to such
use may be found in Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair," 1614, where, in
the first scene, Humphrey Waspe says: "I thought he would have run mad
o' the Black Boy in Bucklersbury, that takes the scurvy, roguy tobacco
there." Later, the "Black Boy," like other once significant signs,
became meaningless and was used in connexion with various trades.
Early in the eighteenth century a bookseller at the sign of the
"Black Boy" on London Bridge was advertising Defoe's "Robinson
Crusoe"; another bookseller traded at the "Black Boy" in Paternoster
Row in 1712. Linendrapers, hatters, pawnbrokers and other tradesmen
all used the same sign at various dates in the eighteenth century. But
side by side with this indiscriminate and unnecessary use of the sign
there existed a continuous association of the "Black Boy" with the
tobacco trade. A tobacconist named Milward lived at the "Black Boy" in
Redcross Street, Barbican, in 1742; and many old tobacco papers show a
black boy, or sometimes two, smoking. Mr. Holden MacMichael, in his
papers on "The London Signs" says: "Mrs. Skinner, of the
old-established tobacconist's opposite the Law Courts in the Strand,
possessed, about the year 1890, two signs of the 'Black Boy,'
appertaining, no doubt, to the old house of Messrs. Skinner's on
Holborn Hill, of the front of which there is an illustration in the
Archer Collection in the Print Department of the British Museum, where
the black boy and tobacco-rolls are depicted outside the premises."
The "Black Boy," indeed, continued in use by tobacconists until the
nineteenth century was well advanced. A tobacconist had a shop "uppon
Wapping Wall" in 1667 at the sign of the "Black Boy and Pelican."

Other significant early tobacconists' signs were "Sir Walter Raleigh,"
"The Virginian" and "The Tobacco Roll." "Sir Walter," as the reputed
introducer of tobacco, was naturally chosen as a sign, and his
portrait adorns several shop-bills in the Banks Collection. The
American Indians, represented under the figure of "The Virginian," and
the negroes were hopelessly confused by the early tobacconists, with
results which were sometimes surprising from an ethnological point of
view. As the first tobacco imported into this country came from
Virginia, a supposed "Virginian" was naturally adopted as a
tobacco-seller's sign at an early date. An "Indian" or a "Negro" or a
figure which was a combination of both, was commonly represented
wearing a kilt or a girdle