the Chertsey town token, and the same humour is noticeable upon other of the Surrey tokens. Thus, for instance, a thorn bush, or Glastonbury Holy Thorn, appears on the token of Edward Bush, of Croydon.

A King's head is borne by Robert King, of Richmond, etc.; a swan, by Elizabeth Swan, of Rotherhithe.

In most cases the sign of the shop or business appears on the tokens, so that the token is what is termed a speaking type. Robert Lloyd, of Croydon, at the Greyhound, bears a greyhound; and two Lambeth issuers bear the Wild Boar and the Bear and Ragged Staff, and describe themselves as of the Blue Boar, and of the Bare and Raged Stafe.

Another trades at Yo Punchinelly, and bears Punch in a chair, and a Putney issuer is at the Red Lion, and puts a lion passant gardant on his token of unusual and peculiar character. There are a few special tokens among the Surrey series. John Sole, of Battersea, bears a bird with a garter, and an Earl's coronet above it, as though be claimed connection with a noble family. Thomas Lusher, of Chiddingfold, has the curious device of "two pipes and a roll of tobacco;" and John Luffrum, of Egham, has a coach and pair of horses. Several Farnham issuers have a castle, as referring to Farnham Castle, upon their tokens, and most of the Guildford tokeners have a castle upon their tokens also, as a reference both to the old keep and the town arms.

The Kingston issuers, in many cases, also bear portions of the Kingston arms upon their tokens, "The Three Salmons hauriant."

Other curious devices are the one on the tokens of Edmonds, of Lambeth, which represents two porters holding a kind of handbarrow, and a third loading it with a sack; and the one of Joseph Hall, of Newington, who states that he is "AT OLD SMUGGS," at Newington Butts, and gives a smith working at an anvil on his token. What is known as the Guildford Postman's tokens has a postman upon it with a very long staff, and two varieties of the token differ in the head-gear worn by the postman; one has a quaint, high hat, and the other a very low hat and a wig, and the issuer is supposed to have lived at Compton, as his initials are found cut into Compton Church in a similar fashion to the engraving on the token. Peter White, of Mortlake, was evidently in doubt as to how to fill up the space on his token, and so put the royal motto, "Honi soit qui inal y pense," and curiously accompanied it with the arms of the City of London!

It has been interesting to find out odd bits of information respecting the issuers of several of these quaint little pieces, and although the information obtained is often of a disjointed character, it throws light upon the possessions and position of the traders. The Hearthtax Rolls often mention the assessment of the issuers. Some were assessed at four, others at eight hearths; some are declared as free for various reasons, either for poverty or by widowhood.

Richard Greene, of Battersea, was a Constable of the parish. Steven Theckstone, of the same place, is specially dubbed "Mr.," and is assessed at no less than nineteen hearths.

Then, again, the Subsidy Rolls often mention their names, and the Exchequer Bills and other records. An issuer at Bramley was a Popish recusant, and her estate at Southwark declared forfeited to the Crown. An issuer at Chertsey, William Burnett, was an Anabaptist teacher, and received in 1672 a special license to teach in the house of William Longhurst, in Chertsey. Thomas Lusher, of Chiddingfold, was churchwarden, overseer, and surveyor for the poor in his native parish, and evidently a man of importance in the place; his family were old residents in the neighbourhood.

The rolls of the Feet of Fines again often tell us little bits of information on these seventeenth-century traders, and we learn of their landed property and of its transfer by purchase or deed.

These fines were practically deeds transferring land, not payments, as we now understand the word. They were nominally the “finis” or end of a fictitious suit. Fines which did not relate exclusively to real property operated nominally as an amicable arrangement putting an end (finis) to a hostile suit in the King's Court, and early became a popular method of conveyance, not only from their efficacy, but from the safety insured to a purchaser by the fact of a duplicate of the foot of the fine being preserved as a record in the custody of the Court. They had somewhat the effect also of a registration of title.

One man at Cranleigh is declared as living in the street and without home, while the other issuer in this little village was a man of large means, and by his will bequeaths considerable estate in land. Several wills of issuers have been discovered in the Probate Court, and their mention of land under curious local names, often still well known, makes them of especial interest; while the persistence of local names, as Didlesfold, Mower, Strudwick, Enticknap, and Gaston, all from the villages of Cranleigh or Bramley, is one of the more striking features of our Surrey village life. Sometimes the information is gathered from other sources, as, for instance, the gallery of Croydon Church records the name of the man who issued the only heart-shaped Surrey token, and who was churchwarden when the gallery was erected.

At Ewell a token is issued by Samuel Hawkins, and on searching the parish registers for this small hamlet, the name of Hawkins seems to fill up the greater portion of the entries. From 1600 to 1776, the registers are full of entries of births, deaths, and baptisms of member of this family, who seem to have been a very large family, and evidently formed the leading residents of the place. The other Ewell token is hardly decipherable, but bears a most unusual name, Ferdinando Dow, and conjecture is busy to determine whether this issuer was of Spanish or of Dutch extraction.

Many a quaint entry in the churchwardens' books at Farnham, and many a tombstone at Guildford, have been laid under contribution to furnish information.

In one case we read of a woman issuer standing and doing public penance in Farnham Church for offence, and of a Guildford issuer, one John Martin, we learn quite a little history. Apprenticed by the overseers as a town poor boy, serving his master faithfully and well,

rising to be Mayor of his native town, and being elected several times, subscribing largely to a fund for welcoming Charles II. on his visit to the town in 1663, becoming churchwarden, Bailiff, overseer for his parish, and living to the age of 75, and then being buried with great honour, form a series of interesting links of information in the life of a successful hardworking Surrey trader of the seventeenth century. Then the religious scruples of some of these sturdy men must not be overlooked, and Besse's "Sufferings of the Quakers" tells us that many of them belonged to that most persecuted sect, and suffered hard things for conscience' sake. A Kingston issuer, Fielder, signed the celebrated Quakers' petition in 1659, and had a distress, amounting to £23, served upon him for attending meeting, and later on was committed to prison for refusing to take an oath. Another Kingston issuer, Hubbard, was cruelly beaten, "to keep him," as the record curiously adds, "out of his meeting-house," and fined £20 per month for absence from national worship.

John Hollis, of Kingston, was imprisoned in the Marshalsea for non-payment of tithes, and fined for attendance at meeting, and in Guildford several issuers were fined for refusing to take an oath of office as Bailiff, and removed from their position. Some of these issuers expressly declared their children as "Borne" in the column of the church register apportioned to baptisms, and in this way also declared their religious scruples.

Our forefathers in the Government of the day had strange and harsh methods of obtaining what they were pleased to term unity and uniformity; and these sufferings for conscience' sake, so little ago as 1670, are remnants of a bygone practice that we are thankful to feel will never be renewed. Of a far more pleasant character is the epitaph on the tomb of Charles Salter, of Kingston, another tokener, which records the decease of himself at the age of 83, and his wife at that of 77, within twenty days of each other, and which continues its narrative in these words:

"And God took them. They lived a pattern

Of conjugal affection, and when one was gone
This world was no longer pleasing to the other."

Many inns named on tokens, and which were at the time good and well-known posting-houses, still remain; and the Swan, Haslemere; Red Lion, Richmond; Noah's Ark, Lambeth; Catherine Wheel, Egham; Hart, Chobham, are examples of many cases in which the present day and the old token tell the same tale, although it is to be feared that the measure of business done by many of these houses is very different now to what it was.

Robert King, of the King's Head, issued a token at Richmond, and this family kept that inn at the ferry for generations-the Protector's commission renewing the privilege at a rental of one mark per annum being still in existence.

It is of interest to note that Surrey tokens have been found in almost every county in the kingdom, a proof of the commercial importance of the county in those days.

THE EDITOR.

R. IN. BAGSHOTT = HIS HALF PENY.

In the Exchequer Bills, Surrey, Charles II., No. 191, we read: "Arthur Earl of Anglesea versus William Moore and others concerning tithes within the manors of Bagshot and Windlesham."

BARNES.

3. O. THOMAS. EMBERY. AT = The Blacksmiths' Arms.

R. IN. BARNES. 1667 = T. M. . E.

4. A variety is dated 1657.

5. O. CHARLES. GOODWIN HIS HALF PENY.

R. OF. BARNES. VINTNER = A bear.

He is charged for eight hearths in the hearth-taxes of Charles I. and II.

T. M. H

6. O. TIMOTHY. HARLEY. AT. THE = A man on horseback. R. HORSE. IN. BARNES. 1667 = HIS HALF PENY. In the Exchequer Bills, Surrey, Charles II., No. III, we read: "Timothy Harley, of Barnes, brewer, and Mary, his wife, versus Thomas Collins and Margaret, his wife (the said Mary being administratrix of all and singular the goods of Alice Lyford, late of Mortlake), concerning a legacy of £200, to which they consider themselves entitled."

Timothy Harlow is assessed at seven hearths in the hearth-taxes of Charles I. and II.

7. O. TIMOTHY. MARLEY. AT. THE = A man on horseback.

R. HORSE IN BARNES. 1667 = HIS HALF PENY.

This is probably from an error on the part of the die-sinker.

BATTERSEA.

8. O. RICHARD. GREENE HIS HALF PENY.

R. OF. BATTERSEY = Two oars crossed.

T. M.

Richard Greene was one of the constables in 15th Charles II., and was assessed at four hearths in both Charles I. and II.'s hearth-taxes.

9. O. IOHN. KEMP. IN. PVTNEY = The Cordwainers' Arms. R. OF. BATERSEY. 1663 = HIS HALF PENY.

10. O. IOHN. KEMP. IN = The Cordwainers' Arms. R. PVTNEY. OR BATERSEY=I. B. K. 1663.

11. O. Iohn. Sole. his. half. peny. 1668 (in four lines).

R. BATTERSEA

IN SVRRY = A bird within the garter and motto; above it an Earl's coronet.

He is assessed at six hearths in Hearth-tax 15th Charles II. The device is remarkable and very unusual. It would seem to imply that the issuer claimed connection with a noble family, or was the claimant to a dormant peerage.

12. O. STEVEN. THECKSTONS. G. T.

R. LYON IN. BATTERSEA = A lion.

(Lead.)

He is assessed at eleven hearths in both 15th and 17th Charles II. In a later tax of Charles II. he is charged with nineteen hearths, and is one of the few men dubbed "Mr."

BEDDINGTON.

13. O. ROBERT. HILLER. IN = (detrited).

R. BEDINGTON. IN. SVRREY = HIS HALF PENY.

No. 187-479 (14th Charles II.). Schedule of persons exempted from payment of hearth-tax-Robert Hiller was exempt.

15. A variety is spelt BLEACHINGley.

16. O. RICHARD. MILLS. AT = The Grocers' Arms.

R. BLECHINGLEY. 1656=R. M.

17. O. RICHARD. MILLS. AT = The Grocers' Arms.

R. BLECHINGLY. 1665 = R. M.

BRAMLEY.

18. O. IOSEPH. CHITTY = The Blacksmiths' Arms.

R. IN. BRAMLEY. 1666=1.S. C.

The following entries as to the family from the parish registers are kindly supplied by the Rev. Canon Coulson :

"William Chitty and Jane Plant married September 9, 1667."

'Jonah, the son of Jonah Shiti, baptized March 20, 1644.”

In the lists of Forfeited Estates, Surrey, No. 104, Bramley, we find Joseph Chitty occupier of a piece of ground belonging to Henrietta Copley, widow, Popish recusant in Southwark, at the yearly rental of £8.

In the Subsidy Rolls, Surrey, 16th Charles I., 1640, is this entry :

66

186-451. Jonas Chittie, of Bramley, 8s."

CAMBERWELL.

19. O. THOMAS . PHILIPS, AT . Ya = A bull's head.