Coins, Historical Medals & Paper Money

MIDDLESEX, Enfield, Revd. W. Thomas’s Academy, 1817, an engraved silver Prize Medal by W. Bateman, legend, rev. engraved (Non Salacon Sum, Tamen Præmium Per Diligentiam Acquisivi), hallmarked London 1816, 53mm, 14.72g (Grimshaw p.18, 40; D & W 226/192, this piece). Good very fine, very rare; decorative border and loop for suspension £120-150

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, British Educational Award Medals from the Collection formed by the late T.H. Watts.

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Miss Grimshaw alluded to several medals of this type awarded between 1807 and 1818 at the Revd. Thomas’s Academy, none of which apparently share the same reverse legend. William Thomas (1767-1827), born in Bristol, was educated at the Daventry Dissenting Academy. He served as a pastor at Wellingborough before moving to Enfield in 1786 as minister at the Zion Chapel. His associates, John Clarke and John Ryland, moved to Enfield at the same time, Clarke succeeding Ryland as Master of Enfield Academy in 1792 and himself retired to Ramsgate in the summer of 1810, whence Thomas took over as Master. In his time the Academy’s most famous alumni was the poet John Keats. See also next lot