Three discs from a four disc alnage seal probably from the seventeenth century. WH is likely to be the alnager’s initials One particular alnager, father and son of the same initials, worked in Witney in Oxfordshire.
(Howes, 1610 – 1641 - William Howes, father & son, [V. C. H. Oxfordshire 1907,248 (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. (1874), iv, 96)] “Blankets were made to some extent in the reign of James I, and it was evidently an extremely flourishing trade in 1641, because of the number of petitions sent from Witney during that year. On 12 August the blanket-makers petitioned against a misuse of the sealing of their bundles. Wm. Howes now deceased and his son Wm. Howes have for the last 30 years forced petitioners to have every bundle of blankets sealed at a rate which has been raised from 2d. to 6d. per bundle, besides fines and exactions proceeding, and have therefore enriched themselves.”)
Above the initials on your seal is possibly a crown and what may say CANT the other disc has a shield bearing a cross which coincidently, in chequered form, is the arms of the Witney family.
