Cloth Seal, Searcher, Named, Oates Tag

Cloth Seal, Searcher, Oates Tag, Image & Found by Popsandme.
Found in the Wakefield area, 33 x 52mm.

"L24... B49...4873....and either F or P and L in the middle...with JON OATES around the outside...blank on the reverse."

The spelling of Oates suggest it is the name rather than the cereal. No company of the name Jon Oates has been found so far. Possibly a personal property tag? Military?

See UKDFD Ref. No. - 39649 - Possible cloth seal with same name on. Suggests this might be a seal rather than a name tag.
It may even be a cloth searcher / inspector's seal?

From Paul Cannon, "Likely evidence that this is a searchers seal - from the Leeds Mercury 2 March 1833 (p5) under the deaths column is the following: 'On Wednesday week, at Watergate, Dewsbury, aged 86, John Oates, formerly a cloth-manufacturer, and upwards of forty years cloth searcher at Dewsbury Mills. He was a uniform patriot and an upright man'."