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SEALS
FIG. 1. — OBVERSE OF SEAL OF ABSENCE OF EDWARD I. ({).
HELPS FOR STUDENTS OF HISTORY. No. 30
Edited by C. Johnson, M.A., H. W. V. Temperley, M.A.
and J. P. Whitney, D.D., D.C.L.
SEALS
L-
BY
H. S. KINGSFORD, M.A.,
ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIOUARIES
LONDON
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
NF.W YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1920
I
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Ilia. taok
1. Obverse of Seal of Absence of Edward I. Frontispiece
2. Seal of the City of Rochester - - 16
3. Seal of the Chapter of Lincoln - - - 26
4. Seal of the City of Winchester - - 27
5. Seal of William Greenfield, Archbishop of
York, 1304-15 .... 36
6. Seal of Alexander Nevill, Archbishop of York,
1374-88 - 37
7. Seal of Milton Abbey, Dorset - 39
8. Counter-seal of Milton Abbey, Dorset - - 40
9. Counter-seal of the City of Rochester - 41
10. Seal of Gerard Braybrook - - - 45
11. Secret of Alexander Nevill, Archbishop of
York ..... 46
12. Seal of Sir William de Echingham, died c. 1331 47
vn
s
SEALS
The word " seal " is used in two different senses- —
for the die, known as the matrix, with which the
impression is made, and for the impression itself.
The context generally makes it quite clear in which
of these two senses the word is being used, but when
there is any doubt it is better to restrict the word
" seal " to the impression, and to use the word
" matrix " when referring to the die. The word was
used just as loosely in the Middle Ages. Roger
Mowbray, in his charter to the hospital of Burton
Lazars, Leicestershire, 1 says that he has fortified
his charter by the impression of his seal (sigilli met
impressione earn roboravi), showing that in this case
the word was used for the matrix. On the other
hand, the common form of attestation, in cnjus rei
testimonium sigillum meum apposui, shows that the
word sigillum also meant the impression.
The practice of sealing is one of very great anti-
quity. Matrices, often of cylinder shape, the
impression being made by rolling the cylinder on
the clay or wax, are found on Babylonian sies, in
1 Dugdale, Monasticon , vi., 633.
9
10 SEALS
Egypt, and in Crete. Gems — that is, a precious or
quasi-precious stone with the design in intaglio
(incised), the impression being in relief — were also
used for sealing in Crete, Greece, and Rome, and
these gems are among the finest works of ancient
art that have come down to us. With the fall of
the Western Empire in the fifth century a.d. the
practice of sealing appears to a great extent to have
died out in the West, although rude survivals are
found amongst some of the Merovingian kings.
But under the Carlovingians, from Pippin (died 768)
onwards, the practice once again came into full use.
In most of these early instances the matrix was an
antique gem or a copy of a gem, generally set in a
metal rim, on which the inscription was cut. Thus
the Emperor Charles the Great (died 814) used a
gem with the head of Jupiter Serapis, and in
England in the tenth century the counter-seal of
the first seal of Durham Cathedral priory was also
a gem with the same device. This practice of using
antique gems continued right through the Middle
Ages, although generally the gem was only used
as an accessory to the design. The fine counter-seal
(c. 1250) of the Abbey of Waltham Holy Cross has
a large gem with the heads of Castor and Pollux,
regarded by the canons as those of Harold and Tovi,
and two smaller specimens inserted in a large
medieval setting.
In England seals were used by Offa (died 796),
SEALS 11
Coenwulf (died 821), and one or two other of the
early kings and magnates, but the real revival in
this country dates from the reign of Edward the
Confessor (died 10G6), after whom there is an
unbroken series of the seals of sovereigns down to
the present day. Except, however, for sovereigns,
the use of seals was not common until the reign of
Henry I., and cannot be said to have become
general until that of Henry II. The absence of
seals in pre-Conquest England, as compared with
their more general use on the Continent, may be
illustrated by a statement of Thomas of Elmham,
in his history of the monastery of St. Augustine at
Canterbury, 1 where he says that Ethelbert and other
kings thought it enough to place the sign of the cross
on their charters and not to use wax seals. He goes
â–
on to state that among the muniments at
St. Augustine's none was sealed with a wax seal
except one of Knut until after the Conquest, but
that all were only signed with the cross.
Various kinds of seals were used by individuals
and corporations. The King had his great seal,
used for sealing the more important documents,
his privy seal, and his signet, not to mention the
various seals used by his officers and deputies.
Bishops and corporations, whether religious or lay,
had a great seal, or seal of dignity, and frequently a
seal ad causas — that is, a seal for ordinary business.
1 Rolls Series, 8, p. 118.
12 SEALS
The reason for the adoption of a seal ad causas, at
least by corporations, was that the use and custody
of the great seal was often a complicated matter.
Many witnesses were necessary to attest its im-
position, and the chest in which it was kept was
fitted with several keys, each in the custody of a
different official. To collect together the various
custodians and witnesses was therefore often of
some difficulty, and to obviate this, another seal,
which did not need so many people to witness or
keep it, was provided for use in all except the most
important business. There was also a seal known as
the " secretum," or secret, which may roughly be
defined as a private seal, and the signet, generally
a ring seal. Both the seal ad causas, the secret, and
signet, could be used as a counter-seal.
The materials of which matrices were made were
very varied, but most commonly they were of silver
or latten, a material corresponding to brass, but with
a higher percentage of copper. Matrices were also
made of gold, especially for princes — for example,
the gold seal of Henry IV. and V. ; of ivory, lead,
and stone, including precious stones, and even wood. 1
In shape they were usually circular or vesica — that
is, pointed oval. It should not be thought, because
vesica-shaped seals were used so generally by
bishops and ecclesiastical bodies, that the shape has
a symbolic significance. The reason is that a
1 Proc. Soc Ant., xviii., 360.
SEALS 13
standing figure could more easily be made to fill the
design in a seal of this shape than in a round one.
The same reason applies to seals with standing
figures of ladies, and in both cases the shape of the
seal survives, while the character of the device has
altered. Oval seals are common after the sixteenth
century and occur frequently before that date,
while square matrices and others in the form of a
shield are also found.
The matrix, when not used in a press, was fur-
nished with a handle, in the earliest example a
mere loop at one end. Sometimes the handle
consisted of a flange set at right angles to the plane
of the matrix in its longer axis, or of a loop of wire
bent backwards. More elaborate forms consisted
of a loop from which diverged branches arching
over the back, as in the handle of the seal of the
borough of Burford. Occasionally, as in the privy
seal of Joan Beaufort, wife of James I. of Scotland,
the handle consists of two semicircular plates affixed
along the central line of the back with a hinge.
Raised and brought together, these plates served
as a handle and lay flat on the back of the matrix
when not in use.
By far the most common form of handle for
small seals was an eight or six-sided cone termin-
ating in a trefoil or quatrefoil loop for attach-
ment to a chain. A peculiar form of this type
of matrix is one in which the centre is made to
14 SEALS
screw out by turning the loop. The result is that
the centre part of the matrix is made to project
about one-eighth of an inch from the remainder,
on which is engraved the inscription. Examples
are the seals of Bartholomew Endrich, now in the
Norwich Museum, with a figure of St. Bartholomew
on the centre part, and of Philip de Hambury with
a shield of arms. In at least one instance, the seal
of Thomas Prayers, the centre part itself screwed
right off, leaving another matrix underneath. In
the seventeenth century and later a wooden, ivory,
or other handle was inserted in a socket at the back.
Instances are known of the back of a matrix being
ornamented, as in the seal of Lincoln Cathedral
chapter {c. 1180), the front of which is illustrated
in Fig. 3, which has a figure of our Lord seated on
the rainbow engraved on the back, and of the
chapter of Brechin Cathedral (c. 1250), where the
back is ornamented with a floral device in high-
relief. Instances are also known of a matrix
being incised on both sides, as in the seal of
Joan, daughter of Henry II., King of England,
on one side of which she is represented as
Queen of Sicily, and on the other as Countess of
Toulouse.
Before dealing with the matrix which was used
in a press, it is necessary to consider the counter-
seal or contra sigillum — that is, a seal impressed on
the back of the main impression. The object of
SEALS 15
this was to prevent forgery by making it more
difficult for the seal to be detached from its tag.
It would be comparatively easy to detach a seal
if it were only impressed on one side, but the
addition of another impression on the back made the
task correspondingly difficult. A small seal was
frequently used for this purpose, either a private
seal, a ring signet, or gem, but there are about a
dozen instances where a smaller matrix is expressly
called in the inscription " contra sigillum," and the
small seals of bishops with figures of saints and
rhyming inscriptions were probably intended for
use as counter-seals, and even seals ad causas were
brought into service.
But in royal seals, in seals of corporations, and
in some private seals the counter-seal was made the
same size as the seal itself. To ensure the two
impressions centring properly, the two matrices
were provided with lugs, two, three, or four in
number, through which stout pins were passed.
Examples of these lugs may be seen in the illustra-
tions of the seal and counter-seal of the city of
Rochester (Figs. 2 and 9). The result was that
when the wax was placed between the two matrices
and they were pressed together the design was
properly centred. To ensure further accuracy, a
cross or nick is frequently found incised on the rims
of the obverse- — to use the numismatic term — and
counter, and if these were one above the other when
1G
SEALS
FIG. 2. SEAL OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER ({).
SEALS 17
the matrices were put together the two designs
would both be the right way up.
An extraordinarily elaborate form of matrix may
be mentioned here, of which the seals of Southwick
and Boxgrove Priories are the most important, if
not the only actual examples known. The latter
is in the British Museum and the former in private
hands. The peculiarity consists in the fact that
both seal and counter-seal consist of two layers,
part of the design being engraved on each. 1 When
properly struck, small open-work panels were left
in the upper surface, through which figures are seen
below. The whole effect is most sumptuous, but
to make an impression must have been an exceed-
ingly laborious process — so much so, in fact, that
at Boxgrove, at any rate, it appears to have been
abandoned altogether, another matrix being made
of the same design, but with the whole device on
one face only.
The substance of which the impression was made
was generally wax, sometimes mixed with hair.
Some medieval specimens have recently been
analyzed, 2 and it was found that in the earlier ex-
amples the wax used was beeswax, which later was
mixed with resin. The pigments used were vermilion
for the red seals and verdigris for the green, verdigris
being also found in the black and brown seals.
In many examples, however, no pigment was
1 Proc. Soc. Ant., xxix.,p. 101.
3 J, Qiem. Soc, No. DCXVIJ., p. 795
18 SEALS
used at all, the wax being left its natural colour.
White seals with a brown glaze are also found.
But impressions were not always of wax. Papal
bullae (" bulla " is practically a synonym for seal,
but is used for metal impressions) were of lead,
occasionally of gold, while gold bullae were used by
the emperors and by the kings of Sicily, and one
was especially made for Henry VIII. to seal the
treaty made with Francis I. in 1527. Coenwulf,
King of the Saxons, used a lead bulla, now pre-
served in the British Museum, while they were also
used by many Mediterranean peoples — for example,
the Templars and Hospitallers, the Latin Emperors
of Constantinople, the Latin Kings and feudatories
of Jerusalem, and many of the Sovereigns of Spain.
The reason for the use of these leaden bullae in
southern countries was that the metal was less
affected by climate and the heat than was wax.
The preservation of the impression from damage
was a matter of great importance, as it affected
the validity of the deed. It will be remembered
that St. Louis refused to take advantage of the
fact that a seal on a charter had been broken
to such an extent as to make the document legally
valueless. 1 For this reason or to assist in getting
a better impression it was sometimes the prac-
tice to encircle the seal with a plaited band of straw
or hay, or to press it into a large lump of natural
1 Joinville, " Memoires," Part I. (Bohn ed.), p. 366.
SEALS 19
wax, which on the Continent frequently took the
form of a regular saucer. More often the impres-
sions were placed in a bag or metal case, which
precaution, however, more generally resulted in
their destruction than their preservation.
The methods adopted for affixing the impression
to the document were two. In early documents,
with the exception of those sealed with bulla?, it
was customary to seal en placard — that is, the seal
was impressed directly on to the face of the docu-
ment. A slit was usually cut in the parchment,
and the wax being pressed through the slit kept the
seal from falling off. This system was general
until the beginning of the eleventh century, and in
France continued for royal seals so late as 1108, and
intermittently until the close of the twelfth century, 1
to be revived again before the end of the thirteenth. 2
The other method, which was practically universal
after the eleventh century and continued for four
hundred years, and for some purposes still continues,
was to hang the impression to the document.
This was done in a variety of ways. A piece of
parchment was cut along one edge nearly to the
end, and on this the seal was impressed, the wax
being put on both sides of the strip. Or a piece of
parchment was put through a slit in the document,
doubled back, and the two ends joined together
1 Madden, in Arch. Journ., xi., 261.
? Poole, " Seals and Documents," Proc. Brit. Acad., ix.
20 SEALS
with the seal; a strip of leather, or, most commonly
of all, a cord, generally of twisted silk, was also
used in the Same way. It was this practice of
hanging the seal to the charter that brought about
the necessity, or at least the advisability, of using
a counter-seal. Towards the end of the Middle
Ages the system of sealing en placard came into use
again,* paper frequently being laid over the wax
or wafer before the impression was made, and it
has degenerated into the present, almost universal,
custom of stamping the seal directly on to the
document by means of a steel die used in a press.
It is to this custom of impressing a steel die
directly on to the document that the present low
state of the art of seal-engraving is due, as it is
impossible for a matrix intended for use in this
manner to be cut with any degree of high-relief.
It would be interesting to learn who were the
artists who designed and engraved the matrices,
but unfortunately the information at our disposal
on this point is very scanty. Occasionally, a seal
bears an initial or initials which may be the maker's
signature, and it is possible by comparing a number
of impressions to say definitely that certain of them
must be by the same hand — for example, the seals
of the city of Exeter and the borough of Taunton
made about 1180. But whose that hand was we
seldom know. Occasionally, however, entries in
1 It is found again as early as under Edward III. : Poole, op, cit.
SEALS 21
the Close and Issue Rolls, and in accounts, lift the
curtain for a moment. Thus it is known that in
1218 Walter de Ripa made the great seal for
Henry III.* and that William Geyton altered the
great and other seals at the beginning of the reign
of Richard II. 2 It must therefore have been this
man who altered the name on Edward III.'s
Bretigny seal, to adapt it for Richard's use. Peter
de Hilltoft was King's engraver in 1392 and made
various seals for sealing cloth sold 3 , whilst it is
recorded that in 1423, John Bernes, goldsmith,
added a secret sign to the great seal; that is, he
made the small addition of a quatrefoil to Henry V.'s
seal to adapt it to the use of Henry VI. 4 To go
back a couple of centuries, Simon the goldsmith is
known to have made a seal for Canterbury Cathedral
in 1221, 5 and it has been suggested that William
Torel, who designed the fine latten effigy of Eleanor,
wife of Edward I., in Westminster Abbey, also
designed her seal. 6 In more modern days Thomas
Simon, the finest of English medallists, designed
the seals for Oliver Cromwell and Charles II., and
from that date the names of the engravers of most
of the royal seals are known.
' l Close Rolls, 3 Henry III.
2 Devon, " Issues of the Exchequer," p. 214.
3 Devon, " Issues of the Exchequer," p. 246.
4 Devon, " Issues of the Exchequer," p. 382 ; quoted with
emendation by Wyon, " Great Seals," p. 49.
5 " Hist. MSS. Comn.," Appendix to Fifth Report, p. 441.
6 Lethaby, " Westminster Abbey," p. 287.
22 SEALS
A certain amount of information is available as
to the cost of matrices. The metal for the seal
made for Canterbury by Simon the goldsmith,
already mentioned, cost 5s. That was in 1221.
The amount should be multiplied very many times
to get present-day values. The seal of the Grocers'
Company of London cost £2 16s. 8d. in 1431, * and
that made for Cardinal Wolsey for his college at
Oxford, now Christ Church, cost £15 lis. 8d.'
£10 for engraving and £5 lis. 8d. for the silver. 2
The seal of St. John's College, Cambridge, cost
£l 6s. 8d. for engraving and 14s. 2d. for the silver; 3
the fifth seal of Queens' College, Cambridge, cost
6s. 8d. for engraving, 4 while the seal of office of the
Chancellor of that University in 1580 cost 4s.,
besides 23s., the value of the silver of the old seals. 5
A person did not always use his own seal. The
best known instance of this is Henry III., who
during his minority sealed with the seals of Cardinal
Gualo, the papal legate, and of his governor,
William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke. 6 At the
beginning of the third year of his reign, October,
1218, he used a seal of his own, and the event is
noted in the Patent Roll by the entry, hie incepit
sigillum domini regis carrere. The first letters
1 Kingdon, "MS. Archives of Company of Grocers," vol. ii.,
p. [204].
2 Gutch, " Collect, curiosa," ii., 321.
3 Hope, in Proc. Soc. Ant., x., p. 247.
4 Hope, in Proc. Soc. Ant., x. p. 243. 5 Ibid., p. 229.
6 Patent Roll, 1 Henry III.
SEALS 23
issued under the new seal were a notification of its
adoption. Numerous other examples of the prac-
tice could be cited, as, for instance, when the seal
of a better known person is used for greater authen-
ticity. It is clear, too, that in the Middle Ages
notaries kept one or two matrices in their offices
for the use of their clients, just as nowadays a
solicitor keeps a supply of wafers. Such seals were
probably procured on the death of the original
owner, as they arc generally small private seals,
often heraldic, of a date earlier than the deed to
which the impressions are attached, and the legends
show that they had nothing to do with the persons
sealing the document.
There are also numerous instances of the seal of
one person or body being adapted at a later date,
with or without alteration, to the use of another.
Thus the hospital of Greatham, near Durham, took
for its use the seal of Stephen Page, almoner to
King Henry V., without any alteration at all. This
seal is interesting, as it explains the otherwise
inexplicable use of the device of a ship on the seal
of the Lord High Almoner down to the present day.
Stephen Page is represented holding in his hands
a money-box in the shape of a ship on wheels.
Subsequently, the ship came to be the sole device,
a three-masted ship of the line in full sail, and its
original significance was wholly forgotten. Another
instance of an adapted seal is that of Ellis Davys'
24 SEALS
Almshouses, Croydon, where the seal of the dean of
the College of Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk, has been
adopted with the addition of the letters " E.D."
for Ellis Davys in the field, but with no alteration
in the legend. Tamworth College, Staffordshire,
on the other hand, while using the matrix of a
fifteenth-century bishop or abbot; had a new in-
scription cut in the place of the original one, and
the coats of arms altered. The alteration in the
blazon was not done quite effectively, and remains
of the original shield of the royal arms can still be
detected below the new charges.
Kings frequently used their predecessors' seals,
altering the name if that were necessary, or some-
times adding a device if the names were the same.
Thus Edward I. in his seal of absence used his
father's seal with the alteration of the name
(Fig. 1). Edward II. added to the great seal of his
father two castles, in allusion to his mother,
Eleanor of Castile, while Edward III., for his first
seal, added to the same seal two fleurs-de-lis for
his mother, Isabelle of France, in addition to his
father's castles. Richard II., as has already been
noted, used Edward III.'s Bretigny seal, merely
altering the name " Edwardus " to "' Ricardus,"
while the same seal was again used by Henry IV.
with a similar alteration, and Henry V. used his
father's seals without any alteration at all.
On the death of the owner, if an important
SEALS 25
person, or on his changing his seal, the matrix was
solemnly defaced and broken. The seals of bishops
in the province of Canterbury were sent to the
Archbishop, while the pieces of the seals of the
bishops of Durham were solemnly offered at
St. Cuthbert's shrine in their cathedral church. 1
In 12C0 the first great seal of Henry III. was
destroyed on October 18 in the king's presence
at Westminster, and the fragments distributed to
certain poor people belonging to religious houses. 2
Similarly on October 4, 1327, the first great seal
of Edward III., which had already done duty for
his father and grandfather, was broken at Notting-
ham in the king's presence and the pieces given by
the Chancellor as a perquisite to his sealer. 3 The
seal of Philip and Mary was made in 1574 into a
silver gilt cup by Sir Nicholas Bacon, 4 and the
disused seal is still the perquisite of the Lord
Chancellor, who, after it has been formally defaced
or "damasked" by the King, generally has the
halves set in a salver or some other piece of plate.
The inscription or legend is in many ways the
most important part of the device, but strangely
enough, as will be seen, it did not always set forth
the name of the owner. The inscription is usually
in Latin, but is found in French and English, and
1 Hope, in Proc. Soc. Ant., xi., 279, note.
2 Quoted in Proc. Soc. Ant., xiii., 157.
3 Ibid.
4 Proc. Soc. Ant., xiii., 152.
26
SEALS
this latter language becomes common by the
seventeenth century. The simplest form begins
with the word " sigillum " or " secretum," as the
case may be, followed by the owner's name and rank
in the genitive case. Kings and sometimes bishops
FIG. 3. SEAL OF THE CHAPTER OF LINCOLN (}).
on their seals of dignity used the nominative case,
omitting the word " sigillum " (Fig. 1). sigillvm :
CAPITVLI : SANCTE : MARIE : LINCOLNIENSIS : EO
clesie is the inscription on the seal of the chapter