Liverpool as it was during the Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century. 1775 to 1800

Preface

To trace the progressive increase of the commerce, population, and size, of any flourishing city or town, and to record information, communicated by persons now in their graves, which would otherwise have perished, con stitute pursuits, certainly of a harmless, and possibly of a useful, nature. The rapid and surprising changes which have occurred in Liverpool, even within the memory of man, and the commercial magnitude and prosperity which it has attained, induced the author, years ago, to devote some time aud exertions, in collecting information respecting it; and lie has succeeded in obtaining some original and interesting par ticulars, not only from sources of a documentary nature, but also from several old persons who were well acquainted with the town during the concluding quarter of the last century.

Amongst the persons who have furnished him with much valuable information, he may be allowed to par ticularize an aged individual, who was well known to many of the old inhabitants of Liverpool, and who, during the early part of a very long life, was well acquainted with the town, and possessed a remarkable fund of knowledge relative to its commerce and^statistics, and the pursuits of its inhabitants. He was a person of the strictest veracity, and gifted with a very retentive memory, which

PREFACE.

. it pleased Providence to permit him to enjoy until the period of his death. That individual was the author's father.* In laying this Treatise before the public, the author may be permitted to observe, that, in undertaking it, he did not seek private gain, but he considered that its publication might probably be attended with the ad vantage, of preventing the information so acquired, from being lost to the public. It is only proper to mention, that this work has not any pretensions to be a history, of Liverpool ; but it con tains a descriptive acccount of the town, with au outline of its commerce and statistics, of the principal occurences, and of the habits, pursuits, and manners of its inhabitants, during the 25 years which elapsed between the commence ment of the year 1775 and the termination of the 18th century ; and the chief object of the work is to preserve, unimpaired, the knowledge of various particulars and events relating to Liverpool, most of which would, perhaps, otherwise soon have been forgotten.

RICHARD BROOKE. Liverpool, 7th November, 1853. * He was born on the 14th of June, 1761, and died on the 15th of June, 1852, after having just entered his 92nd year. He had resided in Liverpool from the 13th of January, 1776 ; and it is believed that he was the last, or one of the last, surviving persons who had been resident there during most of the American Revolutionary War. Some rather remarkable particulars respecting him and his knowledge of Liverpool, appeared in an account published in one of the Liverpool newspapers soon after his death, a copy of which will be found in the Appendix, No. LIVERPOOL AS IT WAS, Jkrhtg t\t last (fjnarttr OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 1775 to 1800.

Introduction

During the present, and a considerable part of the last century, Liverpool has advanced in commercial greatness and prosperity, with a rapidity which is almost unprecedented . and from being a place comparatively unimportant, it has become one of the most populous and prosperous commercial towns in Europe. Its origin, however, is enveloped iu obscurity, and so little is known of the early history of this modern Carthage, that it is very doubtful whether it existed during the period of the Anglo-Saxon sway; if it did then exist, it was probably nothing more than a collection of mean hovels, inhabited by poor fishermen and herdsmen. The same uncertainty presents itself at the period of the Norman In vasion. Liverpool is not even named in Domesday Book, which is one of the most authentic and curious relics of antiquity connected with this country ; nor is there any account of Lancashire, as a distinct county, in it, which may possibly be accounted for, from the circumstance, that at the time when William the Conqueror caused it to be compiled, B

INTRODUCTION.

. the devastation which had been committed by the Normans, in that, and parts of the other northern counties, had made vast tracts of country depopulated and waste ; and the part of Lancashire which lies between the Ribble and the Mersey is included iu the survey of Cheshire, in that book. The contractions and peculiar marks which abound, render it not an easy task to read it. but the following are extracts in extenso, from the portions, which relate to that part of Lancashire where Liverpool now stands'" : — " In Cestre Scire tenet Episcopus ejusdem civitatis de Rege quod ad suum pertinet episcopatum. Cum suis homi nibus totam reliquam terrain comitatus tenet Hugo Comes de Rege. Terrain inter Ripam et Mersham tenuit Rogerius Pictavensis — modo tenet Rex."(2) [translation.] " In Cheshire, the Bishop of the same city holds of the King what appertains to his bishoprick.

All the remaining land of the county, Hugh, the Earl,l3) holds of the King, with his men. The land between the Ribble and the Mersey, Roger of Poictou held — now the King holds it." Further on, we find in the same ancient book of record, the following statement : — " Inter Ripam et Mersham." " Terram infra scriptam tenuit Rogerius Pictavensis, inter Ripam et Mersham. In Derbei hundredo." [translation.] " Between the Ribble and the Mersey." " Roger of Poictou held the underwritten land, between the Ribble and the Mersey. In the hundred of Derby." (1) The contractions and peculiar marks introduced in Domesday Book render it besides very difficult to procure a type adapted to a sac simile copy. The survey of the lands, &c. comprised in the book, was completed in 1086.— Sir Henry Ellis's Introduction to Domesday Book, vol. 1, page 4.

Many of the Latin words used at that period, and for centuries afterwards, are very strange, and often seem invented to express some local custom, tenure, or duty; indeed, the mediæval Latin is entirely a dialect per se, the terms used being always unclassical and often barbarous. (2) Domesday Book, vol. 1, edition of 1783, published by the direction of the Commissioners of Public Records. (3) Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester.

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. 5 It then proceeds to mention Roby, Knowsley, Kirkby, Crosby, Maghull, Aughton, Huyton, Torbock, Toxteth, Sef ton, Kirkdale, Litherland, Ince Blundell, Thornton, Meols, Woolton, Allerton, Speke, Childwall, Wavertree, Bootle, and other places in the neighbourhood, amongst which we find Walton mentioned : — " Winestan tenebat Waletone. Ibi duæ carucatæ terræ et tres bovatæ : valebant octo solidos."(l) [translation.] "Winestan held Waletone [Walton]. There are two carucates of land, and three bovates : they were worth eight shillings." From the circumstance of Liverpool not being named, whilst so many places in its vicinity are mentioned, it has been surmised, that from its then insignificance, it was included with Walton,<2) of which parish it remained a part for centuries, and was only separated from it by an Act of Parliament13' in 1699.

If historical records fail us, so that we cannot trace out any authentic account of Liverpool immediately after the Norman Invasion, we may well be ignorant of all matters relating to it, or to the part of Lancashire near it, at a far more remote period; yet, in various places in the county, there have occasionally been discovered, the graves, mortal remains, weapons, implements, and even the rude cauoes(4) of wild and (1) As some slight difference as to the construction to be put upon the con tractions, which exist in the passage in Domesday Book, may be observed in the works of some writers, the author has judged it best to give the above extract in extenso, as it is given by Dr. Whitaker, F.S.A. in his History of Whalley, 3rd edition, book 1, chap. 3, page 38, he being a high authorityupon such points.

The figures and word in contractions, " vm sol " are inserted above the end of the line, in the printed copy published in 1783. (2) Although commonly called Walton, the correct name is Walton-on-the-Hill. (3) Act of 10 and 11 William III, c. 36. (4) Upon draining Martin Mere, in Lancashire, there were discovered no le6s than eight canoes, in figure and dimensions not much unlike those used in America,

INTRODUCTION.

. uncivilized tribes, of great antiquity, whose very names have been forgotten in the lapse of ages. Not long before the Norman Conquest, that part of Lan cashire which lay to the eastward of the Mersey, was princi pally either forest land, or swampy and unproductive. To the northward and north-eastward, with the exception of some rather elevated ground near Ormskirk, the country between the Mersey and the Ribble was almost entirely flat and marshy; and, from the numerous trunks of trees, which are even now frequently dug up in that district, many parts of it must, in remote times, have been covered with woods of considerable size. Some other parts of Lancashire consisted of wild tracts, in most of which were extensive forests, moors, and swamps, and a small portion only was cultivated.

" Could a curious observer" says the eloquent historian of Whalley, "of the present day carry himself nine or ten centuries back, and ranging the summit of Pendle, survey the forked vale of Calder on one side, and the bolder margins of Ribble and Hodder on the other, instead of populous towns and villages, the castle, the old tower-built house, the elegant modern mansion, the artificial plantation, the park and pleasure ground, or instead of uninterrupted inclosures, which have driven sterility almost to the summit of the fells, how great must then have been the contrast, when ranging either at a one of which had some plates of iron upon it ; and in a morass at Sawick, about nine miles distant from the mere, a stone instrument resembling a whetstone, and with it one of the ancient weapons, or implements, (antiquaries differ as to their use,) called celts, of mixed metal.— Dr. Leigh's Natural History of Lancashire, page 18, and also page 181, where engraved representations of one of the canoes, the stone instrument, and the celt, are given.

Dr. Leigh also states that a human body had been found in a moss, near Meols, in Lancashire.— Ibid, page 65 and 119. It is supposed to have been that of one of the early inhabitants of the country. Since Dr. Leigh wrote that work, in 1700, other human remains, apparently of very remote antiquity, as well as other celts, and implements of the ancient inhabitants, have occasionally been discovered in Lancashire.

INTRODUCTION.

. 7 distance, or immediately beneath, his eye must have caught vast tracts of forest ground, stagnating with bog, or dark ened by native woods, where the wild ox, the roe, the stag, aud the wolf, had scarcely learned the supremacy of man ; when directing his view to the intermediate spaces, to the windings of the valleys, or the expanse of plain beneath, he could only have distinguished a few insulated patches of cul ture, each encircling a village of wretched cabins, among which would still be remarked one rude mansion of wood, scarcelv equal in comfort to a modern cottage, yet then rising proudly eminent above the rest, where the Saxon lord, surrounded by bis faithful Cotarii, enjoyed a rude and solitary indepen dence, owning no superior but his sovereign."05 To the southward and eastward of the part where Liverpool now stands, there were extensive forests, and with but a limited space cultivated, and that in a rude and imperfect manner ; and there is every reason to believe that it remained in the same state until after the commencement of the 14th century. t2) Long after the Norman Invasion, Lancashire abounded with forests, the haunts of wild animals of the chace ; and it will perhaps surprise a modern sportsman, who never pursued any nobler game than foxes or hares, to be informed, that more than a century after that event, the hunter (1) Whitaker's History of Whalley, book 3, chap. 1, page 171 ; 3rd edition.

About a fourteenth part of the Parish of Whalley was cultivated at the date of Domesday Book — Hallam's View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. 2, page 421, (in notis) ; 8th edition, 8vo. (2) In the 2nd year of Edward the 3rd, (1328,) the forests of Toxteth, Croxteth, and Simmonswood, are mentioned in the proceedings in Parliament of that year. — Rotuli Parliamentorum, anno 1328, vol. 2, page 29. Even as late as the year 1485, (and probably much later,) we find that a person filled the office of Master Forester, in respect of those forests, and that Thomas Scaresbreke, servant to Sir Edward Stanley, Knight, then held that office by letters patent. — Rotuli Parliamentorum, 1st Henry the 7th, vol. 6, page 363.

INTRODUCTION.

. might have roused the wild boar from his lair, and the stag and the roe-buck from their coverts, in Lancashire. The fact, however, cannot well be disputed, for we have the evidence of the Parliamentary Rolls/0 that in the reign of Edward the Second, a petition, in Norman French, was presented from the inhabitants of Lancashire, stating that the Earl of Morton, afterwards King John, by his Charter, granted to them the privilege of cutting wood, and of pursuing and taking every kind of wild animal, except the stag, the hind, the roe-buck, and the wild hog, "forpris cerf, e bisse,™ chevereil, e pork salvage," in his forest, in that county.<3) Leland, the antiquaryT, who wrote in the reign of Henry the Eighth, mentions Blakeley, which is near Manchester, in his " Itinerary," and states that wild boars, bulls (by which he is usually considered to mean wild cattle), and falcons bred there, " in times paste."i4) He also mentions, that at (1) Rot.

Parl. 18th Edward the 2nd, A.D. 1324 and 1325, vol. 1, page 421. (2) Biche, in modern French, is the word for the hind, the female of the stag. (3) "A n're seigneur le Roi monstre ses liges de Counte de Lancastre, qe com le Roi Johan tant com il estoit Conte de Moreton, par sa chartre les graunta, qe eus e lour heires, sans chalenge de luy e de ses heires, lour propres boys poient assarter, vendre e doner, a lour voluntez, e que eus fuissent quitts de reward de forest ; e ensement q'il puissent chaser e prendre, levre, e gupyl, e chescune manere de beste de salvagine, forpris cerf, e bisse, chevereil, e pork salvage, tutes partes dedeinz sa forest en le dit Counte, dehors ses demeynes hayes. Est puys apres, mesmes cele chartre en le primer an de son regne conferma. E ensement le Roy Henry, l'an de son regne trezisme, les dites chartres recita e confirma.

Dount il prient a n're Seigneur le Roi, q'il luy pleise celes chartres confermer, e commander p: Bref a ces Ministres en celes parties, qe eus ne soient sur les ditz pointz grevez ne chalengez." Responsio.—" Veignent en Chauncellerie, & monstrent lur chartres, & les confermements, et le Roy se avisera. Coram Rege."— Rotuli Parliamentorum, 18th Edward the 2nd, A.D. 1324 and 1325, vol. 1, page 421. (4) Leland's Itinerary, vol. 7, folio 57. Dr. Whitaker, in his History of Whalley, 3rd edition, page 205, states that tradition records, that the wild cattle, mentioned by Leland, were transported from Blakeley into the Dean's or Abbot's Park of Whalley, and that they were removed, after the dissolution of Whalley Abbey, to Gisburne Park, in Yorkshire, where their descendants still remain. Dr. Whitaker also adducei

INTRODUCTION.

. 9 the time when he wrote, there were in Lancashire three forests of red deer, Wyersdale, Bowland, and Bleasdale, which were partly woody and partly heathy ;(1) and we learn from Dr. Whitaker, that the last stags of Bowland Forest many reasons for the belief, that not only wild cattle, but wolves, stags, fallow deer, and roe deer, were to be found wild in various parts of England, long after the period of the Norman Conquest. Those persons who are curious upon such a topic will find it dwelt upon by Dr. Whitaker, in his History of Whalley, 3rd edition, page 197 to 205. The Author does not consider it digressing too far from the subject, to mention here, though not particularly relating to Lancashire, that however King Edgar might have flattered himself with the idea, that the annual tribute of wolves' heads, which, it has been said, he imposed upon the Welsh princes, if indeed the account be not an exaggerated or idle tale, had effected the destruction of the race of those animals, it is certain, that in the reign of Edward the 1st, they existed, and had so increased, in many parts of England, that a commission was issued by him, to Peter Corbet, for the destruction, by means of men, dogs, and engines, of wolves, in all forests, parks, and other places, in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Staf fordshire, and a royal mandate or precept was issued in 1281, the 9th of Edward the 1st, to all bailiffs, &c. commanding them to be aiding and assisting Peter Corbet in the destruction of wolves, in those counties.

The commission is alluded to by Bingley, the naturalist, but he has omitted to give the date, or any reference where an account of it was to be found. Dr. Whitaker has not noticed it in his work above mentioned. As the mandate is a curiosity, it is considered advisable to publish it, precisely as it appears in the Fœdera : — A.D. 1281. " Rex omnibus Ballivis etc : Sciatis quod injunximus dilecto & An : 9 Edwd. I. fi(}eli nostro petr0 Corbet, quod in omnibus forestis, & parcis, & Pat : 9 Edwd. I. comitatus nostr0s Gloucestr' Wygorn' Hereford' in Turr : Lond : Salop' & Stafford' in quibus lupi poterunt inveniri, lupos, cum hominibus, canibus & ingeniis suis, capiat, & destruat, modis omnibus quibus viderit expedire. " Et ideo vobis mandamus quod eidem Petro in omnibus, quæ ad captionen luporum in comitatibus prædictis, pertinet, intendentes sitis & auxiliantes, quotiens opus fuerit, & prædictus Petrus vobis scire faciet ex parte nostra.

" In cujus $.c. duratur' quamdiu nobis placuerit. Teste Rege apud Westm' decimo quarto die Maii." Fœdera (modern edition) Tome 1, pt. 2, p. 591 ; Ibid, folio edition of 1705, Tome 2, p. 168. (1) Leland's Itinerary vol 5, folio 84. He also mentions a large inclosed Park at Myerscough, on the Moor side, stocked with red deer.— Ibid.

INTRODUCTION.

. were destroyed within the memory of the then keeper, a fine old forester of more than four-score.(1) In consequence of the barbarous state of England, im mediately before the Norman Conquest, it would be in vain to expect to find many traces of commercial pursuits, at that period, in Lancashire. The higher classes of the Anglo-Saxons, consisting of the great landowners, were a powerful body ; there was no middle class ; for the small landowners or inferior thanes, were too insignificant to merit such an appellation ; and the common people were the vassals of the great landowners, by whom they were considered of no account, except so far as they could be made useful to them, and contributed to their power, or to the cultivation of their lands. The mutual relation of lord and vassal, strongly partaking of the nature of the feudal system, appears to have existed ;(2) the natural effect of which, was to give almost despotic power to the owners of large possessions, and to depress and reduce the common people to a very low state of degradation.

Under whatever form, and wherever the feudal system prevailed, it followed as a necessary consequence, that true liberty, the rational freedom of all classes, could not exist ; and the only class who possessed even a semblance of it, was that of the great landowners who enjoyed, in the plenitude of their power, a wild and turbulent licence, which induced them to consider themselves rather as the equals, than the subjects of the sovereign. Liberty was unknown to the common (1) Dr. Whitaker's History of Whalley, 3rd edition, published in 1818, page 235, (note *). He also states, ibid, page 237, that in the year 1805, a fine herd of wild deer, the lastvestage of feudal superiority in the domains of the Lacies, were destroyed at Bowland. (2) Hallam's View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. 2, page 85 and 89 ; 8th edition, 8vo.

INTRODUCTION.

. people, who ranked no higher in the scale, than " hewers of wood, and drawers of water," and it may well be more than doubted, whether they were sufficiently well informed, to ap preciate such a blessing. Immediately before the Norman Invasion, so generally profound was the ignorance, and so universal was the mental darkness, which prevailed, that there is every reason to be lieve, that in the whole of England, Scotland, and Ireland, there then were very few individuals amongst the higher, and not one of the lower classes, who could read or write/0 After the Norman Conquest, the common people of England were much more oppressed than before. The feudal system, and forest laws were carried out in a most severe and cruel manner.'2' Humau beings were transferred as appertiuent to the land which they tilled, much in the same manner in which cattle change hands ; nearly all the lower classes were serfs or vassals ; and instances have occurred, where freemen were so oppressed and degraded, and their condition rendered so intolerable, that many of them in despair surrendered their liberty, and voluntarily consented to become the vassals of some powerful noble, in order to ensure protection against more dangerous individuals, and (1) See Hallam's View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. 2, 8th edition, 8vo. pages 66, 68 and 79, for various proofs of the barbarous and degraded state, in which the Anglo-Saxons were with respect to their laws.

See also, on the same subject, Robertson's Charles the 5th, vol. 1, page 16 and page 451, (in notis :) and also Carte's History of England, edition of 1747, vol. 1, page 366, and the authorities there cited. (2) The penalty for killing a stag or boar, was the loss of eyes. — Hallam's View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. 2, page 94, 8th edition. The destruction of a deer, within the limits of the forest, was as penal as the death of a man. — 2 Blackstone's Com. chap. 27, page 416, 14th edition. In the Charter of the Forest of the 9th Henry the 3rd, chap. 10, A.D. 1224-5, it was declared, that thence forth no man should lose life or limb for killing the King's deer, but that a grievous fine should be imposed on him, if he had any means of payment ; and if not, that he should lie a year and a day in prison. C

INTRODUCTION.

. to obtain the means of subsisting themselves, and their families. As has been before observed, one great feudal potentate, Roger of Poictou, at one time owned all the land between the Ribble and the Mersey.(1) Under circumstances so depressing to commerce, it was impossible that it could flourish, therefore it can scarcely be expected, that antiquaries, or historians, should find Liver pool mentioned, as a trading town, or even be able to dis cover any certain trace of its existence, before or soon after the Norman Conquest. Even for some time after that event, commerce was on a most insignificant scale. England had few superfluities to dispose of, and few necessities of which the supply was imperative ; navigation was unsafe, in conse quence of the unskilfulness of the seamen, the want of the mariner's compass, and the seas being exposed to the incur sions of pirates ; nor was it certain that foreigners bringing commodities to England, could rely on protection, in a barbarous age, or be secure of a friendly reception, in the ports of an uncivilized country.

Even between different parts of England, the communication was difficult and unfrequent, in consequence of the bad and dangerous state of the roads, bridges, ferries, and fords, and the disorganized state of society. Although it is true, that for sometime after the Norman Conquest, the commerce of England was on a most limited scale, still some little commerce did exist, which Eno-land carried on principally with France, the Low Countries, and Spain. Some articles were in demand, which either could not be produced or manufactured, in this country, or which were produced or manufactured, on a very small scale; such as wiue for the drunken carousals of the Norman nobles, (1) Domesday Book, vol. 1, edition of 1783. In some works he is called Roger of Poictiers.

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. 13 vessels and utensils of silver for ornament or entertainments, manufactured silks, and rich furs for dresses, armour, military weapons, bowstaves, fruits, of which scarcely any were then grown in England, spices and drugs, which came from the East, by way of Venice and Genoa. Suo-ar was even about that period brought into Europe, from the East, where it was then and had long previously been pro duced. It probably was brought into Western Europe in very small quantities, as an article of curiosity or medicine.0' England, in return for articles of commerce which she received from abroad, had not much to send. The English manufactured some coarse woollen clothing, and a little linen ; but probably not much more than was needed for their own consumption. They had not many articles to export, except wool, hides, skins, some metals, and perhaps salt and cattle.

The balance of trade with the nations of the continent, would, therefore, be against the English, who would, consequently, have to pay the difference in silver, the only metal then used for the purposes of commerce. Some commercial intercourse, however limited, was even then kept up between England and Ireland, we are, how ever, much in the dark as to its nature or extent.^ From the middle of the twelfth century to that of the thirteenth, the trade of England became more extensive and prosperous. (1) The sugar cane was cultivated in Sicily, about 100 years after the Norman Conquest, though perhaps only to a limited extent. It may here be remarked, that the sugar cane is believed to be mentioned in the Holy Scriptures by the name of sweet cane. — 43rd chap. Isaiah, ver. 24 ; and 6th chap. Jeremiah, ver. 20.

(2) In England, it was very common even aster the Conquest, to export slaves to Ireland, until, in the reign of Henry the 2nd, the Irish came to a non-importation agreement, which put a stop to the practice. — Hallam's View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. 2, page 379 ; 8th edition, 8vo. William of Malmsbury accuses the Anglo-Saxon nobility of selling their female servants, even when pregnant by them, as slaves, to foreigners. — Ibid, (in notis,) page 379.

INTRODUCTION.

. The towns on the southern coast exported tin and other metals, in exchange for the wines of France ; those of the eastern coast sent corn to Norway; the Cinque-ports bartered wool against the stuffs of Flanders.'1' The fisheries also of England, were, after the Norman Invasion, a source of occupation and gain, at a time when, from the peculiar tenets of the prevailing creed, fish either fresh or cured, formed no inconsiderable portion of the diet of a great part of the population, and gave employment to many of the industrious classes. Commerce and fishing cannot be carried on, even on a small scale, without ports or havens ; and the inlet or creek called, in comparatively modern times, the " Pool," on the eastward side of the estuary of the Mersey, upon the site of which a part of Liverpool now stands, formed a commodious natural bar bomfor the purpose.

However indifferent the ignorant Anglo-Saxon, or illite rate Norman might be to the fields of coal, the mineral treasures of Lancashire and Cheshire, the value of which he could not appreciate, still he was alive, to the utility of the springs of salt in Cheshire, which were then worked and had been worked for ages previously ; and it is fair to suppose, that the portion of the salt made in Cheshire, which had to be sent by sea to Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the western coast of England, and the Isle of Man, would be brought for some distance at least down the Mersey, and not any place could be found there, so eligible as a place of shipment, or as a depot, preparatory to its final exportation, as the spot where Liverpool now stands. From those and various other causes, though imperceptibly and by slow degrees, Liverpool, from a petty hamlet of hovels, at length (1) Hallam's View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. 2, page 157 ; 8th edition, 8vo.

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. 15 became a small town and obscure seaport, at a period most probably not long after the Norman Conquest. The name Liverpool has been spelt in a great variety of modes ;(1) but it seems most probable, that it is a corruption of the words " Lower Pool ;" the pool, which will be afterwards described, having remained until about the com mencement of the 18th century; and the name "Pool," occurs in various places,'21 on the banks of the Mersey, and nearly all of them are higher up the estuary than Liverpool. In the rude age which succeeded the Norman Conquest, feudal castles and monastic establishments, near a seaport town, had a tendency, in some degree, to promote its in crease, by the constant demand of their inmates and visiters upon the productions of its mechanics, and the industry and skill of its mariners and other inhabitants.