Memorials of Liverpool, historical and topographical; including a history of the dock estate

Front matter

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Preface

CONSIDEKING the number of publications which have been issued about Liverpool, the obtrusion on the public of two rather bulky volumes may seem to require some apology.

Possibly this may be afTordecl by the very multiplicity of the works alluded to, which necessitates a large amount of collation and arrangement to bring the information within the scope of the ordinary reader. Apart, however, from this, there are other reasons which render the present time opportune for a work of this description. Although liistories, guides, and handbooks are so numerous, there are extremely few which present any indications of original research. For the most part they are meagre in the information given ; the same superficial history is repeated in each ; the same errors are perpetuated from one to the other. To this sweeping charge there are some honourable exceptions. Mr. Thomas Baines was the first to depart from the beaten track, and to bring into the field the results of tlie examination of original and contemporary documents. Mr. James Stonehouse, also, has rendered good service in securing a large amomit of floating traditional information on manners, customs, and localities.

I have endeavoured to follow in the same track. At

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the present day the inquiring mind of the pubhc is not content with the apocryphal narratives which satisfied our credulous predecessors. Information at first hand is demanded as the basis of all veritable history. In this way, documents of the most miscellaneous kind, if contemporary with the period treated of, frequently constitute materials of the utmost value. It has been my effort in the following pages to bring together, from every available soiu^ce, a true record of the rise and progress of my native town.

In addition to the documents ah^eady brought to hght which afford original information on the history of the town, there are doubtless many others extant amongst the papers of our old borough and county families — packets of letters, rent-rolls, inquisitions, wills, &c. — which, if examined and collated, would assist in the illustration of Liverpool life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This task must be left to future inquirers.

But it is especially in the topographical portion of this work that the present time is pecuharly opportune. The improvements and changes in the Liverpool streets and buildings during the last half-century have been so great, and the extension of the suburbs so enormous, that the very aspect of the town and neighbourhood, and those legends and traditions which grow up in every locality, and impart a flavour and raciness to its associations, are in danger of being forgotten.

Towards the illustration of this part of the subject I may claim to have possessed certain advantages. The nature of my avocations for many years has necessarily made me familiar with the various districts of the town,

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O and the changes which have taken place in them. T the next generation these features will be as strange as the picture of a foreign country.

As to the manner in which I have executed my task, my readers will, I am sure, exercise a fair and candid judgment. No doubt errors will be discovered, and criticism may be very properly applied to the literary workmanship ; but I can honestly say, I have done the best in my power to present a true and faithful picture from the materials within my reach.

I do not expect a large circle of readers, nor have I provided for them.^ Provincial history and topography are not usually very attractive to the general student. Our streets are not, like those of the metropohs, irradiated with the memories of the great, the noble, and the gifted, who have trod their precincts, and rendered them for ever memorable. My pages are filled with names and incidents, the interest of which is circumscribed within very narrow hmits.

And yet there are elements in the history of Liverpool which should invest it with some amount of interest to every thoughtful mind. It is the story of patient perseverance and successful enterprise ; of the triumph of that indomitable spirit which has led the descendants of the Saxon thegns and the Danish Vikings to plough with their keels the seas of every chme, and to raise their standard on every continent. Many problems, political and social, may receive light from the ever-changing but progressive history of a great commercial community.

A large proportion of the details are doubtless trivial, and comparatively insignificant ; but if capacity and

^ The edition is limited to 400 copies. VOL. L a

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poAver to serve their generation be the test, the names of such men as Ealph Sekerston and Sir Thomas Johnson, Liverpool merchants of the olden time, have as good a claim to be recorded as those of the world-renowned George Heriot or Sir Thomas Gresham.

However imperfect may have been the execution of my task, the information here brought together may serve as a basis for future historians to extend and embeUish. For the benefit of such I have added an Appendix, containing a hst of the pubhshed works and other sources of information on Liverpool. I have also appended a copious Lidex for reference.

J. A. P.

Sandyknowe,

WayeeteeEj near Liveepool :

Novemher 1872.

Contents

THE FIRST VOLUME.

HISTORICAL.

CHAPTER