Non-armorial personal seals and the expression of identity in rural English communities, c. 1175–1349

This thesis examines the personal, non-armorial seal impressions and matrices surviving from two rural communities in medieval England between c. 1175–1349. Seals of the medieval lower orders have been largely neglected by historians who have instead devoted most of their attention to the comparatively small number of seals used by the secular and ecclesiastical elites. Accordingly, the seals and sealing practices of the primary users of non-armorial seals — people of lower status such as peasants, craftsmen, merchants and small landowners — remain little understood. Recent developments in the field have begun to address this issue, and this thesis contributes to that new scholarly discussion. It tackles this lacuna primarily through the prism of ‘identity’, by exploring how non-armorial seal users utilised their seals to construct and express aspects of their personal identities through their choice of legends and motifs. In a departure from previous studies, a local history-focused methodology is followed here. The thesis concentrates on two rural communities — Saltfleetby (Lincolnshire) and Tanworth (Warwickshire) — both of which have large numbers of surviving seal impressions attached to deeds as well as smaller numbers of matrices, largely recovered in recent years by metal detectorists (illustrated in the Appendix, Volume 2). Previous discussions of seals have often failed to contextualise them appropriately. Here the seals of these two places are considered against the backdrop of their local, social and economic environment. By focusing on four key themes of status, gender, family and kinship, and occupation, this thesis demonstrates clearly that non-armorial seals were used by their owners to construct and express aspects of their personal identity in a range of different ways both individually and collectively.