On May 19th 1613, King James I of England granted a royal patent to Lord John Harrington to produce small copper alloy farthing tokens. Coins produced during this patent are called Harrington farthings. When Lord Harrington died, the patent passed to Ludovic Stewart, the Duke of Lennox, who produced Lennox farthings beginning on June 28, 1614. Lennox farthings were produced for the subsequent nine years, until Stewart acquired the additional title of the Duke of Richmond. When Stuart died a few months later in early 1624, his widow Frances, now the Dowager Duchess of Richmond, inherited the farthing patent.
King James I of England died just over a year later, on March 27th, 1625 and was succeeded by his son, Charles I. Frances Stewart, who retained the title of the Duchess of Richmond, and Sir Francis Crane, Secretary to Charles I, were confirmed as the patent holders for farthing coinage by the new King of England a few months after he ascended to the throne, on May 30th 1625.
The farthings issued by Frances Stewart, Dowager Duchess of Richmond and Sir Francis Crane, produced between 1625 and 1634 are called Richmond Farthings. Only two have been found in excavations at Jamestown.
These coins are similar to both Harrington and Lennox farthings, with a crown and two crossed scepters on the obverse and a crowned harp on the reverse. However, the lettering on the obverse side indicates that these were minted during the reign of Charles I, reading: CARO DG MAG BRI, an abbreviated version of “Charles, by the Grace of God of Britain,” the lettering on the reverse completes the phrase with FRA ET HIB REX, or “France and Ireland, King.”
Frances Stewart, the “Double Duchess” who inherited and was confirmed by King Charles I as the patent holder for these coins, was a powerful and well-connected woman in her own right. Her first marriage was to Henry Prenell, a patron of the Virginia Company. When he died, she became a wealthy widow, only in her early 20’s. She married a second time, and became a lady of the bedchamber to Anne of Denmark, the wife of King James I. Frances and her third husband, Ludovic Stewart, the Duke of Lennox, were married in 1621. Throughout her life, Frances maintained her first husband’s interest in the ongoing colonization of Virginia through the patronage of Captain John Smith and his publication, Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. Issued in the same year as her husband’s death, Smith’s book includes a dedication, “to the Illustrious and Most Noble Princesse, the Lady Frances, Duchesse of Richmond and Lenox.”
