UCL Discovery

Abstract

This thesis considers the leaden seals which were attached to textiles from the late 14th- to the early 19th century in England as part of a system of industrial regulation and taxation. Almost all of the 1,345 seals and related items which are described here individually were recovered from the ground. This total comprises all the English seals examined which refer to their place of origin in the legends (many of these are alnage seals), all the known English seals of medieval date, and the English matrices for the cloth seals. The unsorted information about each item is presented, just as recorded, in Appendix 1. The historical context and development of cloth sealing in this country are discussed, and a chronological framework for the various stamped devices and forms of seal is proposed. Following a more detailed account of the known medieval seals are brief summaries of the main aspects of local textile industries and a synthesized description of the recorded seals county by county. A concluding section assesses the information provided by the known seals, and the degree of correspondence with data from historical sources. Directions for future studies are suggested. Further appendices provide statistical tables and maps of documentary-based information on levels of textile production at different periods, detailed discussions of the provenances and findspots of the recorded seals, an account of the largest known group of English seals, and documentary evidence for the dating of some of the seals from Norfolk. For the first time information has been presented systematically, and assessed in detail, both on the extent of survival and on the potential academic value of cloth seals found during excavations.

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