Cloth Seal, Charles II, Alnage, Kersey, 1664

Cloth Seal, Alnage, Kersey, 1664, Image & Found by Steve Barwick.
Found in Suffolk, 14mm.

Blank // shield quartered? bend, escutcheon bearing further undeciphered arms // star / CAR / SAY / 1664 / flower head? // blank

A complete four lobed alnage seal showing an inscription on one side in a raised circular border - CAR / SAY / 1664. The other inner disc shows a shield bearing unidentified arms. It is interesting that several other kersey seals bear different, unidentified arms, see BSG.CS.00269, BSG.CS.00023 and sometimes the Stuart arms BSG.CS.00268.

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 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."

"As the subsidy on a cloth of assize was fourpenee, and as a kersey equalled about one quarter of a standard cloth, the levy on these shorter and narrower pieces was settled at one penny, and remained at that figure as long as the ulnage system existed." Heaton, H., The Yorkshire woollen and worsted industries, 1920, p.69.

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.