Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/436

 372 EXAMPLES OF MEDLEYAL SEALS. Edw. I. Another example of the seal of Hugh the Forester exists among the archives of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. It is attached to a deed undated, whereby he and Joan his wife, described as the daughter and heir of Henry de Cornhill, released to the Prior and Convent of Canterbury all their right in the town {viUa) of " AValworth " and " Newentone." This seal, is doubtless from the same matrix as that above described, and the portion of the legend remaining is, ^ sioiL . . . iivgonis. d . . . eyilla ; but it is remarkable, that at the l)ack. is a secrcttnn or counter seal, on which is an escutcheon charged with party per fess dancetty a bendlet over all, and the following legend, ^ iiVGO sub hoc cliteo ctat vt ipe leo. Over the c in ctat, and the i in ipe, arc marks of abbreviation : the latter word, no doubt, is " ipse," and the former most probably " ccrtat." To the same deed is also attached the seal of Joan his wife. H is a pointed oval nearly two inches in length ; the device an elegant young female figure in a gown and mantle, looking towards a hawk perched on her left hand ; and the legend ^^ sigillvm ioiianne de couvhill. The substitution of v for n in the last word was most likely a slip of the seal engraver. This seal is appended to another undated deed in the same collection, by which she alone, being there called Johanna de Cornhill, daughter of Henry de Cornhill, made a like release of all her right to the same property in language very similar to that of the before-mentioned deed ; and as several of the witnesses to the two instruments are the same, they were in all ])robability executed about the same time, the one a little before her marriage, and the other shortly after it. As she appears to have been a ward {in custodia) of Hugh de Neville in 1199, and wardship of a female terminated at fourteen, and she married in that year, or in 1200, she would seem to have been little more than fourteen when that seal was engraved. However, as Glanville,' writing a few years earlier, speaks of female heirs of full age remaining " in custodia dumi- norum . . . donee per consilium et dispositioneni dominorum maritentur," she may possibly have been somewhat older, though Hugh was not likely to allow her to remain long uiunarriod, seeing he aspired to her hand. A seal of their son .lolin de Neville, who while a young man succeeded his father, (whose death occurred in 1222) as Chief Forester, may be also noticed. It is attached to a deed among the l^arrington muniments of Alan Clayton Lowndes, Esq., relating to that gentleman's estates in Essex, and is remarkable because the device on it is also a knight contending with a lion, but dill'ering from that on the father's seal, as the knight has a shield, and the lion is not coward, but rather in heraldic language rampant, having his fore feet on the knight's shield." This seal is circular, with a diameter of two inches and a (pinrter. The legend, so far as it remains legible, is ►j, Ms in: nevili.a I'lui liv . . N].s. Mathew j'uris relates of this John, whom he designates " non nhimu.s inter Anglic nobiles," that in conse(iuencc of misconduct in his oflice, he incurred the King's displeasure, and was condennied'to jiay two thousand marks, beside his father's debts which lay heavy on him. and that, falling sick of grief, he died at his manor of ^'el]l(•r( feld (no doubt ' Lib. vii. Cftp. I'J. 1. Ilrn 1 1 l.,nn' " d'or iiiif;l)«ii(lo dopouloH ■ At UiIh tiiiK- llie lion IiikI not, it croiMllcH noii-i'," (lifl'tTcnt it will lie hliould HtM-ni, l)cconio In nilcJio in tlio <jl)Hcrve(l from tlioso on liis IhiIici-'h fntmly. The nnnn of lliis .lolin do grnrlum. Ntvillf, UH j.'ivi-n in llir linll of AniiH,