Sword Blade Coffee House

1312 Sword Blade Coffee House Birchin Lane Cornhill c17187–85. No. 10 Birchin Lane 1767. Name derives from the Sword Blade Company whose bankruptcy was brought about by the failure of the South Sea Company about 1720.

1312. Sword Blade Coffee House, Birchin Lane. No. 10 (1767). There is little doubt that this coffee-house on the west side of Birchin Lane, derived its name from the Sword Blade Company located on the east side on the site of No. 19, almost opposite to the coffee-house. The whole property was newly rebuilt after the Fire. The Sword Blade Company backed on to the churchyard of St. Edmund the King, rebuilt by Wren in 1690 as the parish church of the united parishes of St. Edmund King & Martyr and St. Nicholas Aeons. The Company originated with the Lombard Street firm of Elias Turner and Caswell, and described by Hilton-Price as  flourishing as early as 1713.

1718

I am unable to trace when the Sword Blade Coffee House was established. It is not mentioned by Ashton up to 1714. There is an undocumented mention of 1718 in 'English Inn Signs', and

1719–20

it is referred to under date 1719–20 by Malcolm in Manners & Customs, quoting from contemporary newspapers advertising a scheme to attract investors in 'Turnpikes and wharves-Sword Blade Coffee House.'

It is appropriate here, to comment on the Sword Blade Company. It had been the intention of those who framed the Act of 1697, says Acres, that the Bank of England should have the monopoly of banking business; but such bodies as the Sword Blade Company, the Mine Adventurers Company and others, which had been granted Charters for particular purposes, claimed the powers vested in Corporations and began to issue Notes and Bills 'after the manner of Bank bills'. In 1704, the Sword Blade Company proposed to issue Running Cash Notes, and about three years later advertised that they would discount Bills and Notes and lend money on Securities. Only then did the Bank take action to restrain them, and called the attention of the Government to the advertisement, and the insertion of a Clause in the Act of 1708 forbidding associations of more than six persons carrying on banking after the 29th September, was the result. The Sword Blade Company petitioned Parliament, but without result. In 1720 came the crisis and failure of credit caused by the position of the South Sea Company, and the Bank's arrangement to support them had only a temporary effect. The bankruptcy of the Sword Blade Company (with whom the South Sea Company kept their money) and several goldsmiths, caused a run on the Bank, and the Bank to withdraw their support. The Bank itself had to 'resort to numerous artifices to delay the payment of money'. (Acres—Bank of England from Within, Hilton-Price—London Bankers.)

Relton in his History of Fire Insurance Companies refers to the 'Sword Blade Insurance Scheme' which was advertised at Sam's behind the Royal Exchange, also at the Union and at Sword Blade Coffee Houses. After the failure of the Sword Blade Company, and the South Sea Bubble, John Caswall now joined by John Mount carried on business until 1742, when they were announced as bankrupts.</dd>

1723 The Sword Blade Coffee House continued to function and next comes to notice from an advertisement of Charles Povey in the 'Daily Post', June 19, 1723: 'Receipts to entitle persons to shares in the Undertaking to extinguish Fires are now delivered at the Sword Blade Coffee House Birchin Lane, St. Clement's Coffee House, St. Clement's Churchyard Strand, and at the Author's own House Belsize, Hampstead.'

Charles Povey (c. 1652–1743) described as a miscellaneous writer and projector, possessed a fertile brain which was reflected by his imaginative enterprise, although perhaps unbalanced in economics. About 1705 he established The Traders' Exchange House, Hatton Garden, where he conducted a commercial agency business, and developed various insurance schemes. He produced a news-sheet known as 'General Remarks on Trade' which he distributed free, and although chiefly advertisements was not without merit. He propounded a salvage scheme; a parcel delivery service, as well as a letter-delivery undertaking known as the 'Halfpenny Carriage' apparently designed to undercut the London Penny Post with halfpenny deliveries in the cities of London, Westminster and Southwark and which brought him into conflict with the Post Office and into the Court of Exchequer. In March, 1710, he transferred to the Company of London Insurers his interest in an insurance scheme known as the Sun Fire Office, for cash and other considerations, and thereby may be deemed to have been the founder of the present-day Sun Insurance Office, the descendants of the Company of London Insurers. The advertisement of 1723, quoted here, indicates his interest in a fire-brigade service. Charles Povey died in 1743, aged over ninety years.

1728

Mrs. Branch may have kept the Sword Blade Coffee House in 1728. She is mentioned in a Lost/Reward Notice in my collection, dated Dec. 7, 1728, Numb. 11712, issued by the Beadle, Benjamin Pyne, at Goldsmiths' Hall.

1736–48

The Sword Blade Coffee House, Birchin Lane, is listed in London directories for these years, as the address used by various traders, described mostly as Turkey Merchants, or Merchants, a Grain-Dyer, and sundry individuals without description. For example in 1738, Joseph Lee, John Mitford, Benjamin Moyer, Thomas Whateley, are all Turkey Merchants, and Thomas Wilson, Turkey Merchant & Grain Dyer, Thomas Thorpe, and a Captain Richard Stratton were all to be found here.

1748

In the Plan of the Cornhill Fire in March, 1748, the Sword Blade Coffee House, with the name 'Newington', is sited on the north corner of the tributary of Exchange Alley where it enters Birchin Lane, which now forms the back of the 67 Lombard Street premises of Glyn& Mills & Company. The next site to the Sword Blade Coffee House is marked 'Glenn, Barber'. The Coffee house, in fact most of the property in Birchin Lane was consumed, except for a few at the Lombard Street end, marked damaged.

1749

The Coffee-house continued business and is listed in Osborn's directory 1749, but no address is indicated. It may therefore have occupied some temporary premises, unless the rebuilding only took nine months. The traders listed here in 1749 are Richard Banbury, Samuel Bosanquet, Cutts Maydwell, Benjamin Moyer, and Thomas Whateley, Bank Director of Epsom.

1752–53

The house is listed in 1752 directories, but without address; but in Kent's 1753 as Birchin Lane, with a following of Merchants and Turkey Merchants, including Samuel Bosanquet, Royal Exchange Ass. Director.

1754–66

From 1754 to 1766 the Sword Blade is consistently listed at Birchin Lane, mostly as the address of Turkey Merchants; in 1759 William Russell Secretary to the Turkey Company, Crutched Friars, joins the others, and the few following years produce a variety of Merchants, and Thomas Williamson, described as a Scarlet Dyer. In 1765, Merchants, Turkey Merchants, Insurance Brokers, Silk Brokers, with John Free, London Assurance Director & Turkey Merchant, and Captain James Sander, Royal Exchange Assurance Director & Turkey Merchant complete the list.

1767–85

From 1767 to 1785 the Sword Blade Coffee House appears in the directories as No. 10 Birchin Lane. If the entries in the directories are any guide, this coffee-house was indeed important to the trade of the Turkey Merchants. The variety and number of traders using the house as an address indicate a busy and popular coffee-house. In 1769 Samuel Bosanquet is described as Merchant, and in 1774 as Bank Director & Merchant. By 1777, Merchants appear to have replaced Turkey Merchants. In 1785, the last entry, only Samuel Bosanquet, Merchant remains.

I have not examined the directories for 1786 and 1787, but there is no mention in Kent's for 1788, or in later directories.

The fate of the Sword Blade Coffee House is likely to be found in one of the deeds relating to No. 10, Birchin Lane.