September Miscellany

Here is September’s round-up of graffiti and related items of interest on the internet.

Items of Interest

 
 
 
 
 
 

Twitter Finds

 
 
 
 
Two tweets showing what graffiti through plaster would have originally looked like.
 
 
 

Merchants Mark with Link to St Michael’s Cross

Further to our previous post on butterfly crosses and their relationship to the St Michael the Archangel’s cross, the facebook group, Church Funerary Monuments, had a post on John Barton’s tomb at St Giles church, Holme in Nottinghamshire. (Photos by Ruth McCairns). 

Barton’s merchant’s mark is the St Michael the Archangel’s cross.

John Barton's merchant's mark
John Barton’s merchant’s mark. Photo courtesy of Ruth McCairns.

It’s interesting to see such a recognised symbol used as a merchant’s mark.

John Barton, according to Allan Barton on the FB group, came up from nothing and died in 1491. Allan says: “He was an entirely self-made man, rising from humble origins to be a merchant of the staple of Calais and for a time serving as Mayor, the head of the Staple. He managed to establish his family as gentry through judicious marriages with Lancashire heiresses. A very, very canny man. The tomb and the church and the glass were all erected prior to his death. In the windows of his house he had the inscription ‘I thank God and ever shall, the sheep hath paid for all’.”