dorset tokens and medals. 83 

 Sherborne. 



7. ohv : "A Sherborne halfpenny, 1793." An eagle displayed, 



with two heads. 

 rev : " P. P. & W." in cipher characters, beneath a hi\-e and 

 bees. 

 edge : " payable at the Bank in Sherborne + Dorset." + 



8. t>Z'i' ;" Sherborne token value one halfpenny. 1796. P. W. 



& S." in cipher characters. 



rev : " Stet fortuna domus." An eagle displayed, with two 



heads. 

 edge : plain. 



9. ok> : "Sherborne halfpenny." The front of the "Bank," 



above it an eagle as before and a riband inscribed 

 "Stet fortuna domus." 

 rev : " Prefer Pew & Whitty bankers Sherborne Dorset 

 1796." In six lines. (Plate I.) 

 edge : " payable at the Bank in Sherborne + Dorset + ." 

 Nos. 7 to 9 are by J. Westwood. 



Simon Pretor, the founder of the firm who issued the fore- 

 going three tokens, was born at Lyme Regis in 1727. The 

 house shown on token No. 9 was on the south side of Long 

 Street, and was perhaps used also as the post office, as S. Pretor 

 was postmaster in 1790, being followed by Samuel Whitty in 

 1809. An obituary notice in the Gentleman's Magazine of 

 September, 1804, records the death of Simon Pretor in his 77th 

 year, and adds that " The Sherborne and Dorsetshire Bank 

 originally established by him was, it is believed, the first of the 

 kind in that county." In 1784 the firm was S. Pretor and Son, 

 then Pretor, Pew and Whitty, whose descendants continued the 

 banking house until it became merged in the National Provincial 

 Bank. In 1831 Samuel Pretor held a cornetcy in the Dorset 

 Yeomanry. Samuel Whitty * was a native of Axminster, and son 



* See "The brothers , . . Pretor and Thomas Whitty," by John Bullar, 

 1821. 



