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XLIV. A Letter from Sir William Blackstone, Knt. to the Honourable Daines Barrington, describing an antique Seal; with some Observations on its Original, and the two successive Controversies which the Disuse of it afterwards occasioned

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

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Extract

The Seal, which I have the honour to present to the Society through your hands, was found some years ago in pulling down an old house in Oxford. It is made of copper, with a brass handle behind it, which turns down for the convenience of carriage in the pocket. Its breadth is one inch and ⅝, and its length two inches and ¾. Its sides are formed by two segments of a circle, of which the breadth of the Seal is the radius, uniting in a point at the top and bottom. The device is the royal arms, viz. France and England, quarterly; surmounted by an arched crown, and supported by a lion crowned on the right, and by a dragon on the left; in nearly the same attitudes as those stamped on the gold sovereigns of the 34th and 36th of Henry VIII. The dragon evinces this Seal to have been engraved under some of the princes of the house of Tudor; who all used this supporter in memory of their descent from Cadwallader. And its being placed on the left side, and accompanied by a lion (crowned) on the right, seems to fix it to some period betwen A. D. 1542 and 1554, or else to the reign of queen Elizabeth.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1775

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References

page 417 note a Stat. 2 and 3 Edw. VI. ch. xxi. 5 and 6 Edw. VI. ch. xii.

page 418 note b Com. Journ. 3 May 1606.

page 418 note c Lords' Journ. 5 and 6 May 1606.

page 419 note d § 4 and 5.

page 419 note e § 6.

page 419 note f 12 Rep. 7.

page 420 note g Breviate of Prelates' intolerable Usurpations, p. 91 to 100. 115, &c.

page 421 note h Rymer, Fœd. xx. 143. Prynne's New Discovery of Prelates' Tyranny. Part i. p. 33.

page 421 note i Laud's Diary, 26 June, 1637.

page 421 note k Prynne, ibid. part ii. p. 41.

page 422 note l Rymer, xx. 144. Prynne, ibid. part i. p. 37. Gibson's Codex, p. 925.

page 422 note m Rymer, xx. 156. Prynne, ibid. 36.

page 422 note n Rymer, xx. 168. Gibson, ibid.

page 423 note o In quarto, A.D. 1637, in Biblioth. Med. Templ. p. 102.

page 423 note p Hist. of England, vol. iv. p. 234.

page 423 note q Prynne, Antipathy of the Lordly Prelacy, p. 517.

page 423 note r State Trials, i. p. 826.

page 424 note s Com. Journals, 6, 13 Feb. 1640.