Two Coin Hoards of the Rebellion Period (1641-9) from Ulster
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
TWO COIN HOARDS OF THE REBELLION PERIOD (1641-9) FROM ULSTER By W. A. SEABY DRUMENAGH TOWNLAND, CO. Derry, March 1955 IN February 1955 Mr. Frederick Watterson, a farmer at Drumenagh near the north-western corner of Lough Neagh, Co. Londonderry, was reploughing a field on his farm, known as the Bog, which had first been cultivated in 1953 (Irish Grid Ref. H937.874; O.S. 6 in. Londonderry sheet 47). On 5 March he dug a shallow drain across the field and saw a silver coin on top of the ground. He dug at the spot and came across more coins buried in four separate piles, the top of each being only some five inches from the ploughed surface. On the evening of 4 May Dr. William Cousley, coroner for south Derry, conducted an inquest in Magherafelt Court House and returned a verdict of treasure trove, all 132 coins being retained by the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Crown. Later an examination was made at the British Museum by Dr. J. P. C. Kent who noted the discoloration of some of the pieces and advised that they should be checked for gilding since Stuart silver coins were often gilded in an attempt to pass them as gold. However, subsequent examination by Mr. Martyn Jope, Queen's University, showed that the discoloration was due to com- pacted iron-staining which was easily removable. It was decided that the hoard should be retained intact by the Ministry of Finance and placed on temporary exhibition in the Belfast Museum, pending the setting up of a State Museum in Northern Ireland. The finder, Mr. Watterson, was rewarded with £30, representing the full market value of the coins. The coins which compose this hoard are of good quality silver. They cover a period of approximately eighty-eight years from the reign of Mary to 1642. With the exception of two, one from Spanish America and a Scottish thirty- shilling piece, they consist entirely of English half-crowns, shillings, and six- pences all struck at the Tower Mint, London. Together they make up a face value total of £6. 4s. 6d. During the period covered by the hoard coins of debased silver were minted for Ireland, but in 1637 Charles I abolished the name and title of the Irish money or 'harps' and proclaimed that all payments should be made in English money.1 This was done largely to counter the practice of hoarding gold and silver or, worse still, of melting it down to make table plate, while allowing coins of baser metals to circulate freely for purposes of normal trade. It will be seen that no Irish types appear in the list, although occasionally they have appeared in other hoards. 1 Council Order Book A 42, No. 34; Simon, Essay on Irish Coins (1749, reprinted 1810), App. No. xlv, 113. HOARDS OF THE REBELLION PERIOD (1641-9) FROM ULSTER 405 The hoard can be classed as a typical assemblage of regal money brought together about the time of the Civil War in Britain. Such finds are common in England and many of the same period have come to light in Ireland, both from the north and south of the country. They may be said to be directly associated with the economic and political stress which resulted from the Catholic uprising during the years 1641-3. In order to put down the Irish rebellion the English House of Commons during November 1641 resolved to borrow £50,000 from the City of London, for which full security was to be given;1 orders were passed that a sum of £20,000 be sent over to Ireland without delay, that ships be sent to guard the coast, and a force of 6,000 foot and 2,000 horse be raised and dispatched to Dublin. It was further resolved that negotiations should be opened with the Scots for a force of 2,000 foot and 500 horse to be landed in Ulster.2 Within a short space of time, however, owing to the success of the rebels in the North, the English Commons complied with the wishes of the Irish Government in June 1642 by increasing the sum for the prosecution of the war to £100,000.3 To raise further funds in Ireland the lord justices in Dublin issued a proclamation (14 January 1642) to encourage loyal subjects to bring in their gold and silver plate for service of the Government.4 This was coined into provisional pieces bearing stamps of different weight-values and known today as Inchiquin money, after Murrough, Viscount Inchiquin.5 In the following year a further supply of money was struck in Dublin, each piece bearing on one side a crowned C.R. and on the reverse the respective value (Vs, lis Vid, Xlld, VId, &c.). This coinage is usually referred to as Ormonde money after the Marquis, later Duke, of Ormonde.6 Such 'money of necessity' is of good weight and fineness, but it is noteworthy that none occurs in the Drumenagh find. As there are twenty-four coins (more than one-sixth of the whole and amounting to a little over one-quarter of the total value) issued in London after 1640, it may be assumed that part of the hoard, and probably all of it, is made up from the moneys sent to Ireland by the English Parliament. It follows, therefore, that the coins may represent either a direct payment to someone in authority for support of the Crown forces, or may possibly have formed part of an English army pay bag.7 Their general state, very worn in the earlier 1 Ramsay Colles, History of Ulster iii (1919), 27; Calendar State Papers domestic 1641-3, 154, 158, 159 (2, 4, and 5 Nov.), Commons J. ii. 300 (1 Nov.), 303-4 (3 Nov.), 308 (9 Nov.). 2 C. S. P. dom. 1641-3, 162, 164 (11 Nov.). 3 C. S. P. dom. 1641-3, 345 (22 June 1642). For general accounts of the financing of British troops in Ireland during the Rebellion, and the methods used in raising loans through the City of London, and from the Irish Adventurers, see Hugh Hazlett, Irish Historical Studies i (1938-9), 21-41, J. R. MacCormack, ibid, x (1956-7), 21-39 with Appendix, 39-58. It would appear that whereas the House of Commons, under Pym, was raising large sums and forces for the suppression of the Irish rising in the North, in point of fact much of the money and many of the troops were diverted and used by the Parliamentarians in their struggle against the king when the English Civil War broke out during the summer of 1642. 4 Council Order Book A 42, No. 71; Simon, Essay on Irish Coins (1749, reprinted 1810), App. No. xlvii, 116. 5 Aquilla Smith, J. Roy. Soc. Antiq. Ireland vi (1860-1), 11-20. 6 Aquilla Smith, ibid, iii (1854-5), 16-24. 7 Three paymaster's bags of leather, in the collection of the Museum and Art Gallery, Belfast (Acc. Nos. 945 to 947-1897), were rescued in 1897 from the warehouse of a London slipper manu- facturer who had purchased them, with some hundreds of others, to cut up as linings. Each bears 406 TWO COIN HOARDS OF THE pieces but improving steadily to almost mint condition in the latest, appears consistent with a rapid assembly from coinage in circulation. Like most of the other hoards found in the country, this one appears to have been deliberately hidden, with the intention of later recovery by the owner, for the coins were neatly arranged and were at a comparatively shallow depth in the ground. It would seem that each pile had been rolled in paper or placed in some similar covering, such as cloth, which had long since perished.1 The deposition probably took place towards the end of 1641 or early in 1642; the hoard is unlikely to have been placed there after 1643 by reason of the fact that the initial-marks on the coins of Charles I stop at 'triangle in circle' (1641-3).2 The Scottish thirty-shilling piece of Charles I, struck by Falconer, is in very fine condition and dates from 1638 to 1641; such coins were nominally only current in England and Ireland for half-a-crown.3 It may have arrived with the Scottish troops who landed at Carrickfergus during April 1642 and who brought with them money, arms, and other supplies;4 there is no reason, however, why this coin should not have come into the country either direct from Scotland or through England at a somewhat earlier date. Its condition is such that it can only have passed through comparatively few hands before deposition. The Spanish-American piece of eight reals, bearing the arms of the Royal House of Spain, is, by contrast with the Scottish coin, a travesty of design and execution, being so mis-struck and clipped that it is impossible to see whose inscription it bears.5 These 'pieces-of-eight' must have circulated quite extensively in Ireland where they were valued at between As. 6d. and As. 9d., a higher figure than that at which they passed in England.6 Below is set out a detailed list of the coins found at Drumenagh, while Appendix I summarizes some twenty-seven hoards of the Civil War period found in Ireland; it does not claim to be exhaustive. Of these, twelve or more have been reported in sufficient detail to show their composition, and an analysis of eleven with percentages is given in Appendix II.