TOKEN

Victorian brass inn token / pub check (AD 1855-1858/9)

Obverse: Bust of Victoria looking left - Bust is the young version dated with contemporary coinage to 1838-1860. The size corresponds to a brass farthing of the period

Reverse: 2D within circlet with two concentric rings of inscription reading T. C. NURSE/ ALBION/ INN/ OSWESTRY- between the inscription - oakleafs

Diameter: 22.8mm, thickness 0.9mm Weight: 2.47 Grams.

Note: Thomas Christmas Nurse (d. 1871) was inn keeper of the Albion Inn 45 Church Street, Oswestry between 1855 - 1858 / 9. He was succeeded by Eli / Ellis Bromley from 1859 to 1866

Note:

The information below has been provided by Sue and Andrew Dobson who are descendants of Thomas Nurse - publican and issuer of the token above:

Thomas Christmas Nurse was born in Trimingham, Norfolk on 6th January 1810 and baptised 'privately' there on 7th January. He was the third child and first son of Thomas Nurse, a local freehold farmer and Mary nee Otter (or possibly Ottey). His eldest sister, Elizabeth, had died, aged 4, in April 1806 and his parents had named their second daughter, born in August 1807, Elizabeth, after her. Two further children followed Thomas Christmas, John, baptised 28th May 1812 and Henrietta, baptised on June 15th 1813. The Parish records confirm that their father Thomas was still a farmer in Trimmingham at this point.

In 1922, when Thomas Christmas was 12 years old, a choked up spring burst in Trimingham, a small, cliff top, Norfolk village, washing two farmhouses, their out-buildings and yards and some acres of glebe land down into the sea. It has not been possible to establish with any certainty that the Nurse farm was one of those affected, but it is clear that the family ceased to farm in the village at some point between June 1817, when Thomas Nurse is listed in the Norfolk Poll as the occupier of a freehold in the village and January 1835, when the Poll for Two Knights of the Shire contains no listing for Nurse in Trimingham.

What is clear, is that Thomas Christmas Nurse had left Norfolk during this period and seems to have gone into service, rather than taking over the family farm as an eldest son might have been expected to do. He also appears to have married although we don't yet know when or where the marriage took place. On 3rd July 1836, TCN's eldest son with his first wife, Ann, was baptised in Lydbury North, Shropshire. We understand from another family member who also carried out some research, that there was a second child, Matilda born in about July 1839 and that their mother, Ann, died on 25th February 1840 in Berriew, Montgomeryshire, followed by Matilda, who died on January 1st 1841 in 'a cottage on Filhendre Vron at Berriew'.

A couple of months later, the census of 1841 shows Thomas Christmas working as a man servant at Rectory House, Llanymynech, in the employment of the Reverend John Luxmore and his wife Isabella. Thomas' age is recorded as 35, although he would actually have been just 31 at this point and his future (second) wife, Hannah Ackland, aged 22, is working as a female servant in the same household. Meanwhile, his son Thomas, aged 6, is living separately in Llanymynech in the household of Edward and Charlotte Morris and their three daughters.

Thomas Christmas Nurse and Hannah Ackland were married by their employer, Reverend Luxmore, at the Parish Church in Llanymynech on September 14th 1841, with Jane Rowland, a fellow servant in the household, as one of their witnesses. Thomas Christmas is described as a footman and his father is confirmed as Thomas Nurse, farmer.

TCN and Hannah went on to have 8 children together. On 31st May 1842, their eldest son, James, was baptised in Llanymynech, followed by John, on 28th January 1844 and Charles Incledon on 22nd August 1847, both baptised not in Llanymynech, but in Llanyblodwell. Robert followed in the March quarter of 1846, then Edmund Ackland (Andy's 2x great grandfather), born on 7th March 1851, at Cross Houses, Berrington, Shropshire. The 1851 census shows that Thomas Christmas was by then employed by the Reverend Henry Nock-Hale (or Hill?) as a house servant in the Rectory at Berrington. His place of birth is given as Norfolk and his age, more accurately than on the previous census, as 42. Hannah, his wife, born in Ashford, Devon, is living separately along with their sons, John, Robert and Edmund, at 11 Crop House, Berrington. James, their eldest and Charles, their third, son are missing from the census, their deaths are both recorded in the December quarter of 1848 in the Oswestry District.

Thomas Christmas and his family then appear to have moved to Oswestry, sometime between the Spring 1851 census and the June quarter of 1853, as both Edmund Acland and their first daughter, Catherine Hannah (Birth June quarter 1853) were baptised in Oswestry on November 24th 1854, followed by twins, James Incledon and Eliza on 28th December 1855. When his daughter, Catherine, was born in Church Street, he was not land lord of The Albion Inn at this point, but of The Fox Inn in the same street. This is confirmed in the local history book 'Oswestry' by Isaac Watkin (1920) which I understand has been recently reprinted and which lists 'T C Nurse' as an occupier of The Fox, adding that he 'left for the Albion Inn'. The same publication then lists 'Mr Thomas Nurse' as land lord of The Albion Inn, giving the date 1855. A birth announcement in the North Wales Chronicle on Saturday 15th December 1855 confirms that the Nurse family were at The Albion by this point and a short feature in the same paper on Saturday, January 30th 1858 records the presence of 'Nurse, Albion Inn, Oswestry' at a 'coursing meeting' at The Red Lion Inn in Llanrhaiadr-Yn-Mochnant where, following the 'sport', he partook of a 'most excellent repast' along with around 85 other 'gentlemen'. Either later that same year or early in 1859, the family left The Albion and moved to The Fighting Cocks Inn in Beatrice Street.

Slater's Directory of Glos, Herefs, Mon, Shrops & Wales1859 still lists Thomas Christmas Nurse as land lord of The Albion, but Watkins ('Oswestry' 1920) states that Thomas Christmas' tenure of The Fighting Cocks began in 1858. The Wrexham Advertiser of 24th December 1859 reports that the land lord who took over from Thomas Christmas at The Albion, Mr Ellis (Eli) Bromley exhibited 'a prime fat pig' at the 'Christmas Show of Meat' in Oswestry in 1859, describing him as 'Mr Bromley, Albion Inn, Oswestry'. The 1861 census then lists Ellis Bromley as inn keeper/game keeper at The Albion.

The 1861 Census for Oswestry records the family as Thomas C Nurse, aged 51, from Trimingham, Norfolk, Hannah, 41, from Ashford, Devonshire, Thomas (TCN's eldest son by his first wife, Ann) 24, from Lydbury, Shropshire, Robert A, 15, an apprentice plumber from Llanyblodwell, Shropshire, Edmund A, 10, from Berrington, Shropshire, Catherine H, 7, and Eliza, 5, both from Oswestry, living in Beatrice Street. Thomas is described as a Victualler and the family now employ a general servant and an ostler, as well as having 2 boarders living at the premises. Eliza's twin brother, James Incledon, is not on the census record, his death was recorded in the December quarter of 1860. TCN and Hannah's eldest surviving son together, John, is also not listed in the household, but appears on the census record for St Julian, Shrewsbury, as a joiner apprentice, lodging in the household of Frances Hitchcock, widow.

The token therefore seems to have been issued between 1855 and 1858/9 when Thomas Christmas Nurse and his family were at The Albion Inn.

On 12th October 1862, Hannah, died at home in Beatrice Street of consumption, from which, according to the death certificate, she had been suffering for the previous two years. She was 42 and TCN, who was present at, and certified, the death, gives his occupation as Inn keeper.

Thomas Christmas appears to have left the Fighting Cocks Inn shortly after his wife Hannah died there in October 1862 and he then rented a house and land from a fellow Oswestry inn keeper, the land lord of The Plough Inn, at £3 a year, before moving to Borth leaving the rent unpaid. This resulted in a court action and the report of the proceedings, in the Wrexham Advertiser of 6th August1864, confirms that Thomas Christmas was a former inn keeper of The Fighting Cocks. In the September quarter of 1864, less than two years after Hannah's death, Thomas Christmas married for the third time, in Aberystwyth, to Elizabeth Rogers. On 8th January 1865, their son, William Christmas Nurse was baptised at Llanfihangel-Geneu'R-Glynn, Cardigan, followed by a daughter, Mary Elen Frances, baptised in the same parish on 11th March 1866.

When his son, Edmund Ackland married Mary Jane Breese, on December 14th 1870, in Llandinam, Thomas Christmas' occupation was still given as Innkeeper, as was that of the bride's father, Thomas Breese. On the 1871 census, however, Thomas Christmas, aged 62, is described as a commercial traveller and he is living at Oswald Place, Oswestry with his wife, Elizabeth, aged 30, and their children, William C, 6, Mary E, 5, Sarah A, 4, and James T, 2, as well as a lodger.

Thomas Christmas died later that same year, on 29th November 1871, at Upper Brook Street, Oswestry, from chronic bronchitis. His age was given by his wife Elizabeth, who appears to have been illiterate, as she signed the certificate with a cross, as 62 years and his occupation as 'formerly an inn keeper'. He may never have met the youngest of his 15 children, a son, Richard, whose birth was registered in Oswestry in the December quarter of 1871 and who survived his father by just a few months. (Richard's death is registered in the June quarter of 1872).

Shortly before his death, TCN had also become a grandfather. His son John and daughter in law, Jane nee Jones, had their first daughter, Edith Ackland Nurse, in Shrewsbury, in January 1871, while his son, Edmund Ackland and daughter in law Mary Jane nee Breese, had their first son, Edmund Thomas Nourse, in Welshpool, on 14th November 1871, just 2 weeks before TCN died.

Elizabeth re-married following Thomas Christmas' death. Her new husband was John Williams, also a widower, a blacksmith in Oswestry. On the 1881 census Elizabeth is living with John, 5 step-children and three of her children by TCN, William Christmas, Sarah and James, at Upper Brook Street, Oswestry.

1876 Town Plan of Oswestry shows the Albion Inn very clearly opposite St Oswald's Church in Church Street, but it is now (2013) Wilson's Wine Bar. The Fox Inn is still a public house and The Fighting Cocks has been converted into shops.

Sue Dobson

February 2013

Extracts from "Oswestry" by Isaac Watkin written in 1920

Church Street - Page 121

No 21 - Fox Inn

In 1841 the premises came into the possession of Mr. William Smale of No 1 Church Street by purchase from the owner Phoebe Davies. The occupiers since then have been Messrs. Richard Smith (1845), George Jackson (father of the late Mr. William Jackson, solicitor, and who afterwards removed to the Grapes Inn), T.C. Nurse (who left for the Albion Inn), and Charles Thomas whose occupation at the time of his death in 1890 extended to over forty four years.

Church Street - Page 92

"No 45 was formerly a public house called The Albion Inn. Whilst an Inn the occupiers were Mr. James Jenkins (1844), Mrs. Margaret Gee (1852), Mr. Thomas Nurse (1855), Eli Bromley (1862), John Davies (1866), John Jones (1873) and William Jones (1874). The license was dropped in 1876 when the premises were converted into a butcher's shop for Mr. Charles Poole."

Beatrice Street - Page 818

"Fighting Cocks Inn. This is another ancient house the (once) projecting gables, low entrance porch with seats each side, large open fireplaces within, low ceilings supported by massive axe dressed beams, now quite black with age, and small heavy doors, renders it quite typical of the sixteenth century inn as often illustrated. The windows however have been modernised. The premises at the end of the seventeenth century, when the house was known as the Lower White Horse Inn, belonged to Messrs. Francis Lloyd of Crossmere and Edward Lloyd of Leaton, and who in 1713 sold it to Mr. George Edwards, the then occupier. In 1827 the latter gave the place to his brother, Mr. Thomas Edwards of Cross Street, Mercer, by whom the name of the house was changed to the Fighting Cocks Inn. ................ and the occupiers were Thomas Brayne (1854), George Beckett (1852), Thomas Nurse, who came from the Albion Inn (1858) Richard Bagley (1868)............"

Numismatic data

No numismatic data has been recorded for this coin yet.