Volume II 1603-1660 - The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple

INTRODUCTION. xix
proportion of which cup is here portrayed : upon the one side whereof
is curiously engraven the proportion of a church or Temple
beautified with turrets and pinnacles and on the other side is figured
an altar whereon is couched the simulance of brands or sticks of wood
feeding an holy fire, the flames appear (?) and over those flames these
words engraved Nil nisi vola.' The cover of this rich cup of gold
is in the upper part thereof adorned with a fabric fashioned like a
pyramid whereon standeth the statue of a military person leaning
with the left hand upon a Roman fashioned shield or target. The
which cup his excellent Majestic while he lived esteemed for one of
his royalist and most richest jewell."
The actual cost of this cup appears thus in our accounts for the
year 1609 :
" To the King's gouldsmith ' for HALF the cuppe which is to be sent to
his Matie £333. 6. 8."
The entire cost as paid to the king's goldsmith would therefore
have been £666 i3s. 4d., or of the present value of about £3,500.
In addition to this, a cup of gold of the value of *I4. 6s. in a velvet
case was presented to the king in 1609 on behalf of the two societies,
after which date they ceased making presents to the royal family.
The money to pay for this costly cup was, in the first instance,
provided by individual benchers who, anxious to preserve the
inheritance of the house, contributed some ‘300 on the faith that the
members of the inn would hold them harmless. With a view to
meet this obligation a double pension was assessed on November 3rd,
16o8, and on May 7th, 1609. To the death of K ing James the cup
presented by the templars was kept by him and held in an estimation
which exceeded its artistic merits, so far as one can judge from the
description given above. Its subsequent history is not without
interest. In the autumn of 1625 King Charles I. found himself
in pecuniary embarrassment owing to difficulties with his first
parliament. Disappointed in his expectations of a large subsidy
from that body he resorted, in the month of September or October, to
the questionable expedient of pawning certain pieces of royal plate
1 The King's goldsmith at this time was John Williams, who held that post until
2 1 James I., 1624 (see Prideaux's " Records of the Goldsmith's Company," vol. i.,
p. 138). " Pell Records," James I., various entries.
P. 38
P. 45
PP. 37, 42