238 Devizes Seals. 
Major; Robert Drew, Esq., and John Kent, Towne Clarke, all 3 Justices of the 
Peace within the saide Borough; Sir Edw. Bainton, Sir Hen. Ley, Knighte ; 
Rich. Fflower, Thos. Whitacre, Nicholas Barret, John Nicholas, Edw. Northey, 
Edw. Lewes, John Thurman, Robt. Fflower, Edw. Hope, Thomas Lewen, 
Christopher Clarke, Richard Dernford, Stephen Fflower, and Thomas Potter, 
Cheiffe Burgesses and Councellots of the sayd Borough; Edward Northey and 
Thomas Lewen, Chamberlins; George Morris and Nicholas Sanford, Constables; 
John Watts and Richard Peirse, Baileiffes of the said Towne and Borough.” 
A question may arise whether the building delineated on the 
earlier seal is merely an invention, or intended to represent the 
original fabric of Devizes Castle, as extant at the period when the 
seal was engraved. The semicircular arch of the gateway seems 
certainly to be suggestive of a building of Norman date; and as 
the castle, for instance, engraved upon the early seal of Norwich 
will be found to bear a striking resemblance in its outline to the 
ancient and still remaining fortress of that city, so it may, perhaps, 
be reasonably inferred, in the absence of any positive proof, that a 
similar representation of the Castle of Devizes was intended by 
the engraver of the ancient Seal of that borough. 
The Seals, Nos. 2 and 3, both appear to be of a date subsequent 
to the existence of Devizes Castle in its original state, the former 
is an exact copy of No. 1, and the latter, although it retains the 
principal features of the castle as represented on the earlier seals, 
must necessarily be regarded as displaying a certain amount of 
more recent invention. 
One of the occasional uses of Borough Seals may be seen in the 
following mandate, issued 14th Richard II. [1390], abbreviated. 
‘‘The King to the Sheriff of Wilts, Greeting :—Whereas by the statute lately 
made at Cambridge, it was ordained, among other things, that no servant or 
labourer, whether man or woman, should quit the hundred, rape, or wapentake 
where he dwells, before the end of his term, to serve or abide elsewhere, unless 
he carry with him a letter-patent under our seal, stating the cause of his going 
and the time of his return :—We command you with all the authority we possess, 
that, all excuses set aside, you cause that our seal for this purpose shall be 
forthwith made for each hundred, wapentake, rape, city and borough within 
your bailiwick, and delivered into the hands of such person in each place as 
the local Justice of the peace shall deem fit and trustworthy :—such seal to be 
executed in latten metal, and to have the name of your county engrayen round 
its edge, and the name of the hundred or town across its field, Zeste Rege 
apud Westm. VIII die Marci. 
Epwarp Kire. 
Devizes, October 1st, 1856. 
