516 Seal of the Priory of Coldstream, by Rev. Robt. Paul. 



David Brymer of Edrom. Matthew Bell of Mersington. 



John Lumsden of Blawnairn. John Hay of Lawfield. 



Win. Home of Bastlerig. Walter Scot of Harden. 



John Erskine of Sheffield. Mr Ninian Home of Billie. 



Mr James Winram of Oxenden. Alexr. Home of Jordanfield. 



Henry Trotter of Mortonhall. William Craw of Netherbyres. 



Seal of the Priory of Coldstream. By the Rev. Robert 

 Paul, Coldstream. 



This seal is in the possession of William Martine, Esq., M.D., 

 Haddington, who shewed it to me a year or two ago, and 

 furnished me with the following particulars regarding it.. Made 

 of lead, it appears as if it had been reduced in size, by having 

 the rim or edge cut off. On this rim, there was probably the in- 

 scription, " Siglll Sce Marie De Caldestrem, " — which appears 

 on several impressions of the Coldstream Seal attached to old 

 charters in the possession of the Dean and Chapter of Durham 

 Cathedral. After the dissolution of the Priory, it may have been 

 used as his own private seal by some person, who cut off the 

 original legend to render it serviceable for his purpose. It was 

 found by Dr Martine in 1848, in an old basket among family 

 papers, in a rOom of an old unoccupied house in Haddington, 

 which has been in the possession of his family since 1743. His 

 great-great-grandfather married, in or about 1686, a person of 

 the name of Anna Carson, who is believed to have come from 

 Berwickshire, and it is not improbable that it belonged to her. 

 This inference is a fair one, also from the fact that she possessed 

 another article of some value, now owned by Dr Martine, — a 

 very beautiful silver crucifix, with the initials "A. C." on a small 

 plate attached to it. I can find no trace of the name Carson, 

 however, in the parish of Coldstream, or neighbourhood, or in 

 any old documents connected with it. So far as I am aware this 

 is the only matrix of the Coldstream Priory Seal that is extant. 

 There is an engraving of the seal in "Laing's Scottish Seals" 

 (Supplement, Plate xv., Fig. 5), but it appears to have been 

 copied from a somewhat worn impression (probably one of those 

 at Durham, referred to above), and this has led Laing to describe 

 as a " crescent," what is evidently the curled up tail of a scorpion. 

 Laing's impression differs from this seal in having the fish turned 

 to the left, and in having only three instead of five star-fishes, or 

 estoiles, in the field. 



