Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Exeter, John Creswell

Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Exeter, John Creswell, Image & Held by Allex Kussendrager.
Found in Netherlands, 28mm.

Missing // 22 / GO, JOHN CRESWELL.EXON. around // missing // missing

The lack of any rivet stub on the reverse of this single disc remnant indicates it is very likely to be from a four-disc seal, with the other inner-disc plus the rivet and rove disc missing.

From Michael Patrick, "John Bowden Creswell (1764-1850) was born in Exeter, the son of Isaac Creswell, a fuller, and Grace Bowden. In 1787 he married Mary Mayne, the daughter of a hot-presser, and prospered as a merchant of Preston Street, Exeter. Records show several entries in the Exeter Wharfinger books for John Creswell in the early 1790s. His main trade was in exports to Italy like the majority of the Exeter merchants at this time. He was also a small-scale exporter to Rotterdam and Ostend, here using one of the standard symbols in the Dutch cloth trade "GO" (for George Osmond of Tiverton), on his seals. From about 1792 his interests in the woollen cloth trade were followed as a clothier in partnership with the serge-makers John Fowler and William Brown of Cullompton. In 1797, John Creswell, was admitted to the Company of Weavers, Fullers and Shearmen of Exeter, having served seven years apprenticeship with his father Isaac and two years later was appointed its Master. Successful in business, in 1805 he purchased the mansion of Newcourt House in Topsham and managed an estate of about 350 acres in Topsham and 138 in the adjacent parish of Clyst St George. On 25 Nov 1816 John Bowden Creswell of Newcourt, esq., was made an Exeter Freeman by order of the mayor and council. His brother, James Creswell, having served seven years Apprenticeship with John Bowden was admitted Freeman as a Fuller in 1809 and became Master of Tuckers’ Hall in 1825 and 1835. He entered a partnership with Joshua Bawden, Humphry John Norris Bawden, and William Gordon Creswell (another brother), which later continued under the firms of William Gordon Creswell and Co. at Lisbon, James Creswell and Co. at Exeter and Bawdens and Co. at South-Molton, in Devon."

See BSG.CS.01742 for a cloth seal from another member of the Creswell family.