Weston Styleman Walford

“ After all, whether there be or be not effigies of Templars existing, is a fit subject for archæological enquiry. Should there eventually be discovered any effigy referrible to their era, representing a man, whether in armour or not, habited in a mantle with a cross on his breast or shoulder, and with a long beard, or having either of these peculiarities, such an effigy may probably be that of a Templar or a Hospitaller. ”

“ The charter proceeded to create the fraternity or guild a corporation by the name of the Fraternity or Guild of St. George of the Men of the Mystery of Armourers of the city of London, and to empower them to receive and accept any persons to be such chaplain and poor persons, according to the rules of the more noble and worthy part of the said brothers and sisters and their successors, to be in that behalf made. ”

“ There would not, I conceive, be much difficulty in shewing that many of the cross-legged effigies in this country are representations of persons who died seised of manors and estates—a fact inconsistent with the opinion of their having been Templars;—and others must be known from direct evidence not to have belonged to the order. The surcoat commonly worn by the knights of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries may have been sometimes mistaken for the religious habit of the Templars. ”

“ In addition to which, a large variety of personal seals, remarkable for their allusive and facetious legends and devices, reflect the taste, fancy, humour, and occasionally the superstitions of the age, as well as of the individuals. In an historical point of view, it is not too much to say that seals bear the same relation to subjects, both as individuals and communities, that coins and medals (on whose historical value it is needless to dwell) do to sovereigns and states; while royal and municipal seals may in this respect rank with coins and medals themselves. ”

“ The issue of the founder should seem to have failed, and the remote heir, feeling probably but little interest in the matter, or yielding perhaps to the importunity of a husband who felt none, joined with him in alienating this advowson. By the acquisition of it the guild obtained virtually a permanent chantry 'of their own, including priest, altar, and endowment; for they, no doubt, arranged with the clerk whom they presented, that he should be also their chaplain, and should say from time to time at the same altar the requisite prayers and masses for deceased members of the guild. ”

“ The company had existed long before; and the charter is confined to the establishment of a guild among themselves (de se) , which they had commenced without the requisite royal licence, and which is throughout treated as a guild of the religious kind exclusively. The charter even seems to have contemplated persons becoming members of the guild, who did not belong to the company. The Armourers are in possession of a silver matrix of a seal, apparently of the early part of the fifteenth century, which has been supposed to be the common seal of the guild, made on its incorporation by this charter ”

“ If the designation of any head should, from its brevity, seem obscure, probably such obscurity will be dissipated on calling to mind, that no head is intended to comprise what is clearly comprehended under any other which is numbered in the same series. ”

“ Many of the tenants employed in cultivating the soil held their pieces of land and cottages at the will of the lord; and these became the copyholders of later times. Long before the date of this grant, as is well known, surnames had, with few exceptions, ceased to be any indications of the social positions of those who bore them; and, doubtless, Richard Acreman occupied a place in society to which his ancestors who acquired the surname never aspired. ”

“ But as these effigies occur where economy is not likely to have been much considered, another motive must be sought. It seems not unreasonable to surmise that they were placed, with something of conventional propriety, where a portion only of the remains was deposited, and as the full-sized coffin or grave in other cases determined the magnitude of the effigy, so the small receptacle for the heart, or some portion of the remains, led to a proportionate commemorative effigy. I have stated that the hands of the Horsted knight were brought together on the breast. ”

“ But all these modes of obtaining the benefit of such prayers and masses were open only to the wealthy. The great body of the people had not individually the means of providing religious observances for the repose of their souls, and would have felt themselves in a very melancholy predicament, had not some method been devised for securing to them the consolation of having taken such precautions for their relief in purgatory. ”

“ The author and collector have very different ends in view. The author may class them according to the various descriptions of persons by whom they were used, or the different purposes for which they were employed; and treat specifically only of such as he can bring within those several heads. He is not bound to find a fitting place for every seal that may occur. This the methodical collector wishes to do; but the most experienced, however discriminating, must often be ignorant alike of those who used the seals which he meets with, and of the particular purposes for which they were employed. ”

“ If there be any instance of an effigy in which the features and proportions, or if the features be wanting, the proportions, are those of a child, while the habit is that of a knight, priest, monk, or nun, it presents a curious subject for enquiry ”

“ Should it be suggested that the i at the end of Bastardi in the deed exhibited is in reality a mark of contraction used after d to supply a final e, besides that it more resembles an i, all doubt on this point is removed by the original deed by which this Richard and his wife conveyed the advowson to Coburley and Burghille. On examining that, I found he is there called Ricardus Bastardus de Bedford' Armiger. [25] Now, had Bastard been a family surname in either case, it would hardly have been latinized ”

“ As to civil costume, I would remark that the boy, the youth, and the man may have been attired very much alike in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; and, seeing the early age at which girls married, they, with some slight differences, probably dressed as women at a time when we now should call them children: hence perhaps the effigy said to represent Blanch, daughter of Edward III., is in the costume of an adult female, although if she died in 1340, she must have been a mere child. ”

“ Whether from political considerations or less worthy motives I will not pretend to determine, but the cost of obtaining from the Crown the requisite licence for such gifts became after a while so great as to amount almost to a refusal; and as land was, we must remember, in those days the only kind of property from which a permanent income was derivable, it was a great obstacle, where perpetual masses were desired, not to be able to provide for them by gifts of land or rents. ”

“ On the revival of letters, the novelty and intrinsic excellence of the ancient classical literature to a great extent engrossed the attention of men of studious habits, till the inherent charm which there is in the history of a man's own country began to reassert its influence; and as minds thus better disciplined were brought to the subject, historical evidence was more correctly appreciated, and more diligently sought for. The charters of the intervening ages were examined, their credit tested, and their seals scrutinised and compared. ”

“ The conveyance to Acreman is also in the possession of the Armourers' Company. It is dated the 12th of March, 21 Henry VI. (1446) , and by it Coburley and Burghille granted to Acreman, his heirs and assigns, the odvowson only. There are no witnesses. Two small seals are appended; one has on it a bird with the legend, Thomas Coburley: the other a hedge-hog with a legend obscure. The parties to the deed are the only persons mentioned in it, and no place of residence is subjoined to any of the names. ”

“ No one, however, of the nine effigies is bearded or habited in a mantle, or has any cross apparent; but some of those not identified have moustaches, and their chins being hidden by the hoods or helmets, they may be supposed to have also beards. I can hardly believe that a Templar would be represented without the peculiar distinctions of his order being made quite evident. ”

“ At that time free laborers were few, and money wages rare: the demesnes of a manor, those parts which the lord retained in his own hands, were cultivated almost exclusively by men attached in various degrees of serfdom to the soil, who were allowed to occupy for their own benefit small pieces of ground, at low and sometimes almost nominal rents, and on the produce of those plots they chiefly subsisted. ”

“ In Germany and France, where diplomatics, or the art of deciphering charters and the like, and of discriminating the genuine from the false, have for many years been regarded as a science, the subject of seals, which constitutes so important a branch of it, has received a corresponding share of attention, and their history and characteristics have been discussed in a manner unparalleled in this country. [2] But the seals which have been studied by the foreign diplomatists have been chiefly those of sovereigns and the higher orders of the nobility and clergy ”

“ He died, it should seem, on the 8th of May, 1320; for on that day was his obit to be kept, as appears by the endowment, which we have seen, took place by the grant of his widow in January 1320-1. [21] He left no male issue; an only daughter named Joan married Thomas de Halughton, and had issue a son, Sir Nicholas de Halughton, who died in 1338, seized of estates at Ockendon Chadwell, and other places in Essex. His wife, whose name was Margaret, survived him. He probably died young, for his heirs were two infant daughters, Margaret and Joan, of the respective ages of two years and one year ”

“ The details of the sword-belt and the attachments of it to the scabbard are very good, and resemble what are found in some of the earliest brasses. The hands must have been brought together on the breast in an attitude of devotion; but these and the greater part of the fore-arms are broken off and have disappeared. The left leg, which, as before noticed, crosses over the right, is a good deal worn away at places, so that the form of it is much injured. The legs and feet no doubt once appeared in chausses of mail, though no trace of mail can be discovered on them. ”

“ A few observations, explanatory of this state of things, may not be thought irrelevant, as they will render the purpose of the deed exhibited more intelligible.
After the doctrine of purgatory and the efficacy of prayers and masses for the dead had taken possession of the public mind, it had great influence in divers ways, and various were the means resorted to for procuring those supposed benefits. It was necessary to propitiate the living in order to induce them thus to serve the dead. ”

“ On heraldry, which has proved so serviceable in the investigation of medieval antiquities, they afford most valuable information; since from them we learn the earliest examples of the art, with few exceptions, and much of the subsequent usages and practice of it until the modern system prevailed. ”

“ They not only supply what is deficient in impressions elsewhere found attached, but contribute to our knowledge in various ways that might not at first be anticipated. Official seals, and seals of ecclesiastics, bring to light sometimes the names of those who have filled offices, and enjoyed dignities, and been forgotten; and sometimes revive the knowledge of the existence of offices which had themselves fallen into oblivion. In like manner common seals occasionally attest the existence of communities of which all remembrance had ceased ”

“ In many country parishes portions of the guild-houses or guild-halls still exist near the respective churches, and retain their name, which has been a puzzle occasionally to persons who were not aware of the nature and prevalence of such fraternities. ”

“ In like manner our universities and colleges for education are to be considered lay corporations, as in fact they are. See Blackst. Comm. I., p. 471. By device is intended such as constitutes the principal subject, and not mere ornament or accessories. It will be obvious, and it is unavoidable, that a seal difficult to decipher or interpret may sometimes require to be placed under a different head when more completely understood: and though the seals themselves are to furnish the distinctions, yet what is found on them will sometimes need explanation ”

“ Monasteries were founded or enlarged to secure these advantages for the benefactors; and kings and other influential persons were included in the prayers and masses so purchased to obtain their patronage and protection. From a like motive were churches occasionally erected, but more frequently were chantries founded in existing churches. ”