New Hoards from Seventeenth-Century England Ii B.J
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NEW HOARDS FROM SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND II B.J. COOK 1. Davenham, Cheshire THIS group of thirty-two silver coins of Mary I and Elizabeth I was reported found on farmland near Davenham, Cheshire, by Mr C. Bailey in August 2000.1 Mr Bailey was metal-detecting on ploughland with the permission of the landowner. The coins were found in the sub-soil at a depth of about eighteen inches. Three of the coins were found stuck together, but the rest were scattered over approximately twenty square feet. The find was reported to the Cheshire coroner via Stephen Penny, curator of Salt Museum, of Cheshire Museums Service. A report on the coins was submitted to the coroner by the British Museum, on the basis of which the coins were declared to be Treasure at an inquest on 15 December 2000. The hoard was then acquired by Cheshire Museums Service. Davenham is a small village in the Hundred of Northwich. The coins consisted of just two denominations, twenty-nine shillings (one of Philip and Mary, and the rest of Elizabeth), and three groats (one of Mary and two of Elizabeth).2 The absence of any coins datable to the period 1561—82 is the result of this denomination selection, since no shillings or groats were produced in these years. If the find is categorised as essentially a group of shillings, the coins present fairly reflect the relative outputs of this denomination throughout Elizabeth's reign. The face value of the group was the round figure of thirty shillings. The latest coin present dates to 1601-2. There would be one further issue of shillings under Elizabeth, dating to 1602-3, which is not represented in the find, nor are the early issues of James I. Since the latter are not notably rare, it would be tempting to surmise that the group was deposited around 1603-4, perhaps even at the time of the queen's death. However, the size of the find would not in fact make such a suggestion overwhelm- ingly likely, since coins of James formed only a relatively small proportion of the currency well into his reign. There were, for example, just three coins of James among the fifty-seven coins of the Barrow Gurney hoard, deposited after 1605-6.3 The Cheshire findspot might be worth noting, since hoards from this county are not frequent things. The only other one in the area from the sixteenth and pre-Civil War seventeenth century appears to be the quite similar Mickle Trafford hoard.4 This had thirty-eight coins, all sixpences bar one shilling, hence a face value of 19s. 6d., and with the latest coin dating to 1594. Thus, it was a largely single-denomination silver hoard, of a similar sort of value, deposited within a decade or so of Davenham. Whereas Mickle Trafford is a little north-east of Chester, towards the Mersey, Davenham is further east, on the outskirts of Northwich. Dolley noted the frequent com- plaints in Cheshire about the depredations of soldiers en route for Ireland in the late Elizabethan period, which might have inspired a habit of the concealment of relatively small sums by the locals, if such an inducement was especially needed. The shillings in the hoard have an average weight of 5.72 g (95 per cent of the standard). There is hardly any published metrological information for late Elizabethan hoards to give this context. This would certainly be a reasonably good level for Elizabethan shillings in early to mid seven- teenth-century hoards, although most of these are, inevitably, from the 1640s.5 1 The hoard was briefly noted in the Treasure Annual Report 2000, no. 285, p. 130. 2 For comments on the role of coins of Mary in later currency, particularly her groats, see B J. Cook, 'Recent Tudor hoards', BNJ 64(1994), at pp. 79-80. 1 B.J. Cook, 'Four seventeenth century treasure troves', BNJ 60 (1990), at pp. 87-8. 4 R.H. Dolley and G. Webster, 'An 1895 find of Elizabethan silver coins', BNJ 27 (1955), 93-4. 5 See Appendix in B.J. Cook, 'New hoards from seventeenth century England'. BNJ 69 (1999), at pp. 171-2. 96 NEW HOARDS FROM SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND II CATALOGUE Mary alone (1553-4) No. Weight (g) Groat 1 1.64 1. im pomegranate Philip and Mary (1554-8) Shilling 5.4 2. full titles, undated, XII Elizabeth I (1558-1603) Shilling 8 6.02 6.14 5.83 4.8 5.46 3-10. cross crosslets (1560-1) 5.93 5.95 5.94 11-17. martlet (1560-1) 7 5.73 5.76 5.71 5.82 5.34 5.91 6.02 18-20. escallop (1584/5-87) 3 5.61 6.02 6.32 21. crescent (1587-89/90) 1 5.3 22. hand (1589/90-91/2) 1 6.02 23-4. tun (1591/2-94) 2 4.66 5.63 25-8. woolpack (1594-95/6) 4 5.8 5.71 5.5 5.54 29-30. 1 (1601-2) 2 5.64 5.95 Groat 31. cross crosslet 1.69 32. martlet 1.48 (damaged) 2. Kingston Deverill, Wilts. A group of 169 coins was reported found at Kingston Deverill on 15 March 2000 by Ms V. MacRae and Messrs D. Stratton and B. Read.6 They were delivered to the British Museum on 20 June. They were catalogued, and, since no museum had an interest in their acquisition, the find was disclaimed by the Secretary of State on 8 August, and returned to its finders. In 2002 Ms MacRae and Mr Read recovered a further five coins from the site of the original find, which were similarly recorded and disclaimed. Kingston Deverill is about 4 kilometres north-east of Mere, a village on chalkland, with limited agricultural potential, and distinctly poor in the seventeenth century. All told, the finds consisted of 172 official English silver coins from the reigns of Mary I, Elizabeth I and James I, along with two Spanish coins of Ferdinand and Isabella. They can be summarised as follows: 1 shilling of Philip and Mary (1554-8) 40 shillings and 96 sixpences of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) 22 shillings and 11 sixpences of James I (1603-25) 2 1-reales in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain (issued 1497-c. 1520s) The Kingston Deverill coins clearly represent a selected body of material, since they consist mostly of two denominations (shillings and sixpences), and lack both the high value gold coinage, and the plentiful lower denominations of the time. In this it is, of course, typical of early seventeenth-century hoards. The latest coin present dates to 1605, and it is likely that the group was deposited in, or within a few years of, this date. The face value of the English coins at the time was £5 lSs. The presence of the Spanish coins is a noteworthy feature of the find, though there are several other examples of Jacobean and Civil War hoards in which such coins have a presence: for exam- ple, the hoard of fifty-nine coins from Barrow Gurney, Avon, itself probably deposited in 1605, which also contained two 1-real pieces.7 It is possible that the links between Bristol and Ireland, 6 Treasure Annual Report 2000, no. 286, p. 130. 7 Cook, as in n. 3, pp. 87-8 NEW HOARDS FROM SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND II where Spanish silver played an important part in the currency, may account for the appearance of such coins in the south-west of England. Barrow Gurney is, of course, in the immediate environs of Bristol, but while Kingston Deverill is much further inland, it is not far from a significant route, the road from Bristol and Bath to Salisbury, further to the east. Another recent Jacobean hoard, dating to c.l620, also included a real of Ferdinand and Isabella among its 164 coins, but this came from London.8 The average weight of the coins is quite high, with the sixpences of Elizabeth the only element pulling it down a little. This is another feature which has close parallels with the Barrow Gurney hoard, though the Elizabethan sixpences there were rather better. These two hoards might appear to suggest that the silver currency of the west was in quite a good state in the early Jacobean period, even allowing for the possibility of selection in the creation of the hoards. Neither is, after all, a particularly large assemblage of coins. Nevertheless, the possible impact of selection should not be ignored, bearing in mind the poorer level of the Bull Wharf hoard, deposited c. 1613—5.9 Weight summary (g) Shillings Sixpences 1 2 3 1 2 3 Elizabeth 1561 5.81 10 96.5 1561-83 2.82 74 93.7 1583-1603 6.06 30 100.7 2.81 24 93.4 whole reign 6.0 40 99.7 2.82 98 93.7 James I 5.92 22 98.3 2.97 10 98.7 CATALOGUE ENGLAND Philip and Mary (1554-8) No. Weight (g) 1. Shilling English titles 1554 1 6.0 Elizabeth I (1558-1603) Shilling2. lis (1558-60) 1 5.68 3-5. cross crosslet (1560-1) 3 5.73 5.85 5.84 6-11. martlet (1560-1) 6 5.96 5.76 5.43 5.98 5.99 12-13. bell (1582/3-83) 2 6.07 6.05 14-18. A (1583-84/5) 5 5.9 6.11 5.87 5.84 19-22.