Family Lessons 158: Liverpool's Sanctuary Stone

A medieval curio still exists at in the heart of modern Liverpool: the flattened remains of one of the market or ‘sanctuary' stones. In the middle of Castle Street, neatly corresponding to current ground level, but once a pillar of greater height, it marked (along with three colleagues now disappeared) the boundary of the twice-yearly Liverpool Fair. It is supposed that local officers of justice could not operate within the boundaries of the fair, which allowed merchants and suppliers from outside of Liverpool to trade without fear of local competitors offering opposition or hindrance. As fairs attracted all manner of disreputable characters and pickpockets, it is thought to have been policed by crown officials rather than local constables, whose justice was rather more summary and immediate. Attending the Liverpool fairs and ‘claiming sanctuary’, therefore, is unlikely; law and order may have been better enforced within these bounds than without.  

My 17x great-grandfather, John Crosse, was Mayor of Liverpool in 1459 and 1476, and his father or grandfather Richard may have held the position in 1409, though the records appear patchy. As local merchants and businessmen, the mayors and burgesses may have viewed vendors from further afield as a threat to their livelihoods, while still seeing the influx of custom a fair attracted as being good for business overall. Those in the fair were apparently immune from the Mayor and Bailiffs’ jurisdiction, while the more powerful Justices of the Peace from the wider county likely kept a closer eye on those operating within.

In this life, criminals and ne’re-do-wells seem to evade agents of the law with ease. Vandals, thieves, purveyors of domestic violence, cyber attackers, et al; they run rings around the police, assuming the latter even bother to pursue them. Yet a greater justice awaits, a great Day of Reckoning. Thank God for the gospel, which not only shields us from the pangs of conscience, but the wrath of Almighty God, from whom no secrets or crimes are hidden. Christ is a great sanctuary that never  church or fair could provide. 

O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Matthew 3:7b