"The Free & Easy Society Under the Rose ", Sir Gregory Page, 2nd bt 1689–1775 Members Club

"The Free & Easy Society Under the Rose ",  Sir Gregory Page, 2nd bt 1689–1775 Members Club

   

   

 A Chinese Imari Punch Bowl,   Kangxi,  circa 1718 with the arms of  Sir Gregory Page & the "Free and  Easy Society under the Rose," interior detail of the rose in the center of the Punch Bowl.

One of Sir Gregory's diversions away from the acquisition of more land and art collecting for  Wricklemarsh, was the founding of the "Free and Easy Society", a dining club. Which is a reminder of the extent to which private societies flourished throughout the eighteenth-century England. other societies of this period being the Order of Bucks and the Hellfire Club, founded by Sir Francis Dashwood 1st. Bart. of West Wycombe. It is not known how many members there were, its form of origin, or the exact date of the founding of the club; but the following interesting advertisement appeared in the Whitehall Evening Post, from the 27th. to 29th. of July, 1758:

 "Kings Arms Tavern, New Palace Yard. The gentlemen of the Free and Easy Society meeting at this house have decided to favour the President with their company on Thursday the Third of August being their Annual Buck Feast. And those gentlemen who cannot oblige with their company are requested to send Notice thereof to the Bar, that provision may be made accordingly. Dinner will be on the table at Half past Two precisely. No circular letter will be sent, and it is further desired that no gentleman introduce Visitors on that day". The club had its own Chinese armorial punch bowl, made C. 1755 - Qianlong, which impaled the arms of their patron, Sir Gregory Page 2nd. Bart., with the pseudo—armorial of the Club, which were — Gules a mermaid rising from the sea and holding a glass and inscriptions en grisaille:

“The gift of Mr. John Moore for St. Gregory's members under the rose, Thomas Vanhagan, Philip Bell, Jn. Moore, Samuel Thompson, Jr. Smith, Jr. Rolinson, Jr. Watts and Thomas Harrison; inside the bowl is a large rose and the inscription: Free and Easy Society under the Rose. 

It will probably remain unexplained whether "St. Gregory" was painted on purpose in affectionate jest or whether this was an error for Sir Gregory, who was their patron and much respected senior member; I believe the latter: Such Societies were extremely common in Georgian times and were frequently the centers of much high—spirited debauchery. The bowl is illustrated in Howard Chinese Armorial Porcelain, first published in 1974, at which time there were only two known examples Of the bowl in existence, although a further bowl has come to light since.

          

         A Chinese Imari Tankard, Kangxi,  circa 1718 with the arms of  Sir Gregory Page 2nd Bt

                                  & "The Free & Easy Society under the Rose ."

The original site of the Horn Tavern (also known as the Horn Coffee House) was at Doctor’s Commons, 10 Godliman Street, off Carter Lane on the south side of St Paul’s Churchyard. The origin of the name is unclear. Larwood and Hotten’s History of Signboards tells us that the bugle horn occurs on traders’ tokens as early as 1667, and could be seen on many roadside inns during and after the good old coaching times, when the guard on the mail coach used to announce his arrival with a cheerful tune. Larwood and Hottten also inform us that the Horn was sometimes used in a different sense. It was the sign and badge of the cattle doctor and village gilder, deriving from the horn’s use either in drenching animals or by being blown to announce a doctor’s arrival in the village. Strype’s edition of John Stow’s Survey of London (1720) informs us that Doctor’s Commons  :

“consists of five courts - three appertaining to the see of Canterbury, one to the see of London, and one to the Lords’ Commissioners of the Admiralties.” Strype defines their functions as being “for the practice of civil or ecclesiastical causes. Several offices are also here kept; as the Registry of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the registry of the bishop of London.”

The first recorded lodge at the tavern (numbered 246) is dated 1754, with a consecration date of 13 April; we do not know its name. A society called “Free and Easy under the Rose” met at the Horn in 1760, being one of many clubs and societies with the prefix “Free and Easy”. “The Free and Easy” Society met in 1748, 1749, and 1764 at the King’s Arms Tavern, New Place Yard, Westminster, while “The Free and Easy Counsellors under the Cauliflower” met at The Three Pigeons in Butcherhall Lane, Newgate. Records also mention “The Free and Easy Johns” and “The Free and Easy Round the Rose”. The Rose was an emblem of silence and meant that nothing uttered in the room was to be heard abroad. The Public Advertiser (24 April 1758) recorded that “The Free and Easy Round the Rose” would meet on St George’s Day and that those intending to dine with the President should obtain tickets. This society had moved from the Queen’s Arms in St Paul’s Churchyard, to another masonic tavern. 

Both David Garrick and Samuel Johnson kept up their interest in different coteries, and carefully cultivated the City men, by attending a club held at the "Queen's Arms" tavern, in St. Paul's Churchyard. Here he used to meet Mr. Sharpe, a surgeon; Mr. Paterson, the City Solicitor; Mr. Draper, a bookseller, and Mr. Clutterbuck, a mercer; and these quiet cool men were his standing council in theatrical affairs, and his gauge of the city taste. They were none of them drinkers, and in order to make a reckoning, called only for French wine. Here Dr. Johnson started a City club, and was particular that the members should not be "patriotic." Boswell, who went with him to the "Queen's Arms" club, found the members "very sensible, well-behaved men." Brasbridge, the silversmith of Fleet Street, who wrote his memoirs, has described a sixpenny card club held here at a later date. Among the members was that generous and hospitable man, Henry Baldwin, who, under the auspices of Garrick, the elder Colman, and Bonnell Thornton, started the St. James's Chronicle, the most popular evening paper of the day.

 "The 'Free and Easy under the Rose' was another society which I frequented. It was founded sixty years ago, at the 'Queen's Arms,' in St. Paul's Churchyard, and was afterward removed to the 'Horn' tavern. It was originally kept by Bates, who was never so happy as when standing behind a chair with a napkin under his arm; but arriving at the dignity of alderman, tucking in his callipash and calipee himself, instead of handing it round to the company, soon did his business. My excellent friend Briskett, the Marshal of the High Court of Admiralty, was president of this society for many years, and I was constantly in attendance as his vice. It consisted of some thousand members, and I never heard of any one of them that ever incurred any serious punishment. Our great fault was sitting too late; in this respect, according to the principle of Franklin, that 'time is money,' we were most unwary spendthrifts; in other instances, our conduct was orderly and correct."

New Palace Yard location of the Horn Tavern

One of the members in Brasbridge's time was Mr. Hawkins, a worthy but ill-educated spatterdash maker, of Chancery Lane, who daily murdered the king's English. He called an invalid an "individual," and said our troops in America had been "manured" to hardship. Another oddity was a Mr. Darwin, a Radical, who one night brought to the club-room a caricature of the head of George III. in a basket; and whom Brasbridge nearly frightened out of his wits by pretending to send one of the waiters for the City Marshal. Darwin was the great chum of Mr. Figgins, a waxchandler in the Poultry; and as they always entered the room together, Brasbridge gave them the nickname of "Liver and Gizzard." Miss Boydell, when her uncle was Lord Mayor, conferred sham knighthood on Figgins, with a tap of her fan, and he was henceforward known as "Sir Benjamin."

     The Horn Tavern where the Free and Easy Society under the Rose met in London.                              

English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries were public social places where men would meet for conversation and commerce. For the price of a penny, customers purchased a cup of coffee and admission. Travelers introduced coffee as a beverage to England during the mid-17th century; previously it had been consumed mainly for its supposed medicinal properties. Coffeehouses also served tea and hot chocolate as well as a light meal. The historian Brian Cowan describes English coffeehouses as "places where people gathered to drink coffee, learn the news of the day, and perhaps to meet with other local residents and discuss matters of mutual concern." Topics like the Yellow Fever would also be discussed. The absence of alcohol created an atmosphere in which it was possible to engage in more serious conversation than in an alehouse. Coffeehouses also played an important role in the development of financial markets and newspapers.

Topics discussed included politics and political scandals, daily gossip, fashion, current events, and debates surrounding philosophy and the natural sciences. Historians often associate English coffeehouses, during the 17th and 18th centuries, with the intellectual and cultural history of the Age of Enlightenment: they were an alternate sphere, supplementary to the university. Political groups frequently used coffeehouses as meeting places. The Oxford-style coffeehouses, which acted as a center for social intercourse, gossip, and scholastic interest, spread quickly to London, where English coffeehouses became popularised and embedded within the English popular and political culture. Pasqua Rosée, a native of Smyrna, western Turkey of a Levant Company merchant named Daniel Edwards, established the first London coffeehouse in 1652. London's second coffeehouse was named the Temple Bar, established by James Farr in 1656.

Initially, there was little evidence to suggest that London coffeehouses were popular and largely frequented, due to the nature of the unwelcome competition felt by other London businesses. When Harrington's Rota Club began to meet in another established London coffeehouse known as the Turk's Head, to debate "matters of politics and philosophy", the English coffeehouse popularity began to rise. This club was also a "free and open academy unto all comers" whose raison d'être was the art of debate, characterized as "contentious but civil, learned but not didactic.” According to Cowan, despite the Rota's banishment after the Restoration of the monarchy, the discursive framework they established while meeting in coffeehouses set the tone for coffeehouse conversation throughout the rest of the 17th century. By the early eighteenth century, London boasted more coffeehouses than any other city in the Western world, except for Constantinople.

Hogarth's depiction of a fight breaking out in Tom King's Coffee House,
in his 1736 painting Four Times of the Day

English coffeehouses had a particular character during their height in popularity, spanning from 1660, after the Restoration of the monarchy, until their decline towards the end of the 18th century. Coffeehouses soon became the "town's latest novelty." A relaxed atmosphere, their relative cheapness, and frequency contributed to coffeehouse sociability and their rise in demand. Despite two major setbacks faced by the coffeehouses during their height in popularity, the outbreak of the plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London that followed in 1666, the coffeehouse's popularity did not wane. Ellis explains: "Londoners could not be entirely subdued and there were still some who climbed the narrow stairs to their favourite coffeehouses although no longer prepared to converse freely with strangers. Before entering they looked quite around the room and would not approach even close acquaintances without first inquiring the health of the family at home and receiving assurances of their well-being."

English coffeehouses acted as public houses in which all were welcome, having paid the price of a penny for a cup of coffee. Ellis accounts for the wide demographic of men present in a typical coffeehouse in the post-restoration period: "Like Noah's ark, every kind of creature in every walk of life (frequented coffeehouses). They included a town wit, a grave citizen, a worthy lawyer, a worship justice, a reverend nonconformist, and a voluble sailor." Some historians even claimed that these institutions acted as democratic bodies due to their inclusive nature: "Whether a man was dressed in a ragged coat and found himself seated between a belted earl and a gaitered bishop it made no difference; moreover he was able to engage them in conversation and know that he would be answered civilly."

Coffeehouse conversation was supposed to conform to a particular manner. The language of polite and civil conversation was considered to be essential to the conduct of coffeehouse debate and conversation. There is dispute among historians as to the main role that civility played in polite conversation in coffeehouse conversation and debate. Klein argues the importance of the portrayal of utmost civility in coffeehouse conversation to the public was imperative for the survival of coffeehouse popularity throughout the period of restoration-era anxieties. Cowan applies the term "civility" to coffeehouses in the sense of "a peculiarly urban brand of social interaction which valued sober and reasoned debate on matters of great import, be they scientific, aesthetic, or political." He argues that the underlying rules and procedures which have enabled coffeehouses to "keep undesirable out". These include established rules and procedures as well as conventions outlined by clubs when frequenting coffeehouses, such as Harrington's Rota Club. Cowan argues that these "rules" have had a great impact on coffeehouse sociability. Mackie argues that Addison and Steele's popularised periodicals, The Tatler and The Spectator, infused politeness into English coffeehouse conversation, as their explicit purpose lay in the reformation of English manners and morals. Others still contest the holistic presence of polite civility within coffeehouse conversation. Helen Berry uses the example of Elizabeth Adkins, better known as Moll King, using coffeehouse slang known as "flash" - to counter the axiom of polite culture within coffeehouse culture. Ellis explains that because Puritanism influenced English coffeehouse behaviorisms, intoxicants were forbidden, allowing for respectable sober conversation. He offers an example of one coffeehouse patron who, upon seeking ale within a coffeehouse, was asked to leave and visit a nearby tavern.

Tom King's Coffee House in Covent Garden

Various coffeehouses catered to diverse groups of individuals who focused on specific topics of discussion. The variety of topics and groups to which the coffeehouses catered offers insight into the non-homogeneous nature of English society during the period in which coffeehouses rose to their peak in popularity. These different coffeehouse characters are evident when evaluating specific coffeehouses in detail during the period. After the Restoration, coffeehouses known as penny universities catered to a range of gentlemanly arts and acted as an alternate center of academic learning. These included lessons in French, Italian , or Latin, dancing, fencing, poetry, mathematics , and astronomy. Other coffeehouses acted as a center for social gatherings for less learned men. Helen Berry evaluates one coffeehouse, known as Moll King's Coffeehouse, which is depicted to be frequented by lowlifes and drunkards as well as "an unusual wide social mix of male customers, from courtiers to Covent Garden market traders and pimps." It was also frequently associated with prostitution. Customers also habitually engage in a type of conversation known as "flash", a derivative of criminal speak. Moll King's coffeehouse was used as a case study for Berry to prove that polite conversation was not always used within a coffeehouse setting. Other groups frequented other coffeehouses for various reasons. For example, Child's coffeehouse, "near the Physician's Warwick Lane and St. Paul's churchyard", was frequented by the clergy and by doctors."

According to the first posted "Rules and Orders of the Coffee House" illustrated and printed in 1674 as a coffee broadside, equality was supposed to have prevailed amongst all men in these establishments, and "no man of any station need give his place to a finer man". Historians confirm that a diverse demographic of customers frequented English coffeehouses and social status was somewhat ignored, as one could participate in conversation regardless of class, rank, or political leaning. If one should swear, they would have to forfeit a twelve-pence. If a quarrel broke out, the instigator would have to purchase the offended a cup of coffee. The topic of "sacred things" was barred from coffeehouses, and rules existed against speaking poorly of the state as well as religious scriptures. The rules forbade games of chance, such as cards and dice, as well. However,

In reality, there were no regulations or rules governing the coffee houses. This satire ironizes the very idea of regulating their behaviour. Until the mid-seventeenth century, most people in England were either slightly — or very — drunk all of the time. Most people favored watered-down ale or beer instead of London's river water. The arrival of coffee triggered a dawn of sobriety that laid the foundations for truly spectacular economic growth in the decades that followed as people thought clearly for the first time. The stock exchange, insurance industry, and auctioneering: all burst into life in 17th-century coffeehouses — in Jonathan's, Lloyd's, and Garraway's — spawning the credit, security, and markets that facilitated the dramatic expansion of Britain's network of global trade in Asia, Africa and America.

At Lloyd's Coffee House, frequented by merchants and sailors, deals in the shipping industry were conducted. As a result, it became the major insurer of Lloyd's of London. In the 17th century, stockbrokers also gathered and traded in coffee houses, notably Jonathan's Coffee House, because they were not allowed in the Royal Exchange due to their rude manners. The English coffeehouse also acted as a primary center of communication for news. Historians strongly associate English coffeehouses with print and scribal publications, as they were important venues for the reading and distribution of such materials, as well as the gathering of important news information. Most coffeehouses provided pamphlets and newspapers, as the price of admission covered their costs. Patrons perused reading material at their leisure. Coffeehouses became increasingly associated with news culture, as news became available in a variety of forms throughout coffeehouses. These forms include: "Print, both licensed and unlicensed; manuscripts; aloud, as gossip, hearsay, and word of mouth." Runners also went around to different coffeehouses* reporting the latest current events*. Circulation of bulletins announcing sales, sailings, and auctions was also common in English coffeehouses.

Richard Steele and Joseph Addison's news publications, The Spectator and the Tatler, were considered the most influential venue of print news that circulated in English coffeehouses. These journals were likely the most widely distributed sources of news and gossip within coffeehouses throughout the early half of the 18th century. Addison and Steele explicitly worked to reform the manners and morals of English society, accomplished through a veiled anecdotal critique of English society. As these anecdotal stories held underlying, rather than explicit, social critiques, "readers were persuaded, not coerced, into freely electing these standards of taste and behaviour as their own." Addison and Steele relied on coffeehouses for their source of news and gossip as well as their clientele, and then spread their news culture back into the coffeehouses as they relied on coffeehouses for their distribution. According to Bramah, the good standing of the press during the days in which Addison and Steele distributed The Tatler and The Spectator in English coffeehouses can be directly attributed to the popularity of the coffeehouse.