Good Easter. The Bricklayers’ Arms[27] occur three times, namely, at Colchester, Stondon, and Bocking (beer-shop). The Royal Hotel at Purfleet is famed for its whitebait. Until recently it was known as the Bricklayers’ Arms, evidently, as Mr. Palin thinks,[28] because the Bricklayers’ Company formerly worked the huge chalk quarries close at hand. The Butchers’ Arms[29] occur at Wimbish, Felstead, Stambourne, and Woodham Ferris (beer-shop). Probably the Bull’s Head, the Boar’s Head, and the Fly and Bullock, to be noticed hereafter, are all connected with the arms of this Company, which appear on the halfpenny of “John Harvey of Rochfoord” in 1668. The Carpenters’ Arms[30] occur eight times in the county, and also often serve as a beer-house sign. One near Chelmsford is kept by a carpenter, as is, doubtless, often the case. There can be no doubt that the Compasses, which occurs six times, and the Three Compasses, which appears twice, are derived from the arms of this Company. A house near Waltham Abbey, now known by the latter form of the sign, seems in 1789 to have been called the Compasses merely. The Axe and Compasses at Arkesden is probably a modern, but certainly an appropriate, combination; or the axe may be intended for one of the adzes in the arms of the Coopers’ Company, for the Coopers’ Arms[31] themselves appear at Chadwell Heath, Aldham, Chelmsford, and Romford, the last two being beer-houses. Although the arms of the Cutlers’ Company[32] are not now to be seen on our sign-boards, there can be little doubt that the Two swords crossed, which appeared on the undated farthing of “Nathaniell Smith in Thacksteed,” were derived from the arms of that Company, Thaxted having formerly been a seat of the cutlery trade, as the name “Cutlers’ Green,” in the immediate vicinity, indicates. The Waterman’s Arms[33] was formerly a sign at Leigh, but whether of an inn or private house does not appear. Mr. H. W. King is able, by means of evidence obtained from old deeds, to give a complete account of the house which displayed this sign (and which was built about the time of Charles I.) from 1650; but there are earlier notices of it. Portions of it, built of oak, are still standing, but much altered. When it first became an inn does not appear. It is first mentioned as having been such in 1746, when it is described as “two tenements now and lately called the Waterman’s Arms.” Probably, therefore, it had even then ceased to be an inn, and had been divided into two dwelling-houses. Under the floor of one of the rooms, some years since, were found several small coins of Charles II., and a leaden tavern token, undated, but probably of the seventeenth century. On it was a hand or arm, pouring from a tankard into a cup or glass. Forty years ago there was a Poulterers’ Arms[34] at Chelmsford. Larwood and Hotten do not notice this sign.
Similarly, several other Companies, whose arms are not now to be found named upon our Essex sign-boards, appear to have given us signs which we still have. For instance, the sign of the Trowel and Hammer at Marks Tey (which is not mentioned by Larwood and Hotten) is in all probability derived from the arms of the Plasterers’ Company,[35] while the sign of Three Cups has, doubtless, been derived from the arms of the Salters’ Company.[36] Of this sign we have examples at Great Oakley, Maldon, Springfield, and *Colchester. The Three Cups at Colchester (commonly called the Cups), though not one of the oldest licensed houses in that ancient borough, was long a well-known coaching inn, and for upwards of half a century has been the leading hotel in the town. There is reason to believe that a small tavern known as the Queen’s Head stood upon the site in the days of Elizabeth; but a more commodious building was erected, as an inscription on the front stated, in 1792. That, however, had become too antiquated for its requirements, and was demolished in 1885. Upon its site has now been erected an extremely handsome building of brick and stone. Carved on one of the projecting windows are “three cups,” with pedestals, but they do not correctly represent the “covered sprinkling-salts” of the Salters’ Arms. These, however, are correctly represented, being carved in wood, and supported upon a sign-post, before the Three Cups at *Springfield, a house at least a century old, as it is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle on March 30, 1787.
In a curious poem, describing a journey from London to Aldborough and back, published in 1804,[37] the Three Cups at *Harwich—now known as the Cups—is thus alluded to:
“But now we’re at Harwich, and thankful am I,
Our Inn’s the Three Cups, and our dinner draws nigh,
But first for a walk to survey this old Borough,
To peep at the church, and the churchyard go thorough.”
Again, the Adam and Eve, which occurs at West Ham, as noticed hereafter, is a very old device as a sign. This example is forty years old at least. Messrs. Larwood and Hotten state (p. 257) that “our first parents were constant dramatis personæ in the mediæval mysteries and pageants;” but both they and Mr. Jewitt overlook the fact that the sign may with equal probability have been derived from the arms of the Fruiterers’ Company,[38] which appear on the halfpenny of Jasper Eve of Springfield in 1669. In this case, however, the device probably was intended as a rebus upon the name. The sign of the Three Pigeons is not improbably derived from the arms of the Tallow-chandlers’ Company,[39] since there is no other obvious source from which it can have come. Although Larwood and Hotten seem to regard it as being now a rare sign, there are two cases of it in Essex—one at Stratford, and the other at Halstead. As already stated, the occupation of the tallow-chandler is represented ten times on the Essex tokens of the seventeenth century, either by the arms of the Company, by a man making candles, or by a stick of candles. The latter device appears on the undated farthing of William Newman of Halstead, and may have some connection with the Three Pigeons which now exists there, and has certainly done so for at least forty years back. The Dove and Olive-branch, which is shown on the undated farthing of “George Evanes in Ingatestone,” is also probably a device taken from the arms of this Company. Other arms and emblems belonging to the great trade companies, and appearing commonly on the tokens of the seventeenth century, have now quite disappeared—at least so far as Essex is concerned. For instance, the Barber-Surgeons’ Arms[40] are to be seen on the halfpence of “Thomas Bvll of Mamvdine, 1669,” and of “Henry Carter, Chirvrgeon, in Manitree, 1669.” The Grocers’ Arms[41] occur, as already stated, no less than about twenty-five times, either as the Grocers’ Arms, a sugar-loaf, three sugar-loaves, one or more cloves, or a sugar-loaf and cloves combined. The Grocers’ Arms and an Escalop occur respectively on the two sides of the undated token of “George Nicholson in Tolshon Dacey in S.X.” The sign of the Three Sugar-loaves still occurs at Sible Hedingham, and has been in existence there for a century at least, as the house is mentioned in an advertisement in the Chelmsford Chronicle on March 9, 1787. It can hardly be called an heraldic sign, as the three sugar-loaves seem only to have been set up by grocers as an emblem of their business. At the present time the house has no sign-board, but the three sugar-loaves are suspended over the door as here shown. There is also a beer-house of the same name in Felstead parish.
The Woolpack, which occurs eight times on the Essex tokens of the seventeenth century, and six times in the county at present, will be noticed hereafter. It is, doubtless, derived from the arms of the Woolmen’s Company.[42] The Apothecaries’ Arms[43] appear on the tokens of “Isaac Colman, grocr, in Colchester, 1667,” and of Thomas Bradshawe of Harwich, in the same year. The Drapers’ Arms[44]
