closely, to one or other of the six types herewith reproduced.1

As to the silver tokens, I have seen one of these, in the possession of J. R. Burton, Esq., of Minera Hall, dated 1788, the design of which is identical in every respect with the copper tokens issued in the same year, containing, that is, on the reverse a ship in full sail. The exchangeable value of this coinage was, according to Mr. John Wilkinson's own statement, 3s. 6d. It commemorates the large iron boat which Wilkinson launched in July, 1787, at Willey Wharf, the first successor of the small iron boat which he had constructed years before at Lindal. Mr. Stockdale says that he has in his collection a silver token of the same design as that just described, but dated 1787, and worth about two shillings." It seems, therefore, that there were two issues of these tokens. In any case they are now exceedingly rare. Mr. Wilkinson at one time paid his workmen with leather tokens, which were duly cashed by the tradespeople of Wrexham.

2

Mr. Wilkinson and his executors also issued guinea notes, a facsimile of one of which, in the possession of Edward Meredith Jones, Esq., of Wrexham, I here reproduce. The Samuel Smith Adam who signed it (see History of Parish Church of Wrexham, p. 114, note 236) was a son of Jas. Adam, Esq., of Runcorn (one of John Wilkinson's trustees), and lived, while his connection with the estate lasted, at Brymbo Hall. Denton Ackerley, whose name also appears on the note, I find described about this time as of "Plas Wen, Broughton," but cannot

These representations, of the actual size of the tokens, are reproduced from photographs kindly made for me by my friend Mr. R. H. Smallwood, of Wrexham,

2 This note was kindly photographed for me by my friend, Mr. R. H. Smallwood.

guess where the house bearing this impossible name was situate. A Denton Ackerley was afterwards bailiff of the Castlehead estate. The note contains, it will be observed, a representation of Mr. John Wilkinson's coat of arms, shown as a tail-piece to this essay.

In connection with the mention made in the last paragraph of the notes circulated by John Wilkinson, the following letter, which Mr. Randall has also printed, may be given. This letter was written by Whitehall Davies, Esq., of Broughton Hall, in Maelor Saesneg, to the first Lord Kenyon, and is taken from his lordship's Life by the Hon. George T. Kenyon.

Broughton, December 19th, 1792. MY LORD-I take the liberty to trouble your Lordship with another letter. in which I have enclosed an assignat, made payable at Bersham Furnace, endorsed Gilbert Gilpin ': I am informed he is the first clerk of Mr. Wilkinson, whose sister married Doctor Priestly. With what view Mr. Wilkinson circulates assignats is best known to himself. It appears to me that good consequences cannot arise from their being made current, and that very pernici. ous effects may. Mr. Wilkinson at his foundry at Bersham (where I am informed he has now a very large number of cannon), and in his coal and lead mines, employs a considerable body of men. They are regularly paid every Saturday with assignats. The Presbyterian tradesmen receive them in payment for goods, by which intercourse they have frequent opportunities to corrupt the principles of that description of men by infusing into their minds the pernicious tenets of Paine's Rights of Man, upon whose book I am told public lectures are delivered to a considerable number in the neighbour. hood of Wrexham, by a methodist. The pernicious effects of them are too evident in that parish, and

I am, with the utmost respect and gratitude,

Your Lordship's most obliged and sincere humble servant,

PETER WHITEHALL DAVIES.1

I have compared and corrected this transcript with the letter given in the 14th Report (Appendix, Part iv) of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, and find the following addition: "Note in the handwriting of Chief Justice Kenyon-This letter occasioned the Act of Parliament passed in January 1793, for preventing the negotiation of French paper in England.' '

Mr. Davies' notion of the Presbyterian tradesmen corrupting the principles of such men as the "workmen of Bersham and Brymbo" then were, and of lectures being delivered on (and, as is suggested, in advocacy of) Paine's Rights of Man by a Methodist of 1792 is indescribably grotesque and delicious.

A few years afterwards (in 1799) John Wilkinson was made high sheriff of Denbighshire. The Town Council of Wolverhampton possesses a portrait of him which has been reproduced in Mr. Randall's book. Mr. Edward Jones, of Wellington, formerly of Brymbo, has another portrait of the great ironmaster.

The erection of the works at Brymbo, and the purchase of the estate there, were probably due to the discontinuance of the Bersham Works, and I had better explain the cause of this discontinuance in Mr. Stockdale's own words :

"For some time before the end of last century, John Wilkinson had taken his brother [William] into partnership in all his iron works, but from the very first it was unlikely that two such clever, determined, and most intractable men should long continue friends; accordingly, in a very few years, a quarrel past all reconciliation took place, and then a tooth and nail combat ensued, in its results almost ludicrous. Wm. Wilkinson . . collected . . . a

great number of men in the town of Wrexham in Wales, and marched with them to the large iron works at Bersham, and there, with sledge hammer and other instruments, began to break up the expensive machinery. On intelligence of this reaching John Wilkinson, he collected a still greater number of men, and followed exactly his brother's example, so that in a very short time the famous Bersham Iron Works became a great wreck, each brother appropriating to himself as much of the spoil as came within his reach. Perhaps these two wise brothers thought this the most politic way of dissolving partnership, and dividing the effects, each knowing right well the other's mule-like stubbornness, and that a chancery suit, under the circumstances, might have made a complete wreck. of the property."

1 do not doubt, from what I can learn, that the foregoing account is substantially correct, but I suspect that John