Cloth Seal, Alnage Kersey, Image by StuE, Found by Roger the Relic.
Found in Norfolk, 32 x 13mm, 8.2g.
Blank // a bend between three birds standing // CAR / SAY / 1667 // blank
Complete four lobed cloth seal, possibly an alnage seal showing inscription on one side in a raised circular border - CAR / SAY / 1667. The other side shows shield bearing arms - shield bearing a bend between three Cornish choughs proper if they are the Quilter family arms - Argent a bend Sable between three Cornish choughs proper, but of course the colours cannot be determined.
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. The engraver may have found it easier to make one diagonal line (a bend) rather than a chevron. This is unlikely and better match has been found with a Coat of Arms granted to the Quilter family in 1551, a silver shield with a black bend between three Cornish choughs proper, the Crest being an arm embowed in armour holding a battle axe all proper, a scarf round the wrist silver. However the only evidence connecting this family with the textile industry is circumstantial.Wm. Quylter (Quilter) of Staple, Kent was appointed as 'gauger' in the port of Sandwich in 1546 for 21 years, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 21 Part 2: September 1546-January 1547, "Thomas Wingefelde. Fiat for his appointment as gauger in the port of Sandwich, for 21 years from Michaelmas next; at 3s. 8d. rent and 4d increase. Del. Westm., 5 Nov. 38 Hen VIII.—S.B. (signed by Norfolk, as treasurer, and subscribed with the names of the sureties, viz., Wm. Quylter of Staple, Kent., gent., and Wm. Jakson, of Deale, Kent, yeoman)." A 'gauger' assesses the alcohol content of beers, wine and spirits and collects the duty on them in the same manner as the alnager assesses cloth and so it is not unlikely that his descendants would be in a similar business a hundred years later. However it appears that Wm. Quylter was only the surety for the gauger in the quote above.
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.
