In 1699, in response to a petition from the Corporation, Liverpool was cut off from the parish of Walton, and created into a separate parish with two rectors appointed and paid by the Corporation. Compensation to the rector of Walton and to Lord Molyneux was also paid by the Corporation. The borough thus became ecclesiastically as well as administratively independent. Under the same Act which constituted the parish, a new church, that of St. Peter, was erected on the continuation of Lord Molyneux's road across the waste, henceforth to be known as Church Street.