Sovereign Rarities
Lot 295
17th Century Token, Yorkshire, Whitby, Henry Sneaton, brass Halfpenny Token, 1667, detail with inner beaded circle surrounding, HIS / HALF / PENY, four pellets below, legend and toothed border surrounding, *HENRY. SNEATON., rev. three ammonite fossils, two and one, pellet at centre, legend and beaded borders surrounding, *IN. FLOWER. GATE. IN. WHITBY, 1.46g (Boyne 327; P. & B. Withers 371; Dickinson 371). Toned with a touch of verdigris mainly to reverse, good very fine, very rare and desirable token that displays three ammonite fossils, reflective of the Arms of Whitby Abbey.A merchant and tradesman possibly associated with Whitby Abbey, original wills at the court of the Archbishop of York for 1694 shed some light on Mr. Henry Sneaton for us, showing him as witness to the probate will of a Mr. William Law, yeoman, of Bank House, Lythe, dated 1686 but proved in 1692, alongside his daughter, Margaret (Margtt Sneaton junr). He is also shown to be owed debts by a Mr. George Raisbeck, husbandman, of Asholme, Lythe.Records show that on 17th April 1626, Henry Sneaton and Margaret (Margt) Wood married, and that Margaret was buried on 17th October 1692, followed finally by her husband on 2nd November 1707.
