £^z\ per annum, which 

 has been held for some years by an unnamed farmer, 

 almost certainly representing the burgesses, and which 

 is henceforward to be raised to ;^26."* In 1357 

 there comes a highly important new lease of the 

 farm,"" at a rent of j(^33, which was granted to eight 

 leading burgesses on behalf of the community. This 

 lease included the burgage rents and the profits of 

 courts, in addition to the rights covered by the 

 previous lease.'"" From this lease, however, the rents 

 of the new inclosures in Salthouse Moor seem to be 

 omitted, and it would appear that while the burgesses 

 resumed control of their own borough-court, a separate 

 court was now instituted for these tenants. Apart 

 from this, the sole reservations were the castle with 

 its purlieus, forfeitures of lands, and (probably) escheats. 

 By 1357, therefore, the burgesses had again attained 

 to all but the highest degree of municipal liberties. 

 The 1357 lease appears to have been continued 



7» Rot. Scot, i, 2og. 



?' Cal. Close, 1327-30, p. 307. 



80 Rot. Scot, i, 248, 258. 



SI Ibid. 306, 309. 



82 Cal. Close, 1333-7, p. 414 ; Rot. Scot. 

 1,321. 83 Pipe R. g Edw. III. 



8« Cal. Rot. Scot, i, 355. 



85 It has long been supposed that one 

 Liverpool ship took part in the siege of 

 Calais ; Baines, Liverpool, 152 ; Kaye's 

 Stranger in Liv. (1825 ed.), 15. It is clear, 

 however, that this vessel hailed from 

 Mersea in Essex, and not from the River 

 Mersey, as pointed out by Mr. Robert 

 Gladstone, jun. See the Liverpool Courier, 

 26 Dec. 1905. 



86 Rot. Scot, i, 467. 87 ibij. 



88 Pat. 35 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 24. 



89 Ibid. 47 Edw. III. Printed in Baines, 

 Liv. 165-6, from Okill's transcripts. 



™ Ibid. 48 Edw. Ill ; Baines, op. cit. 

 166. 



^^ Cal. Pat. 1377-81, p. 385; 1385-9, 

 p. 163; 1388-92, pp. 134. 405, 38s; 

 1399-1401, p. 164, &c. 



52 Ibid. 



98 Ibid. 1327-30, p. 231; 1330-4, p. 

 396 ; 1334-8, p. 223 ; 1381-5, p. 130. 



s^Ibid. 1340-3, p. 313. 



'° Original in Liv. Munic. Archives. 

 Hist. Munic. Govt, in Liv. 158. 



"^ The steps in this process are analysed 



in detail in Trans. Hist. Soc. (new. ser.), 

 xxi, 1-27, 



W Ibid. 13 ; L. T. R. Enr. Accts. Misc. 

 no. 14, m. 77. 



98 Ibid. 19; Add. MS. 32103; Hist. 

 Munic. Govt, in Liv. 299. 



99 Duchy of Lane. Chan. R. no. 2 ; 

 Jlist. Munic. Govt, in Liv, 302 and 47. 

 See also Trans. Hist. Soc. loc. cit. 23. 



100 jn view of these additions the rent 

 is extremely moderate, for the burgage 

 rents of ,^8 more than make up the 

 difference between the old rent of ^26 and 

 the new rent of ,^33. Possibly the rea- 

 son for this moderation was that the town 

 suffered severely from the Black Death. 



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