WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



LIVERPOOL 



in the next year Ackers petitioned the Chancellor of 

 the Duchy for redress."' The dispute was settled 

 by the lessee granting a sub-lease'^* to the burgess 

 body, whereby they undertook to collect all the 

 customs, tolls, and ferry-dues, and pay half of the total 

 proceeds and ^lo. The royal rents of j£lo and 

 the mills (separately leased at ^os.)'" were excluded 

 from this sub-lease ; and as the sub-lease must have 

 yielded to the lessor at least ;£20, his income from 

 the town must have amounted to over £^2, yielding 

 him a handsome profit after he had paid his j^l 4 6s. Sti. 

 to the Crown. Incidentally these figures show that 

 the town was regaining much of its prosperity, and 

 approximating to the conditions of 1 394, when the 

 rent was ^^38 ; though it should be remembered 

 that the value of money had in the meantime 

 materially declined. 



Of the effects of the first stages of the Reformation 

 there is little to record. The only monastic property 

 connected with the borough 

 was the house and barn in 

 Water Street and the ferry- 

 right over the Mersey, which 

 belonged to the Priors of Bir- 

 kenhead, and passed with the 

 manor of Birkenhead to Ralph 

 Worsley. But the later con- 

 fiscation of the chantries affect- 

 ed Liverpool deeply. There 



Worsley. Argent a 

 che'UErcn sable bel'ween 

 three falcons of the last 

 beaked legged and belled 



were now four chantries in the 

 chapel of St. Nicholas ; their 

 lands in 1546 had been worth 

 X21 11/. -id;™ paying in 

 chief rents to the king i os. ■^d.'^^ 



The lands of two of these chantries — those of the 

 High Altar and of St. John— were sold, though the 

 priests attached to them seem to have remained resi- 

 dent in the town.^'" Among the purchasers '" were 

 many of the burgesses of Liverpool, who were thus to 

 «ome extent committed to support of the Reformation. 

 The lands of the chantries of St. Nicholas and St. 

 Katherine remained in the hands of the Crown, and 

 their revenues were respectively devoted to the main- 

 tenance of a priest for the Liverpool chapel and of a 

 schoolmaster for the parish of Walton,"^ the pre-sup- 

 pression chantry priests remaining to perform these 

 functions.''' In 1565 the administration of these lands 

 -seems to have been transferred from the Duchy officers 

 to the mayor and burgesses,^" who added further 

 revenues raised among themselves,'" and henceforth 

 controlled the appointment both of the priest and of 

 the schoolmaster of the town. 



Difference of opinion on the religious question may 



have helped to precipitate a serious quarrel between 

 the borough and the lessee of the farm. This had 

 been since 1537 in the hands of Sir William Moly- 

 neux "° and his son Sir Richard, who however had 

 continued the arrangement of their predecessors 

 whereby the burgesses administered the various powers 

 and collected the dues,™ retaining half of them on 

 payment of j£ 10 per annum. In 1 5 52 a mysterious 

 lease was issued by Edward VI to one James Bedyll.'^' 

 It never took effect, but it may have been intended as 

 an attack by the Protestant court upon the Roman 

 Catholic Molyneuxes. If we suppose the burgesses 

 to have been concerned in obtaining this lease, the 

 quarrel with Molyneux which broke out immediately 

 on the accession of Mary is easier to understand. Moly- 

 neux obtained a renewal "' of his lease, though his 

 previous lease was still unexpired, and, the sub-lease 

 to the burgesses having expired,'*" he put in his own 

 officers to collect the dues and hold the portmoot. 

 The burgesses on their side obtained a confirmation 

 of their charters,"' though, having apparently over- 

 looked the charter of Henry V,"' it was the less favour- 

 able charter of Richard II of which they obtained a 

 renewal. They seem to have trusted to this to justify 

 their claim to collect the dues and hold the portmoot, 

 which they proceeded to do in spite of the lessee, even 

 throwing his agents into prison.'" The question was 

 tried before the Chancery Court of the Duchy '" 

 which gave its award on every point in favour of the 

 lessees, awarding them ' all and singular tolls and other 

 profits in any wise appertaining to the said town,' 

 whether paid by freemen or by strangers, and also 

 definitely declaring that the lessee had the right to 

 ' keep courts within the said town . . after such sort 

 ... as the courts . . have been used to be kept,' 

 and that suit at these courts must be rendered by all 

 inhabitants.'" This was a serious blow to the bur- 

 gesses ; and, while space does not permit of an exam- 

 ination of the question, it seems clear that the burgesses 

 were deprived of some rights which justly belonged to 

 them.'" Two years later, on the intercession of Lord 

 Strange and the attorney of the Duchy court, the 

 quarrel was compromised by the renewal to the bur- 

 gesses of the old sub-lease, which seems to have been 

 continued throughout the remainder of the cen- 

 tury.'" 



The municipal records from 1 5 5 5 enable a clear 

 account to be given of the mode of government to 

 which the burgesses had now attained. At an as- 

 sembly of burgesses held on St. Luke's Day,l 8 October, 

 a mayor and one bailiff were elected, a second bailiff 

 being nominated by the new mayor at the same 



meetmg.' 



Other assemblies were held as occasion 



M5 Duchy of Lane. Judic. Proc, Plead- 

 ings, iv ; Hist. Munic. Govt, in Liv. 404 ; 

 Lane. Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Chcs. xxxii), i, 186. 



Probably the ferry in dispute was not 

 the farm-ferry, but a continuance of that 

 district ferry-right granted by Henry VII 

 to Richard Cook. 



ii^s Croxteth Mun. Liv. Box 10. R2, 

 BO. 7 ; Hist. Munic. Govt. 335. 



527 Croxteth Mun. loc. cit. no. 3 ; Hist. 

 Munic. Govt. 333. 



2» Raines, LflKW. Chant. {Chtt. Soc. ixj, 

 «2-93. 



ai>9 Rental of Hen. VIII, loc. cit. 



'"' Munic. Rec. passim. 



^1 The list of purchasers is printed in 

 Cregson's Fragments, liiv. 



^2 In the list of official payments of the 

 Duchy printed in Gr&gzotd Fragments, 31, 

 * the stipend of a clerk to serve in the 

 chapel at Lithcrpoole ^^4 \ys. 51/. and the 

 fee of a clerk and schoole mr. of Walton 



283 Munic. Rec. i, 13^ and 39a. 



2s<Ibid. jg. 



235 Ibid. 13*. 



iseThe details of the history of the 

 farm during this period, and copies of the 

 leases, will be found in Hist. Munic. Govt. 

 in Liv., 70-7 and 336-53. 



237 Ibid. 33«. 



238 Ibid. 345 and 71 n. 



239 Ibid. 349. 



*'" The previous sub-lease had been for 

 15 years. 



15 



2*' Original in Liv. Munic. Arch. Hist, 

 Munic. Govt. 1 64. 



2^2 This appears from their pleading be- 

 fore the Duchy court, Ibid. 408. 



2" Mun. Rec. i, 171!. 



24"' Duchy of Lane. Misc., xcv, 104*. 

 Hist. Munic. Govt. 403. 



^^Hist. Munic. Govt. 412. 



'^ For an analysis of this question, see 

 Hist. Munic. Govt. 73-6. 



2*7 Croxteth Mun. Liv., Box 10, no. 

 13, R. 2. Printed in Hist. Munic. Govt. 

 352. But in 1588 a new quarrel broke 

 out with Sir R. Molyneux over the 

 milling soke ; Duchy Plead, cxlvii, 

 m. 2. 



2<8 Mun. Rec. i, 3«. 



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