Miller Christy

... “And make my image but an ale-house sign.”
Shakespeare: Henry V., Part II., Act iii., Scene 2.

THE next class of signs to be treated of is that which includes those derived from “Man and His Parts,” as the old books on Heraldry have it. Such signs may be styled “Human Signs.” They are numerous, though usually of but very slight interest; and, as might be expected, very few are of heraldic origin. In speaking of them it will not be necessary to give much more than a mere list. The numerous “heads” obviously indicate a portrait once to have been the sign; and most of these portraits represent persons of very modern fame. Many Human Signs have already been noticed under the heading “Arms,” and elsewhere, and it will be quite unnecessary to refer to them again.

By no means a few of our inns are named after personages who have made themselves eminent either in the political, military, literary, or social worlds. The mere mention of these will call to mind many historical events of importance during the last two centuries. Thus our six examples of the Duke of Wellington, our two of the Wellington, and our six of the Duke’s Head, remind us of the hero of Talavera and Salamanca—the Duke of his day—who died in 1852. A Duke’s Head, however, which existed at Hatfield Broad Oak in 1789, evidently commemorated some other and earlier Duke, perhaps one of the Dukes of York. There is also a Duke of Wellington (beer-house) at Bocking. The Admiral Rous at Galleywood, where Chelmsford Races are held, commemorates the father of modern English racing, who died only a year or two ago. The Oliver Twist at Leyton was doubtless set up in honour of the popular Dickens, who well deserves further sign-board honours. The same may be said of another great Englishman, who is commemorated only by the Shakespeare’s Head at Canning Town. In various parts of the county we meet with two examples of the Earl of Essex, one of the Duke of Norfolk, three of the Grosvenor, one of the Lord Henniker, and one of the Clifton, all of which were unquestionably set up in honour of great titled families. Statesmen are represented by two examples of the Earl of Derby, one of the Lord Stanley, one of the Lord Palmerston, two of the Clarendon, and one of the Pitt’s Head. Lord Denman alone seems to have been selected to represent the legal profession. Among great military commanders, we have the Marquis of Granby (represented by three examples), the Lord Raglan (by three), the Lord Gough (by one), the Marlborough’s Head (by three—one of which is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle in 1764, while another at Maldon, not now existing, is mentioned in the same paper on March 2, 1787), and the *Blucher’s Head (by one at Romford). The King of Prussia still figures as a sign at *Stratford. Prominent Indian officers seem to be well represented. Thus we have a General Havelock (very modern), a Sir Colin Campbell, and a Sir John Lawrence. Sign-writers seem to have been unable to keep pace with the rapid promotion of these gentlemen. For instance, the first became Sir Henry Havelock so long ago as 1857; the second became Lord Clyde in the same year, and died in 1863; while the third was created Lord Lawrence in 1869, and died in 1879. Eminent naval commanders are commemorated by four examples of the Lord Nelson, one of the Nelson’s Head, and one of the Lord Napier. Sixty years ago, too, there was a *Duncan’s Head at Colchester. It was doubtless in honour of Admiral Duncan, who died in 1804. Larwood and Hotten do not notice this sign. The Rodney at Little Baddow is a house well known to the worshippers of “St. Lubbock” and to other holiday-keepers in the neighbourhood of Chelmsford. It, of course, commemorates Admiral Lord Rodney, who died in 1792.

Mr. H. W. King writes:

“The taking of Porto Bello in 1739, and the popularity of Admiral Vernon at the time, caused many Vernon’s Heads. One formerly existing at *Rochford is now demolished and has ceased to be. Either entirely new inns were thus named, or else old signs were abolished to make way for the portrait of the new favourite. Probably there were often similar changes for the sake of popularity.”

One of the most notable signs in the county belonging to this class is the Sir Wilfrid Lawson at Woodford. It will be quite unnecessary to state that this is not an ordinary inn-sign. A Conservative politician would be more likely to deliver himself of an oration in praise of Mr. Gladstone and his virtues, than a publican to erect a sign to the honour of Sir Wilfrid Lawson. The house which exhibits this sign is a Coffee Tavern erected by an ardent abstainer and opened by Sir Wilfrid in May, 1883. The following amusing lines were penned by a member of the company present at the opening. They are, it is said, still to be seen in the house.

“All hops abandon, ye who enter here;
The wicked Wilfrid haunts this Watery Cavern;
No wine, no whisky, nor even bitter beer,
Flow through the channels of this Coffee Tavern.
The steaming coffee and the fragrant tea
Are ready, where each eye can plainly see ’em;
Tea-total, then, let each incomer be,
And while ‘Te-total’ let him sing Te Deum.”

On the map of the road between London and Harwich, given in Ogilby’s Itinerarium AngliÆ, published in 1675, a house—presumably an inn—called the Monk’s Head is shown on the east side of the road, exactly opposite New Hall Park. There can be no doubt that this sign represented, not the head of an ecclesiastic, but that of General Monk, the great promoter of the Restoration, although he had been created Duke of Albemarle some fifteen years before. After the Restoration, New Hall was purchased by, or for, General Monk, and he lived there, as Morant says, “in very great splendour, to the diminution of his estates.” He died in 1670, and was succeeded by his son. Forty years ago there was a Friar’s Inn in Fryer’s Street, Chelmsford, but it has now disappeared. At Rayleigh there is a Paul Pry (beer-house). At Widford a beer-house keeper has adopted as his sign that modern, though distinguished, Essex worthy, Sir Evelyn Wood. Another at Waltham Abbey has selected the Sultan. Others, at Saffron Walden and Waltham Abbey respectively, do honour to the Old English Gentleman. Probably these latter have in their minds the hero of the song, rather than any gentleman in particular. At Theydon Garnon there is a Merry Fiddlers, which displays no less than three sign-boards. At Becontree Heath there is a beer-shop with the same sign. The landlord of the former states that, although he has endeavoured to unearth the meaning of his sign, he has hitherto failed. He adds, however, that, previous to his own occupation, the house had been in one family for many generations, and that for long it displayed a pictorial sign-board representing Three Fiddlers, but these have of late given place to the present sign. What particular three fiddlers are meant, is difficult to explain. The house bore merely its present name of the Merry Fiddlers in 1789. Larwood and Hotten do not mention the sign. At Abbots Roothing there is a Coopers (beer-house), a sign which is doubtless the same as that of the Coopers’ Arms. At Willingale Doe there is a Ferry Man. Probably he has retired from business and settled there, as it is hard to discover any ferry at that place. About sixty-five years ago *Bishop Blays, the patron saint of wool-combers, appeared as a sign at Colchester. It was a most appropriate sign in that town in the seventeenth century, when it was an important seat of the woollen trade. *Neptune appears beside his “native element” at the Hythe, Colchester. Sixty years ago there was a *Jolly Sailor at Harwich, a *Sailor’s Return at Grays, and a *Mariner at Colchester. These signs were all appropriate enough, being situated in maritime places, but the same cannot be said of the *Three Mariners which appeared at Chelmsford at the same period. Sixty years ago, too, there was to be seen at Colchester the curious sign of the *Sailor and Ball, which Larwood and Hotten do not mention. Probably it was not an impaled sign, but took its name from some game of ball played by sailors.

Numerous other signs are connected with Royalty. Thus we have two examples of the Albert, one of the Royal Albert, one of the Albert House, one of the King of Prussia (formerly a very common sign), one of the Queen Adelaide (which is at least forty years old), one of the Queen Elizabeth, four of the Prince Alfred, one of the Duke of Cambridge, two of the Duke of Edinburgh (neither of which existed twenty years ago), one of the Clarence (of course commemorating the Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William IV.), three of the Duke of York (probably commemorating the second son of George III., who died in 1827, though one or more of the earlier Dukes of York may also be intended), five of the Royal Inn, one of the Queen, one of the Queen Victoria, ten of the Victoria, one of the Royal Sovereign, one of the Royal Arms, one of the Royal Forest Hotel, one Royal Steamer, one Royal Essex Arms, five of the Royal Hotel, eighteen of the Royal Oak, one of the Old Royal Oak, one of the King’s Oak, four of the Royal Standard, three of the Queen’s Arms, nineteen of the Queen’s Head, seventeen of the King’s Arms, forty-nine of the King’s Head, one of the Old King’s Head, twelve of the Prince of Wales, one of the Princess of Wales, one of the Prince Albert Victor, one of the Princess Alice, two of the Princess Alexandra, one of William the Conqueror (at Widdington), two of William the Fourth, and two of King William the Fourth, one of which is placed at a “four-want-way” at Leaden Roothing, and forms a landmark well known to every one who rides to hounds or travels by road in “The Roothings.” The King William and the King William IV. are both common beer-house signs, probably because the act authorizing the opening of these houses was passed in his reign. The beer-retailers of the time, when casting about for a sign, naturally selected the sovereign of their day. In the first form the sign occurs at Bocking, Springfield, &c., and under the latter at Braintree, Chigwell, and elsewhere. The Prince of Wales, too, is a very common beer-house sign, as also the Victoria, the Queen Victoria, the Queen’s Head, and the Queen’s Arms. Prince Alfred is commemorated on a beer-house sign at Chigwell. At the same place is a British Queen (beer-house), by which probably is intended Queen Boadicea, who received her last overthrow in the neighbourhood. The Prince of Orange still figures as a beer-house sign at Chelmsford. The sign of Prince of Wales’ Head existed at Harwich in 1764, as it is mentioned in a number of the Chelmsford Chronicle for that year; and a Royal Mortar (whatever that might be) was to be seen at Colchester twenty years ago. Messrs. Larwood and Hotten mention the strange sign of the *Three Queens, which was, until lately, to be seen at Moulsham. They surmise that it was suggested by the common sign of the Three Kings, of which we have no example in Essex, unless the Three Travellers, which occurs near Romford, and is apparently unique, be another form of it. The three kings represent the three wise men or Magi from the East. A writer in Notes and Queries (1st Series, vol. viii. p. 627) says that the following rhyme was formerly appended to the sign of a Victoria beer-shop at Coopersale:—

“The Queen some day
May pass this way
And see our Tom and Jerry;[86]
Perhaps she’ll stop
And stand a drop
To make her subjects merry.”

On the other side of the sign-board were some different lines which the writer had forgotten.

The sign of the King’s Head is by no means of modern introduction. It occurs on the seventeenth century tokens of Robert Adson of Colchester in 1668, of Thomas Bribrist of Felstead (no date), and of Thomas Livermer of Wethersfield, and it is mentioned in advertisements in the Chelmsford Chronicle for March 10, 1787, as then occurring at Prittlewell and Stebbing. As the sign still exists at all these places, except Felstead and Wethersfield, it is at least probable that the same houses which were known by it in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are known by it now. The famous King’s Head, opposite the church at Chigwell, so well described by Dickens in Barnaby Rudge under the name of the Maypole, has been already spoken of (p. 113). It is a long, large, plastered building, with many gables, and projecting upper storeys—evidently dating from the era of the Stuarts or earlier. Arthur Young, in 1771, declares that “of all the cursed roads that ever disgraced this kingdom in the very ages of barbarism, none ever equalled that from Billericay to the King’s Head at Tilbury.” In 1678 a King’s Head at Rickling formed a house of call for Poor Robin on his Perambulation from Saffron Walden to London. After recounting how he fared at the Black Bull at Newport, he says—

“We having dined and joined a pint or two,
Then forwards on my journey I did go;
And first came unto a town called Rickling,
Where for to stay I made no stickling,
But presently at the King’s Head fell a tippling,
Where of Compounding Dick[87] I there heard tell.”

The King’s Head on the Balkern Hill, Colchester, is an ancient and memorable inn, though the present house is not very old. At the time of the surrender of the town to Fairfax, in 1648, it was a general rendezvous of the noblemen and gentry of the Royalist party. Foxe, too, in his Book of Martyrs mentions that “at the Kinge’s Head in Colchester, and at other innes in the sayd towne, the afflicted Christians had set places appointed for themselves to meet at.” Mr. H. W. King has kindly informed the author that the King’s Head, now existing at Leigh, is not the same house as one which existed there under the same name in the eighteenth century. The latter is traceable (writes Mr. King) as a private house from 1671 to about 1720, being described in 1702 as a “messuage and shop.” Between 1718 and 1723 it was rebuilt, as in the latter year it is spoken of as a new house, and is described as an inn with the sign of the Queen’s Head. In 1740 it is described as “the Angel, heretofore the Queen’s Head.” In 1766 it is described as “the King’s Head, heretofore the Queen’s Head, afterwards the Angel.” It then became a private house, as it has ever since remained. It was probably soon after this, about 1766, that the present King’s Head at Leigh assumed that name. These three changes, all within the short space of fifty years, or less, are very interesting. They seem to suggest that the house was first named the Queen’s Head in honour of Queen Anne; but that, when she died in 1714, the same sign (perhaps slightly altered) was made to do duty for some time as an Angel, and still later was changed to the King’s Head, probably on the accession of one of the Georges. At Harold Wood there is a King Harold, which is no doubt connected with the name of the place. At Nazing, which was one of the estates with which Harold endowed the neighbouring Abbey of Waltham, there has been for at least a century past a King Harold’s Head.

The George, which occurs seventeen times in Essex, is another royal sign. In some instances it doubtless represents St. George, our patron saint, disconnected from his dragon; but, more probably, it has usually been set up—at least, of late—in honour of our Hanoverian kings. There is, however, abundant evidence that even as early as the very beginning of the seventeenth century, St. George, the Patron Saint of England, had already appeared on the sign-board without his usual antagonist the Dragon. Thus, “Blague, the merry host of the George at Waltham,” figures prominently in The Merry Divel of Edmonton, published in 1617—a curious play, which Kirkman attributed to Shakespeare. The scene is partly laid in Waltham Forest. Poor Robin, too, in his Perambulation also mentions a George at Bishops Stortford in 1678. Mr. H. W. King also finds evidence in ancient deeds that the George at Leigh was an inn as early as 1680, but the house itself is probably somewhat earlier. In 1777 it is described as “now and for some time past known as the sign of the George.” It had ceased to be an inn by 1801, though then and long afterwards described as “a messuage called the George,” the words “known by the sign of” being omitted. It was also a brewery. Mr. King also finds evidence in other ancient deeds of the existence of a George at Rayleigh in 1623, but whether an inn, shop, or private house, does not appear. The *George at Epping (perhaps identical with the George and Dragon which now occurs there) is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle in 1764; while the George at Halstead and the *George at Witham (perhaps both identical with the well-known houses now existing under the same name at each of those places) are frequently referred to in advertisements in the same paper for 1786, the latter as being then to let. A small stone slab, let into the front of the George and Dragon Inn at Wanstead, bears the following inscription:—

“Restorat. 1858. R. C.—In memory of y^e Cherrey Pey as cost ½ a Guiney, y^e 17th of July, 1752.

The George and Dragon also occurs eight times elsewhere in the county, as well as on several beer-house signs. At Chelmsford there is an Old George (beer-house). Mr. H. W. King also finds mention in early deeds of a house known as the George and Tankard at Shopland in 1579. It is not stated that it was an inn, but from the sign there can be very little doubt that it was. The appearance of an apparently impaled sign at so early a date is certainly very remarkable. Larwood and Hotten do not notice this device.

Various military signs occur at places where there are barracks. For instance, there are at Colchester houses with such signs as the Bugle Horn, the Artillery-man, the Rifleman, the Dragoon, the *Fencers (a sign which is at least forty years old, though it is not mentioned by Larwood

and Hotten), an Ordnance Arms, and a Royal Artillery; whilst at Great Warley there is a Horse Artillery and a Soldier’s Hotel, which seems to have been the Soldier’s Hope forty years ago. At Waltham Abbey there is a Volunteer; there are Riflemen at Colchester and Black Notley (beer-house); at Kelvedon Hatch there is a Guardsman, at Rettendon a Life Guards, and at Leyton a Grenadier. The figure of a Grenadier, here reproduced, is taken from the Gentleman’s Magazine for December, 1845 (p. 591), to which it was contributed by the late Mr. J. A. Repton, F.S.A., formerly of Springfield. A Soldier is represented on three different farthing tokens issued by John Allen of Braintree, one of which bears the date 1657. All bear his initials, but one has the inscription, “Turne a penny,” in the place of the name of the issuer. On these tokens the orthography is decidedly peculiar. Thus, Braintree is twice spelled “Brantre” and once “Brantry,” while Essex is twice spelled “Esex” and once “Esaxes.”

Among the more miscellaneous of Human Signs we meet with a Crown’s Inn at Ongar, a Forester at Coggeshall, a Forester’s Inn at Plaistow, an Ancient Foresters at Hatfield Broad Oak (all, of course, connected with the “ancient order”), three Freemasons’ Taverns, several Freemasons’ Arms, a Merry Fiddlers at Theydon Garnon, eight examples of the Cricketers (against five in 1862), two of the Cricketers’ Arms, a Jolly Cricketers, a Jolly Fisherman, a Jolly Sailor, a Sailor’s Return, two Welcome Sailors, an Old Welcome Sailor, a Three Travellers (perhaps representing the three wise men from the East), and a Minerva at Southend, which, as Mr. H. W. King has ascertained, was recently christened by its owner after a barge of the same name that he possessed. At Chigwell there has been for at least a century past a house with the sign of the Three Jolly Wheelers (whatever they might be). There are Travellers’ Friends at Moulsham and Woodford Wells (the former being at least forty years old), as well as a beer-house of the same name at Epping; Travellers’ Rests at Forest Gate and Wethersfield (the latter being a beer-house); Britannias at Canning Town, Barking, Southend, and Hornchurch (beer-house); and Two Brewers at *Stratford, Springfield, High Ongar, and Chigwell (beer-house). This is a sign once common, but now becoming rare. They were usually represented carrying a barrel of beer between them, slung on a pole. There are Woodmen at Halstead, Elmdon, Waltham Abbey, Stanford Rivers, Thundersley, Romford, &c., all but the first two being beer-houses. The Three Mariners is an odd sign which occurs at Colchester and at Moulsham (Chelmsford). At the latter place it seems to have existed for at least a century, being referred to in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 27, 1786. In the garden of the Adam and Eve at West Ham (p. 37) stands the remains of an old stone arch, now almost the only remaining portion of the ancient abbey of Stratford Langthorn. In the kitchen are (or were lately) a coffin, a seal, some coins, and some urns dug up in an adjoining field towards the end of last century. The Essex Head, in Essex Street, Strand, London, W.C., probably commemorates the Earl of Essex, who was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, rather than the county of that name. It clearly either takes its name from, or gives its name to, the street in which it stands. The inn was established in the last century. On the Forest, near High Beech, is a beer-shop known as the Dick Turpin’s Cave. It clearly takes its name from a hole in the ground not far distant, commonly spoken of as “Dick Turpin’s Cave.” The “cave” (if such it ever was) is now thickly overgrown with trees and brushwood. It is well known that Messrs. Dick Turpin and Co. especially haunted the neighbourhood of Epping and Hainault Forests, and until the end of last century it was not considered safe to traverse the roads thereabouts unless well armed. It may very well be, therefore, that the famous highwayman did, at some time or other, use this hole as a place of refuge.

The Hercules at Newport (the only example in Essex of this rather uncommon sign) has already been mentioned (p. 65), also the tradition that the Bull, which stood opposite to it, was by it compelled to close its doors. With regard to this inn Mr. C. K. Probert of Newport sends an interesting note. He says:

Forty years ago there existed at Colchester a Maltster’s Inn, a Mariner’s Inn, and a Neptune; at Stratford a Chinaman, and at Tendring a Crown and Blacksmith, the latter being, perhaps, an impaled sign signifying that the landlord of the Crown was also a blacksmith.

It will be most convenient to treat of the sign of the Angel, which occurs eleven times in Essex, among Human Signs, although an angel is commonly accounted to be something more than human. An Angel occurs on the seventeenth-century tokens of “Francis Aleyn at the Angell in Brentwood,” of “Georg Silke at the Angell in Rvmford,” of Francis Dilke, also of Rumford, of William Hartley of Colchester, and of George Taylor of Ilford in 1665. As the sign still exists at the two last-named places, the probabilities are that the two houses bearing it are identical with those from which the tokens were issued a couple of centuries ago. The Angel at Ilford was formerly a posting-house of great importance; but, like its neighbour, the Red Lion, and all the other once-busy inns on this great highway from London into the Eastern counties, it is now sadly decayed from its old importance, though still a house of high standing. Its massive sign-post and ornamental sign-iron date from at least a century ago. Probably it was at this house that, on August 18, 1662, Pepys, “while dinner was getting ready, practised measuring of the tables and other things, till [as he says] I did understand measure of timber and board very well.” This he did that he might know how to detect fraud on the part of those who bought timber for the navy. Taylor (see p. 28) in 1636 mentions Angels at Romford and Brentwood, which do not now exist. The *Angel in the High Street at Colchester is, perhaps, the modern representative of the Angel mentioned in one of the Corporation records (see p. 62) as being an “auncyent inne” in 1603. There are beer-houses with the same sign at Braintree, Bocking, and elsewhere. In the Corporation records of Saffron Walden for the year 1645 it appears that the sum of 6s. 2d. was expended upon “a pottle of sack, 3 qts. of claret and white wine burnt, for the committee, when they sat at the Angel.” This is probably the same house which continued to exist in Gould Street up to about fifty years ago, when it was kept by one Butterfield, who was also a barber, and who displayed the following rhyme upon his sign-board:

The pole referred to is, of course, the barber’s pole. The couplet was, however, not original. The Angel, which still continues to exist at Kelvedon, is referred to in an advertisement in the Chelmsford Chronicle for December 29, 1786. It is also stated in the Bufton MSS.[88] that on the 20th of October, 1692, King William III. “stayed and dined at the Angell,” at Kelvedon. Doubtless he was on his way to Holland, vi Harwich. Larwood and Hotten say (p. 266) that this sign “was derived from the Salutation; for, that it originally represented the Angel appearing to the Holy Virgin at the Salutation or Annunciation, is evident from the fact that, even as late as the seventeenth century, on nearly all the trades-tokens of houses with this sign, the Angel is represented with a scroll in his hands; and this scroll we know, from the evidence of paintings and prints, to contain the words addressed by the Angel to the Holy Virgin: ‘Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.’ Probably at the Reformation it was considered too Catholic a sign, and so the Holy Virgin was left out, and the Angel only retained.” The supporters of the arms of Richard II. were also two angels, blowing trumpets. The Angel and Harp at Church End, Dunmow, is a strange sign which does not appear to be noticed by the authors so often quoted. Probably it is a modern, though by no means inappropriate, impalement, as it appears in the list of sixty years ago simply as the *Harp.

The sign of the Black Boy occurs seven times in the county, namely, at Chelmsford, Wrabness, Bocking, Weeley, *Coggeshall, Wivenhoe, and Great Bromley. At the latter place it seems to have existed since 1786, as a sale is advertised to take place at the Black Boy in Great Bromley, in the Chelmsford Chronicle for March 3rd in that year. There is also a beer-house of this name at Danbury, and the large brick house in the High Street at Epping, lately occupied by that eminent naturalist, Henry Doubleday, was an inn with this sign before the Doubleday family acquired it about 1770. The Black Boy now existing at Chelmsford is not the same house that went under that name during the last and previous centuries, though standing on the same site. The old inn ranked as a coaching-inn of the first importance. It was pulled down in 1857, having been fairly run off the road by the opening of the railway in 1843. Two wooden bosses, taken from the ceiling of one of the rooms, and now to be seen in the Chelmsford Museum, are carved, respectively, with the Blue Boar of the De Veres (to which family the house probably once belonged), and the red and white rose combined. Mr. John Adey Repton, F.S.A., formerly of Springfield, writing to the Gentleman’s Magazine in May, 1840, sends sketches of these two bosses, which were duly inserted. He says:

Writing again to the same Magazine in December, 1845, Mr. Repton says:

Mr. Chancellor of Chelmsford writes that—

A good view of this famous old inn is given in Ryland’s view of Chelmsford High Street, engraved in 1762, and reproduced as the frontispiece of this volume. From it, in all probability, our six other Essex Black Boys have taken their name, as the sign is unusually common in the county. It stood at the corner of Springfield Lane and the High Street. The Ipswich Express, in speaking of the closing of this ancient house, which, as it remarked, had been “for centuries one of the oldest inns on the road,” remarked as follows:—

Dickens mentions this house in Pickwick Papers (1st Edition, p. 161), when Mr. Weller, Senior, relates how he transported Messrs. Job Trotter and Charles Fitz-Marshall from “the Black Boy at Chelmsford ... right through to Ipswich.” Mr. Chancellor has ascertained that, in a deed dated 1642, this inn is described as “heretofore known by the name or sign of the Crown or New Inn, or the King’s Arms, and later as the Black Boy.” That it was the Black Boy in 1636 is certain, for Taylor, “the Water Poet,” in his Catalogue of Tavernes, mentions it as one of the chief inns in the town at that time. In 1660, the Rev. R. E. Bartlett finds it recorded in the Chelmsford registers that “Andrew Speller, a dumb man, who lived at the Black Boy in Chelmsford, was buried the 2 day of August.” It has probably retained the same sign ever since. This frequent change at so early a date is very interesting. It seems to indicate (as Mr. Chancellor suggests) that, on the house passing out of the hands of the De Veres, it became an inn, and that, although it may have displayed the sign of the Crown (see p. 166), it was commonly known as the New Inn. Afterwards, for some reason, it came to be styled the King’s Arms, and still later the Black Boy, though why, it is not apparent. At the time of his demise, this “Old Boy” (as he may be familiarly styled) was, therefore, at least 250 years old. It might be thought strange that having existed so long, and having begat the seven sons already mentioned, he never grew into a “Black Man,” but died as he had so long lived, a “Black Boy”! A Black Boy formerly existed in Saffron Walden, as shown by the following entries in the Corporation records:—“March 27th, 1682, ‘Spent at the Black Boy 12 pence,’” and a little later 4s. 6d. was “spent at the Black Boy with the Chamberlains when we assessed the fines on the Quakers.” In the Waltham Abbey parish register is the following entry:—“Judith Sutton, from y^e Blacks, Bur. May 26, 1740.” This was probably the Black Boy Inn that formerly stood in Town-mead Lane. The Black Boy is a sign of venerable antiquity. From the first it has been largely used as a tobacconist’s sign. The crest of the Tobacco-pipe Makers’ Company, incorporated in 1663, was a demi-Moor, while the supporters were two young Moors proper, wreathed about the loins with tobacco leaves vert. A black Saracen’s head, too, was the badge of Lord Cobham in the time of Edward IV., and also of Sir John Harlwyn.

Essex contains at the present time no less than twenty-seven houses showing the sign of the Green Man. The Green Man at Leyton is mentioned in the Trials of Swan and Jeffries in 1752, while the Green Man at Leytonstone is mentioned by Daniel Defoe in his Tour through Great Britain, first published in 1724, and is also marked on Roque’s Map of Ten Miles round London, published in 1741. It is recorded in the Gentleman’s Magazine (vol. xxiii. p. 148) that Charles, Earl of Tankerville, died of an apoplectic fit at the Green Man on Epping Forest on the 14th of March, 1753, as he was travelling to London. Old maps of the latter half of last century show quite a number of Green Men round Epping and Hainault Forests, showing the connection even then existing in the minds of men between the sign-board Green Men and foresters. In Mr. Creed’s list of signs round Epping in 1789, Green Men are named at the following places: Epping, Waltham Abbey, Moreton, Stanford Rivers, Magdalen Laver, Harlow, and Roydon. Evidently this sign was very common a century ago. Although this device has a two-fold origin, it is rather difficult to account for its great prevalence in the present day. Originally, no doubt, the sign represented the green-clad morris-dancers that played an important part in the shows and pageants of mediÆval times; but, when these went out of date and were forgotten by the common people, the sign was made to represent a forester in his coat of green. As early as the seventeenth century the sign had come to be connected with that celebrated forester, Robin Hood, as is shown by the designs on many of the tokens, which represent the outlaw accompanied by his friend Little John. At Elsenham and at High Beech the sign now takes the name of the Robin Hood, while Robin Hood and Little John occur in combination at Brentwood, although in an advertisement in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 20, 1786, the house is spoken of simply as the Robin Hood. At High Beech, as is often the case, the following couplet is appended to the sign:—

Mrs. F. B. Palliser says,[89] “Queen Anne bore, as one of the supporters of her arms, one of the savage men, wreathed with ivy and bearing clubs, of Denmark, since designated and adopted for an inn-sign as the Green Man.” This, however, is probably not the only origin of the sign. At the present day the sign is generally represented on Essex signboards by a gamekeeper in a green velveteen coat. At Grays there is a Green Man and Bell (beer-house), which is doubtless an impaled sign.

A beer-shop at Great Chesterford displays a pictorial sign—evidently of some age—representing, apparently, the Man and Plough. A rustic in a green smock-frock stands at the handle of his plough, politely touching his hat to passers-by.

At Chelmsford and Dunmow the principal inn in each of the two towns has for its sign the Saracen’s Head. The former is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 6, 1786. It is also many times named in the Trials of Swan and Jeffries in 1752, on account of a robbery having been committed there. It also finds mention in Mr. Joseph Strutt’s Essex and Herts romance, entitled Queenhoo Hall, published in 1808. The hero of the tale says (ii. p. 179) that “on my arrival at Chelmsford, I went to one of the principal inns, distinguished by the sign of the Saracen, or Man Quintain, where I took some small refreshment.” Other examples, making five in all, occur at Danbury, Braintree, and Thaxted. Though not described by Boyne, tokens, bearing a representation of a Saracen’s head, and issued by John Havers at the house of that name in Thaxted, are still extant, showing the house and its sign to be of considerable antiquity. Mr. Joseph Clarke, F.S.A., of Saffron Walden can recollect that, many years ago, the sign-board bore the representation of a man’s head with a very ferocious countenance, but the sign-board is not now pictorial. The sign owes its origin (largely, at least) to the Crusades. It was formerly much more common than now.

The Maid’s Head at Thorpe-le-Soken is, in all probability, not a sign put up by some enamoured publican. As a general rule the sign, wherever it appears, has been derived from the arms of the Mercers’ Company, already given (p. 33). Sir William Parr, K.G., and also his grand-daughter, Queen Catherine Parr, both bore the same device as a badge. But in the case of the example at Thorpe there can be little doubt that the sign is a really ancient one, and that it represents the crest of the D’Arcy family, Barons of Chiche,[90] to whom, in 1551, Edward VI. granted the manor of Thorpe and neighbouring lands, which long afterwards remained in the family. The same sign often occurs elsewhere as the Maiden Head. There was apparently a house of this name (not necessarily an inn) at Chelmsford in the seventeenth century, as the Rev. R. E. Bartlett finds the following entry in the parish registers:—“1620, Matthew Prentys of Chelmsford, husbandman and householder at the Maidenhead in Chelmsford, was buried the xiiii. of May, being Sunday.” The Village Maid, which occurs at Bradfield, is a very modern sign, and is not mentioned by Larwood and Hotten. Probably the landlord set it up in honour of some damsel of his acquaintance.

The Mermaid, though only a semi-human sign, is most conveniently noticed here. There is no example of it now existing in the county, though it occurs on the farthing token of Michael Arnold of Colchester. As a sign it used formerly to be not uncommon.

The *Silent Woman is the name of a public-house, with a truly pictorial sign, at Widford. The signs of the Good Woman and the Quiet Woman, which occur occasionally in other counties, are identical with this, and, all alike, constitute a piece of unwarrantable slander on the fair sex, being intended to convey the idea that a woman can only be silenced by being deprived of her head. Larwood and Hotten say (p. 455):

The inscription on the sign-board is, presumably, intended to be the French for “Very Good,” but it is spelled “Fort Bon,” and it has been “Fort Bone.”

A writer in Once a Week (N. S., ii. p. 487) says:

Larwood and Hotten say that the sign was largely used by oilmen, which makes it very probable that the device has some reference to the “heedless virgins” who had no oil in their lamps when the bridegroom came—heed and head having formerly been pronounced alike, according to those authors. The sign is not uncommon on the Continent also.

A writer in Notes and Queries (Fifth Series, vol. iv. p. 337) very ingeniously explains the origin of this sign. He says:

On the high road between Braintree and Chelmsford, and in the parish of Great Leighs, stands an inn with the strange sign of the St. Ann’s Castle. On the map of the road between Chelmsford and Bury, given in Ogilby’s Itinerarium AngliÆ, published in 1675, the words “St. Ann’s” appear against a house beside the high road at Leighs and on the site of the present inn. It appears from this that the word “Castle” is a modern addition to the name, perhaps connected with the adjacent ruins of Leighs Priory. The house is, however, marked as the St. Ann’s Castle on Greenwood’s map of Essex, published as long ago as 1824. In White’s Gazetteer of Essex it is stated that there formerly stood upon the spot a hermitage, known as St. Ann’s, “where pilgrims rested on their way to and from the shrine of St. Thomas À Becket. At the Dissolution, in 1571, it was given to Thos. Jennings, and its site is now occupied by an inn, called the St. Ann’s Castle, and said to be the oldest licensed public-house in England.” Morant says of it in 1768, “‘Tis now converted into an ale-house.” Probably it had become an inn much earlier, for Taylor, in 1636, mentions one Will. Chandler as being a keeper of “innes at Plashie and St. Annes.”

According to G. W. Johnson’s History of Great Totham, it is stated that a hill at that place “seems to have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, for at its base is a small public-house known now [1831], and as far back as memory can go, as the Virgin’s Tavern.” The sign is not now in existence.

In speaking of the Lame Dog, which does not occur as a sign in this county, Larwood and Hotten say that it is sometimes accompanied by the following couplet:

They continue (p. 450): “Sometimes, as at Bulmer, Essex, we see a somewhat similar idea expressed by a Man struggling through a globe—head and arms protruding on one side, his legs on the other—with the inscription, ‘Help me through this world.’” This sign is not now to be seen at Bulmer.

A Hand occurs on the halfpenny token issued by Lawrence Brown, junior, of Wickham, in 1669; a Hand and Glove on that of Henry Cordall of Chelmsford in 1658; a Hand and Pen on that of Samuel Cox of Coggeshall; and a Hand and Ball on that of “D. G.” issued at “The Hand and Bowle in Barking” in 1650. In 1675, a house of some kind displayed the sign of the Cross and Hand at Marks Tey (see p. 163). Although the hand does not now appear, either singly or in combination, on any Essex sign-board, it is not uncommon in other counties. Its use is attributable to the fact that early sign-painters often represented it issuing out of a cloud to perform some action or support some object. This brings to a close the list of human signs now occurring in the county of Essex.