Liverpoole time out of mind have been possessed of the sea bank along the Town field, kept an officer thereon called the Hayward and the owners of the land adjoining were fined by the Court of Quarter Sessions if they did not take up their End Butts.

N.B.-Alderman Williamson has a Plan of Townfield as drawn by Mr. Chadwick,1 he will perhaps lend it you, which shews its dimensions to the sea bank.

The Corporation of Liverpoole have time immemorially been possessed of the sea shore within their Lordship down to low water mark as may be seen by their Grants of the Pitch house Docks &c., therefore I think these should be pointed out in the plan, Also the scite of the Old Castle, and the several Workhouse, Almshouses and Charity School, Infirmary, and Seaman's Hospital, Church and Church yards, which originally belonged to the Corporation, and also to show where the Old Pool ran up to, A yard and a House within it abutting upon a passage adjoining to the house and Inheritance of Hugh Langford,2 and a stone way or passage along the outside Wall to the shore containing in front to Moor Street sixteen yards and is in depth from that corner to the wall of the Old Custom house yard twenty six yards.

A small piece or slip of land back [of] Martindale's houses and smithy in sea bank, leased out to Margaret Tarleton under a yearly rent to the Corporation of two pence.

There is also the Porch [?] house premises in lease to Mr. Oldham, should be shown as it interferes or is intermixed with the Premises of David Kenyon.3

And also Maurice Melling's houses and premises top of Red Cross street and Preeson's rowe, with liberty to the Well, little house and Midding stead.

A small piece of ground southwards of the Lane from the sea shore to Toxteth Park called Thompson's Croft containing about half an Acre in lease to Daniel Danvers. Qy., if the Mug Work of Mr. Bird and Company is not built on this land."

1 Perhaps James Chadwick, the map maker of 1725. For a plan of Williamson's own property in the Town fields by the Eyes, see App. I., No. 23.

He owned property in Moor Street in 1705-8.-Peet. On a plan by R. Lang (1750) of the foreshore between Chapel Street and James Street in the possession of Lord Derby (copy at Athenæum Library), the house at the bottom and north side of Moor Street is marked "Hugh Langford's house, formerly Sir Clive Moor's."

3 Oldham, Caldwell & Co., sugar bakers, Redcross Street; David Kenyon, merchant, Redcross Street.-Gore, 1766.

Melling & Harrup, merchants, Redcross Street.-Gore, 1766. "There is a plan of Thompson's Croft at the south boundary, 1772, in Plans of the Liverpool Pot Works. Daniel Danvers, see Peet, 32. Bird & Jones, mug warehousemen, Bird Street.-Gore, 1766.

The Ground south of the Salthouse Dock in lease to Messrs. Barnston Mears and Okill.1

And all the inclosed ground and Wast shore to the Meer Stone next Toxteth Park.

The boundaries of Liverpoole extend southwards within the Wall of Toxteth Park on the south side of the Lane leading from Toxteth Park to the sea shore.

There is a lane to be left next Mr. Goodwin's Park up to a piece of Wast ground about forty yards square formerly ordered to be granted to Rufus Marsden to boil Pitch there.

From the Water Street End to the Beecon Gutter on the north side of Liverpoole, thence to the Grove and the Meer Stone in Mr. Moore's Meadow, thence of Kirkdale Lane to the Meer Stone there over against the Beacon, thence to a Meer Stone in Syer's ditch adjoining to the breck, thence through the field (that is the Town field), thence through several Closes to a Meer Stone upon Everton Causeway, thence through several fields to Liverpoole Common, and so after the Common side to the Meer Stone at Johnson's field end on the East side of the Town, and so up the gutter or Valley to the Moss Lake to a place called Hollin Hedge, and thence straight to the Park Wall and through two Crofts to Booth Mill, and so to the sea side and all along the sea side over the Pool and thence along the sea side to Water Street end.

As this is an old description 2 of the Corporation liberties and Lordship you should in your new Survey note where all the Meer Stone now stand with their respective dates, &c., and in whose lands they are, and by what names such lands go by, and it would be proper for the Sergeant at Mace to go with you.

And further note that our liberty at sea to arrest within the flood mark is on both sides the River of Mersey as far upwards as the same flows, with Custom or Toll on either side of the River, with other usual privileges of the River.

(On the North side of James's street and at the West end to Moor Street. A Messuage with steps up and a little house

1

John Okill, timber merchant, Park Lane. He and Mears appear on the maps as owners of property on the river side.

This description, with slight variations, is entered in the town's records in 1541 and 1671.-P.R. i. 242. It is also printed, with the later boundaries, in Brooke, 192.

adjoining above and thro' to Moor Street, and a Shop fronting that Street, and Gateway into the backyard containing in front in James Street yards and in depth backwards to Moor Street and containing in front to Moor Street to the Land and inheritance of Mr. Rowe, now in lease to Henry Gamon.

Memd. There is a small Lane which leads to a New Mill lately built by Benjamin Tyrer1 on the North West Corner of The Grod transferred by Mr. Sweeting to Mr. Norris.

Dale Street.

In lease to Mr. Cleveland. A Barn and small Dwelling-house at the west end of the Barn, containing to the front 9 yards and backwds. 176 yards.) 2

Liverpool. Examined this 27th May 1765 for Mr. Eyes.
F. GILDART,

Town Clk.

[Endorsed. Given to M. Gregson by Chas. Eyes Jun., 1821.]

1 In 1719 Thomas Tyrer was granted land on the highway to Prescot for a mill.-P.R. ii. 162. Benjamin Tyrer in 1740 leased West Derby Mill from Lord Molyneux (Bennett's King's Mills of Liverpool, vol. xii., N.S., Trans. Hist. Soc., p. 62). There are plates of Tyrer's Mills, Copperas Hill, in Herdman's Pictorial Relics, 1856 and 1878.

The paragraphs within round brackets follow the signature of the Town Clerk in the MS.

RICHARD BROOKE OF HANDFORD VEL HAND

FORTH, AND LIVERPOOL, F.S.A.

SOME NOTES

CONCERNING HIS LINEAGE AND CONNECTIONS.1

THE

By R. C. Lockett.

HE pedigree of the BROOKE Family of Handford is to be found in the earlier editions of Burke's Landed Gentry, which traces their descent to the reign of Queen Anne. The pedigree, however, is not a full one, and whilst engaged on other search work, the writer became possessed of additional particulars relating to the family which enabled him to add two remoter generations to the lineage given by Burke.

Considering the associations which Richard Brooke had with the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire at the time of its institution, the writer hopes the following notes may be found of in

terest :

2

1. BENEDICT BROOKE of Buglawton, in the parish of Astbury, and situate two miles NE. of Congleton, was born temp. Queen Elizabeth. He married Elizabeth and had issue, viz.— Richard Brooke, of whom later.

John Brooke of Toft, living 1696, admõn granted at Chester, 7th January 1708, to

1 In the Cheshire Sheaf, 3rd series, vol. vii. p. 51, is a query from “T. L. O. W.” asking whether the pedigree of the family has been worked out.

• Benedict Brooke, churchwarden of Astbury in 1668.

his nephew, Benedict Brooke of Toft, and Henry Cook of Sheen, co. Staffs., probably ob.s.p.

He died intestate, and admon of his goods was granted at Chester on 14th October 1691 to his son Richard. Elizabeth, his relict, died in 1696. Her will, dated 7th September 1696, was proved at Chester 18th November following by John Brooke, her grandson and sole executor.

2. RICHARD BROOKE of Toft, gent., signed a settlement dated 19th July 1664, made between Benedict and Elizabeth Brooke, his father and mother, himself, and Richard Brooke of Smallwood,1 gent., relative to certain lands in Buglawton. He married, pursuant to licence granted at Chester, 3rd September 1662, Martha Wright of Lower Peover, spinster (who was living in 1702), and by her had issue, viz.

Thomas, baptized at Knutsford in 1664.
Peter, born in 1668, ob.s.p. in 1693.

John, baptized at Knutsford in 1668, living in

1702.

Benedict, of whom presently.

Elizabeth, born in 1663, married, before 1702, Henry Cock (Cook) of Sheen, living in 1708.

Ellen, married George Kent, living in 1702.

1 The Brooke family had long associations with the township of Smallwood (parish of Astbury).

In 22 Eliz. Henry Somerford died seized on the manors of Somerford and Astbury. His widow transferred her interest in the same to Thomas Brooke, Esq., for £500.

In 38 Eliz. Thomas Brooke, Randle Brooke and Cicely, his wife, of Smallwood, were defendants to a suit for recovery of certain deeds of title relating to a property called High Hayes in Newbold Astbury, which had formerly formed part of the estate of John Somerford (Ormerod, vol. iii. p. 22).

Henry del Broke held land in Somerford, 21 Henry VI. He tentatively figures in Ormerod's pedigree of the Brookes of Leighton.