(Vol. iii., pp. 186. 248. 291.)
I am sorry that in referring to a peculiarity in ancient seals under this
title, MR. LOWER should have pinned to his notice a theory which I feel
persuaded is quite untenable. It is surely something new to those who have
directed their attention to the numerous devices upon seals to find that
the husbandman had so low an opinion of his own social status as to reject
the use of any emblematical sign upon his seal, when Thomas the smith,
Roger the carpenter, and William the farrier, bore the elements of their
respective crafts as proudly as the knight did his chevron or fess. But the
question is one of facts. The following examples of the use of the
"hayband" are now before me:--
6 June, 7 Henry IV. Grant by John Dursley, citizen and armorer of London,
to William Serjaunt Taverner, of Stanes, and another, of a messuage, &c. in
Westminster. Seal of dark red was, about 1-1/2 inch in diameter; a hay-stalk
twisted and pressed into the wax while hot, inclosing a space as large as a
shilling, in which is a poor impression of a badly engraved seal; the whole
very clumsy and rough.
26 November, 24 Henry VI. Grant by Maurice Brune, Knight, Robert Darcy,
John Doreward, Henry Clovill, Esquire, John Grene, and Henry Stampe, to
Richard Hill and others, of lands, &c., in Sprinfield, &c., in Essex. Each
seal is round and thick, and has the impression of a small armorial
bearing. The 1st, 2nd, and 5th seals have a small plaited coil of hay
pressed into the wax, and inclosing the impression.
26 Henry VI. Receipt by Jane Grene for 10l. paid her by the Earl of Ormond.
Seal of diminutive size, and the impression nearly defaced. Round the
extreme edge is a "diminutive hayband."
2 January, 34 Henry VI. Grant by Thomas Tudenham, Knight, John Leventhorp,
Esquire, and Thomas Radclyff, of the reversion of the manor of Newhall to
John Neell and others. All the seals, which are large and thick and more
than two inches in diameter, have the impression of a signet ring inclosed
with a "hayband" _of parchment_ pressed into them. One of these coils being
loose shows itself to be a thin strip of the label itself brought through
the wax.
10 February, 14 Edward IV. Lease by Sir Thomas Urswyk, Knight, Chief Baron
of the Exchequer, and Thomas Lovell, to John Morton and others, of the
manor of Newhall, Essex, and other lands, &c. The seal of Lovell has his
armorial bearings and legend; that of the Lord Chief Baron is the
impression of a signet ring, being a classical bust. The seal itself is a
thick ball of wax about {332} two inches across, pressed into the face of
which is a "hayband" or twisted coil of _thin parchment_ inclosing the
impression.
I am sure that I have seen many examples much earlier and later, but those
given are merely in reference to the theory of your Lewes correspondent.
Even they are surely inconsistent with the idea of the practice being
peculiar to any locality or distinctive of any class. My recollection would
lead me to assign the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries as the period
of its use. But still the question remains--Has it any, and what
signification? I have always considered it to have been a contrivance to
strengthen the substance of the seal itself. The earliest instances I have
seen were "applique" seals, such as the royal privy seals, and with these
it would seem to have originated. Their frail nature suggested the use of
some substance to protect the thin layer of wax from damage by the
crumpling of the parchment on which they were impressed. For some time its
use was confined to this kind of seal; and fashion may perhaps have
extended the practice to pendent seals, where, however, it was often
efficacious in neutralising the bad quality of the wax so general in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The plaiting of the hay or straw
sometimes assumed a fanciful shape. Although the impressions of seals of
the time of Henry VII. are often very bad, there are generally traces of
their existence; these may perhaps be discovered in MR. LOWER'S seals if he
looks more to the enclosure than to the substance forming it.