THE WAPENTAKE O F WIR RAL A His tory of the R oyal Fran c hi s e of the H u ndre d and H u ndre d C ou rt of Wi rral i n Che shi re With An Appendix contai ning a Lis t of the Offi cers and Lords of the Hund red from the Fou rteenth Centu ry ; a Seri es of Leas es of the Hundred from I 3 5 2 t o 1 7 8 6 ; and the Crown Grant of the Lordship of the Hu ndred i n I 8 2 0 M BRI D E M . A. TR . C LL. CA G , IN O , L IVE R P O O L ° H E N R Y Y O U N G 69 S O N S I 9O 7 P R E F A C E TTLE fif w LI more than ty years ago , ithin the memory of d some now alive, there existe in Wirral a court of s o-called justice owned by a p rivate ind ivid ual a nd d of d old Th e of upwar s a thousan years . p ower sum of fi ff d of d d moning jurors , ning o en ers , eci ing the law, of d of d of d or ering p ayment ebts , levying istresses , has so long been associated by the p resent generation with d d f of S courts a ministere by o ficials the tate, that it is d iffi cult to imagine such p owers in the han ds of a Ye t f r f p rivate citizen . o some years in the fi ties the of d T inhabitants B irkenhea , ranmere , Bebington , Neston , a nd other p arts of Wirral went in d aily fear of such a court . Th e only attemp t at an accou nt of the Wap entake or H u nd red Court of Wirral is contained in the last ’ ’ a mli n s T M a nd chap ter of M rs . G book wixt ersey Dee 1 8 a nd d f (Liverpool , 9 7) eals only with the last orty years ’ The d of the Court s existence . author app arently obtaine most of her information from a small p amp hlet entitled “ A d 1 8 8 F ree Village Library, Bebington , p ublishe in 7 r M r. fo Josep h Mayer, containing the substance of articles which h a d app eared i n the S ta nda rd news a 2 vi PREFACE ’ . Ga mli n s far p ap er . Mrs story, so as it goes , is inter a nd f f esting, suggested the need o a uller account, but it contains many inaccuracies . S o extraord inary a nd incredible were these last years M ’ of the Court that the writer of M r. ayer s p amp hlet ” - th eriu m classes the Wirral Wap entake with the Cheiro , f f d a nd traces o which were oun near Bebington , it was the p erformances of such a mysterious a nd p owerful monster as he mad e it out to be that aroused my interest a nd l ed me to make the investigations the results of which are here set down . Th e H undred Courts of the County Palatine of Chester f have been neglected by the writers o C heshire history . O ne naturally turns first to the p ages of O rmerod for f . Th in ormation , but that given by him is very meagre e Court of Wirral is d ismissed with the bald a nd mislead ing 1 8 1 6 f d d statement that in it was arme un er the Crown , Th e of but it was no longer in existence . accou nts those of dd N a nd Broxton , E isbury, orthwich , Nantwich are f A d of scarcely any uller . little more etail is given those of M a c c l es field a nd B uc klow a nd d , in the latter case ates a nd f re erences to two Crown leases are given . I n Mor ’ “ ” of d d of timer s H istory the H u n re Wirral , where one d find f d woul exp ect to ull etails , very little more i n f of d ormation is given as to the Court that H un red . H e p rints (with many errors) a cop y of the d eed u n der d 1 8 2 0 which it was grante in to John Williams , but f makes no attemp t to carry the matter urther . S ulley, PREFACE vii “ d d of f in his H un re Wirral , makes no re erence to the Court at all . O ther writers on Cheshire history either ignore the Court entirely, or just mention its existence . I t will be seen , however , that there are in the Cheshire ’ a nd M A a nd R ecognisance Rolls inisters ccounts , else i n d O ffi of a nd where the Recor ce , a series Leases records of the officers of the H u nd red Court of Wirral from the year 1 3 5 2 d own to the year 1 8 2 0 . I t is true that O rmerod refers to a few of the entries on the Recog nis a nc e f a nd for R olls , but chiefly in ootnotes merely the p urp ose of record ing the names of the offi c e- hol d ers for genealogical p urp oses . I think I may claim to be the first to make any extensive examination of the Cheshire ’ A 2 Ministers Accounts for historical p urp oses . bout 5 0 d Th e of years have been examine . series leases have d f never been ealt with be ore , which is remarkable in “ view of the fact that they are leases of the H und red ” of W irral , u p on which two sp ecial works have been written . As some of the old est courts of justice in the king d om d d d f , the H un re Courts seem to eserve uller treat a nd ment than has been given to them , I have here d d f d en eavoure to trace , rom such recor s as exist, the history of one . I am not aware that the d evolution of d d f d d f a H un re ranchise has ever been trace in etail be ore , though a similar chain of d ocuments might p erhap s be d f u nrolle or other H und reds . But very few Hu ndred Courts were at all active after the e nd of the eighteenth viii PREFACE a nd d f century, it is more than oubt ul if the last years of of the Wap entake Wirral have any p arallel . M fi y aim in writing this book has been , in the rst d f p lace , to make it an accurate recor o facts ; a nd d d though , as a secon ary object, I have trie to make it d d f of as rea able as I coul , rom the very nature the subject it has not been p ossible to avoid some d ry d etails a nd a of A certain amou nt legal technicality . t the risk of making the narrative a little jerky, I have generally dealt with events in chronological ord er . T o those to whom the ancient history of so p rosaic an institution as a law court may p resent little interest, d . f a suggestion is made . I t is that they rea Part I I o . If d f this history first then , as can har ly ail to be the f d of d of case , a ter rea ing the extraor inary events , some fif f which took p lace little more than ty years ago, they eel any curiosity as to the origin a nd history of the legal d of p owers so grossly abuse , the early p art this book h 0 e f . may, I p , enable them to satis y it Th d d O ne word as to the title of this book . e H un re s d a nd d of Cheshire were never calle Wap entakes, that wor d oes ' not occur in any record s of the Court of Wirral excep t in the Ac t of Parliament abolishing it . B ut it has d a nd been commonly used to escribe it, as the existence “ ” of two works on the H un d red of Wirral rend ers that f d title u navailable , I have been le t to a op t one which , historically, is p erhap s inap p rop riate . P f r d ue . o My thanks are to Josep h H oult, Esq , J , PREFACE ix kin dly allowing me to see d ocuments a nd deed s relat i n M r g to the Wirral M anor H ouse ; to essrs . R obe ts a nd M a rtyn of Chester fo r read ily allowing a ccess to the -d d f 1 8 2 0 n d a nd for title ee s rom to the p rese t ate , some M r f A .