As a Supplement to your "NOTES ON COFFEE," I send you the following
extracts.
Aubrey, in his account of Sir Henry Blount, (MS. in the Bodleian
Library), says of this worthy knight,
"When coffee first came in he was a great upholder of it, and hath
ever since been a constant frequenter of coffee-houses, especially
Mr. Farres at the Rainbowe, by Inner Temple Gate, and lately John's
Coffee-house, in Fuller's Rents. The first coffee-house in London
was in St. Michael's Alley, in Cornhill, opposite to the church,
which was set up by one ---- Bowman (coachman to Mr. Hodges, a
Turkey merchant, who putt him upon it) in or about the yeare 1652.
'Twas about 4 yeares before any other was sett up, and that was by
Mr. Farr. Jonathan Paynter, over against to St. Michael's Church,
was the first apprentice to the trade, viz. to Bowman.--Mem. The
Bagneo, in Newgate Street, was built and first opened in Decemb.
1679: built by ... Turkish merchants."
Of this James Farr, Edward Hatton, in his _New View of London_, 1708,
(vol. i. p. 30) says:--
"I find it recorded that one James Farr, a barber, who kept the
coffee-house which is now the Rainbow, by the Inner Temple Gate,
(one of the first in England), was in the year 1657, prosecuted by
the inquest of St. Dunstan's in the West, for making and selling a
sort of liquor called coffee, as a great nuisance and prejudice to
the neighbourhood, &c., and who would then have thought London
would ever have had near three thousand such nuisances, and that
coffee would have been, as now, so much drank by the best of
quality and physicians." {315}
Howel, in noticing Sir Henry Blount's _Organon Salutis_, 1659, observes
that--
"This coffe-drink hath caused a great sobriety among all nations:
formerly apprentices, clerks, &c., used to take their morning
draughts in ale, beer, or wine, which often made them unfit for
business. Now they play the good-fellows in this wakeful and civil
drink. The worthy gentleman, Sir James Muddiford, who introduced
the practice hereof first in London, deserves much respect of the
whole nation."
From these extracts it appears that the use of this berry was introduced
by other Turkey merchants besides Edwards and his servant Pasqua.