Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals

Religion, LEICESTER SQUARE, The Oratory, John Henley, brass, 1726, the oratory, radiated heart at left, double IH monogram below, inveniam viam avt faciam ad summa above, rev. london 1726, stamped No. 251, 35mm, 15.55g (W 2456, this piece; cf. MI II, 466/80; Young, Entertainments, p.65, this piece). Obverse fine, reverse fair, extremely rare
£100-£200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Tickets and Passes of London from the David Young Collection.

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Provenance: Bt M. Johnson October 2013.

John Henley (1692-1756), known contemporaneously as ‘Orator Henley’, b. Melton Mowbray, moved to London in 1721. After a quarrel with the Bishop of London he gave up his assistant preachership and on 3 July 1726 opened his Oratory at Newport Market, situated near Leicester square and one of the main meat markets in the city at the time. He moved to an old theatre at Clare Market, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, in 1729. Medals of admission to his Oratory, like the present specimen, were sold for a shilling. Said to be a rude and vain man who upset many people, he died in poverty