The Story of Liverpool's aristocrats and landed gentry: in particular the Stanley and Molyneux families, who became the earls of Derby and of Sefton. Beginning with the early monarchs of Britain, who were the first Lords of the Manor of Liverpool, right down to the current Marquess of Salisbury, who still owns great areas of the City's suburbs and ancient manors.
Over the centuries many monarchs, aristocrats, and nobles have owned land and property in and around Liverpool ~ some still do! These have included Anglo-Saxon chieftains; Earls of Chester and Dukes of Lancaster; John of Gaunt; Queen Elizabeth I, King Charles I; and the Marquises of Salisbury.
However, the most significant, hereditary Lords of Liverpool have been the Molyneux family ~ The Earls of Sefton; and the Stanley Family ~ The Earls of Derby.
The Seftons once owned Croxteth Hall and estate as well as great swathes of Liverpool and Lancashire, and were hereditary Constables of Liverpool Castle. Their line died out in the 1980s, but not so the Stanleys:
Once owning the grisly Tower of Liverpool, on the Town’s waterfront, they still reside at Knowsley Hall at the heart of their vast Merseyside and Lancashire estate.
Ken tells the exciting tale of both of these families, and much more, including the story of a modern Liverpudlian ‘aristocrat’; the late and much-missed 'Squire of Knotty Ash'!