WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



LIVERPOOL 



Birkenhead Priory. 

 Quarterly guUi and or, 

 over all a crazier erect 

 proper, in thejirtt quarter 

 a lion of England, 



the Liverpool farm,'" one to Runcorn, the other 

 (probably) to Birkenhead. In addition, the prior of 

 the Benedictine monastery in Birkenhead enjoyed, 

 from 1330 at the latest,"'* the right of ferry from 

 Birkenhead to Liverpool. In 

 1317 "' Edward 11 granted to 

 the prior the right of build- 

 ing houses of entertainment 

 for the use of the ' great num- 

 bers of persons wishing to 

 cross there,' who were ' often 

 hindered,' by reason of 'con- 

 trariety of weather and fre- 

 quent storms.' From the re- 

 cord of a Quo Warranto inquiry, 

 to which the prior was sum- 

 moned in 1354,"' we learn 

 that the ferry tolls from the 

 Birkenhead side were : for a 

 man on foot, \d. ; for man and 



horse, zd. On Liverpool market days a man on foot 

 was charged \d., and if carrying baggage \d. Probably 

 the fares on the Liverpool ferry were the same. The 

 connexion of the Birkenhead monastery with Liverpool 

 was intimate. The prior held in Water Street a house 

 and barn for the storage of corn waiting for the 

 market.'" There is no evidence as to the nature of 

 the tolls charged in the Liverpool market and fair. 

 They yielded in all never less than ;£lo a year during 

 the 14th century. 



With regard to the sea-going trade of Liverpool the 

 evidence is equally scanty."* The appointment by 

 the Crown of the mayor as deputy steward for the 

 prisage of wines in the Port of Liverpool in 1364"^ 

 seems to indicate that there was some importation of 

 wines from Gascony, and this is borne out by other 

 notices. Probably the sea-going trade of Liverpool at 

 this period, as in the 1 6th century, was mainly with Ire- 

 land, and consisted of an exchange of rough manufac- 

 tured goods and iron, against cattle and hides. The fact 

 that down to the 1 8 th century Bristol, Waterford, and 

 Wexford were the only ports "' in which Liverpool 

 merchants claimed, and to whose traders the Liverpool 

 burgesses habitually conceded, that right of exemption 

 from dues which the charters granted in universal 

 terms, seems to show that it was the Irish trade which 

 was alone developed to any considerable extent."' In 

 1350 we get a glimpse of the nature of a Liverpool 

 merchant's goods from a suit in which William de 

 Longwro sued Adam de Longwro, his bailiff, for an 

 account of his stewardship during the previous year, 

 and his use of twenty entire woollen cloths (pieces), 

 10 quarters of barley, 40 quarters of oats, and iron 

 worth ;£ioo, and of 100/., which he had received to 

 trade with."' Lancashire and Yorkshire woollen goods, 

 iron from Furness, and corn seem to be the staples of 

 export trade. Perhaps salt from Cheshire may be 

 added. 



Nor can much be said about the industries of the 



borough. There is no trace of the existence of craft 

 gilds in the mediaeval period. Two such gilds are 

 recorded to have come into existence in the 16th 

 century, but they were then novelties ;"" probably 

 the number of craftsmen was too small — a few weavers 

 and smiths may have exhausted the list. Two gold- 

 smiths are named in the burgess roll of 1346. But 

 the industries were doubtless merely the normal 

 industries of a rural market-town. Brewing seems to 

 have been carried on very actively. In the single 

 year 1324"' there were thirty-five prosecutions for 

 breaches of the assize of ale, and this involves that 

 many more were brewing and selling ale on legal terms. 

 Not only the demands of market days, but especially 

 the healthy thirst of the soldiers who were constantly 

 encamped in Liverpool during this period, makes it 

 natural to imagine almost every burgess as making some 

 profit in this way. 



The mills play an important part in the life of the 

 borough.'" In 1256'" there had been three mills, 

 two water-mills and a windmill, probably all at or 

 near the same place, on the stream which ran into 

 the upper end of the Pool, where a mill-dam remained 

 long after the mills had vanished. By 1296 one of 

 the water-mills had disappeared ; '" by 1 3 2 3 the second 

 had been replaced by a horse-mill,'" probably in 

 Castle Street. The single windmill was that of 

 Eastham, on the rising ground south-east of the Pool, 

 behind the modern art gallery. By 1348 '^^ a second 

 windmill had been added. This was the Townsend 

 Mill, which stood close to the Eastham Mill, near the 

 site of the Wellington monument. The horse-mill 

 still survived, and the three mills were included in the 

 leases held by the burgess body from (at the latest) 

 1348 ; each of them being separately sub leased to a 

 working miller. At one or another of these mills all 

 inhabitants of Liverpool were bound to grind, and 

 they may also have been used by some of the neigh- 

 bouring townships.'" Much the most important of 

 the mills was that of Eastham, for which, in the next 

 century, twice as much rent was paid as for the 

 Townsend Mill."" In 1375 it was leased to William 

 son of Adam de Liverpool, the most important burgess 

 of the period.'" The lessors were Richard Nunn, the 

 parson, and John Hea thorn, who may have acted on be- 

 half of the burgess body. The Townsend Mill, and per- 

 haps the horse-mill, may have been held by the Moore 

 family, who held them both at a later date ; Sir Edward 

 Moore, in the 17 th century, claimed that his ancestors 

 had built the Townsend Mill."" Thus the mills of 

 the borough were probably in the hands of its two 

 chief families. 



It would be possible to give, from the Moore and 

 Crosse deeds, the assessments for subsidies, and the 

 burgess roll of 1346, an account of a number of 

 principal families in the town. Some of these were 

 branches of important county families, or landholders 

 in neighbouring townships. Such were the Waltons, 

 lords of the manor of Walton, who held the serjeanty 



"1 Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 

 103, no. i8zi. 



!"» Harl. MSS. 2101, fol. 208. 



1" Pat. 1 1 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 14. 



"'Chester Pleas, 27 Edw. III. 



1" Moore D. 280 (20), 297 (38), 309 

 (50), &c. 



I'^The pavage grants give long lists of 

 commodities upon which dues may be 

 charged, but in all probability these were 

 conventional lists, and cannot be taken as 



representing the actual commodities dealt 

 in. 1'* Close, 40 Edw. Ill, m. 22. 



1'? Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 77. "8 ibid. 



11' Duchy of Lane. Assize R. no. 2. pt. 

 2, m. 4 d. i^" Picton, Munic. Rec. i, 74. 



1" Lane. Ct. R. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches. xli), 77. 



1^' Bennett and Elton, op. eit. iv, 

 125-210. 



12B Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 

 1094, no. II. 



1^ Inq. p.m. 25 Edw. I, no. 51. 



"5 L.T.R. Enr. Accts. loc. cit. 



126 Duchy of Lane. Accts. various, bdle. 

 32, no. 17. 



l>7 Everton, e.g. which had no mill of 

 its own. 



i** Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 

 lor, no. 1800. 



"9 Moore D. no. 450. 



UO Moore Rental (ed. W. F. Irvine), 

 63 (f. 87. 



Digitized by IVIicrosoft® 



