338 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
accounts as we possess of heraldry which has disappeared. We will 
consider first heraldry existing before the commencement of the 
present century, and then that more recently set up. 
First, of course, to claim our attention will be the arms of this 
town of Plymouth. Here little need be added to what has already 
been printed in the paper above referred to. The earliest seal of 
Plymouth — a ship, but not on a shield — is not armorial, it being a 
device common to most, if not all, the seaport towns of Great 
Britain. These vary according to the skill of the engraver and the 
date at which they were produced, and form a most valuable and 
interesting record of our naval architecture. They have sometimes 
the addition of some distinctive badge, as in that of Lymington, in 
Hampshire, where a shield of Courtenay with the label hangs 
from the mast. The charters of the De Eedvers to that town were 
confirmed in 1405 by Edward Courtenay, tenth earl of Devon, who 
inherited the lands and honours of De Eedvers. (See pi. fig. 4.) 
The ship which was depicted on the earfy seal of this town seems 
to have been transferred to a shield (gu. on a base wavy of six arg. 
and az. a ship with three masts ivithout sails or yard-arms or, 
with fire beacons on the round tops ppr.). It is given as the arms 
of the town in the Heralds' Visitation of Devon in 1574, and is 
recorded as the arms of the town by Edmondson in his Complete 
Body of Heraldry (1794), on the authority of Harl. MS., No. 
1399. He also gives, on the authority of a painting sent him by 
order of the Corporation, the following : " Arg. a saltire vert 
bet w. four castles sa., surmounted by a coronet of eight fleurs-de-lis 
or, and with two lions ramp. gard. gold for supporters." This is 
the coat of the four castles and St. Andrew's Cross on the seal 
described by Mr. Worth, to which he ascribes the date of 1440 
(circ.). 1 Nothing now exists to show that the coat given in the 
Visitation of 1574 was ever in actual use ; while the seal of 1439- 
1440 mentioned above, and another smaller one, of which an en- 
graving is given in Mr. Worth's paper, testify to the long and 
general use of the castles accompanying the cross of St. Andrew, 
and he is no doubt right as to their origin. In the face of the evi- 
dence of these seals, it is difficult to account for the coat given in 
1 Mr. Worth has recently found two impressions of a corporate seal with 
the same device, but differing in the fact that the legend is in Latin and old 
English characters. They are attached to documents temp. Henry VI. and 
Edward IV. 
