Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/133

Rh the feoffee was put into possession by the alderman of the ward, who kept the charter for a year and a day. If the grant was unquestioned during that time, it was duly presented by the alderman, and, upon such presentment and after proclamation made in the city, it was sealed with the city seal, and became firm and indefeasible for ever.

It is therefore apparent that the seal had the remarkable effect of ratifying and confirming transfers of property inter alios, and of excluding all claims after the lapse of a year and a day; and I am inclined to attribute this uncommon inscription on the counterseal to its very unusual and anomalous operation upon private feoffments. By these most reasonable and useful provisions the common-law fictions of fines and recoveries, and the slow remedy of statutes of limitation must, in many cases, have been dispensed with.

Representations of the two sides of the seal accompany this paper.

Upon this seal my friend, Mr. A. Way, observes that Dr. Milner, in his History of Winchester, vol. i., p. 374, describes the "New Seal," granted to the city by Elizabeth, in 1589, of which, and of the reverse, he gives representations, reduced to half-size, in his Miscellaneous Plate. These appear to be identical with the seals here represented, the ancient matrices having undergone a slight modification, the letters and date, 1589, A V G, being introduced under the castle on the obverse, and the same date inserted on the counterseal at the sides of the cross at top. Other examples of municipal seals might be cited, on which some alteration was made in the sixteenth century, the original matrix being retained. It is not known whether the seals thus described by Dr. Milner now exist, or until what period they were preserved at Winchester.

Inquiry has been made, without result, to ascertain any further particulars regarding them, and no impressions of the seals, thus altered, have been produced. These seals were not comprised in the collection of city and mayoralty seals, of which impressions were exhibited in the Local Museum formed during the meeting of the Institute at Winchester, in 1845; and Mr. Gough Nichols in his memoir on the seals of that city, published in the Transactions of that meeting, states that the ancient seal has yet to be discovered, and points out the inaccuracy of Dr. Milner's account.