Green Ribbon Club

The Green Ribbon Club was one of the earliest of the loosely combined associations which met from time to time in London taverns or coffeehouses for political purposes in the 17th century. The green ribbon was the badge of the Levellers in the English Civil Wars, in which many of them had fought, and was an overt reminder of the radical origins of the club's loyalties. Meetings and name The club met at the King's Head tavern at Chancery Lane End and therefore was known as the King's Head Club. It seems to have been founded about the year 1675 by men of a political faction hostile to the king's court. These associates wore on their hats a bow, or bob, of green ribbon, as a distinguishing badge useful for the purpose of mutual recognition in street brawls. The name of the club was changed, about 1679, to the Green Ribbon Club. The King's Head Tavern, described by North as "over against" (meaning opposite) the Inner Temple Gate, was at the corner of Fleet Street and Chancery Lane, on the east side of the latter thoroughfare. Membership The frequenters of the club were the extreme faction of the country party, the men who supported Titus Oates, and who were concerned in the Rye House Plot and Monmouth's rebellion. Roger North tells us that they admitted all strangers that were confidingly introduced, for it was the main end of their institutions to make proselytes, especially of the raw estated youth newly come to town. According to Dryden (Absalom and Achitophel) drinking was the chief attraction, and the members talked and organized sedition over their cups. Thomas Dangerfield supplied the court with a list of forty-eight members of the Green Ribbon Club in 1679; and although Dangerfield's numerous perjuries make his unsupported evidence worthless, it receives confirmation as regards several names from a list given to James II by Nathan Wade in 1685 (Harleian Manuscript 6845,), while a number of more eminent personages are mentioned in The Cabal, a satire published in 1680, as also frequenting the club.