Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Exeter, Matt Lee

Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Exeter, Matt Lee, Image & Found by Peter van Lierop.
Found in the village of Gemert, Holland, 24mm, 3.7g.

Missing // lion rampant, M(ATT.)LEE.OF.EXON. around // missing // missing

A partial inner disc from a four-disc cloth seal of an Exeter clothier. See BSG.CS.01652 for a more complete example.

From Mike Patrick, "Three generations of the Lee family were involved in the woollen cloth trade in Exeter. Matthew Lee (1681–1742), his son Matthew Lee (c.1712–1774) and his son Thomas Huckell Lee (c.1752–1822). All three were closely connected with the Exeter Gild of Weavers, Fullers and Shearmen (WFS) as apprentices, freemen of the city and later Masters of the Company. 1) Matthew Lee senior, free WFS, 1705 (apprentice to Edmund Cock, fuller), master WFS, 1719, 1742. 2) Matthew Lee junior, free WFS, 1751, master WFS, 1753. (3) Thomas Huckell Lee, free WFS, 1776, master, 1780.
Matthew Lee junior spent eight months in the Netherlands in 1733 as part of his apprenticeship. The Lees relocated from to Exeter to Ebford Manor, near Topsham, which Matthew Lee junior inherited from his uncle Robert Venn (A Rotterdam merchant). Matthew Lee, father and son, are recorded as exporting serge from 1715 to 1774. Thomas Huckell Lee took over the business after Matthew Lee junior’s death. Their trade was principally to Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Hamburg and later Italy.

There’s a nice Thomas Huckell Lee seal on: Euro Plombs

And a further nice seal of Robert Venn on: BONDEMVONDSTENWERELD"