WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



no perambulations of boundaries made. Lord Sefton 

 has claimed wreck.' 



The offices of forester and keeper of Toxteth park 

 and of the park of Croxteth and chase of Simonswood 

 were of some importance. They were usually held 

 for life, the wages of the former being ^z per annum 

 with some small perquisites. Robert de Sankey, the 

 yerderer, was incapacitated in 1330 ;' Roger de 

 Moreton was succeeded in 1360 by Roger de 

 Ditton ; ' Sir John le Boteler was master forester in 

 1 3 79-* James Harebrown and Sir Thomas Stanley 

 had a grant of the office of parker in 1440, to be 

 held for their lives or in survivorship.' The master 

 forestership of West Derbyshire had four years earlier 

 been conferred on Sir Richard Molyneux,* but this 

 grant, though confirmed in 1461 and 1483,' was 

 revoked by Henry VII, who appointed Thomas 

 Scarisbrick, servant of Sir Edward Stanley, to the 

 office.' In 1505, however, the former grant was 

 revived,' which confirmation was enrolled in 1706 in 

 the office of the auditor of the duchy.'" 



SMITHDOWN " has been merged in Toxteth Park 

 for 700 years. The area is not definitely known, though 

 the name continued in use down to the sixteenth 

 century or later, but it is believed to have extended 

 from Lodge Lane eastwards to the boundary.'^ Ethel- 

 mund held it as a separate manor in 1066, when it 

 was assessed as one plough-land, and its value, beyond 

 the customary rent, was the normal 32<2'." King John, 

 desiring to add it to the park of Toxteth, took it from 

 its owner, a poor man, and gave him Thingwall for it. 

 The perambulators of the forest in 1228 seem to have 

 considered the exchange equitable, for they conclude 

 their reference to Smithdown with the words : 

 'Therefore let the king do his will therewith."* 

 From that time onward the vill was involved with 

 Toxteth, but a strip on the side of Liverpool, after- 

 wards knowTi as Smithdown Moss, was granted at 

 various times in parcels for turbary." 



The prior of St. John's Hospital, Chester, at one 



WALTON 



time held 26 acres of waste in the hills by Smithdown 

 by the grant of Henry, earl of Lancaster.'* 



In consequence of the change to a thickly populated 

 urban district, there have been erected in recent times 

 a large number of places of worship. The earliest 

 in connexion with the Established Church was 

 St. James's, on the border of Liverpool, built in 1774 

 under an Act of Parliament ; the money was raised 

 by shares. Lord Sefton giving the land." A burial 

 ground surrounds it. A district was assigned in 

 1844."* The rector of Walton presents to the per- 

 petual curacy. St. Michael's was built in 18 17, from 

 Rickman's designs, being one of the iron churches of 

 the time. There is a monument to commemorate 

 Jeremiah Horrocks. The present patron is Mrs. W. 

 Jones.'" The more recent churches, with the dates of 

 erection, are as follows : St. John the Baptist's, near 

 the top of the hill, 1832 ;'» St. Paul's, Prince's Park, 

 1 848 ;" St. Thomas's, near the docks, 1 840 ; ^^ St. Barna- 

 bas's was built in 1 841, and demolished in 1893 ;^ 

 St. Clement's, Windsor, 1841 ; St. Matthew's, Hill 

 Street, 1847 ;" St. Silas's, High Park Street, 1865 f 

 Holy Trinity, Parliament Street, 1858;'"' St. Mar- 

 garet's, Prince's Road, 1869 ;" St. Cleopas's, 1866 ;'* 

 Christ Church, Sefton Park, 1870 ;'» St. Philemon's, 

 Windsor Street, 1874;'° AH Saints', Prince's Park 

 entrance, 1884;'' St. Gabriel's, 1884; St. Bede's, 

 Hartington Road, 1886 ; St. Agnes' s, UUet Road, 

 1884;"^ and St. Andrew's, Aigburth Road, 1893.'' 

 The patronage is vested in various bodies of trustees, 

 except where otherwise stated in the notes. St. 

 Deniol's, Windsor, was built as a place of worship for 

 Welsh-speaking Anglicans. After difficulties which 

 kept it closed for some years it was licensed for service 

 in I go I.'* 



The Wesleyan Methodists have many churches in 

 Toxteth. The earliest is Wesley chapel, Stanhope 

 Street, built in 1827. St. John's, Prince's Park, was 

 built in 1862 ; St. Peter's, High Park Street, in 

 1878 ; and Wesley, Lodge Lane, in 1883. Smith- 



^ Trans. Hist. Soc. itxii, 229, 230. 



^ Cal. of Close, 1330-34, 74. 



' Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 341. 

 Roger de Ditton also had permission to 

 construct a fish stall in the Mersey ad- 

 joining the park, with the aid of a certain 

 rock called Skeryard, in the tidal water. 



* Memoranda of Exch. of John, duke 

 of Lane. Hilary Term, 3 Regality, R. 6 ; 

 Lane. Church {Chet. Soc), 459 ; an ac- 

 count of Sir John le Boteler, master 

 forester of Derbyshire, for the sixth year, 

 showing that the barons of the Exch. 

 allowed him to ease his account of 48^. 4^/. 

 paid to the prior of Lancaster for tithes 

 of the herbage, turbary, honey, wax, 

 heath, and gorse of Croxteth and Tox- 

 teth. 



5 Duchy of Lane. Chan. R. 8, § 48. 



•• The grant is printed in full in Baines' 

 Lanes, (ed. 1870), ii, 383. It was ex- 

 cepted from the resumption in 1455 -jParl. 

 JJ.v, 316. 



7 Croxteth D. W. 5 and 8. 



^ Pari. R. vi, 363. 



' Croxteth D. W. 9. 

 " Ibid. n. 12. 



" Esmedune, D.B. ; Smededon, 1185; 

 Smeddon, 1212 ; Smethesdune, 1228 j 

 Smethedon, 1348 : Smethdon, 1447 ; 

 Smethden, 1636. 



^2 Compare the boundaries of Toxteth 

 as given in the Perambulation of 1228, 

 and the map of 1768 in Enfield's Liver- 

 pool. 



IS V.C.H. Lanes, i, 284a. 



^■* Lanes. Pipe R. 421. Richard son of 

 Thurstan held Thingwall in 121 2, in ex- 

 change for his inheritance in Smithdown, 

 which the king had put in his forest j 

 Inq. and Extents, 21. As Richard de 

 Smithdown he had paid 61. id. to the 

 scutage and 3^. for some office in 1202 ; 

 Lanes. Pipe R. 153, 154; also 178, 

 204. 



Earlier than this, in 11 85, a fishery 

 hard by the pales of Toxteth Park had 

 been farmed by Richard and Adam de 

 Smithdown ; an order having been given 

 to waste it, so that there might be no 

 interference with the king's deer, Richard 

 and Adam proffi=red a mark that it might 

 stand, and the order was rescinded ; ibid. 

 56. 



'5 See an earlier note. 



" Add. MS. 32103, fol. 142. 



17 There was in it a monument to Moses 

 Benson, a Liverpool benefactor. 



18 Lond. Gaz. 14 Sept. 1844. 



1' There is a view in Gregson, Frag- 

 ments (ed. Harland), 154. 



2" For district see Lond. Ga%. 25 Sept. 



1837- 



21 The church was built for Hugh 

 MacNeile, D.D. afterwards dean of Ripon, 

 for thirty years one of the most in- 

 fluential men in Liverpool. For the 

 assignment of a district see Lond. Gaz. 

 13 June, 1854. 



43 



23 It was built by Sir John Gladstone ; 

 the Rev. Stephen Gladstone is patron. 



28 It stood at the bottom of Parliament 

 street. The proceeds of the sale of build- 

 ing and site were applied to the church of 

 St. Simon and St. Jude, Anfield. 



2-1 A district was assigned to it in 1858 ; 

 Lond. Gaz. 7 May. 



26 For district, ibid. 6 Aug. 1867. 



26 Ibid. 25 March, 1862, for assignment 

 of a district. 



27 It was built by Mr. Horsfall in 1869, 

 in order that sympathizers with the 

 modern High Church movement might 

 have a congenial place of worship. Several 

 fierce lawsuits have been waged around 

 it, and the vicar (the Rev. James Bell 

 Cox) was at one time imprisoned for 

 nonconformity. 



28 For district see Land. Ga^. i March, 

 1867. There is a mission church. 



29 A district was assigned In 1872; 

 Lond, Ga%. 23 April, Messrs. W. H, 

 and G. Horsfall are patrons. 



30 Ibid. 15 Dec. 1874, for district. 



^^ The bishop of Liverpool Is patron. 



^2 Mr. Henry Douglas Horsfall, the 

 founder, is patron. St. Pancras is a licensed 

 chapel of ease. 



88 This church was built by the Ches. 

 Lines Com. in lieu of the old St. An- 

 drew's in Renshaw Street, Liverpool, 

 which they acquired for an extension of 

 Central Station. 



8^ It is in the hands of trustees. 



