Cloth Seal, Alnage, Kersey, Image by Donnydave, Found by Margaret Watson.
Found at North Cave East Yorkshire, 14mm.
Two discs from a four disc cloth seal. One side has CAR above SAY: (Y looks like a V) and the date [16]83. below that. The other side is worn with only the letter A visible.
See No.199 Fig.29, Egan, Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum. "A distinct, late seventeenth-century series of seals gives the name of a kind of textile ... carsay - i.e. kersey. Seals in this series have a date in the 1660s to the early 1680s. Kersies were a common kind of cheap, woollen cloth widely produced in England, notably in Devon, Hampshire and Yorkshire."
A description of this cloth is given by Reginald R. Sharpe, editor of the Calendar of letter-books of the city of London: E: 1314-1337:- ""Kersey" or "carsey" was also the name of a coarse cloth. Some have supposed it to denote coarse say, but more probably it derives its name from the village of Kersey, co. Suffolk." This reference also mentions attempts in 1315 by Edward II to impose an alnager on the City of London for kerseys and most other types of cloth 13 years prior to the first of the two statutes of Edward III concerned with alnager sealing of cloths.
An interesting dispute over the amount of alnage payable on kerseys can be found in the Journal of the House of Commons: volume 10: 1688-1693, 11/6/1689:-
"Upon the Petition of the Yorkshire Clothiers ... Resolved, That it is the Opinion of this Committee, That the Collecting of more Aulnage, or Subsidy of Aulnage, than One Peny for One Piece of Kersey Cloths, is a Grievance."
Record of a Kersey cloth seal found in Iceland located by Svavar Níelsson, “2004-25-356: Cloth seal comprising a thin sheet, folded over and formed into two joining circles. One of them has a shield on one side and the inscription Carsay 66 (Stands for the year 1666) on the other. Dimensions: 31.5 x 15 mm maximum, weight 8,21 g. Seals of this type were attached to Kersey cloth from England. Similar seals are kept in the British Museum (Egan 1994, eg. No. 199, fig. 29). Found in floor [2128] of the Phase 4i church. Figure 5.2.3.” Guðrún Sveinbjarnardóttir, Reykholt: The Church Excavations.
