Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/408

 312 ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. being always recommended by legal writers, and commonly affixed, and that alone would suffice. Then, as to the second slip, this is much smaller than that on which the seal is, and appears to have been used to bind round the will after it had been folded, so as to conceal the contents ; and it is highly probable it was so employed, and then made fast with a seal to exclude curiosity, just as a modern will is usually sealed up in an envelope before it is put aside by the testator ; for, upon the back of one of these wills (the same on which the second slip remains), where the slip would have been fastened after having been passed round the middle of it, there are portions of a seal left, which had apparently been affixed to make it secure. It may be observed that the seal made use of for that object would not have served the purpose of the witnesses in regard to identifying the wi-iting ; for, beside that it would often be affixed in their absence, it would commonly have been broken before they were called upon to give evidence in support of the will. It is not improbable that Totnes may have been one of the places alluded to by Lyndwode, in which a custom existed of the parish priest attending when any of his parishioners made their wills. However, before adopting such an opinion, it would be desirable to know something more of the wills of the inhabitants of that ancient borough in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. If we suppose the seal to have been the official seal of some court, and appended to the original wills to show they had been proved, the absence of the certificates of probate is singular, and no good reason can be assigned fur the slips with which they were fastened up, unless they had been originally so used to close the wills, and when each will was proved the second slip was cut, and the seal affixed. But such an explanation of the matter appears to me highly improbable, especially when we remember the instances in which thiee or four seals are found to the same will. W. s. VV,