THE BRISTOL MINT An Historical Outline

L. V. GRINSELL

ISSUED BY THE BRISTOL BRANCH OF THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION THE UNIVERSITY, BRISTOL

Price Thirty Pence 1972

BRISTOL BRANCH OF THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION LOCAL HISTORY PAMPHLETS

Hon. General Editor: PATRICK McGRATH Assistant General Editor: PETER HARRIS

The Bristol Mint is the thirtieth pamphlet published by the Bristol Branch of the Historical Association. Its author, Mr. K.. V. Grinsell, was until his retirement this year Curator of Archaeology in the City Museum, Bristol. He was recently awarded an O.B.E. for his services to archaeology. He is an honorary M.A. of the University of Bristol and his numerous publications include Ancient Burial-Mounds of England (Methuen, 1936; 2nd edition 1953); The Archaeology of Wessex (Methuen, 1958), A Brief Numismatic History of Bristol, 1962 (Bristol City Museum) and a section in the Bristol and Gloucestershire volume of the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles, published by the British Academy in 1972. His pamphlet on Prehistoric Bristol was published in this series in 1969.

The next pamphlet in the series will be a study by K. G. Powell of the Marian Martyrs of Bristol. A full list of earlier publications is given on the inside back cover.

The Bristol Branch of the Historical Association has now made arrangements with Messrs. David and Charles by which they will publish eight of the earlier pamphlets in a volume entitled Bristol in the Eighteenth Century. It is hoped that this will appear in November 1972.

The pamphlets in this series can be obtained from most Bristol booksellers, from the Porters’ Lodge in the Wills’ Memorial Building and in the Senate House, or from Mr. Peter Harris, 74 Bell Barn Road, Stoke Bishop, Bristol 9. The Branch hopes that readers will help the work by placing standing orders for future productions.

THE BRISTOL MINT AN HISTORICAL OUTLINE

by L. V. GRINSELL

The story of coin production and usage in the vicinity of the confluence of the Lower Bristol Avon with the Severn Estuary begins a millennium before the establishment of the Bristol Mint. During the century or so before the Claudian conquest of A.D. 43-45, the Cotswolds and their surroundings as far south as the Lower Bristol Avon were occupied by the Dobunni; and at any rate after the split between BODVOC (N. E. Dobunni) and CORIO (S. W. Dobunni) around A.D. 42-43, they probably spread as far south as the Mendip Hills, as suggested by the coin distribu- tion and particularly by the hoard found at Nunney near Frome in 1860, comprising about 250 Dobunnic and 7 Roman coins of which the latest was c. A.D. 41. This needs however to be con- firmed by more excavation at the Iron Age hill-forts between Bristol and Mendip. A fine gold stater of CORIO, chief of the South-Western Dobunni, found at Kingswood near Bristol about 1968, is in private hands*. The site of the mint of CORIO has not yet been located but it is likely to have been somewhere between Cirencester and the Bristol Avon; the region of the Bulwarks on Minchinhampton Common is a possibility.

Dorset, West Wiltshire, and East Somerset south of and possibly at times including Mendip were occupied by the Durotriges. One of their uninscribed silver coins, found at Charterhouse-on-Mendip, could belong either to pre-Roman settlement or have been lost by a native employed in the early Roman period at the silver-lead workings there?.

Some four miles south of the medieval city of Bristol, on the boundary of Lyons Court Farm and Church Farm west of Whit- church, is the find-spot of some hundreds of earthenware moulds for casting counterfeit Roman bronze coins (antoniniani) mostly of Victorinus and Tetricus I and II (A.D. 268-273), together with a few of the coins and fragments of crucibles and other items associ- ated with the counterfeiting’.

Of the coins which circulated in the region between the end of Roman domination (c. 410) and the establishment of the Bristol 1. Grinsell, L. V. (1971). “A gold stater of CORIO from Kingswood near

Bristol”, Trans. B. & G.A.S. 90, 220. 2. Grinsell, L. V. (1968). A Guide Catalogue to South-Western Prehistoric

Collections. Bristol City Museum. 46, no. 106.

3. Boon, G. C. and Rahtz, P. A. “Third century counterfeiting at Whit- church, Somerset”, Archaeol. J. 122, 13-51.

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mint (c. 1020), the briefest description will suffice. Sceats! have only exceptionally been found in the south-west, and one was recently found in a garden at Portishead?. Towns of Roman origin, including Gloucester (GLEVUM), Bath (AQUAE SULIS), and Exeter (ISCA DUMNONIORUM) were sufficiently important centres of urban life to have justified the setting up of mints a century or more before Bristol. The Gloucester and Exeter mints are first identified during the reign of Alfred (870-899) and the Bath mint very early in the reign of Edward the Elder (899-924). At Axbridge, closely linked with the royal estate at Cheddar in late Saxon times, a mint functioned between 997 and 1042 during the reigns of Aethelred II, Cnut, Harold I, and Harthacnut.

THE ORIGINS OF THE BRISTOL MINT

The precise factors which led to the establishment of the mint in Bristol are not easy to ascertain. One factor was surely the growth of Bristol as a town and port with developing trade both internal and external. The Severn Sea (known as the Bristol Chan- nel from the early eighteenth century)’ had served as a trade route with southern Ireland intermittently from the Bronze Age : this is attested by the distribution of Irish gold Junulae in Cornwall, and the Westbury-on-Trym hoard of Irish flanged decorated axes.* There is less evidence of this trade during the Iron Age and Roman period, but it was resumed during the Dark Ages and Early Christian period, as shown for example by the recent find of an Irish glass mount at the pre-Conquest monastic site at Westbury-on-Trym.

The town of Dublin developed during the later ninth and the tenth centuries mainly if not entirely from Viking settlements. Mr. Michael Dolley has shown® that at a date between 980 and 1000, trade between Western England and Ireland ceased to be virtually monopolised by Chester and the River Dee. This is shown for example by the Kildare coin-hoard found in 1923, deposited c. 991, one-sixth of which comprised coins from Devonshire mints; 1. The name given to Anglo-Saxon coins of sixth to eighth century.

2. Grinsell, L. V. (1971). “A Saxon sceat from Portishead, Somerset”, Brit. Num. J., 39, 163-4.

3. The Severn Sea was so-called on most maps until the early 18th cen- tury, when it was changed to the Bristol Channel, probably mainly through the influence of foreign merchants and seamen trading with Bristol. North, F. J. (1965). The Evolution of the Bristol Channel. 3rd

4. Griteall L. V. (1969). Prehistoric Bristol. Bristol Branch of the His. torical Association.

5. Dolley, Michael (1966). The Hiberno-Norse Coins in the British Museum, 36.

and by some of the earliest coins of Dublin having been modelled on those of West Country mints including Bath and Watchet (Somerset) and Lydford and Totnes (Devon). Archaeological excavations carried out recently by Mr. Breandan O’Riorddin in Dublin have yielded evidence of pottery and other material imported into Dublin from Bristol probably before and certainly after the Norman invasion of Ireland (1169). However, a glance at a map of the region is enough to show, at least to the writer, that any change of the Anglo-Irish trade from the Dee to the Severn could well have been occasioned partly by political causes, since the Dee estuary is much nearer to Dublin. The nature of these causes may never be known.

The site of Bristol, on elevated ground seven miles up the Bristol Avon and by its confluence with the River Froom, combined safe anchorage with accessibility to the Severn estuary and the Irish Sea, thereby facilitating trade with South Wales and South West England as well as with Ireland and further afield. Part of the Saxon town appears to have been on ground later occupied by the Castle, as there is archaeological evidence that houses were demolished to clear the site for the Castle; and there are Saxon foundations beneath its eastern rampart. During exca- vations at St. Mary-le-Port, west of the Castle, in 1962-3, remains of a Late Saxon street were found, with indications of iron work- ing and leather-working on its north side. The name Bristol is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Bricg-stow, the place of assembly near the bridge. Part of Bristol’s pre-conquest trade with Ireland was in slaves, but this activity was stopped by Wulfstan after the conquest. The importance of Bristol at this time is underlined by the attempt of the sons of Harold II to raid or capture it in 1067. A detail of some interest is that St. Werburgh’s Church is a probably twelfth century dedication to the patron saint of Chester, Bristol’s forerunner in the Irish trade.?

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MINT

During each reign in Late Saxon and Norman times, the coin type was changed at intervals which varied between about two and six years. The dies were cut usually by the central authority (Winchester or London) but sometimes by a regional authority. The moneyers were normally among the leading citizens, and 1. Information from Mr. Breadndan O’Riordain.

2. The writer is grateful to Mrs. M. D. Lobel for permission to use material from her forthcoming Historic Towns volume which will in-

clude Bristol. See also Sherborne, J. W. (1965). The Port of Bristol in the Middle Ages. Bristol Branch of the Historical Association.

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they were personally responsible for the weight and fineness of the coins bearing their name. Until 1279 the only coins struck in Bristol were silver pennies.

The Bristol Mint started during a period when coin mints in England were so numerous that few inhabited places were more than fifteen miles from a mint. During the reign of Aethelred II there were about 75 mints in England. The earliest known coins possibly minted in Bristol are of this reign (978-1016). Mr. Michael Dolley has discussed? whether one or two coins of First Hand type (BMC ? ii, 979-985) with mint signatures NIWAN and BRYGIN die-linked should be attributed to Newport (Mon.) and Bristol, or, perhaps more probably, to Newport and Bridg- north (Shropshire); but Mr. C. S. S. Lyon believes that a further die-link with Shaftesbury must lead to both mints being located further south®. There may be greater probability that coins of the Last Small Cross type (BMC v, 1009-1017), two in Stockholm and one in Copenhagen, with reverse inscription AALFWERD ON BRIC (1)*, were minted at Bristol; but even these might possibly have been minted at Bridgnorth. Their recorded weights suggest to Mr. Dolley a production date not later than the early part of 1010.

Fairly early in the reign of Cnut (1016-1035), the Bristol mint is firmly established, there being already at least five moneyers known for the diademed Quatrefoil type (2), (BMC viiid, 1017- 1023), if the mint signatures BRI, BRIC, and their variants are in all instances correctly attributed to Bristol. The weights of the extant coins suggest that the mint opened, or reopened, c. 1020. The diademed quatrefoil type is a variety distributed in the Severn Valley and occurs at Gloucester and Hereford as well as Bristol.® At least two Bristol moneyers produced coins of the more normal Crowned Quatrefoil type (3) (BMC viii)—AEGELWINE and AELFWINE both of whom also produced coins of diademed quatrefoil type.

Coins of Cnut’s Pointed Helmet type (BMC xiv, 1023-1029) are so far unknown from Bristol, although they were produced from the mints of Axbridge, Bath, Gloucester, and from other mints in

1. Dolley, Michael (1958). “Three late Anglo-Saxon notes”, Brit, Num. J. 28 (1955-57), 88-105, esp. 92-99.

British Museum Catalogue of English Coins, henceforth given as BMC.

Information from Mr. Michael Dolley. See also F. Elmore Jones Sale Catalogue, 12/13 May 1971, 51, lot 586.

Numbers in bold face refer to the plates of coins.

Parsons, H. A. (1930). “The Anglian coins of Cnut the Great”, Brit. Num. J. 19, 42, fig. 5.

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the south-west. As some 2,000 coins of this type are known from other mints, it seems most likely that the type was not made in Bristol.+

Of the Short Cross type (4) (BMC xvi, 1029-1035), coins are known of Bristol moneyers ZEGELWINE, LEOFWINE (both with mint signature BRIC or variants thereof), and WULSTAN (mint signature BR, if correctly attributed to Bristol).

Of the Bristol coins of Harold I (Joint king 1035-7; sole king 1037-40) and Harthacnut (Joint king 1035-7; sole king 1040-42), those of the joint reigns are of the attractive Jewel Cross type (5) (BMC i, 1035-7) and are rare. Those of the Fleur-de-Lys type (6) (BMC v, vi, 1038-40) of Harold I are comparatively common and five Bristol moneyers are known, all with mint signature BRIC or variants. Those of the sole reign of Harthacnut are of the Arm-and-Sceptre type (BMC ii, 1040-42), which continued into the reign of Edward the Confessor as a mule or hybrid (7).

The coinage of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) follows a sequence of ten types at intervals normally of two to three years, and all types are represented by the Bristol mint. At least four moneyers are known of the first two types (1042-44). The most attractive type is the Sovereign/Eagles type (8) (BMC ix, 1056-59), showing on obverse the king enthroned, and on reverse a cross with a bird in each angle.

Bristol coins of the brief reign of Harold II (January to October 1066) are inevitably rare; but they include the portrait both with and without sceptre. One without sceptre was found in the archaeo- logical excavations at St. Mary-le-Port, Bristol, in 1962. Both types have the legend Pax on the reverse (9).

THE NORMAN PERIOD

The advisers of William I considered the late Anglo-Saxon coin- age so satisfactory that nearly all the provincial mints continued as before, producing coins of the same denomination (the silver penny) in similar styles, and in many cases even under the same moneyers. Two of the Bristol moneyers of Harold II continued under William I: Ceorl who began with the last coinage of Edward the Confessor, and Leofwine who was probably different from the Leofwine of the Bristol coinage under Cnut, Harold I, and Harthacnut. The first type of William I, the Profile/Cross fleury type (10) (BMC i), bore a crowned head to left, with or (for some mints but apparently not for Bristol) without sceptre, almost identical with the Pax type of Harold II.

1. Dolley, Michael (1961). In Commentationes de Nummis Saeculorum IX—XI in Suecia Repertis. Stockholm 1961, p. 214.

F]

There is no reference to any mint in Bristol in Domesday Book (1086), but mention of mints in Domesday Book seems to have been largely a matter of chance, and many other mints known to have been in operation are omitted.+

The reign of William I (1066-1087) is spanned by eight coin- types, all of which are represented at Bristol. The moneyers known for the first five are Ceorl and Leofwine (variant Lifwine); the absence of one or other from one or two intermediate types is almost certainly due to the hazards of discovery. A new moneyer, BRIHTWORD, comes in with type vi and continues to the com- mon Paxs type (II) (BMC viii), other Bristol moneyers of which are BRUNSTAN, COLBLAC, LIFWINE, and SWEGN (variant SWEIN), the last probably of Scandinavian origin. Therefore five moneyers of this type are known, compared with a maximum of two moneyers from type i to type vii. The coins of this type are far commoner than of any other types, partly because of the enormous hoard of several thousands found at Beauworth (Hamp- shire) in 1833, of which more than two hundred were Bristol coins of this type. Mr. Michael Dolley has however recently noted? that this type is also the commonest of the coins of William I found in Scandinavia. Most of the Bristol coins of William I have the mint signature as BR, BRI, BRIC, BRICS, BRICST, BRICSTO, BRICSTOI, and variants.

All five types of coinage of William IT (1087-1100) are represen- ted at Bristol. The moneyers of the first two are BRIHTWORD and COLBLAC. SNEDI apparently replaces Colblac in type iii, and BARCWIT is known for types iv and v. Other moneyers for type v were SINDI (possibly the same as SNEDI of type iii) and LIFWINE.

The coinage of Henry I (1100-1135) comprises fifteen types, the type being changed every two to three years, and the obverses alternating between profile and facing busts. The monetary history of the reign is noted for the king’s accusations of coinage debase- ment and for stern measures taken in 1108 and 1124/5 to deal with it. The order of 1124 purported to deprive all moneyers (according to one account 94) of their right hand and testicles. Recent analysis of 20 silver pennies of William II and Henry I, comprising a series well spread throughout the period, suggested 1. Of mints in the adjoining counties, only those at Bath, Gloucester,

Malmesbury, and Taunton are mentioned in Domesday. Other mints known to have been working at the time are Cricklade, Ilchester, ecasmacan: Salisbury, Wachet, and Wilton—all omitted from Domes-

2. Dolley, Michael (1969). Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles: Reading and Stockholm, 46.

that at any rate some of the moneyers may have been wrongly accused.1 Several of them were coining both before and after the order of 1124, including the Bristol moneyer Herthig.

For various reasons, the chief of which is probably the scarcity of coin-hoards in this peaceful period, all the coin-types of all mints of this reign are rare excepting types xiv and xv belonging near the end of the reign. Bristol mint coins are known of BMC moneyers are known (AILWOLD, EDRIC, and HERTHIG). Type xv is also represented by three moneyers (HERTHIG, RIC- CARD, and TURCHIL).

From the beginning of this reign the Bristol mint signature changes from BRIC ... to BRIS . . . The usual forms are BRISTO, BRIST, BRIS, and BRI.

The Bristol coinage of Stephen and Matilda and the Anarchy (1135-1154) largely reflects the national and local political events of the period. Henry I died on 1 December 1135 and Stephen, younger son of Henry I’s sister, came from Normandy to assume the throne, an act that was highly unpopular in certain quarters. His first four years were somewhat uneasy, and the arrival of the daughter of Henry I, Matilda, from Normandy on 30 September 1139 greatly increased his difficulties. By early October Matilda had settled in Bristol Castle. On 2 February 1141 Stephen was defeated at the Battle of Lincoln, taken prisoner, and brought first to Gloucester and later to Bristol Castle, and on 8 April Matilda was elected “Domina Anglorum”’ at Winchester. On 1 November 1141 Stephen was released from Bristol Castle and recovered his throne on 7 December 1141. He died on 25 October 1154.

The normal Bristol coins of Stephen are of the Cross Moline type (12) (BMC i). The obverse legend is STIEFNE REX or vari- ants, and the moneyers are FARDEIN, GURDAN and TURCHIL who was also a moneyer for the last coinage of Henry I. The mint signature is BRIST or shorter forms. A few coins of this type, moneyer Gurdan, have the obverse die erased by cross- hatching; these may have been issued between February and October 1141 during Stephen’s captivity in Bristol Castle.? Erased dies of this and other forms are also known from the mints of Norwich, Nottingham, Stamford, and Thetford.

Coins of the same type of Stephen but inscribed on the obverse

1. Andrew, W. J. (1901) “A Numismatic History of . . . Henry I’. Num. Chron. 1901, 80-1, 461; Metcalf, D. M., and Schweizer, F. (1971), “The metal contents of the silver pennies of William II and Henry 1.. .” Archaeometry, 13, Part 2, 177—190.

2. Mack, R. P. (1967). “Stephen and the Anarchy, 1135-1154.” Brit. Num. J. 35, 38-112 esp. 59-64.

PERERIC instead of the king’s name may have been struck either in 1135-6 or in 1141, the moneyer being Turchil. It has been sug- gested that the meaning might be PER (H)E(N)RIC if it ever had any meaning. A Lincoln coin with obverse legend PERERICM seems to suggest Matilda who was daughter of Henry I, especially as it was at Lincoln where she defeated Stephen.

The coins of Matilda should date from or shortly after April 1141. They bear the obverse legend MATILDI IMPERATR or variants. The Bristol reverse has the Anglo-Norman form of the preposition, ie. TURCHIL DE BRIST, the moneyers being ARFENI, GURDAN, RODBERD and TURCHIL. The type (13) is still the Cross Moline (BMC i) type of Stephen.

Matilda’s son Henry of Anjou (afterwards Henry ID) was in Bristol between early November 1142 and the early part of 1144 though not continuously. He was also in Bristol probably in late 1149 or very early 1150, and between January 1153 and Easter 1154. To one or other of these periods may be attributed the coins of Bust facing between two stars type (14) (BMC ii) struck at Bristol by AREFIN, and bearing the obverse legend hENRICVS. The moneyer was presumably the Arfeni of the coinage of Matilda.

Baronial coins were struck in many parts of England but not in Bristol.

THE PLANTAGENETS

From the accession of Henry II (1154-1189), the coins of Stephen, Matilda, and the barons continued to circulate until 1158 when the Cross-and-crosslets (Tealby) type (15) was issued. Bristol was one of thirty mints from which this coinage was issued. Most of the coins are badly struck and many are by no means circular. Our knowledge of them is derived largely from hoards concealed between 1170 and 1180, especially that found at Tealby (Lincoln- shire) from which the type gets one of its names. Between 1158 and 1180 six classes of coin were issued, known in D. F. Allen’s classification? as classes A to F, which succeeded one another. The Bristol moneyers were ELAF, ROGIER, and TANCARD, all of whom are known for class A. Elaf is known also for classes C and F; Rogier for classes D and E; and Tancard for classes B and D. The number of mints striking these coins gradually decreased: and only eleven mints are known to have struck class F. The mint signature for the Cross-and-Crosslets coinage is BRISTO, BRIST, or BRI. Bristol did not participate in the Short Cross

1. Allen, D. F. (1951). British Museum Catalogue: the Cross-and- crosslets ... type of Henry II.

coinage of 1180-1189 which was issued from only twenty mints. The Bristol mint was closed from 1180 to 1248. From this time onwards it was reopened only for short periods of special re- coinage. These involved the handing in of all the old coins for reminting, and it was largely to facilitate the redemption of the old coins that the mints were periodically reopened in the chief provincial centres. Once the old coins had been called in and the new coins issued, there was no purpose in these provincial mints continuing until another recoinage was needed.

During the reign of Henry III (1216-1272), it was decided late in 1247 to issue coins bearing on their reverse a long cross extend- ing to the circumference, designed to prevent the practice of clip- ping, to which the previous coins had been particularly prone. The provincial mints involved in this Jong cross coinage (16) (1248- 50) are more fully documented than for any other reigns of the medieval period. On 2 March 1248 a writ was issued to the Bailiffs and Men of sixteen provincial towns to establish mints to recall the old coins and assist in the issue of the new type.

Each of these sixteen mints had four moneyers, four mint- keepers, two goldsmiths, and one clerk. The personnel of the Bris- tol mint were:

Moneyers on coins as

(Monetarii): Jacobus Laware JACOB Henricus Langbord HENRI Walterus de Paris WALTER Elyas de Aby ELIS

Subsequently one of these (perhaps Henri) dropped out and was replaced by one whose Christian name was ROGER, possibly Roger de Enveyse, transferred from the mint at Gloucester. It has been suggested that Elyas de Aby was from the village of that name in Lincolnshire1; but contemporary records in Bristol spell his surname AKY or AKYE.?

Mint-keepers (Custodes) : Jacobus le Clerk Robertus de Kilmain Henricus Adrian Willelmus de Senare.

1. Dolley, Michael (1966), “A note on some toponymics occurring among the personnel of the Long Cross coinage of Henry III’, Numismatic Circular, 150.

2. Ross, C. D. (Editor). 1959. Cartulary of St. Mark’s Hospital, Bristol. Charters, 41, 46, 56 and 413.

Robertus de Kilmain illustrates the connections between Bristol and the Dublin area at this time.

Assayers (Assaiatores) : Petrus Aurifaber Walterus Aurifaber Clerk (Clericus) : Willelmus de Bruges.

A good deal of documentary evidence is extant relating to several of these people. Jacob La Ware, or La Warre, was mayor of Bristol on several occasions between 1235 and 1257. He and the other moneyers were joint witnesses to several of the charters of St. Mark’s Hospital, Bristol. Henry Langbord had a shop in St. Mary-le-Port Street?. The mint-keeper Henry Adrian was mayor of Bristol in 1254 and 1265, and Robert of Kilmainham was mayor in 1261. Peter Aurifaber and Walter de Paris were witnesses to a deed relating to property opposite St. Nicholas Church, Bris- tol®. The name of the Clerk, William of Bruges, suggests Flemish influence which was still marked both in the Bristol Channel area and in the Bristol-dominated Irish colonies‘.

The mint was in a house which may or may not have been within the Castle precincts. In June 1250, there is an entry in the Close Rolls about this : ‘“‘as the King’s die has been moved from the town of Bristol and money is no longer to be made there, mandate to the Mayor and bailiffs of Bristol that the house which the King’s moneyers occupied for the minting of money they cause without delay to be given back to them to whom they (sic.) belong, so that no claims as to them be heard again.®

The Bristol coins of this issue are all of Class iii of L. A. Lawrence (followed by J. J. North*), having on their obverse the reading HENRICVS REX III instead of the HENRICVS REX TERCI of Lawrence/North Classes i and ii. The mint signature varies from BRVSTO to BRVS, the fuller forms usually being linked with the shorter names of moneyers and vice-versa. Having completed its part in issuing the long cross coinage, the Bristol mint was closed about June 1250 and did not reopen until 2 January 1280, when another major recoinage required the assis- tance of provincial mints.

The coinage of Edward I (1272-1307) breaks new ground in

Dolley, Michael (1966), in Numismatic Circular, 150.

Bristol City Archive Office, StMP/DI, lease dated 1245 by his brother William Langbord. Information from Mrs. F. Neale.

Bristol City Archives Office. 5163(I). Information from Mrs. F. Neale. Dolley, Michael (1966), in Numismatic Circular, 150.

Calendar of Close Rolls, 1247-51, p. 297 (June 1250).

North, J. J. (1963). English Hammered Coinage. I, 167, 171.

Poe se Np

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various ways. A few mints, including Bristol, were authorised to strike round halfpence and farthings as well as pence, thereby ending the practice of halving and quartering pence into halfpence and farthings, which had been followed since late Saxon times. Other major changes were that the moneyer’s name was omitted from the reverse legend, and the town name was preceded from now onwards by its status, e.g. VILLA OR CIVITAS. In the case of Bristol this was VILLA, as it did not become a bishopric until 1542.

An indenture by William Turnemire, Master of the Tower Mint, dated 8 December 1279, named a mint in Bristol to hold twelve furnaces. It was in Bristol Castle, and the mint keeper was the Constable of the Castle, Peter de la Mare. It opened on 2 January 1280, and was one of ten mints which struck between 1279 and 1281. It has been calculated that the output of the Bristol mint during this period was of the order of £40,000. On 27 October 1281 “Peter de la Mare, late keeper of the Exchange at Bristol, rendered his account before the King at Westminster . . . for the whole time that he was Keeper, and retired quit”®. The coins of this period have on their obverse the spelling of ANGLIE with a reversed N from January to May 1280, and a normal N (17) from then until the mint closed in the autumn of 1281.

By the end of the century the currency had again become un- satisfactory, largely because of the influx of foreign imitations in baser metal and of lighter weight. The provincial mints reopened early in 1300 for another recoinage were Bristol, Chester, Exeter, Kingston-on-Hull, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and York.

Early in 1300 an order was given to build houses in Bristol Castle for the mint workmen, and by May the mint was again in operation, with four furnaces working. The mint records show that the output from the Bristol mint between 1300 and 1302 was £13,140. It may be of interest to compare this output with that of some other provincial mints during the same period’.

Chester, 12 July to 16 Nov. 1300 £1,405 Exeter 12 June to 31 Dec. 1300 £3,757 Hull & York 27 April to 31 Dec. 1300 £17,316 Newcastle-on-Tyne 1 June 1300 to 29 Sept. 1302 £20,175

The coins of this period have on their obverse the spelling of

1. Dolley, Michael (1968). “The Irish Mints of Edward I in the light of the Coin-hoards from Ireland and Great Britain.” Proc. Royal Irish Academy, 66 (Section C), 235-298, esp. 294-5.

Calendar of Patent Rolls. 27 Oct., 1281; Brit. Num. J. 7, 125.

Brit. Num. J. 9 (1913), 183.

oon

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ANGLIE with a pot-hook N having no central bar. The Bristol mint was closed from 1301/2 until 1465.

THE YORKISTS AND THE LANCASTRIANS

In February 1423 the Council of Regency commissioned Barth- olomew Goldbeter, mintmaster in London and Calais, to strike coins also in York and Bristol. He carried out his mandate in York, but no Bristol coins have been found which could be attributed to the first part of the reign of Henry VI (1422-1461).

Soon after his accession on 4 March 1461, Edward IV was faced with a monetary crisis, which was solved partly by opening mints at Bristol, Coventry, Norwich, and York. The first or Heavy coin- age (1461-65) was not struck in Bristol. On 6 July 1465, William Melsounby and Thomas Cartlage were ordered to take coiners and assistants for striking in gold and silver, this being the first time that gold coins had been struck in Bristol. The mint then estab- lished continued to function until 23 July 1472.

During the first part of the reign of Edward IV, the Bristol coins struck comprised in gold the Ryal (18) and Half-ryal, each with the letter B for Bristol in the waves beneath the ship on their obverse. The silver coinage comprised the groat, half-groat, penny and halfpenny. The mint signature on the reverse is in the forms VILLA BRESTOLL, VILLA BRISTOLL, and VILLA BRIS- TOW, and shorter versions in the case of the smaller denomina- tions.

The Bristol coinage during the period when Henry VI was re- stored to the throne (October 1470 to April 1471) comprises in gold the Angel and Angelet with B in the waves beneath the ship; and in silver the groat (19), penny and halfpenny. The mint signature on the silver coins is VILLA (or WILLA) BRISTOW or shorter forms.

The Bristol coinage of the second part of the reign of Edward IV (April 1471 to 1483) comprised in gold the Angel, and in silver the groat, half-groat, and penny, the mint signature on these being normally VILLA BRISTOW or WILLA BRISTOW. The mint records, if complete, suggest that only £117 in gold and £903 in silver were struck between 14 April 1471 and 23 July 1472 when the Bristol mint closed until 1546.

THE TUDORS

A considerable part of the wealth which had accumulated during the reign of Henry VII was squandered by Henry VIII (1509-

12

1547) during the first thirty years or so of his reign. During his last few years he resorted increasingly to currency debasement’, and this process was assisted by extending the Tower of London mint and establishing additional mints at Southwark, Canterbury, York, and Bristol.

The Dissolution of the Monasteries was followed in 1542 by the designation of Bristol as a bishopric and a city. From the re- opening of the Bristol mint in 1546 the mint signature was changed from the previous VILLA BRISTOLIE to CIVITAS BRIS- TOLIE.

The instrument which established the Bristol mint was as fol- lows? :

To William Sharington a grant of the office of Under-Trea- surer of the exchange and mint in the City of Bristowe. 200

marks p.a. (£133.6.8) Roger Wygmore, the office of Comptroller £40 Thomas Marshall, Assay Master £40 James Pagett, Teller (Numismator) 40 marks (£26.13.4) Giles Evenet, Graver of Irons £20 Wm. Goldsmythe, Porter (Hostiarius) £10

All the grants to take effect from the Feast of the Annunciation then last past (i.e. 25 March).

It should be added that Henry VIII himself was Treasurer, William Sharington being Under-Treasurer. Excluding Southwark, Bristol was the only provincial mint authorised to strike in gold as well as silver, and the only one to include on the establishment a Graver of Irons, or engraver. The Bristol mint also took over from the Tower of London mint the coining of money for Ireland, for which its geographical position and trading tradition rendered it eminently suitable.

William Sharington had purchased Lacock Abbey after its dis- solution and converted it to his residence. He introduced therein various early Renaissance architectural details of great interest’, but the high cost of altering and maintaining Lacock may have con- tributed to his later downfall. On his appointment to the Bristol mint he was liberally entertained by the civic authorities who received a letter of thanks from Henry VIII. Sharington was knighted by Edward VI on his coronation day, 20 February 1547.

1. J.G. Gould, The Great Debasement, Oxford, 1970.

2. Patent Roll 37 Henry VIII. Part 13. 5 April 1546.

3. Clark-Maxwell, W. G. (1913). “Sir William Sharington’s Work at Lacock, Sudeley, and Dudley.” Archaeol. J., 70, 175-182.

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As Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547, only about nine months after the Bristol mint started, and coins bearing his name and portrait continued to be struck by Sharington in the early part of the reign of Edward VI, it has so far been impossible to distinguish between many of the coins of the two reigns. In January 1549 Sharington was arrested for currency frauds and for assisting Admiral Sir Thomas Seymour against his brother the Lord Pro- tector Somerset. Thomas Chamberlain, who had been Chairman of the Committee of Enquiry into Sharington’s activities, suc- ceeded him as Under-Treasurer within a week or two. His staff comprised :

Robert Recorde, Comptroller

John Walker, Teller

John Mune, Provost of the Moneyers

Stephen Lathebury, Surveyor of the Melting House John Smith, Receiver of the Testons

Giles Evenet, Graver of Irons (as before).

In June 1549 Chamberlain went to Denmark as ambassador, leaving Robert Recorde in charge of the Bristol mint, which was finally closed on 31 October 1549. Most (perhaps all) of its staff were transferred to the Tower of London mint, where they con- tinued to be paid at the provincial rate, which was less than the London rate.

The surviving accounts of the mint under Sharington show that between 1 May 1546 and 30 September 1547, 418 lb. of gold (20 carat fine) was minted, and about 23,670 Ib. of silver (4 oz. fine); there was also 3,657 Ib. of silver (3 oz. fine) minted for Ireland. Sharington’s accounts from 1 October 1547 are missing, be- lieved destroyed just before his arrest.

The Chamberlain accounts show that between 1 January 1549 and the closure of the mint on 31 October 1549, 5,978 Ib. of silver (4 oz. fine) was struck in groats, half-groats, pence, and halfpence; and 306 Ib. of silver (6 oz. fine) was struck in shillings in May and June that year. In addition testoons to the weight of 14,115 Ib. were converted into silver coins of denominations from groats downwards.

These accounts show that gold continued to be struck well into the reign of Edward VI although the coins bore the name and portrait of Henry VIII. They also suggest that silver harp-groats (3 oz. fine) were not minted in Bristol for Ireland after 30 Septem- ber 1546. The Dublin mint was reopened on an indenture dated 10 February 1548.

It is regrettable that during these years, probably under both

14

PLATE I

#8 ¥ S # i 7,

SIR WILLIAM SHARINGTON

From portrait among the Holbein drawings in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle.

PLATE II

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Biter wis,° Biay

ey ee

TF QR W's: oa SS S Nal SiS

THOMAS BUSHELL From frontispiece to his book “The First Part of Youth’s Errors,” 1628.

Sharington and Chamberlain, plate from Salisbury and Wells Cathedrals, part of a gold cross from Wells Cathedral, and plate from All Saints’ and other Bristol churches went into the melting pot to provide bullion for the coinage.

The essential characteristic of all the Sharington coinage is the WS mintmark in which the S is made (with varying success) by giving a sinuous curve to the third stroke of the W( VY ), this being the work of the engraver Giles Evenet. The gold coins are sovereigns, half sovereigns, crowns, and half-crowns. The silver coins are testoons (shillings), groats (20), half-groats, pence, and halfpence. The Irish coins were harp groats, those dated 38 being of the last year of Henry VIII, and those undated being of Edward VI.

The essential characteristic of the Chamberlain coinage is the TC mintmark in the form of a monogram (Z), again the work of the engraver Giles Evenet. The coins (silver only) are shillings (21), groats, half-groats, pence, and halfpence. The groat and half- groat bear the name and portrait of Henry VIII; the other coins carry the name and portrait of Edward VI. (The pence and half- pence do not bear the TC monogram but there is no reasonable doubt that they were struck under Chamberlain).

ELIZABETH I (1558-1603)

By Royal Proclamations dated 27 September and 9 October 1560, the base shillings 6 oz. fine of Edward VI issued under the order of 12 April 1549, which had been revalued at 6d. in 1551, were devalued to 44d. by being countermarked with a portcullis design before the face; and those of 3 oz. fine issued under the order of January 1551, which had been revalued at 6d. later that year, were devalued to 24d. by being countermarked with a greyhound design on the neck of the obverse portrait. The first proclamations should have applied to the Bristol shillings of Edward VI, several examples of which have been recorded with portcullis countermark; but forgeries of this countermark are also known.

Official failure to meet the public need for small change led to the local production of tokens, and in this practice Bristol was well to the fore. It is uncertain whether the circular lead token of “JOHN BROWN : GROCER IN BRISTOL” is dated 1567 with the 6 reversed, or 1597 with the 9 inverted. In either case there is just a chance that the issuer may have been the John Browne

1. North, J. J. (1959). “The countermarked shillings of Edward VI”. Num. Circ. 67, 51-2.

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who was Mayor of Bristol in 1572 and who was author of The Marchant’s Avizo (1589).

In 1576 the idea of allowing the issue of tokens under a warrant or commission from the Queen was being considered. Bristol evidently issued tokens in anticipation of a proclamation to this effect. Letters concerning these pieces were sent from the Privy Council to the Recorder of Bristol on 17 November 1577, and to the Mayor and Aldermen on 8 December. Under 14 January 1578, the Bristol Corporation Audit Books contain the following entry showing that by this date the issue of Bristol tokens had been officially authorised by the Privy Council :

“Of Mr Mayor in copper Tokens, the sum of £15 to be de-

livered to the Commons of this City and to be current for farthing

tokens and not current elsewhere but within the liberties of this

City, according to a warrant procured by Mr. Smythe and Mr.

John Cole from Her Majesty’s Privy Council.”

Bristol was the only town which received such an authorisation during Elizabeth’s reign. The moneyer of these tokens was Edward Evenet, goldsmith, probably a son or nephew of Giles Evenet, the engraver to the Bristol mint under Henry VIII and Edward VI. Between 1578 and 1583, more than 100,000 of these square tokens were issued, and the number was probably much larger as the Audit Books for two years during that period are missing. These tokens continued to be issued from time to time during the rest of the reign.

Almost all the square copper or bronze tokens of Bristol fall into one or other of two types. That with coat-of-arms comprising ship right of castle, in shield in circle, is stylistically akin to the reverses of Giles Evenet’s groats of Henry VIII and Edward VI, and were probabiy the work of Edward Evenet from 1578 on- wards. That with coat-of-arms comprising the ship right of castle within a circle, may have been produced about 1597 by Thomas Wall, whose son John Wall was Bristol’s first tobacco-pipe maker apprentice."

Some rare lead pieces remain to be considered. Examples are known bearing the ship and castle coat-of-arms and the letters C B and the date 1511; but as Bristol did not become a city until 1542 this date is probably an error unless the C B stands for Communitas Bristoli, which is rather unlikely. Others are dated 1591 and 1598, and the obverses of all these, with the possible ex- ception of that dated 1511, are probably from the same die in 1. Seaby, P. J. (1964). “The sixteenth and seventeenth century tokens in