Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/95

 Notes on the Great Seals between 1648 and 1660. 79 brought in, and that the Lords Commissioners do bring in the " now " Great Seal at the same time. Nothing appears in the Journals on the llth ; but on the 16th it was ordered," that the commissioners should attend to-morrow morning with the Great Seal, to receive the new Great Seal. On the 17th the Commissioners appeared at the bar, when the Speaker delivered to them the new Great Seal, with directions to cause the old Great Seal to be broken. It Avas also referred to the Council of State to take order that the sum of 300Z. be paid unto Thomas Symons, which had been agreed by the committee appointed for that purpose to be paid unto him for the two Great Seals made by him and the materials thereof; and that the said Council do take consideration of what further recompense is fit to be given unto him for his extraordinary pains therein, and give order for the pay- ment unto him of such sum of money as they shall think fit in respect thereof. By the Order Book of the Council it appears that on 21st January the 300J. were paid to him, and the remainder of the order was referred to the consideration of the Committee for Irish and Scottish affairs. I have been unable to find any report, and nothing seems to have been done ; for in May 1(559 Symons claimed an unsatisfied debt for making the former Great Seals, and the claim was referred to the new Council of State. b The inscription on the new seal differed only in its being the THIRD instead of the FIRST year of Freedom, and the date 1651. Mr. Vertue thus described to our Society, on 9th May, 1751, the difference between the two seals other than the inscriptions and dates : " The great window in the House of Commons sitting is larger and higher in the first than in the other of 1651 ; and on the other side between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland is writ in the second in capitals ' THE IRISH SEA,' and a small compass ; and near the south coast of England is writ ' THE BRITISH SEA,' which is not so in the seal of 1648." c Of the Parliament side of this seal of 1651 the Society has been presented by my friend Mr. Frederic Ouvry, the Treasurer, with a perfect and very sharp im- pression, which formerly belonged to the collection at Fonthill ; and the Society has very fair impressions of the obverse and reverse affixed to the original docu- ment to which I shall presently refer. It was on the 20th April, 1653, that the Long Parliament was dismissed, and the Barebone Parliament, which met on 4th July, resigned their powers into Cromwell's hands on 12th December, 1653. Thereupon Cromwell, with the advice of his Journals, vii. p. 51. b Ib. p. 654. c MS. Minutes of Soc. of Ant. vi. fol. 98.