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134 HISTORY OF CORN MILLING: vol. iv.
IV. be recognised under the sorry cognomen of "the
LIVERPOOL.
'
long diche called the common diche upon
2. Eastham p'^^^ ^^ ^^e "
galow felde
Watermills.
again in 1599, when John
the sowth
; a designation which occurs
and Richard Crosse were
Reliquiae, ordered to secure their '' ditch in Eastham mylle lane "
;
H. s., 1851, 16. arid in 1647, when *'the diche in Eastham mill lane"
Port Mote,
11.542,111.422.
once more came under the notice of the corporation."^
jj^ 1587 it was pleaded, in an action brought on
behalf of Queen Elizabeth's soke mills, that " her
Majesty hath no watermilns in Liverpool," which
indeed was the case,
illicit ones at work in
though there were one or two
the town. The Eastham Mill
Dam, with its croft, still remained, however, and was
let by the corporation for grazing purposes; in 1541
Ibid., i. 61. Adam Dandye paying " for milnedam x"^, for mylne
dale xviij*^ per annum"; and in 1563 the place
Ibid., i. 192. appearing as ''part of the townes land called Mylne
Crosse Deeds, 1 *
1 As .
5 early as 1476 a portion of the field by the mill-stream appears as Le
Galowffeld in camp de Lyverpull ; and ages after being relieved of its ancient use
this field frequently appears under its old gruesome title; even as late as 1753
Port Mote, x. we 587. may read of " tlie field at the bottom of Dale Street called the Gallow Field."
The Liverpool authorities- seem to have been much impressed with the suitability
of the vicinage of corn mills as sufficiently public places for the erection of their
"galows"; and just as was one of the earliest, so was one of the latest of the
local mills endowed by the authorities with this doleful association. On
Ibid., viii. 125^ July 2, 1715, the corporation granted to Mr. Gray a lease of land "in the
lane leading by Mr. Norris' mill towards the gibbet to build a mill." Norris' mill
was a watermill built outside the liberties of the town some little time before
App. to this
Ohapter.
^5^7- The new mill of Gray became known throughout the eighteenth century
^^ ^^^ Gallows Mill, and here shortly before its erection four of the victims of
the Jacobite rising of '15 were executed.
" The captured prisoners were crowded
into the gaol at Liverpool, and in January 1716 no fewer than 113 of them were
set down for trial in this town by a Commission comprising Baron Montague,
Baron Bury, and Mr. Justice Eyre." The corporation, probably remembering
their Vicar-of-Bray-like tergiversations of about half a century before, promptly
held a special council meeting January 6, and loyally offered the honour of the
Port Mote, viii. freedom of the city to Sir T. Bury, Sir R. Eyre, and Sir J. Montague, with other
131^, legal Hghts who had accompanied them to the trial ; but had the mortification
of being compelled to enter in the margin of the record in their book that
"the Judges refused to be sworn." In the meantime the trials progressed.
"Before the end of January seventy-four of the prisoners were condemned to death,
and ordered to be executed in different parts of the kingdom. None, of them were
nr.tives of Liverpool, and Liverpool had been in no way implicated in the
rebellion ; but the judges thought fit to order four of the condemned to be
executed in the town— Alexander Drummond, gent., Scotsman ; Archibald Burnett,
of Carlops, gent., Scotsman ; George Collingwood and John Hunter, both of
Northumberland. On February 25 these executions were carried out with all the
barbarous practices of quartering and burning, and were the last executions of the
kind in the kingdom." Two additional mills were subsequently built here.