Obv: IOHN . WHITTLE . IN , around arms of the Commonwealth.
Rev: KILKENY . 1656 , around beaded inner circle, D over 1 with (mullet) either side.
Ex John VanVranken collection Chicago.
M Dickinson 529.


The family of Whittle was founded in Kilkenny by a soldier of Cromwell's army, one Job Whittle, who lived to the extraordinary age of 127 years. John was son of the patriarch, whose cause he obviously espoused, from the circumstance of having the Commonwealth Arms on his tokens, which are seldom met with, though the Royal Arms after the Restoration are very common. He filled the office of Sheriff during part of the year 1664, and Coroner the ensuing year. In 1670 he was admitted to the Common Council, having , as the record expressly states, "taken the oath of supremacy."

In 1714, Job Whittle was elected town sergeant to the Corporation of Irishtown, and his family were for nearly two centuries hereditary pound-keepers of St. Canice's parish, having obtained a long lease from the Corporation. This expired a few years since, when the present representative of the Whittles, a man in humble circumstances, bearing the name of his ancestor, Job, was dispossessed of the office by the Town Council.

William Boyne, Trade Tokens issued in the Seventeenth Century, 2nd ed. 1891, v. 2, p. 1396...

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