Tickets and Passes, Important British Trade Tokens, Coin Weights

Alderman Newton’s Charity, a brass badge, 18th century, numbered 75, 50 x 75mm, with lugs on back for pin. Fine (£40-60)

Alderman Gabriel Newton (1683-1762), originally a Leicester woolcomber, became a freeman in 1702, a councillor in 1710, an alderman in 1726 and served as mayor of Leicester in 1732. Largely as a result of three marriages he amassed great wealth; when his only son died at the age of 18 he settled the sum of £3,250 towards the schooling and clothing of 35 boys. Many other schools besides Alderman Newton's were supported in many other centres beside Leicester. He laid down strict rules as to dress and religious instruction. Newton, himself deeply religious, was eccentric in the extreme and a stickler for orthodoxy and detail. He is buried at All Saints churchyard, Leicester