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. 1853. 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 |