1610 Mary Long 1661 tokens

Life History

Notes

• The Rose Tavern was a popular venue in London's Covent garden. William and later Mary minted their own tokens for the tavern. Those shown here are from an auction catalogue, this particulalr section containing tokens of establishments frequented and known to the diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703).
  
  [http://http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1w3la/Tokens11Apr12/resources/41.htm]
  
  In 1672 several traders who issued such tokens were taken into custody pending prosecution, but they were released upon submission. A Royal Proclamation of 1674 enjoined the prosecution of people who issued such base coinage and in 1675 the private token ceased to be commonly used as currency.
  
  [All about Coffeee, by William H Ukers published by the Library of Alexandria]
  
  
  
  
• The second token pictured is of a find by a metal detectorist on Thames foreshore at Wapping. It is Farthing token issued between 1648-1661 with a Rose emblem on one side and WM L (William & Mary Long) on the other. It reads "At the Rose Tavern In Coven Garden".
  
  The picture is from the UK metal detector finds database at http://www.ukdfd.co.uk/.
  
  The catalogue (Williamson) comments:
  
  William Long appears in the rate-books, 1651 and 1657, among the assessed on the east side of Bridges Street; and in the burial register he is noticed as buried in the churchyard, August 5th, 1661.
  
  His widow, Mary Long, issued a token as from Russell Street. Her name is on the rate book, 1663 assessed at 12s., and the Theatre Royal, 40s.
  
  
• The house was distinguished by the device of a large, well-painted rose, erected over a doorway, which was the only indication in the street of such an establishment. Ned Ward, that coarse observer, in the "London Spy," 1709, describes the "Rose," anciently the "Rose and Crown," as famous for good wine. "There was no parting," he says, "without a glass; so we went into the Rose Tavern in the Poultry, where the wine, according to its merit, had justly gained a reputation; and there, in a snug room, warmed with brush and faggot, over a quart of good claret, we laughed over our night's adventure. The tavern door was flanked by two columns twisted with vines carved in wood, which supported a small square gallery over the portico, surrounded by handsome ironwork. On the front of this gallery was erected the sign. It consisted of a central compartment containing the Rose, behind which the artist had introduced a tall silver cup, called "a standing bowl," with drinking glasses.
  
  The sign appears to have been a costly work, since there was the fragment of a leaf of an old accountbook found when the ruins of the house were cleared after the Great Fire, on which were written these entries:"Pd. to Hoggestreete, the Duche paynter, for ye picture of a Rose, wth a Standingbowle and glasses, for a signe, xx li., besides diners and drinkings; also for a large table of walnut-tree, for a frame, and for iron-worke and hanging the picture, v li." The artist who is referred to in this memorandum could be no other than Samuel Van Hoogstraten, a painter of the middle of the seventeenth century, whose works in England are very rare.
  
  The tavern was rebuilt after the Great Fire, and flourished many years. It was long a dep?t in the metropolis for turtle; and in the quadrangle of the tavern might be seen scores of turtle, large and lively, in huge tanks of water; or laid upward on the stone floor, ready for their destination.
  
  [From British History Online. Old and New London: Volume 1
  By Walter Thornbury]
  
  

Sources

• 1. Apprenticeship Records
• 2. Will of Mary Long 1674
• 3. FamilySearch