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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2011
At the dissolution of the Benedictine house of Durham its last prior, Hugh Whitehead, became the first dean of the cathedral church, and its large estates passed almost undiminished to the new dean and chapter, who thus also succeeded to its title-deeds and muniments. These remained in their old home in the treasury of the monks, and afterwards in the cathedral library, until, by the exertions of our late Fellow the Rev. Dr. Greenwell, they were provided with a new resting-place in the rebuilt and refitted chapel of St. Helen, above the great gateway of the monastery. When arranging these documents in their new home Dr. Greenwell made a slip catalogue of the seals attached. This catalogue, collated, annotated, and illustrated by the present writer, has been printed by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In it is a long series of the seals of the bishops of Durham from Ranulf Flambard (A.D. 1099-1128) to Cuthbert Tunstall (A.D. 1530-1559).
page 1 note 1 Archaeologia Aeliana, 3rd ser., vols. vii-xviiGoogle Scholar.
page 1 note 2 For the dates of each bishop I have used ‘The Table of Pontifical Years of the Bishops of Durham1’, by Page, Wm., F.S.A. (Trans, Northuntb. and Durham Architectural and Archaeological Society, vol. iv, p. 19)Google Scholar.
page 2 note 1 See Catalogue, op. cit., nos. 3110, 3113.
page 3 note 1 The cost of those of three of the priors of Durham is noted in the rolls of the bursar of the convent. The two seals of Prior John Fossor(A.D. 1341-1374) cost 135. 8d. (Surtees Soc. Publ. c, p. 538). Those of Prior William Ebchester (A. D. 1446-1456) cost 265. 8d. (ibid., vol. ciii, p. 631). Joss' the goldsmith received 215. 8d. for making those of Prior John Burnaby (A.D. 1456-1464) (Ibid., p. 634).
page 3 note 2 Wills and Inventories (Surtees Soc. Publ., vol. ii)Google Scholar.
page 3 note 3 Historiae Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres, p. ccclxxxviii (Surtees Soc. Publ., vol. ix)Google Scholar.
page 4 note 1 Historiae Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres, p. ccclxxxviii (Surtees Soc. Publ., vol. ix)Google Scholar.
page 4 note 2 Feodarium Prioratus Dunelmensis, p. xxxvii et seq. (Surtees Soc. Publ., vol. lviii)Google Scholar.
page 4 note 3 ‘Audita morte istius, statim fracta fuerunt eius sigilla et sancto Cuthberto oblata’; Wills and Inventories, p. iGoogle Scholar.
page 5 note 1 ‘ij capis de uno panno albi, indici, et rubei coloris palliatis cum una cruce de armis eiusdem intextis quae dicuntur ferrum molendini’ (Wills and Inventories, p. 12)Google Scholar. His arms were gules a mill-rind cross ermine. He was a great warrior, and at Falkirk (A. D. 1298) commanded the second division. ‘C'est la bataile l'euesk de Duresme la secund—Antoyn Beke porte de gulez, ou ung fer de molyn d'ermin’ (Reliquary, vol. xvi, p. 30)Google Scholar. There is a long stanza in praise of him in the song of the siege of Caerlaverock (A.D. 1300). He was not present in person, but he sent his banner of—
Vermeille o un fer de molyn
De ermine e envoia se ensegne.
(The Roll of Caerlaverock, ed. Wright, Thos., p. 22.)Google Scholar He was a younger son of Walter Bek, lord of Eresby, and differences his paternal shield by changing its silver cross to one of ermine (Complete Peerage, new ed., ii, 89Google Scholar; Coll. Top. et Gen., iv, 344)Google Scholar.
page 5 note 2 But though it is very unlikely that even this proud prelate would make his chasuble into an armorial surcoat to his own glorification, it is yet quite possible that its orphreys might have been embroidered with small shields of his arms. The Lincoln Inventory records ‘a chasuble of black cloth of gold of Baudekin with a red orphrey having … in the back the arms of the lord Rose’, probably the donor (Mon. Angl., i, 312, ed. 1718)Google Scholar. See also Catalogue of a Collection of British Heraldic Art, Burlington Fine Arts Club, no. 56, a chasuble of brocaded blue satin whose cross-shaped orphrey was embroidered with numerous armorial shields.
page 6 note 1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, A.D. 1272-1281, p. 92Google Scholar.
page 6 note 2 Again probably a conventional representation, not an actual chasuble so embroidered. His armorials are those of Brienne differenced. Lewis and Henry Beaumont were the sons of Louis de Brienne, who, in right of his wife, was Vicomte de Beaumont. They took the name of Beaumont, and differenced their paternal arms of Brienne by changing the billets into fleurs-de-lis, the shield of Brienne being (azure) billetty a lion rampant (gold). (See also Complete Peerage, new ed., vol. ii, 59, and vol. v, 168)Google Scholar. There is an account of the breaking of his two seals in Scriptores Tres, p. cxxviii (Surtees Soc. Publ. ix)Google ScholarPubMed.
page 6 note 3 This shield is a finely proportioned and beautiful early example of these arms, blazoned silver crusilly a cross potent gold: d'argent ove une croice martellee d'or et poudree de croicelettes d'or (Coll. Top. et Gen., ii, 320)Google Scholar. It is drawn with a plain cross between fourteen small ones by Matthew Paris on the margin of his Historia Minor (Rolls Series, iii, 95)Google Scholar.
page 6 note 4 His father, Louis de Brienne, Vicomte de Beaumont, was a younger son of Jean de Brienne, King of Jerusalem, Emperor of Constantinople (A.D. 1209-1237) (L'Artde Verifier les Dates, ed. 1770, 366Google Scholar; Complete Peerage, ii, 59, note b)Google Scholar.
page 7 note 1 Scriptores Tres, p. 120 (Surtees Soc. Publ. ix)Google ScholarPubMed.
page 7 note 2 His own shield was gules a cinquefoil ermine and a border sable bezanty. A similar shield is blazoned for Sire John Daungervile de goules a un qntefoil de ermyne ad la bordur de sable (Genealogist, N. S., xii, p. 269, no. 814)Google Scholar. It is also painted on the lid of an ancient chest formerly in the Chancery court at Durham, which from the armorials upon it must be dated at the time of this bishop (see illustration, Arch. Ael, N. S., xv, 296)Google ScholarPubMed.
page 8 note 1 The blazon is: azure a chevron gold between three lions rampant silver. This is the blazon of the shields on his tomb on the south side of the choir at Durham, beneath the splendid episcopal throne built by Hatfield during his lifetime. The shield is also on the orphrey of the alb on his effigy, having on each side of it the royal arms: France and England quarterly. It is also in painted glass in the window of the hall of the prior's house, now the deanery.
page 8 note 2 The blazon is: sable a chevron between three crosses patonce gold (L'Armorial dc Gelre). The blazon is: silver with the cross sable (Glover‘s Ordinary). He was buried in the north aisle of the choir at Durham before the altar of St. Blaise, ’under a faire marble stone very sumptuously beset with many brasen images having his owne image most artificially portred in brasse in the midst thereof (Rites of Durham, p. 18; Surtees Soc. publ., vol. cvii)Google Scholar. This has disappeared, but the stone bench running along the north wall of this bay of the aisle has in front a range of twelve cusped panels, in each of which is a shield of Skirlaw's arms.
page 9 note 1 The blazon is: silver three boars' heads rased and erect sable, a border engrailed sable (Glover's Ordinary).
page 9 note 2 The arrangement of the shields on this seal is the same as that on the ‘ad causas’ seal of his predecessor, Robert Neville. See note on Neville's Seal, Post, p. 14, note 2.
page 9 note 3 The blazon is: I and IV, gold two lions passant azure (Somery, afterwards Sutton, alias Dudley); II and III, silver a cross patonce azure (Sutton). His tomb is in the chapel of St. Nicholas in the south ambulatory of Westminster Abbey. His effigy in brass and the inscription are now destroyed. The shield there was quarterly: I, gold a double-tailed lion rampant vert (Dudley); II and III, a cross patonce (Sutton); IV, two lions passant (Somery) (Heraldand Genealogist, v, 118, note 1)Google Scholar.
page 9 note 4 Blazoned azure a pelican in her piety gold. Bishop Fox was very fond of this symbol of the Atonement; he used it both for his arms and as a badge. It is to be seen on his buildings at Oxford, Cambridge, and Winchester, as well as at Durham.
page 9 note 5 He is sometimes called Sever, Severs, or Seners, but Senhouse, as given by Stubbs in the Registrant Sacrum Anglicanum, seems to be the correct form. I cannot find the blazon of his shield.
page 9 note 6 His shield, badly balanced and overcrowded, is an excellent example of the decadent heraldry of Tudor times. It is blazoned: Party azure and gules a cross engrailed gold between four doves gold with sable collars, on a chief quarterly ermine and gold two roses gules.
page 9 note 7 The blazon is: sable three combs silver.
page 10 note 1 The earliest seal I know of, which shows the mitre worn in this manner, is that of Hugues, bishop of Auxerre (A. D. 1144). See Demay, , Le Costume d'apres les Sceattx, 270, fig. 332Google Scholar.
page 10 note 2 Wills and Inventories, p. 25 (Surtees Soc. Publ. ii)Google ScholarPubMed.
page 10 note 3 Op. cit., p. 2.
page 10 note 4 Op. cit., p. 5.
page 11 note 1 Wills and Inventories, p. 25Google ScholarPubMed.
page 12 note 1 Wills and Inventories, pp. 1–2Google ScholarPubMed.
page 13 note 1 Azure fleuretty a lion rampant gold. See ante, p. 6, note 2.
page 14 note 1 He was the fourth son of Ralph, first earl of Westmorland, by his second wife Joan, daughter of John of Gaunt (Surtees, , Durham, iv, 161)Google Scholar. The blazon is gules a saltire silver differenced by a gimmel ring gules.
page 14 note 2 This is the first of the episcopal seals of the bishopric upon which the official arms of the see appear. The dexter shield is difficult to account for, it is obviously that of Bishop Hatfield; but why, after more than half a century, it should be used is not obvious; possibly it may have been blazoned upon something connected officially with the bishopric and so used in ignorance of its true origin. The shield of St. Oswald on the sinister bears the arms of the see, and is so used by succeeding bishops, except Ruthall, who makes the cross patonce. That they were the recognized arms of the bishopric before Bishop Neville's time is probable, for they appear on the ‘sede vacante’ seal of Henry VI, used during the vacancy after Bishop Langley's death, November 1437 to April 1438 (see post, p. 21). The shield of the priory was that attributed to St. Cuthbert. It is the same as St. Oswald's, except that the cross is patonce. These arms appear on the seals earlier than those of the see, being first used on that of Prior Robert Berrington of Wallworth (A.D. 1374-1391) and afterwards by his successors; always with the cross patonce (see also Tonge's, Heraldic Visitation of 1530, Surtees Soc. Publ. no. 41, p. 31Google Scholar; and Catalogue of Durham Seals, nos. 3441–9).
page 15 note 1 His tomb in the Galilee at Durham, in front of the great west doorway of the church, was made during his lifetime. At its west end are three panels, in each of which is a shield of his arms (Scriptores Tres, 147; Rites of Durham, p. 44, Surtees Soc. Publications, no. ix and no. cvii).
page 15 note 2 It is not at all probable that the bishops of Durham actually wore a coronet round their mitre, but that they used it as a symbol of their palatine rank seems certain. From the time of Hatfield onward it is never absent from the reverse of their great seals, and though it might be considered there to be merely a crest coronet, it is not possible to account for it thus on this seal. Nor is it possible so to account for those carved on the desk-ends in the chapel of Durham Castle, around the mitre placed above the shields of Bishop Ruthall and of the see, or above Langley's shield on the stalls in Auckland church. That the coronet had some official significance appears from its use round the mitre on the shrievalty seals of John Menville, Bishop Bury's sheriff, and of Robert Laton, Fordham's sheriff (see post, p. 23). For its use in post-reformation days see The Herald and Genealogist, viii, 137.
page 16 note 1 The new edition of the Complete Peerage, iv, 559, states that ‘their real rank was that of barons (domini) not of earls (comites)’. It should, however, be noted that in a letter from Edward III to Alexander Neville, archbishop of York, dated 17th July 1376, the king says that the bishop of Durham is earl palatine (‘episcopus Dunelmensis comes palatinus existat’), and as such has temporal jurisdiction over his subjects, exercised by his own officers (Scriplores Tres, App., no. cxxvi, Surtees Soc. Publ. xi).
page 17 note 1 A similar bush of feathers, subsequently altered into plumes of ostrich feathers, was used by those of his successors who did not use a personal crest. In the Parliamentary roll of A.D. 1515 (ed. Willement) the mitre of the bishop of Durham has a coronet from which rise seven ostrich feathers (see also The Herald and Genealogist, viii, 139).
page 17 note 2 His achievement in L'Armorial de Gelre shows the dove standing on a ball placed between the horns of the mitre, and bearing in its beak a scroll on which is gloria Deo (Ecclesiastical Heraldry, by Woodward, John, pl. v, no. 1)Google Scholar.
page 18 note 1 The same shield as that on the dexter of Bishop Neville's ‘ad causas’ seal (see note 2, p. 14).
page 19 note 1 The blazon of this shield is unknown. He was buried in the English college at Rome, and on his tomb were the arms a chevron, charged with a cross crosslet, between three stars, a chief charged with a mitre (Ecclesiastical Heraldry, p. 97).
page 19 note 2 This is the first example, on the seals of the bishops of Durham, of impaling the shield of the see with the bishop's own shield.
page 19 note 3 The blazon of this quarter is unknown.
page 20 note 1 The earliest mention of a royal seal for the bishopric of Durham ‘sede vacante’, I know of, is 5 May 1340. Amongst the records, jewels, etc. then delivered to Robert Sadington, the newly-appointed treasurer of the exchequer, was, in a leather bag, ‘unum sigillum ordinatum pro brevibus sigillandis in episcopatu Dunolmensi sede vacante’ (The Ancient Kalendars and Inventories of His Majesty's Exchequer, ii 205). This seal must therefore have been used either during the vacancy following upon Bishop Beaumont's death (26 Sept.-19 Dec. 1333) or during that after the death of Bishop Kellawe (10 Oct. 1316-25 Mar. 1318). For the vacancy (15 Apr.-July 1345) after Bishop Bury's death John Marten, king's clerk, was appointed chancellor with the custody of the king's seal, deputed for that office during the voidance of the see (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1343-1345, 462). The seal was returned to the treasury 12 July 1345 (Ancient Kalendars and Inventories, i, 158). Amongst the articles in the inventory, made upon the appointment of John bishop of Rochester as treasurer (28 Nov. 1356), there was, in the treasury in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, ‘le seal que estoit ordeine pur l'office de la Chauncellrie el Veschie de Duresme en temps de voideantz de mesme l'Eveschie’ (Ibid., iii, 223). For the vacancy (9 May 1381-5 Jan. 1382) following Bishop Hatfield's death the great seal, deputed for the office of chancellor of Durham ‘sede vacante’, was issued 10 July 1381 to John Fairfax for Hugh Westwick. It was returned by the same under the seal of Hugh Westwick 20 Feb. 1382, and replaced in the chest where the king's crowns were kept (Ibid., i, 158). Also after Skirlaw's death, the see being vacant from 25 Mar. to 8 Aug. 1406, it is recorded that on 12 May 1406 there was issued a certain seal, with two foils (‘cum duobus foliis’), kept in a sealed bag of white leather, used for the office of chancellor in the lordship (i.e. the liberties of the bishopric) of Durham ‘sede vacante’ (Ibid., ii, 73).
page 21 note 1 Showing that by this date the arms attributed to St. Oswald formed the recognized shield of the see.
page 21 note 2 ‘Mem. that on the 16th day of July in the 5th year of King Edw. IV there were delivered at the receipt of the exchequer by the hand of Richard Symson, clerk for the custody of the foils of the tallies of the exchequer, two seals of the bishopric of Durham, to be placed and kept in the king's treasury, which are laid in a little canvas bag sealed with the seal of Hugh Fenne, clerk of the treasury, in the chest where parchment is wont to be put’ (Ancient Kalendars and Inventories, iii, p. 4).
page 23 note 1 Durham Treas. Misc. Charts, no. 7079.
page 23 note 2 Greenwell Deeds D75 (now in Public Library, Newcastle-upon-Tyne).