Wapentake of Wirral e-bog

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Little more than fifty years ago, within the memory of some now alive, there existed in Wirral a court of so-called, justice owned by a private individual and upwards of a thousand years old. The power of summoning jurors, of fining offenders, of deciding the law, of ordering payment of debts, of levying distresses, has so long been associated by the present generation with courts administered by officials of the State, that it is difficult to imagine such powers in the hands of a private citizen. Yet for some years in the fifties the inhabitants of Birkenhead, Tranmere, Bebington, Neston, and other parts of Wirral went in daily fear of such a court.<br><br>The only attempt at an account of the Wapentake or Hundred Court of Wirral is contained in the last chapter of Mrs. Gamlin's book Twixt Mersey and Dee (Liverpool, 1897) and deals only with the last forty years of the Court's existence.