[Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, or his son Admiral Peregrine Osborne, 2nd Duke of Leeds, as Marquis of Carmarthen.] Drawn note (cheque), signed ‘Carmarthen P:’, directing his banker Sir Francis Child to pay £100 to William Vernon.

See the entries on the two Dukes in the Oxford DNB, as well as that of Sir Francis Child the elder. Both Dukes are significant; the first was a leading Tory politician and one of the ‘immortal seven’ who invited William of Orange to England, and the second was a naval adviser to Peter the Great of Russia. The present item is signed ‘Carmarthan P:’, which would seem to suggest it is the signature of the 2nd Duke, Peregrine Osborne, but the Oxford DNB states that he became Marquis of Carmarthen a few months after the present item, on his father being made Duke of Leeds on 4 May 1694. The item is in poor condition, on aged, worn and discoloured paper, with chipping to edges, damage at top right, and a spike hole at the foot. It is however a scarce survival and a quite early example of a ‘drawn note’ or cheque (one of the earliest in existence was drawn on Morris and Clayton of London around thirty-five years before, in 1659). On one side of an 18.5 x 10.5 cm piece of wove paper, with the top edge rounded into an arch. Reads: ‘Febry. ye 9th. 1693/4 / I desire you to pay to the bearer Willm. Vernon the Sume of one hundred pounds and place it on my account / Carmarthen P: / To Sr. Francis Child and partner’. See Image.