Moore does of course, fail to mention the other streams running from Everton which joined the Moss-Lake brook beyond the scope of this new dam, meaning that the Town itself was a little less at risk than he claims.
Its also very useful to note that later, in 1740, when fresh water was at a premium for the Town ( and ‘the Pool’ had then been replaced by the first dock), it was the reservoir straddling Brownlow Hill across the current University North campus which provided the partial solution. And that this was created by, ahem, blocking up the Moss Lake brook in exactly the same place Molyneux had originally done, by Pembroke Place.
Moore, incidentally, was no fool in trying to restore his fortunes after the troubles his father had undergone. He shrewdly managed his leaseholds in the town centre, advising his son in the Rental to do the same. Usually, leases were granted based on an initial large lease fee ( called a fine), and the duration wasn’t a fixed number of years, but in the actual lifespans of named occupants.
Each year, in addition, tenants would supply several chickens at Christmas, several days of labour on Moore’s estates, and be obliged to grind corn, malt or produce at his mills ( for a percentage fee paid in goods). In many cases Moore cleverly waived the initial fine, instead inserting a clause that the tenant must use the saved money to build a house on the land themselves instead.
In this way the town grew in size and infrastructure, and when leases expired ( often when the tenant expired, and this at a time when life expectancy was poor), Sir Edward inherited a property often worth over a hundred pounds, much more than its initial land value, which he could then re-let with a much larger fine. He further advised his son to avoid letting multiple plots to the same person. On the one hand you might get a house built, and a barn or garden plot, and one lot of chickens and free labour, on the latter you got three houses, three lots of chickens and three times the free labour. Sir Edward Moore was rich but not particularly popular with his tenants.
I digress slightly, but as this sets the scene for the growth of Liverpool, I think its worth enlightening you a little more into the insights and views of Sir Edward, as it is a voracious appetite for expansion and taking advantage of everyone and everything in the pursuit of wealth which typified the later merchant princes. And while he didn’t live there himself, it was Sir Edward Moore who owned the land the book is about.