Cloth Seal, Kersie, Image by StuE, Found by Nasher.
Found near Boldock, Hertfordshire, 12 x 15mm, 3.7g.
Two inner lobes from a four lobed cloth seal, probably an alnage seal showing inscription on one side - CAR / SAY / 1668. The other side shows shield bearing arms - a bend between three birds standing.
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."
The arms could be from a place or a family. If the latter then they probably held the alnage rights. Thomas Rokeby farmed the alnage for Yorkshire (and other places) in the late seventeenth century and the Rokeby arms are a chevron between three birds standing.
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 by Edward II to impose an alnager on the City of London 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."
