History
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The earlier file grew so large that it needed to be split.  
This portion covers Domesday to 1765, the start of the occupation of Toxteth. The second part is here

Early Days - Toxteth to 1765

The existence of a Roman Road at the Otterspool end of Toxteth and the discovery of a hoard of Roman coins indicates perhaps the first historic records within Toxteth.

From the Ninth Century onwards Vikings were in the River Mersey and at around 900 A.D. Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred, following their invasion in preceding decades, granted land on both sides of the river.  Viking place names are present in quantity on Wirral, less so, but stuill evident around Liverpool.  The Vikings came with large armies but those that stayed settled as farmers, establishing their own social organisation and leaving their mark, in Scandinavian place names, such as Aigburth, Aintree and Thingwall. The names Tockseath, Stochestede and Tosteth are found in early records. It is not difficult to image longships being run aground on the sandy banks around Dingle Point or other small river mouths and settlements established.

I have read that it was the privilege of a Viking chieftain to select a suitable location where his people would settle. When the chieftain decided so he would drive his spear, or staith, into the ground.  The settlement, if it survived would sometimes commemorate this in its name.  It seems therefore that one day Toki drove his Staith into the banks of the Mersey and the rest, as they say, is history.

1086 The Domesday Book describes the Manor of Stochestede  thus:- "Bernulf held Stochestede. There is 1 virgate of land and half a carucate of land. It rendered 4 shillings.  Stainulf held Stockstede. There is 1 virgate of land and half a carucate of land. It was worth 4 shillings."

My Latin is rusty but quoted names included Crosebi, Fonebi, Liderlant, Torboc and Spec.  Ironically Liverpool was not large, or important, enough to be mentioned.

1207  Liverpool received its first charter from King John however before this the Manor of Toxteth together with Smeedon (Smoothdown, Smithdown) was laid waste by  John and in its place the Royal Park of Toxteth was set up with a keeper to protect what were now the King's deer.  Although it is doubtful if the the royal park ever received any royal use, the master forester maintained a considerable hunting establishment with: "4 master huntsmen and 49 men, 10 horses, 2 packs of dogs, 52 spaniels, 2000 handnets and 260 cocks." This is recorded in the Pipe Rolls of 1210. Although Toxteth was now a Royal Park. the sale of wood in 1257 was valued at £8. 14.6d.

1229 Henry III handed the park to the Earl of Chester and later to his son Edmund along with the title, Earl of Lancaster.

1316 the Earl of Lancaster granted part of the land to the Cistercian Abbey at Whalley in Lancashire.
In his historical account of Whalley [1] T.D.Whitaker, says that Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, though well thought of by the monks, was both a weak man and a bad subject.  His influence stemmed from of his property and not his abilities and he was eventually overpowered by Edward II. (a man as weak as himself), and beheaded at his own manor at Pontefract on March 22, 1321. However from his land holdings, by a charter dated at Whalley on the feast of St. James, A.D. 1316, he gave to the abbot of Whalley, Toxteth and Smethedon, as a more convenient site for their abbey. The monks, had apparently been complaining of their a lack of fuel, building timber and even the small size of their holdings at Whalley.  When the charter of Toxteth was obtained these inconveniences apparently evaporated and they thought it prudent to retain both their new grant and keep their exisiting holdings so the Abbey remained at Whalley, where it is now a Retreat and Conference House for the Diocese of Blackburn. It is hard to imagine that the monks wanted to move to toxteth but then, the largely uninhabited area of wooded slopes and park, would have offered them many advantages.  The herbage in toxteth in 1327 was valued at £11.00.

1347 Edward III  "The park in Toxteth, contained, in circuit,  5 miles', let at £17 per annum to the Molyneux" Because of the power and land which went with the title of `Duke of Lancaster', the King took the title himself and the Park reverted to Royal ownership.

1426 "The Royal Park of Toxteth granted to sir Thomas Stanley ; it afterwards passed over to the Molyneux family." Nineteen years later Richard Molyneux obtained from King Henry VI the hereditary constableship of Liverpool Castle and the Master Forestership of the forests and parks which included Toxteth.

In 1483 this position was granted to his son, Thomas Molyneux, who was appointed: "Constable of Liverpool Castle and steward of West Derby and Salford, and Master Forester of Simonswood, Toxteth and Croxteth."  Soon after, with a change of king, this power was lost to the Molyneux family and given back to the Stanleys. Thomas Stanley had fought hard at the Battle of Bosworth, where his stepson defeated Richard III and was crowned Henry VII. Rewards followed and the title of Earl of Derby was accompanied by grants of land, including Toxteth.

The third Earl of Derby succeeded to the title while still a boy, so the estate was looked after by the King, and the young Earl's education and upbringing by Cardinal Wolsey.  A letter written by Henry VIII on behalf of the third Earl "To the keeper of the park of  Toxteth, now in our hands by reason of the nonage of Edward Stanley, son and heir of Thomas Stanley, late Earl of Derby". The letter serves to remind us that Toxteth was still a hunting park, for it states: "We rule and command you to deliver, or cause to be delivered unto our right trusty and right well beloved Cousin the Earl of Devon, or unto the bringer hereof in his name, one stag of season, to be taken as our gift from the Park of Toxteth."

1561 It is recorded that the then Earl of Derby 'forbade the burgesses the privilege of turning their cattle into his 'park of Toxteth' rescinded upon their making attonement to him for some previous offence'.

1591 'The Stranger in Liverpool' records "Toxteth Park disparked. - Mr Maior did make known unto the whole assemblie that the Parke of Toxteth is to be dispar'd (disparked), and that my lord the earle of Derbie's pleasure is y' one hundred acres therof, or thereaboute, shall be reserved for the ihnabitants of this town of Liverpoole, such as will endeavouse them selves to take the same, or such portion as they can convenientlie deale with, after the rate as his lo. letteth the residue &c.". Gores directory later records the same details in somewhat less archaic English.

1596, the Early of Derby disafforested Toxteth and in 1604 it returned to the ownership of the Molyneux family (later Earls of Sefton) from whom King John had first obtained it.

1604 'The township of Toxteth in the possesion of the Earl of Sefton'  (Gore).  On 20th May the Park, together with the moss of Smeethdown, was sold by the Earl of Derby for £1100 to Richard Molyneux, Earl of Sefton, in whose family most of it was to remain for the next 300 years or more. This resulted in great change. King John had changed the old Manor into a Royal Park, now it was turned back into farmland. Richard Molyneux completed the disafforestation of the park and divided the land into a number of small farms. The tenants of those on the southern edge were part of a Puritan community from Bolton, and because of their religion and the names they gave to their farms, this area was called "The Holy Land".   This was long before the streets of the present (unrelated) 'Holy Land' were built. The brook which ran through the area, and which formed the southern boundary of King Johns Park, was re-christened as the River Jordan by these tenants and other names survive from those days, in Jericho Lane and Jerico Farm.

1618 Jeremiah Horrox was born to parentsof this puritan community.  Tradition says that this birth was in a former hunting lodge on the estate, although in truth he was probably born elsewhere and came to Toxteth aged 2 or 3.  He went on to become a well thought of mathematician and astronomer regarded, by Sir Isaac Newton, as a pioneer. Richard Mather, an early (but not the first as suggested by Griffiths [2]) preacher at the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth, encouraged the young Jeremiah, who, after studies at Cambridge, returned to the Ancient Chapel as a preacher. He succesfully predicted the transit of Venus across the Sun in 1639 but his fame and achievements were cut short by his premature death in 1641 at the age of just 23. There is a memorial stone to him at the Ancient Chapel which is where he is almost certainly buried, but in an unmarked grave.

Toxteth continued as an agricultural district of small farms for many years.  I do not have maps for this period but the Enclosures Act,  means that the then Earl of Sefton had produced a very significant and clearly defined map of  the district, dated 1765.  I am working on presenting this map, but it needs a lot of work to make it usable. It does however enable us to see the limits of Toxteth park properly.  Distinctive junctions such as the Dingle end of Park Road, the junction of Parliament Street and Lodge Lane and the latter lane joining Ullet Road, allow us to relate the map to present-day roads.  It is remarkably accurate and has been a great aid in delimiting the BOUNDARY of Toxteth Park.  

There is a further map of Yates and Perry (1768) to confirm points and data although this is both incomplete and apparently inaccurate.  Griffiths [2] basing his writings on the map suggested that there were just four farms or houses at this time, when in fact there appear to have been several dozen.  A point to be developed in time..

The fact that we enter a different and much more specific era as Toxteth began to be enclosed and developed, means that  I have chosen to split the history at this point.
 

Part 2