Woods halfpence

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Wood's Halfpence controversy (1722–5), a campaign against the patent to mint £100,800 worth of copper coin for Ireland acquired by William Wood, a Wolverhampton manufacturer. Opponents argued that the patent, allegedly purchased from George I's mistress, the duchess of Kendal, would flood Ireland with worthless coin. The scheme provoked hostile pamphlets and popular demonstrations, but the really effective opposition came from the political establishment. The House of Lords and House of Commons both passed hostile resolutions, and the lords justices, privy council, and revenue commissioners resisted pressure to use the coin in official receipts and payments. Having failed to overcome opposition by reducing the proposed issue to £40,000 and replacing the ineffective duke of Grafton, lord lieutenant 1720–4, with the astute and sociable Lord Carteret, Sir Robert Walpole's ministry cancelled the patent in September 1725.

Walpole saw resistance to the patent as revealing a desire for ‘independency’, and Swift's Drapier's Letters did in fact raise the issue of Ireland's political subordination. Most opponents, however, concentrated on the damaging consequences of the patent, rather than challenging its legality. The determined defence of Irish against English interests nevertheless gives the episode a place in the development of patriotism. The crisis led Walpole's ministry to initiate a policy of ensuring that a proportion of key posts (including, invariably, the lord chancellorship and the archbishopric of Armagh) were in the future held by politically reliable Englishmen. But the rejection of the patent also demonstrated that the English government could manage Ireland only with the assistance of Irish undertakers, among whom William Conolly now emerged, through the eclipse of his rival Brodrick, as the undisputed chief.

Wood's halfpence, 1722. There was a shortage of coin in Ireland in 1722 and much of it was old and worn. Since there was no mint in Ireland, a patent was granted to a Wolverhampton ironmonger, William Wood, to supply just over £100,000 in halfpennies and farthings. Though Sir Isaac Newton, as master of the mint, testified that the coins were satisfactory, there was vociferous protest from Ireland and an almost total refusal to handle the money. Swift's anonymous Drapier's Letters in 1724–5 raised a flame: ‘if a madman should come to my shop with a handful of dirt raked out of the kennel, I would pity or laugh at him; and if Mr Wood comes to demand any gold or silver, in exchange for his trash, can he deserve or expect better treatment?’ Walpole revoked the patent in 1725 and Wood was privately compensated. The episode suggests how tense Anglo-Irish relations were and the resentment left by the Act of 1720 which reaffirmed that Ireland was ‘subordinate to the imperial crown of Great Britain’.

J. A. Cannon

Wood's halfpence, 1722. There was a shortage of coin in Ireland in 1722 and much of it was old and worn. Since there was no mint in Ireland, a patent was granted to a Wolverhampton ironmonger, William Wood, to supply just over £100,000 in halfpennies and farthings. There was vociferous protest from Ireland and an almost total refusal to handle the money. Swift's anonymous Drapier's Letters in 1724–5 raised a flame. Walpole revoked the patent in 1725 and Wood was privately compensated. The episode suggests how tense Anglo‐Irish relations were.