Irish Coins & Historical Medals

Lower Gardiner’s Street School, Dublin, an oval engraved silver Reward of Diligence, unsigned, legend (Revd. J.A. Coughlan AB, Master, 1819), rev. named (Wm Mawdesley Best, Aged 9 Years, Obtained this Medal for his Superior Answering in Latin, Histy. & Geogy), 47 x 37mm, 13.75g (Grimshaw –). Good very fine and attractively toned, rare; with loop for suspension £150-£200

William Mawdesley Best (1809-69), b Haddington, East Lothian, the elder of the two sons of Thomas Best (1784–1813), captain in the Cameronian regiment, and his wife, Anne Kearney (b 1788), of Tuam; barrister at Gray’s Inn, London, author of A Treatise on Presumptions of Law and Fact (London, 1844) and The Principles of Evidence (London, 1849), the latter a much-quoted reference, the last edition of which, published in 1922, was still being used by the legal profession in the 1950s. Best died at his home in Hyde Park, London, on 16 November 1869