Customs-Midsummer

Holly Magical Uses and Folkore

The ogam letter “tinne” didn’t always mean holly. (There’s strong evidence that it wasn’t originally a tree alphabet, but that’s a subject for another time.)  Kennings indicate that “tinne” originally referred to a metal bar or ingot.

An ogham kenning is known as a Bríatharogam. These were used to explain the meaning of each symbol, as well as to help scholars memorize them.  The three Bríatharogam for tinne are “trian roith,” “trian n-airm,” and “smiur gúaile.” These translate to “one of three parts of a wheel,” “one of three parts of a weapon,” and “marrow of coal.”

In European folklore, holly was considered a highly protective plant. (If you’ve ever felt it’s hard, prickly, waxy leaves, this probably isn’t too surprising!)  It was also regarded as unlucky to cut down an entire holly tree — probably because you’d be removing its ability to protect you. Instead, there was a tradition of coppicing holly trees.  This let farmers use the leaves as fodder, and gave artisans access to the highly valued holly wood.

This connects interestingly to the concept of holly as “one of three parts of a wheel/weapon.”  All trees and woods have their own magical properties, and holly was considered useful for controlling.  That made it useful for crafting horsewhips.

Also interestingly, holly’s ability as a protective plant has some mundane basis.  Holly trees often exhibit a phenomenon known as “heterophylly,” where multiple types of leaves are present on a single plant.  It’s not at all uncommon to see holly trees and bushes with both smooth and prickly leaves.  Researchers have found that the appearance of prickly leaves correlates to recent browsing by herbivores.  After a holly tree’s smooth leaves get eaten, it replaces them with prickly leaves to defend itself!

Holly was also believed to protect against lightning strikes. There’s evidence that the prickly shape of holly leaves helps conduct lightning, protecting the plant itself and neighboring trees and structures from damage. Somewhat ironically, certain holly species are also extremely flammable. Please thoroughly research specific species of holly before choosing to plant one near your home.

Celtic legend speaks of the Oak King and the Holly King. Each one ruled over one half of the year — the Oak King over the warm months, and the Holly King over the cold. They would do battle each solstice, and the loser would have to submit to the victor. The Holly King wins each summer solstice and rules until the winter solstice, when he’s once again defeated by the Oak King.

...

Holly boughs, when brought into the home, are said to protect from mischievous fairies. It’s believed that fairies come into the home with the holly boughs, so bringing them in gives the fairies a place to stay peacefully during the winter months so they don’t cause trouble. However, the fairies must be shooed away and the boughs burned by Imbolc, or the fairies may decide to stick around and become a problem. In some cultures, it’s considered unlucky to ever burn holly, so it may be better to bring the boughs outside and leave them there instead.

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Passing now to the tin coinage duties, we have seen that by the
year 1305 they had become entirely dissociatcd from the process
of smelting, and shortly before that date had been fixed at 4s. per
hundred-weight in Cornwall and 18jd. in D e ~ o n . ~ These taxes
were assessed and paid at the several coinage towns in the two
counties, established by the charters of 1305 and altered occasionally by royal d e ~ r e e , ~ usually in order to keep pace with the shifting
of the centre of the tin industry. In practice it often happened that
only one or two of the towns in Cornwall would be utilized, since the
tinners, with a free choice, naturally preferred the town nearest
their mines. Of the five towns appointed for Cornwall in 1305,
only two, Lostwithiel and Truro, appear four years earlier to have
been used for coinage purposes, while in the two centuries following the issue of the charters they remained the sole places of coinage.'
The stampage itself is a matter of no little interest. For two
hundred yeais it took place, as a rule,7 at but two periods in the
l Treas. Papers, ii, 12, 16, 17, 41-43, 45, 46, 48-50, 57, 58; iii, I, 13; viii, 32; ix,
I; S. P. Dom. Chas. 11,ccxxiii, 186; H. 0.Let. Bk., ii, 87; Add. MS. 6713, fol. 353
et seq., 385, 387.
a Under two patents (Treas. Papers, ccviii, 30; Stowe, cxliii, 56-59; Add. MS.
6713, fol. 437-442 Cf. Treas. Papers, cxi, 26; ccxvi, 37). For the disposal of Anne's
tin, see Treas. Papers, xcii, 109; cxxxi, 28; xcv, 88; xcix, 97; cxxii, 59; cxxxix, 21,
56; cxxxvii, 97; cxxxvi, 38; cxlvii, 37; clxxiv, 16; clxxxv, 16; clxxxvi, 26; cxci, 16;
clxxxvii, 15; cxcix, 24; cc, 9; ccvi, 49; ccxv, 63; ccxvi, 37; CCXX~, 5; ccxxv, 7;
ccxlvi, 55.
Lans. 1215, fol. 230; Hunt, 41; Gent. Mag., i, 487.
' One document only (Cal. Treas. Papers, i, 61) refers to an alternative of eight
pounds of tin per hundred-weight.
Thus, in 1328, Plympton was made a coinage town for Devon (Pat., 2 Edw. 111,
pt. i, m. 27), and Penzance for Cornwall in 1663 and 1670 (S. P. Dom. Chas. 11,
lxxvi, 68, 89). Cf. also Anc. Pet., 315 E 168.
Information on this point is taken from the Receiver's Rolls in the Duchy
Office.
The earlier coinages of the fourteenth century were quite irregular. Cf. Acct.
Excheq. K. R., bdle. 260, no. 20; bdle. 261, nos. 8, 17; bdle. 263, no. 26.Is0 THE STANNARIES T A X A T I O N A N D REVENUE Is1
year,' Midsummer and Michaelmas. These terms were fixed by
the ~overeign,~ or, after 1338, by the Duke of Cornwall, but the
minor arrangements with regard to the number of days to be spent
in each town and the order in which the towns were to be visited
were decided by the officers of the coinage for the two c~unties,~
or later by the tinners in their parliaments4 There were three chief
coinage officials, the re~eiver,~ the controller, and a steward. The
controller and receiver were royal nominees and represented
solely the interests of the Crown. The steward possibly represented
in some degree the interests of the tinners as against those of the
Duchy, and as the regular presiding officer of -the tinners' court
he appeared, of course, only at the coinage held within his own
stannary.
As the day drew near, the controller and receiver journeyed from
town to town,' carrying in a sealed bag the stamping hammer and
the weighha At the towns they were met by other functionaries,
the ~ e i g h e r , ~ and the assay master,'' together with thr requisite
number of local porters." Thither also came the tinners, despatch-
' Cf. Cal. of Pat., 1304, p. 326; CO~VOC. Cornw., 16EIen. VII1,c. 32; 1 2 Chas. I,
c. 32 (Add. MS. 6713. fol. 232). They were increased to four in the seventeenth
century (Receiver's Views, 1660--1700; Treas. Papers, ix, I; cxxii, 17; ii, 55).
Cf. Pat., 9 Edw. 111, pt. I, m. 8; Convoc. Cornw., 16 Hen. VIII, c. 31.
It is hard to say whether or no there were not, in early times, two sets of officials,
one for each county (cf. Pat., 7 Edw. 111,pt. ii, m. 2; 13 Rich. 11,pt. i. m. 30; Close,
8 Edw. 111, m. 27). One set appears in later years (Parl. R., v. 533, 587; Pat., I
Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 4).
Convoc. Cornw., 2 Jas. 11, c. 29, 33.
S. P. Dom. Eliz., xlvi, 54; Accts. Excheq. K. R., bdle, 263, no. 13.
0 Close, 8 Edw. 111,m. 27; Pat., 2 1 Edw. 111, pt. iii, m. 14; 13 Rich. 11,pt. i, m.
30; I Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 4; Cal. of Pat., 1423, p. 85; Parl. R.,v, 533, 587; S. P.
Dom. Chas. 11, xxix, 98.
7 S. P. Dom. Eliz., xlvi, 54.
This was the special charge of the controller, but the bag was sealed, when not in
use, with the seals of all three officials (S. P. Dom. Eliz., cvi, 55).
Also known as the "troner" or "paysor." He was appointed by the receiver
(S. P. Dom. Eliz., cvi, ss), but in earlier times by the King (Pat., 12 Rich. 11,pt. i,
m. 3; I Hen. IV, pt. viii, m. 34; I Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 21).
'O Appointed by the King (S. P. Dom. Chas. 11,Entry Bk., 2 Chas. Ii, xxx, 89;
S. P. Dom. Chas. 11,Docquet 23, no. 297; 24, no. 55; Treas. Papers, ii, 44; Carew,
ed. 1811, p. 45, n.) His salary was £200 per annum in later times, and he often
resigned active service to a deputy (Treas. Papers, ii, 44).
lP Appointed by the receiver (S. P. Dom. Eliz., cvi, 55).
ing their metal in advance by packhorses or carts, while from London
and the southern ports came the would-be purchasers, including
country chapmen, London dealers, pewterers' factors, and a sprinkling of Italian and Flemish traders. At noon on the first day of the
coinage, all assembled by the coinage hall, a warehouse-like structure near the market-place, in which the tin had previously been
stored in anticipation of the official inspection and public sale.
An open space was roped off at the front, the King's beam was
brought out and rectified by the controller and weigher,' the weights
were solemnly unsealed and handed to the ~ e i g h e r , ~ the assaymaster made ready his hammer and chisels, and the steward,
controller, and receiver took their seats facing the beam. When all
was in readiness, the porters brought out the blocks one at a time
and placed them upon the scales. Each had been stamped with
the private mark of the owner, and as the steward carried with him
a register of these marks no difficulty occurred in identification.
The weight of each was shouted out by the ~ e i g h e r , ~ and taken
down by the three officials. The blocks, on leaving the scales,
were taken in hand by the assay-master, who chiselled a small piece
from a corner of each and rapidly assayed it to make sure that
the metal was of the proper quality. If so, the controller with a
blow from the hammer struck upon the block the Duchy arms;
but should it be below standard, it was "tared"5 by the assaymaster, that is to say, a relative figure was placed by him upon each
block at which it might be sold below the market price for tin of
standard quality: I'f hopelessly corrupt, it was set aside for remelting.7
When the tin had been weighed and stamped, it was returned to
the coinage hall and a bill made out by the clerk for each tin
owner, setting forth the number of his blocks, their weights, their
fi~eness,whether "soft and merchantable tin" or "hard and corrupt," and finally the amount of coinage due upon the whole.
Convoc. Cornw., 2 Jas. 11, C. 11. Cf. Close, 18 Edw. 11, m. 2.
S S. P. Dom. Eliz., cvi, 54, 55.
' Treas. Papers, ii, 44; Convoc. Cornw., 22 Jas. I, c. 12; Tin Duties,8. The piece
chiselled off used to be his perquisite. Later it was redeemed by the owner for 2d.
6 Tintzrs' Grievance; Lans. 18, fol. 52. 6 S. P. Dom. Eliz., cvi, 54.
Carew, ed. 1811, p. 45, n 8 Tinners' Grievance; Lans. 18, fol. 52.= 52 T H E STANNARIES T A X A T I O N A N D REVENUE I53
These served as vouchers for the tin, and during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, if not earlier, tin bills were bought and sold l
much as Scotch pig iron warrants are at the present day. The tin
itself was kept at the hall under control of the weigher until the
owner had paid the requisite duties3 Ordinarily a few days sufficed,'
but occasionally tin was left standing for a longer period: and as
no charge was made for storage the dilatoriness of the tin owners
led ultimately to the enactment of rules checking the practice.
I n 1636 it was declared that all tin coined at Michaelmas must be
paid for within ten days.' In 1687, however, we find more leeway
allowed. All tin lying unpaid for after a year and a day might be
assessed by a jury drawn from the stannary court and sold to the
first corner, the amount of the tax and dues deducted and the residue
given the 0wner.I
The above arrangements were subject to variations. When the
stannary revenues were pledged to a creditor of the King or
granted to a favorite, or when the preemption of tin was farmed,
it was usually provided that the patentee should be allowed to be
present in person or by deputy to see that accounts were truly kept.
In this case each tinner received at the coinage a voucher for the
proper sum due for his tin by the terms of the contract, and this
bill he presented for payment at the patentee's local office, of which
one would be established at each coinage town.' When the preemption was farmed together with the coinage, very often the controller, receiver, and assay-master were appointed by the lessee.@
T o meet the difficulty continually arising that the ordinary
coinages were insufficient to deal with all the tin produced, there
existed the institution known as the "post coinages," which consisted of one or more supplementary coinages held by special warl Hargrave 321, fol. 41. Cf. Harl. 6380, fol. 39. Ownership of a tin bill implied
ownership of the tin (Harl. 6380, fol. g).
Add. MS. 6713, fol. 254, c. 90.
S. P. Dom. Eliz., cvi, 54, 55.
' Convoc. Cornw., 12 Chas. I, c. 32 (Add. MS. 6713, fol. 232).
Receiver's Rolls.
E Convoc. Cornw., 1 2 Chas. I, c. 32 (Add. MS. 6713, fol. 232).
Ibid.,fol. 254, c. 90.
Convoc. Cornw., 12 Chas. I, c. 32 (Add. MS. 6713, fol. 232).
Treas. Papers, ii, 44.
rant.' Tin stamped in this way paid an additional charge of qd.2
on each hundred-weight, known as the "fine of tinners" or "postgoats." I t seems to have been levied only in Cornwall, and naturally fluctuated widely in amount from year to year, at times
falling to zero, and again rising to over £100, since it was dependent
largely upon the necessities of the tinners and their ability to hold
their tin for another six months3
The coinage revenues, however, depended not only upon the
production of tin but upon the efficiency of the laws which compelled it to be brought to the coinage. The tax was heavy, and the
value of the metal and the ease with which it could be got out
of the country led from early times to the systematic shipping of
tin from smelting-house direct to purchaser. As early as 1198 De
Wrothamhad prohibited such illicitsales14and had compelled masters
to take oath not to receive it on shipboard without the warden's
license. Smuggling, nevertheless, seems to have proceeded with
unabated activity for centuries5 I t was not confined to any one
class of the community, but was indulged in by merchants,' sailors,'
blowers and miners,' without distinction.
Many were the methods taken to avoid payment. Occasionally
the stamp was counterfeitedlBbut more often the tin was run into
small bars1° and sold either to wandering chapmen" or to sailors
from the coast.12 The houses of the Cornish seaports had their cellars
l Add. MS. 6713, fol. 117. But in cases where it was rendered necessary by lack
of water for washing the ores or by too great an abundance of water, the royal warrant was not needed (Convoc. Cornw., 16 Hen. VIII, c. 31).
In 1517, IS. (Receiver, 9 Hen VIII), and in 1518, 8d. (ibid., 10 Hen. VIII).
S App. R. App. A.
Close, 7 Edw. 11,m. 10; 8 Edw. 11, m. 7 ; Pat., 7 Edw. 11,pt. ii, m. 10d; 8 Edw.
11, m. 28 d; 10Edw. 11,pt. 11, m. 17 d; 16 Edw. 111, pt. iii, m. 14 d; 17 Edw. 111,
pt. i, m. 43 d, 38 d; 18 Edw. 111, pt. ii, m. 30 d ; 21 Edw. 111, pt. i, m. 25 d; pt. ii,
m. 9 d; I Hen. IV, pt. viii, m. 14 d; S. P. Dom. Eliz., ccxliii, 113; Jas. I, clxxxvii, 26.
E Close, 7 Edw. 11, m. 10; Pat.,8 Edw. 11, pt. i, m. 28 d; Treas. Papers, xvii, 10;
Hargrave 32I, fol. 41; Tinners' Grievance.
' Pat. 7 Edw. 11, pt. ii, m. 10 d; Coll. Proc., Chas. I, no. 164.
S. P. Dom. Jas. I, clxxxvii, 26; Treas. Papers, ii, 10, 44; xi, 10.
Pat., 7 Edw. 11,pt. ii, m. 10d; 8 Edw. I1 t i, m. 28 d; Close, 8 Edw. 11, m. 7.
' p '..
l0 S. P. Dom. Eliz., ccxliii, 113; Jas. I, clxxvn, 26; Will. & Mary, xxxviii, 75;
Treas. Papers, ii, 44. The bars were known as "pocket tin."
l 1 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, clxxxiii, 26.
l1 S. P. Dom. Chas. I, Proc. Chas. I, no. 164.TAXATION AND REVENUE I55
1.54 THE STANNARIES
fitted up with furnaces and kettles, and here a brisk business was
done melting down uncoined blocks and running the metal into
small wooden moulds, in order to escape detection.' Others did not
trouble themselves about melting the blocks but during the night
rushed them on board ships which, ostensibly coming for slate and
stone,2carried the tin to Holland, where it was sold at a high p r ~ f i t . ~
To cope with this illicit commerce, a long code of stannary law
had been put in force. All tin must be blown before Michaelmas4
No tin might be sold until coined upon pain of f~rfeiture.~ No coinage might take place save in the regular town^.^ No black tin of
Cornwall ought to be blown, or white tin of Cornwall stamped, in
D e ~ o n . ~ Other statutes prescribed the route which tin should take
after being whitened. It must not be moved from the blowing or
smelting house to any place except to the regular coinage towns;
it must not be carried by night; it must be carried by the shortest
route and within a reasonable time.1° At the same time laws were
passed to regulate the trading in tin. No one should receive or buy
any black tin, tin stuff, or leavirlgs of blowing-houses from any suspicious person not known to be an adventurer for tin, a maker of
black tin, or an owner of a blowing-house, or receive any tin from
a tinner otherwise than openly at a wash, or before at least one
sufficient witness. An attempt was even made to guard the tin
before it was removed from the blowing-house. To each owner of
a blowing-house was assigned a mark, registered at the nearest stannary court in the steward's book, and this he must place upon every
piece l1 and account to the stannary exchequer for every separate
block of tin that left his establishment.12 He must employ no man
without first presenting him before the court and seeing that he
Treas. Papers, ii, 10; S. P. Dom. Will. & Mary, xxxviii, 75.
S. P. Dorn- Jas. I, clxxxvii, 26; Close, 8 Edw. 11, m. 7.
S Tinners' Grievance. Cf. Penzance in the seventeenth century (Treas. Papers,
ii, 10, 44).
* Convoc. Cornw., 2 Jas. 11, C. 7; Parl. Devon, 2 Hen. VIII, c. 4.
Convoc. Cornw., 30 Eliz., c. 44; Parl. Devon, 2 Hen VIII, c. 29; 6 Edw. VI, c. 5.
Add. MS. 6713, fol. 249, c. 66. 7 Ibid., fol. 248, c. 60.
S Convoc. Cornw., 22 Jas. I: C. 4. Q Ibid., 2 Jas. 11, C. 17.
'O Ibid., 16 Hen. VIII, c. 14; 2 Jas. 11, c. 17.
l1 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 101-103; Convoc. Cornw., 2 Jas. 11,c. 22; Parl. Devon,
2 Hen. VIII, c. 13.
la Add. Ms. 6713, fol. 101-103.
there take an oath to execute his duties with due regard for the laws
against impure tin.' Similarly every tinner who brought black tin
to the blowing-house had to register a private mark at the Lostwithiel Exchequer, so that tin captured from smugglers might be
properly identified.
In the later Stuart period a determined effort was made to put
down smuggling through the appointment of a supervisorof blowinghouses.3 One man at first attempted to fill the office, but when it
was seen to be too large an undertaking, four under-supervisors
were appointed, who divided the inspection between them.4 What
their duties were we know largely from the correspondence of the
energetic Mr. George Treweek, who held the post of supervisorgeneral in the reign of James II.5 The supervisor was continually
running about, visiting the blowing-houses, examining into the
records of the day's work, and taking note of the amounts blown in
each. He was to see that no small moulds were in use, that the
workmen had been properly iouched for, and that the house-mark
and the tin owner's mark were on each block. On the coinage day
he compared his records of the tin blown in each house with those
which the blowing-house proprietor had turned into the steward's
court, ferreting out irregularities and seizing all forfeited tin. He
must also be active along the coast, to intercept tin that might be
carried down to creeks or inlets and hoisted aboard suspicious
luggers. He must be prepared also to hunt down suspected tin even
to London, and claim it on proof of its falsity. It was no very easy
position to fill, and all the more difficult when, as Mr. Treweek
bitterly complained, the officers were systematically obstructed in
the performance of their duties and on flimsy pretexts haled before
the stannary courts for punishment.
That much tin was sold uncoined is undeniable, and to a large
extent this factor vitiates whatever official statistics may have to
say concerning the production. But with regard to the sums actually
Convoc. Cornw., 16 Hen. VIII, c. 17; 22 Jas. I, C. 2, 3; 2 Jas. 11,C. 35; Harl.
6380, fol. 32.
Add. MS. 6713, fol. 102; Convoc. Cornw., 16 Hen. VIII, c. 18; Add. MS. 6713,
fol. 241, C. 22.
a He first appears in 1660 (Cal. Treas. Papers, i, 13).
Treas. Papers, xi, 10. Each had about seven or eight houses to supervise.
Ibid., ii, 10.Is6 THE STANNARIES
paid in as coinage dues, the figures are clear. Until the preemption
was set to farm, the coinage money was far and away the largest
item of revenue which the stannaries afforded. Over £1600 was in
this way accounted for in 1303, and the amount rose and fell in
wide fluctuations according to the output of tin. In 1355, shortly
after the Black Death, less than LIOOOwas realized from Cornwall
and nothing from Devon, whereas seven years before Cornwall alone
had paid £2500. From an average of about £2000 a year in the
reigns of the first Stuarts the tax dwindled away during the Civil
War, and during the Commonwealth was replaced by an excise
which lasted until 1660.' From 1660 began a steady rise, bringing
it in 1700 to £6380, in 1710 to £9600, and in 1750 to L ~ o o o o . ~
Post groats first appear in 1302 and for a few years averaged
£5 8s. From 1306 to 1507 the entry ceases to appear. It was never
a very certain tax until after the Restoration, when the rising production of tin crowded the coinages to repletion, causing the post
groats in 1675 to rise as high as £124.~
Long before the tin duties were abolished they had become an
anachronism and a most intolerable nuisance to producers. Of the
original items of revenue the coinage, the preemption, the fine of
tinners, toll tin, and the profits of the courts emerged unscathed
from the Civil War; the rest, although not formally abolished, had
at one time or another tacitly ceased to be collected. But the
machinery of collection remained, a mere excuse for fees and perquisites. There were fees to cutters, fees to weighers, fees to porters,
and fees to scalesmen, fees for the use of the beam, drink money,
gift money, house money, and dinners to the coinage officials14
amounting in all to IS. 3d. per hundred-weight over and above the
regular taxes.5 The necessity for reform was denied by scarcely any
one," and finally in 1838 the whole system, with the exception of
toll, was quietly swept away in favor of a small excise duty levied
at the smelting-house.?
l Tract on Tin Duties.
For the figures of the revenue from coinage dues see App. K.
a App. R. ' Tin Duties, g.
Ibid., 7. Hansard, xliv, 1002-1005.
P Stat. I & 2 Vict., c. 120.