Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/269

 Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. 209 177. Seal of the Council for the Affairs of New England in Plymouth, Co. Devon. — As a New Englander, I appeal to the readers of D. &• C.N. & Q. to help us to find a good wax impression of the Double, or Great, or Common, Seal of the " Council for the Affairs of New England in Plymouth, Co. Devon " ; i.e. the re-organized or (falsely so-called) Second Plymouth Company of 1620. If found it would be of value to both countries, and the approaching Tercentenary of Plymouth in New England would make the discovery specially interesting. The frag- ments of the Council's Records show that the matrix of the Great Seal was then kept in London. It was probably in use from about 1622 to 1635, the date of the surrender of the Council's Patent. Mr. R. N. Worth, in the last edition of his History of Plymouth, page 78, gives a list of known Patents. Some of the earlier Patents were issued by the Council, with the individual seals of the Executive Board, before the Great Seal was in use. But there were also probably Patents issued under the Great Seal, which were known to New England only by copy, and others, like the Thomas Cannock Patent, which were removed to distant colonies, and so perhaps home to England. It is probable where a Patent was issued to partners that both had sealed copies. The locus in quo was Plymouth (not London), and it seems possible that the Patents signed and sealed by the Council were sent down to Plymouth, to be legally and effectively transferred by a local agent to the Patentees or their representatives " between the four benches of the Guild Hall at Plymouth." The Town Clerk of Plymouth may have acted as transfer agent, recorded the transfers on the town books, and kept a good impression of the Seal for comparison. No such records, or Seal, are now reported at Plymouth, but they may have been preserved in other hands when the early files were scattered to the four winds, as noted by Mr. Worth. There is no perfect impression of either face of the Seal known in New England, and there has been some un- necessary question whether the design of the coat of arms (with supporters and motto) preserved to us is that of the " Council for the Affairs," etc., or that of its predecessor, the Second Virginia Colony. This seems a needless doubt, p