Seventeenth-century tokens and heraldry
By Robert Thompson | Tuesday, 5 October 1999
Heraldry has to be defined as something appearing on a shield. Looking at the 6,434 different tokens in the Norweb Collection which will have been published by the time Part VI is out (Part III has ten numbers intercalated), arms occur on 29%. This percentage double - counts those tokens with arms on both sides, the number of which must be small, but a larger number of armorial tokens are die-linked; so the count merely gives a rough idea for the British Isles beyond London and Middlesex, which have still to be catalogued.
State arms appear on fewer than 2% of those armorial tokens, mostly the King's Arms as a sign, although the French Arms occur in Chelmsford and in Dover. A few bear the Commonwealth Arms, with the conjoined shields of England and Ireland. Amongst the tokens of Ireland is placed a CORKE FARTHING which bears not the arms of Cork but the arms of England on one side and on the other a harp, which looks like some sort of official issue of the Commonwealth.
Ten per cent of the armorial tokens bear what are or may be personal arms. Some have expressed suspicions about the validity of the arms represented on the tokens, but while there may have been a substantial illicit use of heraldry, findings establish that in particular cases the arms are genuine. These records confirm the arms in a family of the right name, and give the relationship between the bearer of those arms and the token-issuer, if indeed he was not himself the bearer.
Municipal arms account for 13%. They will not feature in this survey beyond one example, the 'Commonwealth coat' of the City of Gloucester on a Gloucester farthing dated 1657.
Finally, 75% of these tokens bear the arms of merchant companies or guilds, so let us begin with these. Complete achievements, i.e. the shield with the addition of a crest, supporters etc., are a rare occurrence. One can instance the Blacksmiths, A chevron between three hammers crowned, crest A phoenix standing upon a hill firing herself with the sun's beams; and the Glovers as united with the Leather sellers, Three bucks passant, crest On a wreath a ram's head issuing from a basket filled with wool between two wings erect.
The Mercers, the pre-eminent London guild, bear the arms Issuant from a bank of clouds a figure of the Virgin couped at the shoulders, the neck encircled by a jewelled necklace, wreathed about the temples with a chaplet of roses, and crowned with a celestial crown, the whole within a bordure of clouds. These were easy to represent on tokens by means of a shield bearing a crowned facing female bust, otherwise the Maiden, or the Maidenhead; sometimes there is an attempt to show the necklace, the chaplet of roses, and even the bordure of clouds. One problem, however, is that the defunct Company of Pin Makers were ascribed the arms A demi-virgin couped at the waist..., her hair dishevelled, on her head an eastern crown, which is not very different from the Mercers. Indeed, the token of William Pureur in Marlborough has the Maidenhead punch in a shield but the legend PINN MAKER.
The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries is one of the few guilds which continues to fulfil the functions for which it was founded. It was granted armorial bearings in 1617, and the original grant survives. This gives Apollo the inventor of physic with his head radiant, holding in his left hand a bow and in his right hand an arrow, supplanting a serpent.
Strangely, the tokens consistently give Apollo holding the bow in his right hand and the arrow in his left. His face can sometimes be seen, so a rear view is not the explanation; presumably Apollo derives from some engraving that was reversed. The same incorrect version can be found in books and on pottery of the seventeenth century.
The Bakers' Company bears Three garbs, on a chief barry wavy of six two anchors, over all issuant from a cloud radiated in chief a cubit arm descending therefrom the hand holding a balance. On the tokens, however, the anchors and the rays are regularly omitted, understandably so given the scale of the tokens. Incidentally, a lozenge fusily of nine was employed not only by Thomas Powell in Cambridge, trade unrecorded, but also by John Bancraft in Derby, 'baker', John Hatley in St Neots, BAKER, and Thomas Hunt in The Strand, BAKER; yet the identity of the device remains somewhat mysterious. Is it intended to represent a loaf (possibly the plaited loaf for harvest festival), or a batch of loaves? Help in interpreting the device may come from the arms of the Hamburg Bückergilde. Leonhard terms these charges Wecken, English 'rolls' or perhaps 'wigs'. Are we facing Taylor the Water Poet's disgust in 1620 that, 'The Bakers metamorphose their trade from one shape to another, his round halfe-penny loaves are transform'd into square wigges...the Rowles are turn'd to... the light puft up foure-comerd Bun'?
In Bromley's standard work the Butchers' Company is given the arms Two poleaxes in saltire blades inwards between two bulls' heads couped in fesse, on a chief a boar's head couped between two bunches of holly. This is based on an interpretation of early records in the College of Arms, for the original patent has not survived. On most tokens, however, the blades of the poleaxes are outwards, and they are between three bulls' heads, two in fess and one in base. This version may be worthy of respect, for it is also engraved in works published in the seventeenth century. Also on the tokens is a version of the Butchers' arms with the bulls' heads reduced to one in base. The following tokens show that these issuers, if members of the particular company, did not then practise such a trade: the Carpenters' arms borne by John Barnes, CHANDLER; and the Grocers' arms borne by several issuers who called themselves MERCER.
The Maidenhead without a shield therefore may indicate a mercer, or a man practising another trade who had become free of the Mercers' Company, or an inn- or tavern-keeper using the sign of the Maidenhead - or even someone who had inherited a mercer's business premises. At least the identification of the Maidenhead should be unambiguous, apart from the possibility of a pin maker. Unambiguous also should be a pavilion between two mantles and in chief a lion passant guardant, which must come from the Merchant Taylors' arms; three pairs of swords in saltire, or even a single pair of swords in saltire, for the Cutlers' arms; three crowned hammers, for the Blacksmiths' arms; and three leopards' heads, for the Weavers' arms.
All these seem sufficiently distinctive to be charges from the arms, yet it is unwise to place too much reliance on this. Thomas Hunsdon in Oxford also bears three leopards' heads, yet he was a chandler. Jasper Eve of Springfield in Essex bears a tree environed with a serpent between naked male and female figures, which might have represented the Fruiterers' arms; but he was a clothier. Adam and Eve covered their nakedness, of course, not with cloth but with fig leaves, and Jasper Eve doubtless used the device because of his surname.
A London token, reading on the reverse LOWER.END.MILK:S[treet], bears arms unidentified previously, though they were illustrated by Akerman in a paper in which he assimilated MILK:S to Melksham in Wiltshire. They seem to be the only numismatic representation of the arms of the Broderers' (i.e. embroiderers') Company, Paly of six on a fesse between three lions passant guardant... two broaches in saltire between as many quills, a broach being a combined bodkin and spindle on which was wound the gold thread used by the broderer. There was a good specimen in the Phillip Greenall collection.
An undated halfpenny issued by Thomas Johnson bears On a chevron between three birds three swans. Although the larger birds are not cranes (or storks - there is uncertainty over which they should be), these must be the arms of the London Company of Poulters, i.e poulterers. Thomas Johnson has given us possibly the only numismatic representation of the Poulters' Company arms.
The Upholders dealt in soft furnishings or upholstery. In Bromley they are given the arms Three spervers Ermine, beneath the sperver in base a lamb couchant on a cushion..., spervers or sparvers being bed-canopies or pavilions. This was based on a transcript of the lost patent. However, tokens of William Preston, VPHOLSTER in King's Lynn, Thoma s St evens on in Oxford, who had b ee n appr enticed t o an upholsterer, and William Sackler, VPHOLSTER in Salisbury, all bear On a chevron between three pavilions three roses. Similar arms, with the chevron and roses, are attributed to the Company of Upholders or Upholdsters in published sources from the seventeenth century, and in the Lords' Roll of c.1495, the only difference from the tokens being the presence of a lamb within the tent in base, an understandable omission at that scale. It seems that the tokens can properly be said to bear the Upholders' arms, and represent an older tradition about the correct form of the Upholders' Company arms.
Since 1544 the arms of the Brewers' Company have been On a chevron engrailed, between six barley-sheaves in saltire, three kilderkins. John Roy in Dorchester bears arms which were previously described with a query as the Upholsterers' or Weavers'. They are actually On a chevron between three barley-sheaves three barrels, as borne by the Brewers between 1468 and 1544. It is strange to find arms more than a century out of date used by the moneyers of the Tower of London, who are now known to have made virtually all the tokens of England and Wales.
Almost all the tokens, wherever they were issued in England or Wales, use the arms of the London guilds, even in old -established corporate towns having their own guilds. For example, John Collibeer in Exeter did not use the arms of the Exeter Weavers & Fullers Per saltire Azure and Gules, in fess two shuttles filled palewise Or, in chief a teazel, in base a pair of shears lying fesswise Argent, on a chief ermine a slay between two burling-irons Or. Instead he used the arms of the London Weavers. This must be some sort of testimony to the predominance of London and its institutions. Only where a provincial guild employed the same charges as the London guild, perhaps with a change of tinctures, is it possible that tokens issued in those towns intended to use the arms of the local guild. John Pearce in Exeter used arms which could be either the London Haberdashers', or those of the Exeter Incorporation of Cappers, Haberdashers & Feltmakers.
Little work has been done to check token issuers ostensibly belonging to particular guilds in the records of those guilds. The Ironmongers° arms were borne by Lawrence Righton of Dorchester, yet in 1625 Lawrence Riton, cutler, had been complained of for interloping into other men's trades, as namely, for buying and selling of reins, bridles and spurs, nails, locks and other things belonging to the trade of an ironmonger. In 1630, however, a Dorchester Company of Ironmongers was formed which included the cutlers. Various individual issuers have been researched, notably Robert Hichcock in Chichester, who was to become free of the London Needlemakers' Company in 1674. He has almost the only example of the London Needlemakers' arms, Three needles palewise in fesse crowned; though the Greenall collection had another Needlemaker issuer. There exists no authority for these arms, and the earliest example discovered for the standard work on guild arms is from 1680; yet Hichcock's token is dated 1667.
The halfpenny of William Winstanley, supposed to have been the popular writer 'Poor Robin' though more likely to have been the writer's father, brings us to the Drapers' Company, whose arms are Three clouds with sunbeams issuing crowned with imperial crowns. Boyd has published a very helpful list of all known members of the Drapers' Company, and their apprentices. For few guilds otherwise does anything like a comprehensive published list exist. Clockmakers have been well documented, but few clockmakers issued tokens.
It is important for the sake of accuracy to distinguish armorial tokens from those where a charge or charges from the arms occur without a shield. Indeed, one might frame a hypothesis that the presence of a shield identifies a member of the particular Company. In the case of Nicholas Shepherd of Saxmundham, however, it appears not to have been significant whether or not there was a shield, unless something changed during his lifetime.
Turning to private arms, assiduous readers of Williamson or of the Norweb Sylloges may remember the note that William Dugdale, Norroy King of Arms, made in his diary between the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to Elias Ashmole on 3 November 1668, and his first entry for 1669: 'John Salmon, of Chester, maketh brass pence, with Armes upon them (3 Salmons) to disclayme him'. John Salmon's 1667 penny indeed bears on the obverse the arms Three fishes hauriant, a crescent for difference, impaling a two-headed eagle displayed, within a bordure.
Dugdale had already carried out his Visitation of Cheshire, so he would have known that Salmon could not justify his use of these arms. Henry Norborne in Southampton issued a halfpenny in 1668 which bears on the obverse, between the letters N above H A, the arms Ermine a fess nebuly and in a canton a ducal coronet. In the 1686 Visitation of Hampshire these arms with the tinctures were entered by Henry Norborne himself, in his interview with Clarenceux King of Arms at the Dolphin Inn, Southampton, on 29 July 1686. The Visitation record adds Norborne's family details, including his wife Averina (whence the A on the token), to whose father Richard Cornelius, grocer and also a tokenissuer, Captain Norborne had been apprenticed.
Will Filbrigg, linen-draper, issued a 1658 token in Oundle, Northants., bearing the arms A lion rampant, with crest. The Visitation of Northamptonshire and Rutland indeed enters Filbrigge of Oundle, including William, aged 48, though no arms are recorded. The family came out of Norfolk, where other sources give the tinctures to the arms.
Anthony Speer issued an undated token in Wokingham, Berkshire, which bears the arms A chevron surmounted by another between three trefoils slipped. These are the arms of Spier of Wargrave, Berks, and the record of the 1665 Visitation shows not only the bearer of these arms, Richard Spier or Spire aged 36, but also a younger brother Anthony 'now of Ockingham', who must be the Wokingham token-issuer; though there should have been a mark of cadency on the token, a mullet if he was the third son.
Sam Greenewood of Leeds his halfe penny 1668 appears on one side of a token in the Norweb Collection, the other side bearing the arms A chevron ermine between three saltires. These are indeed the arms exhibited for James Greenwood of Stapleton at Dugdale's Visitation of Yorkshire in 1665-6, which also recorded his son Samuel aged 30, who would issue his token two years later, and become head of the family in 1670, as one learns from the information added to the italicised details of the Visitation record.
Will Crane of Beccles in Suffolk issued undated tokens bearing on the reverse the Drapers' arms, and on the obverse the arms On a bend three cross crosslets, which are accepted as being the arms borne by Crane of Beccles. In the 1664 Visitation of Suffolk William Crane, gent., is indeed recor ded, though without ar ms; so the tokens make a contribution to what is known from the Visitation.
Gervase Maplisden of Maidstone issued an undated halfpenny bearing the arms A cross formy (itchy. These are the arms recorded for Maplesden in the Visitation of Kent, in which the pedigree for one branch was signed by the token-issuer himself.
Some token-issuers can be found in Visitations much earlier. Gideon Hayne, marchant in TRIN i.e. Trim, Co. Meath, issued an undated penny bearing the full achievement On a fess three plates, in chief a greyhound courant, crest An eagle displayed. This is the first quarter and crest [on a tortoise?] of Hayne of Dorchester, Dorset, and the 1623 Visitation of that county not only includes Oliver Hayne, who bore the arms, but also Morgan Hayne his son and heir, and Morgan's son Gideon, the future token-issuer, aged five.
John Richardson issued a 1664 token in Durham which bears the Grocers' arms on the obverse, and on the reverse the arms On a chief three lions' heads erased. These are entered as the arms of Richardson of Durham in the Visitations, and the pedigree gives not only John as the head of the family, but also John, his son and heir and Counsellor at Lawe, and the latter's son John, one of whom may well have inherited the arms which he put on his token. These arms were granted in 1615.
Not everyone who qualified appeared at the Visitation, perhaps because he was ill, or away from home; or perhaps he refused to appear, like those Oxford gentlemen reported by Anthony Wood, who regarded the Visitation as no more than a trick to get money, and preferred to go to Brackley races. This could explain why some issuers of armorial tokens are missing, or why the arms on Robert Grove's Robertsbridge halfpenny are so often defaced.
For example, John Whetcombe in Sherborne, who issued an armorial token dated 1657, was not entered in the 1677 Visitation of Dorset, but G. D. Squibb believed that John Whetcombe senior would have been summoned to appear since he was described as gentleman in 1685; the ar ms on his token will b e the same as those of Mar y Whetcombe Argent on 3 pallets sable as many eagles displayed counterchanged, rather than those of the the Somerset Whitcombes cited in Norweb Part II.
The Visitation process was also designed to disclaim 'divers of the vulgar' who had arrogantly assumed to bear arms. Among those disclaimed in 1672 in Somerset was 'Henry Gutch of Glaston', a mercer who issued tokens in 1653 and 1666 bearing the extraordinary device of Glastonbury Tor; Wenceslaus Hollar's engraving published in 1655, but probably prepared before 1652, may have been the first die-sinker's model. A couple of issuers put out tokens bearing family arms after being disclaimed, among them William Alanson of Wem, who is presumably the 'Wm. Allison - Wemme' disclaimed at the 1664 Lent Assizes at Shrewsbury.
His halfpenny token of 1666 bears the arms A fess between three boars' heads couped. Unless he had in the interim proved his right to bear these arms and paid the necessary fees, and as far as I can find he had not done so, the issuing of this token would seem to have been somewhat foolhardy and rash.
