of Canning-place, the old Custom-house, and the yard behind it (on the eastward) stood, and along the low ground, part of which is now occupied by Coopers-row, (a portion of) King-street, Paradise-street, and Whitechapel, and the lower parts of the contiguous streets. The stream of fresh water called the Brook, flowed into it, a few yards to the westward of the point of junction of Byrom-street, with the old Haymarket or Shaw-place. The water supplying it came principally from the swampy ground, called in the last century, and even in the present one until not many years back, the Moss Lake fields, now the site of Falkner-square, Falkner-street, Abercromby-square, Grovestreet, Chatham-street, Oxford-street, &c., crossed the tract of land now occupied by Brownlow-hill, the upper end of Pembroke-place, Daulby-street, London-road, the north end of Norton-street, the south end of St. Anne-street, the middle part of Clare-street and Christian-street, and from thence flowed down the declivity of the hill, to a low spot or valley, formerly called the Dingle, where Downe-street now is, to the foot of Richmond-row, where it received a tributary stream, collected from near Everton and from the northward, and then flowed a little to the westward of what is now Byrom-street, into the low tract of ground at present called Shaw-place or the old Haymarket, where it joined

the Pool.

Although Liverpool, from a petty hamlet, at length became a small town and sea-port, still she wanted much, before she attained any rank, amongst the other cities and towns of England. An institution had however taken root in Europe, which, whether new, or an ancient one revived, it is not requisite to discuss here, had a great effect in encouraging commerce, and did more in England towards the formation of a middle class of society, and the weakening of the despotic power of the monarchs and feudal nobles,

than any other civil institution, and which also had a large share in the formation of our present constitutional limited monarchy.

That institution was the forming of cities and towns into communities, by granting them charters of incorporation with perpetual succession. Various kings, feeling to their cost, that there was not any middle class, and that the nobles. were too powerful, both for the welfare of the crown and of the common people, soon perceived that the inhabitants of cities and towns if enjoying peculiar privileges, and possessing within themselves a municipal force, trained even in a slight degree to arms, formed some kind of counterpoise to their common adversaries. In England, the oppressive part of the feudal system, appears only partially to have reached the inhabitants of the cities and towns, who, consisting almost entirely of artificers or mechanics, were, in some degree, protected by their insignificance; besides which, in their several vocations, they were useful to the nobles, and it was not their policy, to destroy those who conduced to their comforts or convenience. Charters of incorporation, were originally granted to bodies of men comparatively humble; but great changes in England resulted from the system, which, after towns had obtained charters, soon realised, and more than realised, in beneficial results, the anticipations of the sovereigns who granted them, and who found it their interest to make common cause with such bodies, against their mutual enemies the feudal nobles of England.

At length the period arrived, when Liverpool became a place sufficiently important, to receive charters of different kinds, from various sovereigns. The first charter of any

(1) See the examination, in November, 1833, of the then Town Clerk of Liverpool, taken before the Commissioners of Inquiry into the state of Municipal Corporations, in the printed report of the proceedings; on which occasion all the Charters of the

description which Liverpool obtained, is one which was granted by King John; that, however, is not considered to be a charter of incorporation, but a mere grant of a privilege. It was not at all unusual, in former ages, for privileges to be granted to the inhabitants of various towns and places, without incorporating them; the common cases of grants of the right to hold fairs and markets are instances, and many others might be adduced. The charter is in a good state of preservation, and is dated the 28th of August, in the 9th year of his reign (1207). It is on parchment, and, notwithstanding the lapse of centuries, is fairly legible; but, as was the custom of the age, it abounds with rather difficult contractions; and it is very small and of an irregular shape.

The size, shape and general appearance of the charter

town were produced on oath, by the Town Clerk. A petition was presented in 1751, by the Mayor, Bailiffs and Burgesses of Liverpool, to King George the 2nd, praying for a new Charter, and in it they distinctly stated that King John granted to the town its first Charter: the petition was read in evidence on the trial of the cause, the Mayor, Bailiffs and Burgesses of Liverpool against Golightly, before Mr. Baron Thompson, at Lancaster, in 1791.(*) In Mr. T. Troughton's History of Liverpool, a copy of a pretended Charter of Henry the 2nd is set out. It was a fabrication of a Mr. James Williamson, a retired solicitor, who possessed a certain degree of shrewdness and talent, and in his way was a character, (the word, according to its common acceptation, being defined as peculiar and original,) and he probably thinking that Mr. T. Troughton was going to write a dull book, thought it an excusable act to play off a hoax. In doing so, however, he, perhaps without intending it, mislead others: even the late Mr. William Statham, formerly the Town Clerk, a gentleman of talents, who possessed much information on such subjects, once in a conversation with the Author of this Work, expressed himself as if staggered, after seeing the pretended copy in print in Troughton's History. The late Mr. Egerton Smith, the talented Editor of the Liverpool Mercury, appears to have been the first person who publicly disputed the genuineness of such a Charter. Mr. Baines, the author of the History of Lancashire, was not aware of the fabrication until after a considerable portion of the History had been printed, in which he mentioned it as if it had been genuine. The Author of this Work was in correspondence with Mr. Baines respecting some antiquarian matters, connected with the county, whilst his History of Lancashire was in the press, and

See the printed Report of that Trial, where it is given at length.

D

of John, are as shown by the accompanying wood-cut: it would have been a laborious task to have given a fac simile of it.

It is a trifle more than seven inches long, and is

three inches wide at the widest end, but only two inches wide at the narrowest

end; and a thin strip of the parchment has been partly detached from the bottom, in order to form a label, to which a seal has evidently

drew his attention to the imposture, and in the course of their correspondence, the

once been attached. The strip, though much shrivelled, still hangs to it, but the seal is gone.(1)

Author received a letter from Mr. Baines, dated Leeds, September 27, 1835, of which the following is an extract relative to the spurious Charter :—

"Whilst I am investigating the matter relating to the Charter of Henry the 2nd, here, and in London, will you do me the favour to make such enquiries in Liverpool, as you think calculated to shed any light that may be cast upon it in Liverpool, and to communicate to me the result as soon as convenient? In particular may I beg that you will enquire of the Record Keeper of the Corporation, and ascertain his views on the subject. Before I quit the History of Liverpool, which will be in the 57th part, I must set at rest the claims of the Charter to authenticity."

:

In consequence of that letter the Author made some inquiries, the result of which threw further discredit upon the authenticity of the pretended Charter; he also waited upon the then Town Clerk, who was the Record Keeper, for information on the subject, and was assured by him, that not any thing was known of any Liverpool Charter previous to that of King John; and the Author communicated the result of his inquiries to Mr. Baines and from inquiries which the latter also pursued, he ascertained that a draft, in Mr. James Williamson's hand-writing, from which he had made the copy of the pretended Charter for Mr. Troughton, had been found after Mr. Williamson's death amongst his papers; and also, that there was no such Bishop of London at the alleged date of it, as "Robertus," mentioned in it. The fabrication was, consequently, exposed, in a note in the fourth volume of the History of Lancashire.—See Baines's Lancashire, vol. 4, page 185, (note *).

The statement in a letter of 25th September, 1789, from Mr. Henry Brown, formerly Deputy Town Clerk, to Mr. Francis Hargrave, the then Recorder of Liverpool, which will be more particularly noticed afterwards, contains this important passage: "The first Charter we know of is one granted in the 9th of John." On the occasion of the investigation by the Commissioners of Inquiry into the Municipal Corporations, in 1833, a copy of a case, drawn up in 1824, by Mr. William Statham, the then Town Clerk, and laid before Mr. Tindal, afterwards Lord Chief Justice Tindal, was also produced before the Commissioners, which contains the following passage: "The earliest Charter in existence, granted to the Borough of Liverpool is one of King John, in the year 1208," [quære, meant for 1207]" and the next is one of King Henry the 3rd, in the year 1229."(†) But that is not all; for Mr. Troughton's Work was only published in our own time, in 1810, many years after the date of the statement of Mr. Henry Brown; yet no person pretends that he ever saw such a Charter, or possessed a copy of a Charter of Henry the 2nd, before Mr. Troughton's Work was published; nor did the latter give his authority for it, or state from whom he obtained it; from which it may not uncharitably be inferred, that he either knew or had some suspicion, that it was not genuine.

(†) Printed Report of the Proceedings of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the Municipal Corporations, page 251.

(1) The Author has been kindly permitted to inspect several of the Charters of the Borough, and many other documents, in the Town-hall. Amongst others, he examined,