Rights Holder: I. Szymanski
CC License:
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Unique ID: IHS-1AE010
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
Notes:
Slightly untidy matrix; note the rather haphazard M in Thome and reversed the N of Burniet. Matrix may be later than the shape suggests; the owner has tracked down a Thomas Burniet who was a vicar at Elsham, some six miles from the find site, in 1381. This man is a possibility for the matrix's owner. Although relatively little is known of Elsham's early history, it existed before the mediaeval period, as attested by its extensive early Anglo-Saxon cemetery; in the mediaeval period there was a House of Augustinian friars. There is evidence that there was a church at least as early as Norman times, as the current building, highly restored in the nineteenth century, incorporates some Norman material; clearly, the village was not impoverished. The vicar mentioned above may not have been a native; then as now, vicars were often outsiders. Depending on how one interprets his surname, he may have been from a mercantile background; a possible derivation for Burnet (here Burniet) was one who sold a type of expensive brown cloth, although it could also mean "brown-haired". [Clerical Poll-Taxes in the Diocese of Lincoln 1377-81, A.K. McHardy (Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 1992; Lincoln Record Society Publications 81), p.137.]
Inscription:
*S[IGILLUM]'THOME BVRNIET (Latin: The Seal of Thomas Burniet.)
Current location of find: Returned to finder
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Date from: AD 1200
Date to: AD 1400
Quantity: 1
Length: 41 mm
Width: 25 mm
Weight: 17.4 g
Date(s) of discovery: Friday 1st February 2002
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Other reference: Originally York Sealmat 106
No references cited so far.