The "Bushy Tailed Fox" story

[urbanspaceman]

The beginnings of the Shotley Bridge enterprise was 1685 - 7 when the German workers arrived. The initial batch of blades released were marked with the name Shotle(y) Bridg(e) but also featured a Passau Wolf in a typical Solingen rendering of lines. These blades had been smuggled into Shotley Bridge by Harmonn Mohll (part of the Solingen diaspora) who would continue to smuggle in blades for the Jacobites at least until 1703 when he was caught and briefly jailed. The village name was added to advertise the fact that the works were up and running. Almost the entire initial supply with the Passau Wolf were sold to local wealthy Jacobites.
Once the works were fully up and running, blades went to the Hollow Sword Blade Company syndicate in London. This syndicate had been started surreptitiously at the behest of King James II as a cover for arming the militia of his supporters. The cover story was production of hollow smallsword blades at a reasonable price, as German imports were penalised with taxes and constrictive tariffs.
Unfortunately – or not – the result of the Glorious Revolution in 1788 put William on the throne and by 1691 the syndicate had been taken over by various money-men who had financed the revolution. The output of the village then went to the Tower via The Hollow Sword Blade Company; many were subsequently sent up to Glasgow.
The Jacobites continued to be successfully supplied by Mohll's smuggling enterprise as almost the entire output of the village was going down to the syndicate in London.
During that brief interim period, before the new syndicate gained control, Adam Oley produced blades in the village and marked them with his adopted symbol of the Bushy Tailed Fox which can be found on a few, but only a few, assorted blades. In particular, a narrow, flat bladed smallsword for the 1st Duke of Northumberland: Lieutenant-General George Fitzroy, third son of Charles II by the Countess of Castlemaine. Fitzroy had earlier acquired a Horseman's sword made with that initial batch of Passau Wolf marked blades. At this time he was Commander of the 2nd Troop of Horse Guards and this is indicated on the shell of his Horseman's sword.
Returning to the smallsword, we find both an early style Bushy Tailed Fox punzone and the words Shotle and Bridg on the blade. Considering this was 1688/9 it became the indication and proof I needed that the BTF was the Oley symbol.
By 1713, Oley was independent of the syndicate – fully autonomous. He named the Cutlers Guild he created 'The Guild of the Running Fox' and up here on Tyneside the BTF has always been associated with Oley in Shotley Bridge. He sold many thousands of blades to the Tower (enough for him to own almost the entire, significantly developed, village) and was regarded as the finest bladesmith in the country. He also sold blade blanks to Birmingham smiths (the Samuel Harvey trinity in particular) and these were marked with his final, stylised BTF. Birmingham names and/or initials were added by those companies to indicate who the Tower should pay… hence all the ensuing confusion.
A gratuitous non sequitur follows...
A curious incident, recounted below by an Oley descendant to chronicler William Hone, will indicate just how successful the Oleys had become:
"James Justice Runkle, a German pedlar, who travelled in this country with his various wares, smuggled over from the continent a quantity of sword-blades, and, with a view of legalizing them and giving them currency, he applied to the father of my informant [Oley] for permission to put his name upon them. This was accordingly done, and they were sold under the name of Oligar [sic]. But government ultimately detected the fraud, and Oley gave evidence in London that the blades had not issued from his manufactory at Shotley."
History: In 1787, Runkel was brought to trial at the Court of Exchequer for the alleged undervaluing of imported goods. The trial did not run to completion, but concluded when Runkel agreed to settle and pay two thirds of the value of the confiscated swords, as well as all court costs and expenses. His payment came to £1,480.00: a sum that would be worth around £172,600 in today’s money.
Regarding the posted images:
The first two are the horseman's sword of Fitzroy.
Then we have the smallsword featuring the early BTF; unfortunately the image is not perfect and the script is only partially legible as it is a thumbnail from an auctioneers.
There follows assorted early BTF swords followed by an example of the added Samuel Harvey initials.