The Customs of Old England

by F. J. Snell

At a later period the people of Liverpool might not have thanked the Crown for facilitating the settlement of a large body of strangers in their midst. Everywhere burgesses were strongly opposed to the colonization of their towns by "upland men," less on sentimental grounds than from the fact that these "foreigners" frequently did not take steps to become naturalized and pay scot and lot towards communal expenses. Clearly this objection did not apply to Liverpool in this instance, and at that relatively early stage of its history the incorporation of a number of well-to-do and industrious immigrants might naturally have been hailed as a gain. It must have been so regarded by the King.

Liverpool was the port of embarkation for troops sailing to Ireland, and is said to have owed its foundation to this circumstance in the days of Strongbow. The advantage of a numerous, loyal, and able-bodied population was seen in 1573, when the Earl of Essex passed through the place on his way to Ireland. It happened that he left behind him a detachment of soldiers, and the "motley coats" and "blue coats," having quarrelled, used their weapons on each other. With admirable promptitude, the Mayor summoned the trained bands, and the rest of the story may be told in the vivacious language of a contemporary:

"Mr. Mayor and all the town suddenly, as pleased God Almighty, were ready upon the heath, every man with their best weapons; so as by good chance every householder being at home, Sunday morning, eager as lions, made show almost even like to the number of the captains and all their soldiers.... After the battle array [which was efficacious in staying the conflict] Mr. Captain showed all gentleness and courtesy to the Mayor, and came up to the town in friendship and amity."

Trained bands formed part of the equipment of a well-appointed mediæval town—a description to which, as we shall show, Liverpool possessed exceptional claims. But the Crown did not benefit solely in this way. The burgages erected numbered 168, each of which paid a ground rent of one shilling per annum into the royal exchequer. The custom dues of the Duchy of Lancaster were another source of profit, and retainers of the King were occasionally quartered on them. Thus in 1372 one Rankyn, a follower of John of Gaunt, was retained on condition that he "in time of peace shall be at board at court ... and that he shall have and take for the term of his life, in the whole, twenty-five marks sterling from the farm of the town of Liverpool."

The object of all towns was to acquire the fullest measure of self-government, and in this respect, despite probable exactions arising from the system of fee-farm leases, Liverpool must be reckoned extraordinarily fortunate. The term "commune" also—word of sinister import since 1871, but used in mediæval England in the innocuous sense of "borough"—seems to have special point in reference to the trading regulations of that ancient port, if compared with the greater individualism of other places, though commercial transactions were universally the subject of manifold restrictions designed to protect the interests of the native against the intrusive and vexatious rivalry of the foreigner. At Liverpool matters went far beyond that.

The Corporation itself for a long time farmed the custom dues, and also levied tolls on, all merchandise that passed through the port. Much land and other property belonged to it, as well as the ecclesiastical patronage, which included the appointment and dismissal of incumbents, wardens, and other church officers. The hanse, composed of the entire body of freemen and burgesses, required that all produce, upon importation, should be first offered to it, and it was then inspected by "prizers" or appraisers, who gave an estimate of its value. If the importers did not care to sell at the price, they had to haggle with the town respecting the sum to be paid for leave to sell in the open market; and any merchant or trader who treated with them on his own account was liable to heavy penalties.[13]

We have previously given a sample of original methods of administering justice at Liverpool, and much might be written of its curious penal code, which embraced such offences as eavesdropping. Hence the protest embodied in the following presentment of the Grand Jury on March 31, 1651, may well express the inner thought of many preceding generations of culprits:

"Item, wee p'sent William Mee for saying and cursing in the court, pointing His finger towards Mr. Mayor and the Jurie, 'If such men as those can give anie judgment, the Divell goe with you and all the acts you have done.' Amerced in five pounds."

We need not recur to the topic of trained bands, and will only remark that in this and other respects Liverpool obtained a degree of self-sufficiency and independence surpassing anything known at the present time, and, apparently, far beyond the common standard even of mediæval towns. It might therefore have stood forth as an object not so much of envy as of imitation. In point of fact, Liverpool—owing, no doubt, to its comparatively late rise and geographical situation—was not one of those towns whose customs were widely copied. In Wales the custom of Hereford held the field, and in the south-west the custom of Winchester, which, through transmission to Newcastle, prevailed also in Northumberland and Scotland. The customs of York and the Cinque Ports attracted smaller groups, while the custom of London was not only mother of the custom of Oxford, but grandmother of the custom of Bedford, since the citizens of Oxford were called in by the last-named town to adjudicate on obscure points, and they themselves repaired to London, as the fountain-head, in the event of any internal dispute. The court of appeal, when mother and daughter towns were at variance on the subject of privileges, was the King and Council.

In England the powers of the mother-town were purely advisory, whereas on the Continent some towns appear to have exercised coercive jurisdiction over those whose laws were derived from them. Perhaps this circumstance, that the process was one of adoption rather than subjection, was the chief reason why English towns were so careful not to communicate their privileges, at any rate freely, to boroughs of servile condition, i.e., those which owed service to some lord. The case of Hereford is thus stated: