17th Century Tokens : Appleby-Kendal in Westmorland

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Click Images to View Coin Details W2: Westmorland, Appleby (Farthing): (1666) O  IN APPLEBYE EDWARD GUY 1666 IN APPPLEBYE R  E M G I SERVE FOR CHANGE E M G Image not available Edward Guy lived in Brig Street, Appleby, and held two burgages there. He was a supporter of Richard Tufton in the Parliamentary election of February 1678-9.--Machell MSS., i., p. 223. The name of the Rev. Edward Guy (instituted Vicar of St Lawrence's, Appleby, 1636) appears in the list of Mayors of the borough for the years 1627, 1631, 1634, 1635, and 1650.--Sayer's "History of Westmorland," ii., appendix, p. lviii. He was probably the father of the issuer. W3: Westmorland, Appleby (Farthing): (1669) O  A pigeon pecking WILLIAM SMITH R  W S IN APPLEBYE 1669 W S Image not available This token has hitherto been attributed to Appleby, a village in Leicestershire, but there is little doubt that it belongs to the county town of Westmorland. A specimen struck in brass was found in 1863, on taking down some old buildings on the south side of Allhallows' Lane, Kendal.--See Kendal Mercury, March 28, 1863. The issuer was a mercer and held property in the Borough Gate (Machell MSS., i., p. 213), where he probably had a residence. He, like Guy, was a supporter of Richard Tufton (ut supra, p. 223), and his name appears in the list of Mayors of the borough in the years 1667 and 1673.--Sayer's "History of Westmorland," vol. ii., appendix, p. lix. There is an engraving of this token in the Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1792 (p. 209). W5: Westmorland, Kendal (Farthing): (1657) O  The Mercers' Arms MERCERS COMPANY IN KENDAL R  Arms of the Corporation of Kendal K K 1657 Image not available The arms are those adopted by the Corporation of Kendal when the charter of Charles I was obtained, as they are not registered; they are quarterly, first and fourth, three spindles, second and third, three woolhooks--the bearings being indicative of the staple trade of the town. The same arms are engraved on a silver tankard and a sword, belonging to the Corporation, with the motto "Pannus mihi panis" (Cloth is my bread). The letters K K probably stand for the initials of Kirkby-Kendal, and are engraved on the silver seal which has been in use in the Corporation since the first charter of Elizabeth in 1576, the date of which it bears. In Snelling it is engraved without the K K above the shield--probably a variety. The original dies, much worn, were found in 1803 among the ruins of the New Biggen, where the Cordwainers had their hall, and are now preserved in the museum at Kendal.--Gateshead Observer, March 5, 1853. W6: Westmorland, Kendal (Farthing): (1666) O  A pair of cropper's shears COMPANY OF SHEARMEN R  A teasel-brush IN KENDALL 1666 Image not available W7: Westmorland, Kendal (Farthing): (1666) O  A pair of cropper's shears COMPANY OF SHEARMEN R  A teasel-brush, star of five points on either side of the teasel-brush IN KENDALL 1666 Image not available Struck in Lead. These implements of the cloth manufacture are now almost entirely disused, the great improvement in machinery, which does the work better and cheaper, having superseded them. The large shears were used by the croppers to cut all the long hairs off the cloth; and unless great care and precision were used, there was danger of cutting the cloth, so that none but experienced workmen were employed, and they earned great wages. During the Luddite riots, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1812, many of these artisans were implicated, some of them having been thrown out of employment by the improvements in manufacture, and many by their intemperate habits. The long hairs are now removed by a spiral steel blade fixed on a revolving cylinder, which gives a fine, even nap to the cloth. The hand teasel-brush was used for brushing the cloth, one being held in each hand; this is now done by machinery, the teasels being placed in a long, narrow iron frame, worked by steam power. There were formerly twelve free companies in Kendal, which gradually became extinct, the last of them, the Cordwainers, being broken up in 1800, in consequence of Robert Moser, one of the craft, refusing to recognise any legal power in the company to impose a fine upon persons, not being freemen, commencing business within the borough. Monopoly was obliged to succumb to Moser, and the charter was declared to be powerless. W8: Westmorland, Kendal (Farthing): (1659) O  The Dyers' Arms EDMOND ADLINGTON R  E I A IN KENDAL 1659 E I A Image not available One Edward Adlington was sworn a shearman-dyer in 1549 (Kendal "Boke of Recorde"). The family came originally from Yealand, in Lancashire, and carried on business there and at Kendal. They were Quakers, and tradition says that Edmund was a man of immense bulk, weighing upwards of twenty-four stone, and that his wife was of little inferior weight, being upwards of twenty-two stone. He retired from business, and died at a great age. Nicolson and Burn's "History of Westmorland," i., p. 536, on the authority of Francis Higginson, Vicar of Kirkby-Stephen in the time of Cromwell, states: "Some of the Quakers stood naked on the market cross on market days, preaching to the people, particularly the wife of one Edmond Adlington, who went naked through the streets there." This is corroborated by Mrs. Greer, who, in "The Society of Friends," vol. ii., p. 189, says, "The wife of Edmund Adlington, of Kendal, went through the streets naked on the 21st of November, 1653; and Mary Collinson, another Quaker lady in the same town, rebuked those who covered her, by telling them they had hindered the work of the Lord." The Dyers seem to have been associated corporately in Kendal with the Shearmen, the full title of the ancient Free Company being that of "Shearmen-Dyers, Fullers and Websters." The Shearman-dyers are mentioned in a poetical account of a guild procession in Kendal in 1759, the last that took place. The compliment paid to the Kendal industry is as follows: "The English Wool by Shearmen-dyers wrought Equals the finest silk from India brought." W10: Westmorland, Kendal (Farthing): (Date Unknown) O  A sugar-loaf IOHN HADWEN R  I E H IN KENDALL I E H Image not available The names of John Hadwen and John Hadwen jun. (doubtless father and son) appear in the list of Mayors of Kendal no less than six times, from the year 1704 to 1770. The issuer was sworn a member of the Mercers' Company in 1656 (Kendal "Boke of Recorde", and had his residence in Finkle Street, Kendal, as appears from the following entry in the accounts of the churchwardens, 1658: "Rec. for ye cloth & bur in ye Lady quier of John Hadwens childe of ffinkel Streett Mrcer . . . . xs iiijd."--"Transactions of Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society," ix., p. 270. W11: Westmorland, Kendal (Farthing): (1659) O  Three Maltese crosses OLIVER PLAT OF R  1659 between six stars, three above and three below KIRKBY KENDALL 1659 Image not available Oliver Plat was a gentleman of considerable property in Kendal, and lived on his own estate at Summer How in Skelsmergh. He owned property in Kendal known as the Rainbow Inn. He was a Roman Catholic. The parish register records his burial, March 18, 1686, in the ninety-sixth year of his age. One Oliver Plat, probably son of the above, appears in Cousin's "List of Recussants." W12: Westmorland, Kendal (Uncertain): (1656) O  A teasel and wool-hook THOM SANDES OF R  A woolcomb KENDAL 1656 Image not available He was Mayor of Kendal in 1647-8. He made a fortune as a dealer in Kendal cottons, which, being dyed green, obtained for the cloth the famous names of Kendal Green and Kendalls (7 Jas. I., c. xvi.). The following entries in the churchwardens' accounts show the estimation in which the colour of the staple commodity was held by the townsfolk: "1676. The Communion table was covered with green and a hanging at the back also was green." "1676. Paid to Mr. James Simpson (by order of the Vicar and Churchwardens) for 15 yeards & a quarter of fine-green-cloth, eleaven yeards of ffine-Hollan and silk-ffringe for a green-table cloth, etc., 12 11 06." "Paid to Willm Webster (by consent of Churchwardens) for coullering of ye Rayles within the chancell, the frame of the Comunion-table, the frame also wherein the green-cloth doth hing, wth some pannells belonging the Pulpitt where was needful, vizt all greene, the sum of 02 00 00."--"Transactions of Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society," vol. ix., p. 276. Of Kendal, Drunken Barnaby sings: "Veni Kendall, ubi status Praestans, prudens Magistratus, Publicis festis purpuratus, Ab Elizabetha datus; Hic me juvat habitare, Propinare et amare." "Thence to Kendall, pure her state is, Prudent too her Magistrate is, In whose charter to them granted Nothing but a Mayor wanted; Here is likes me to bee dwelling, Bousing, loving, stories telling." Also: "Nunc ad Kendall, propter Pannum, Coetum, situm, Aldermannum, Virgines pulchras, pias matres, Et viginti quatuor fratres, Verè clarum et beatum, Mihi nactum, notum, natum." "Now to Kendall, for cloth-making, Sight, site, Alderman awaking, Beauteous damsels, modest mothers, And her foure-and-twenty brothers, Ever in her honour spreading, Where I had my native breeding." The fame of Kendal manufactures is immortalized by other and more important writers. Thus Drayton: "Where Kendal town doth stand For making of our cloth scarce matched in all the land." Shakespeare refers to "Three mis-begotten knaves in Kendal Green" ("1 Henry IV.," ii., 4); and Camden, in his "Britannia," eulogizes the quality of the cloth manufactured in the town. The issuer resided in the front house of the Elephant Yard (now the Elephant Inn), and his two coining presses and other instruments were found in making alterations in the premises. By deed dated September 6, 1670, he founded Sandes' Hospital, in Kendal, endowing it with considerable property for the maintenance of eight poor widows, three to be chosen out of Strickland Gate, three out of Stramongate and Highgate, one out of Strickland Roger and one out of Skelsmergh and Paton ("Machell MSS., " ii., p. 471), and for the support of a school for poor children, until they should be fitted for the free school or elsewhere. He bequeathed to the hospital a collection of books, chiefly of the early Fathers of the Church; these he so highy prized that he ordered that they should be kept in the "great room," and that a certain quantity of fuel should be regularly brought from the property he bequeathed to the hospital, and that the schoolmaster should, in addition, evpend(?) "at last twelve-pence in peats every quarter of a year," for the better keeping and preservation of the books. And he further ordered that men of quality and learning should have free access to them. The books originally, and for a long time afterwards, were fastened to the shelves by chains just long enough to allow the reader to reach them down to the table. He died August 22, 1681, aged seventy-five. A handsome marble monument was erected to his memory in Kendal Church, and bears the following eulogistic inscription: Heus Peripatetice! Siste, disce, et (si pessis) imitare. En pulchrum tibi virtutis, specimen Eximium, ingenij et laboris, exemplar. Humana, quicquid valuit, solertia; Quicquid magnum, laudabile, utile Honesta, potuit assequi, vel efficere, industria, Illud totum, optimè valuit, assequutus est effecit Prudentiâ, charitate, diligentia summa; Illud nempe (Quem nec mirari licet nec satis dolere) Egregius industriae Fautor Singularis Literarum Patronus Pauperum perpetuus Pater THOMAS SANDES. Qui annis satiatus, Coelo maturus (Charissimae conjugi heu ! brevé nimis superstes) Hinc abijt Vicessimo secundo die Augusti Anno {Salutis humanae / AEtatis suae} MDCLXXXI. / LXXV. Abijt (inquam) non obijt nequit enim mori Dum sit hominibus virtus aut virtuti historia At-at! Sileat periturum marmor. Omni dum marmoro Perennius Et vel Memphiticâ diuturnius Pyramide Ipse sibi monumentum, struxit Gerontocomium. It was originally placed against a pillar at the west end of the alderman's pew, but was moved in 1852 to a more appropriate site at the west end of the south aisle. One Thomas Sands, probably the issuer, was sworn a member of the Armourers' Company in 1641 (Kendal "Boke of Recorde").

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