د LIVERPOOL as it was DURING THE LAST QUARTER of THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 1775 TO 1800. BY RICHARD BROOKE, Esq. F.S.A. LIVERPOOL: J. MAWDSLEY AND SON, CASTLE-STREET. LONDON: JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO-SQUARE. Eur 520714217 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY OCT 13 1916 SUBSCRIPTION OF 1916 Printed by J. Mawdsley and Son, Castle-street, Liverpool. PREFACE. To trace the progressive increase of the commerce, population, and size, of any flourishing city or town, and to record information, communicated by persons now in their graves, which would otherwise have perished, constitute pursuits, certainly of a harmless, and possibly of a useful, nature. The rapid and surprising changes which have occurred in Liverpool, even within the memory of man, and the commercial magnitude and prosperity which it has attained, induced the author, years ago, to devote some time and exertions, in collecting information respecting it; and he has succeeded in obtaining some original and interesting particulars, not only from sources of a documentary nature, but also from several old persons who were well acquainted with the town during the concluding quarter of the last century. Amongst the persons who have furnished him with much valuable information, he may be allowed to particularize an aged individual, who was well known to many of the old inhabitants of Liverpool, and who, during the early part of a very long life, was well acquainted with the town, and possessed a remarkable fund of knowledge relative to its commerce and statistics, and the pursuits of its inhabitants. He was a person of the strictest veracity, and gifted with a very retentive memory, which it pleased Providence to permit him to enjoy until the period of his death. That individual was the author's father.* In laying this Treatise before the public, the author may be permitted to observe, that, in undertaking it, he did not seek private gain, but he considered that its publication might probably be attended with the advantage, of preventing the information so acquired, from being lost to the public. It is only proper to mention, that this work has not any pretensions to be a history of Liverpool; but it contains a descriptive acccount of the town, with an outline of its commerce and statistics, of the principal occurences, and of the habits, pursuits, and manners of its inhabitants, during the 25 years which elapsed between the commencement of the year 1775 and the termination of the 18th century; and the chief object of the work is to preserve, unimpaired, the knowledge of various particulars and events relating to Liverpool, most of which would, perhaps, otherwise soon have been forgotten. LIVERPOOL, 7th November, 1853. RICHARD BROOKE. * He was born on the 14th of June, 1761, and died on the 15th of June, 1852, after having just entered his 92nd year. He had resided in Liverpool from the 13th of January, 1776; and it is believed that he was the last, or one of the last, surviving persons who had been resident there during most of the American Revolutionary War. Some rather remarkable particulars respecting him and his knowledge of Liverpool, appeared in an account published in one of the Liverpool newspapers soon after his death, a copy of which will be found in the Appendix, No. XIV. |