Back

Great Britain - 1812

Bishop penny

Obverse:

A / POUND NOTE / FOR 240 TOKENS / GIVEN BY / JOHN BISHOP & C^O CHELTENHAM 1812 in 7 lines.

Reverse:

View of St. Mary's Church through an avenue of trees.

Exergue:

VALUE ONE PENNY.

Vern's Comments:

Withers:

CHELTENHAM (Gloucestershire)
J. Bishop & Co.

673 Penny, 1812.
A / POUND NOTE / FOR 240 TOKENS / GIVEN BY / JOHN BISHOP & C^O CHELTENHAM 1812 in 7 lines.
℞ View of St. Mary's Church through an avenue of trees; VALUE ONE PENNY. in ex.
Davis 15
Edge : centre grained backslash D14.
34mm 18.6g Die axis ↑↓. VC

Mr. Bishop (no initial given), perhaps the father of John Bishop Junior, is listed in the Cheltenham directory for 1802 as living at 320 'the street (north side)' where he carried on business as 'taylor, draper &c.', and let lodgings in the season. Cheltenham at that time was home, during the season, to many of the most 'fashionable' people in the country and the Cheltenham Chronicle and Gloucestershire General Advertiser sycophantically recorded those members of the titled classes and gentry who had arrived in town. High Street was therefore set up to serve them, and almost the entire street - if one is to judge by the adverts appearing in the newspapers - was peopled with linen-drapers, mercers, hatters, haberdashers, makers of stays and corsets, glove-makers and the like. Bishop was clearly a man of some energy, and as well as being a draper was agent for the Bath and Cheltenham Gazette. He was obviously of a hasty disposition, for on January 6, 1813, the following appeared in the Bath and Cheltenham Gazette:

Whereas I, the undersigned, John Bishop the younger, of Cheltenham, who, as agent for the Bath and Cheltenham Gazette, incautiously and improperly, BUT WITHOUT ANY EVIL INTENTION, sent to the Editor the substance of a paragraph which appeared in that paper of 25 November last (and which I received from a person on whose veracity I placed too hasty a reliance) grossly and falscly stigmatising the character of a Rev. Gentleman with reference to a marriage at Coberly Church in this county, and that Gentleman having considerately and kindly consented to forbear proceedings against me, upon my making this public declaration, and, upon the sum of ten pounds being paid to the Gloucester Infirmary; I therefore hereby confess my error, being now conscious that the contents of the paragraph were without foundation; and I also beg to express my thanks to the Rev. Gentleman for the forbearance he has shewn me.
As witness my hand, Cheltenham January 2, 1813, J Bishop jun.

The offending paragraph said that a marriage was about to take place at Coberly church, but as Col. Berkeley's hounds passed the church at the time, the clergyman had said he would not marry them, but they should come back the next morning, and they (good easy souls) complied with this requisition.
The Old Swan must have been a respected house, for it was used for public meetings; on the 11th August, for example, Hannah Merreman, executrix of Philip Merreman, slater and plasterer, held a public meeting for the creditors of the aforementioned, so that his property might be divided according to his will. However, the eventual outcome for Bishop was not good as Davis says that he was declared bankrupt March 16, 1822.
In that newspaper on March 3, 1813, the following advertisement appears :

On the 18th March, 1813, Bishop agreed to subscribe, on an annual basis, half a guinea to the Cheltenham Dispensary.

He was about to change his trade to that of innkeeper. In the Cheltenham Chronicle and Gloucestershire General Advertiser of May 13, 1813, and again on May 20th and several other later editions, there appeared :

On June 23, 1813, in the Bath and Cheltenham Gazette there appeared:

At the Old Swan Inn Bishop continued to be agent for the Bath and Cheltenham Gazette for a month; however, the edition published on 7 July, 1813, gives the agent being Mr Liddell, of 104 High-street.

In December of the same year Bishop wanted to raise the profile of his inn and also, perhaps, to celebrate a little, for there appeared this advert in the Cheltenham Chronicle:

Bell, echoing Davis, says that J Bishop advertised himself as tailor to HRH the Prince Regent. We can find no trace of this, though we have looked through most (perhaps all 7) of the available original sources. However, a W Bishop, who traded from 'opposite the Plough Hotel, Cheltenham', does advertise himself in those terms. Sharp says that this token was engraved by Halliday.

Bishop penny