XXV. Remarks on the Matrix of the Seal of Boxgrave Priory, in Sussex; by Sir Frederic Madden, K.H. F.R.S. F.S.A. in a Letter to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H. F.R.S. Sec. S.A.

Extract

About six years ago I had the pleasure of submitting to the notice of the Society of Antiquaries, by the hands of our worthy Treasurer, impressions from the very curious matrix of the Seal of Southwick Priory in Hampshire; engravings of which, accompanied by some observations, were inserted in the twenty-third volume of the Archæologia, pp. 374-379. At that period I stated truly that it was the only existing matrix of a very peculiar mode of forming conventual Seals; but recently another instance has been discovered, some account of which may not be unacceptable. Some laborers at work in excavating a railway, the precise locality of which has not been ascertained, are stated to have dug up an earthen pot or urn, in which were found two original matrices of brass, which subsequently came.into the hands of Mr. Chamberlain, optician, of Broad Street, St. Giles's, in whose possession they now are, and by whose leave I am able to lay impressions of them before the Society. The most important proves to be the Seal of the Benedictine Priory of Boxgrave, in Sussex, dedicated to St. Mary and St. Blaise; the foundation of which by Robert de Haye took place in the reign of Henry the First, when it was annexed as a cell to the monastery of Essay, in Normandy; and although ordered to be suppressed in 1414, together with the other alien priories, continued to exist till the final dissolution under Henry the Eighth.