An inner disc from a four-disc Exeter clothier's / fuller's seal.
From Mike Patrick, "The register of Exeter Freemen gives:
1688 Aug 27 - George POE, fuller
1689 Jun 10 - George POE, fuller, apprentice of George Boyland, fuller
1708 Mar 01 - Thomas MILLER, fuller, apprentice of George POE
1722 Feb 19 - George POE, fuller, son of George POE, by succession. [Exeter Freemen, 1266-1967, Authors: Margery M Rowe; Andrew M Jackson; Exeter (England), Publisher: Exeter, Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 1973.]
From the properous years 1704-22 there has survived in Amsterdam a collection of correspondence between a Dutch merchant, David Leeuw, and those with whom he did business in Exeter and Tiverton. Of the dozen Exeter men from whom he received letters, no fewer than nine were members of the Company (of Weavers, Fullers & Shearmen).
George Poe of Exeter was never trading on a large scale and waited anxiously for payment. In 1704 he wrote to Leeuw begging him to pay into the London firm of Fishers and Allasons from whom he had drawn on account. He went on to 'earnestly request your speedy remittances I being at present in great want of money'. Poe also sold goods on commission for Leeuw (linens?). On 24 November 1711 he wrote: 'we have a fair or Kermish in a short time when the country shopkeepers come to our City to buy goods for the Spring'. [C Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance in the eighteenth century, 1941 p.37] ... *The bird on the seal is meant to be a Peacock! [Rebus]. Surname: Poe - This interesting and unusual surname is a variant of Peacock, which is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is from a nickname for a vain, strutting person, or for a dandy. The nickname is derived from the Middle English (1200-1500) "pe, pa, po", peacock, from the Old English pre 7th Century "pea, pawa", and the Old Norse "pa"; these are derived from the Latin "pavo". The Middle English "cok", male bird, from the Old English "cocc", was added later."
