Lot Essay
An early 17th century pewter Baluster Measure, 5½" (14 cm.) high, with crowned HR capacity mark, the flat lid with four 'House-marks' or owner's marks of a bull's head dividing R H within a rope circle, the hinge with plain ball terminal, the handle with indistinct maker's mark ?A, the interior base stamped with a further mark, a large hole in the body, and the top detached
Sold with original copy letter:
"To the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury
My Lords
On Tuesday last as one of my tennants Roger Anderton and two workmen were were filling up a pit for me in Heskin they found a puter tankard filled with gold coin to the number of two hundred -- they are principally of the reigns of Eliz, James 1st and Charles 1st. On the lid of the tankard are four crests of a bulls' head & R.H. I think it is very likely that one of my ancestors R Heskin was the person who threw them into the Pit after the siege of Latham while Cromwell's army bivouac at Eccleston Green which is near their place on the way to Whalley Abby -- As this is museum trove I beg to inform your Lordships and will keep the coins till you inform me what is to be done with them.
Brightington
15 January 1852
A notice in the Staffordshire Advertiser, 24 January 1852, records "Last week two workmen discovered an old pewter tankard containing two hundred sovereigns in a field at Heskin supposed to be of the reigns of James I and Charles I"
See Edward Besly, 'English Civil War Hoards', British Museum Occasional Paper No. 51, Dept. of Coins and Medals, 1987, p. 103, No. K30
Charles Eccleston (1801-1860) of Wrightington Hall, Lancashire, High Sheriff of Lancaster 1839, was the son of Thomas Eccleston (c. 1809) by his wife Eleanora, daughter of Thomas Clifton of Clifton and Leytham. Thomas Eccleston was the son of Elizabeth Dicconson (d. 1753) by her husband Basil Thomas Scarisbrick (d. 1789) who took the name of Eccleston.
Charles Eccleston took the name of Dicconson in 1810 and adopted that of Scarisbrick in 1833. He died unmarried.
According to the document dated 1852 and sent from Wrightington to the Lord Treasurer, it was believed that the coins were buried after the siege of Latham Hall, in the neighbouring parish of Ormskirk and the crest or a bull's head and initials R. H. referred to an ancestor, one Robert Heskin. This man is probably identified as the Robert Heskin of Heskin whose daughter Jonie was baptised at Eccleston in April 1621, and whose wife Janet was buried there in May 1661.
Both Wrightington and Heskin are Townships in the parish of Eccleston. The 'Bull's Head' public house is the second oldest public house in present day Wigan. Formerly a post house, the stables at the rear adjoined Heskin's field.
Sold with original copy letter:
"To the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury
My Lords
On Tuesday last as one of my tennants Roger Anderton and two workmen were were filling up a pit for me in Heskin they found a puter tankard filled with gold coin to the number of two hundred -- they are principally of the reigns of Eliz, James 1st and Charles 1st. On the lid of the tankard are four crests of a bulls' head & R.H. I think it is very likely that one of my ancestors R Heskin was the person who threw them into the Pit after the siege of Latham while Cromwell's army bivouac at Eccleston Green which is near their place on the way to Whalley Abby -- As this is museum trove I beg to inform your Lordships and will keep the coins till you inform me what is to be done with them.
Brightington
15 January 1852
A notice in the Staffordshire Advertiser, 24 January 1852, records "Last week two workmen discovered an old pewter tankard containing two hundred sovereigns in a field at Heskin supposed to be of the reigns of James I and Charles I"
See Edward Besly, 'English Civil War Hoards', British Museum Occasional Paper No. 51, Dept. of Coins and Medals, 1987, p. 103, No. K30
Charles Eccleston (1801-1860) of Wrightington Hall, Lancashire, High Sheriff of Lancaster 1839, was the son of Thomas Eccleston (c. 1809) by his wife Eleanora, daughter of Thomas Clifton of Clifton and Leytham. Thomas Eccleston was the son of Elizabeth Dicconson (d. 1753) by her husband Basil Thomas Scarisbrick (d. 1789) who took the name of Eccleston.
Charles Eccleston took the name of Dicconson in 1810 and adopted that of Scarisbrick in 1833. He died unmarried.
According to the document dated 1852 and sent from Wrightington to the Lord Treasurer, it was believed that the coins were buried after the siege of Latham Hall, in the neighbouring parish of Ormskirk and the crest or a bull's head and initials R. H. referred to an ancestor, one Robert Heskin. This man is probably identified as the Robert Heskin of Heskin whose daughter Jonie was baptised at Eccleston in April 1621, and whose wife Janet was buried there in May 1661.
Both Wrightington and Heskin are Townships in the parish of Eccleston. The 'Bull's Head' public house is the second oldest public house in present day Wigan. Formerly a post house, the stables at the rear adjoined Heskin's field.