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SILVER SEAL OF THOMAS SEYMOUR, ESQ. (1705-1767) OF HARTFORD
This seal was used by Thomas Seymour, Esq. (1705-1767), in executing his will in 1767 and was passed on by him to his eldest son, the First Mayor, who also used it in the execution of his will in 1821. It is reasonable to suppose that knowledge of the wings with which this seal ring is charged was derived from Thomas of Norwalk. It is thought that this particular ring was made by John Potwine (1698-1792), the celebrated silversmith, whose son married Eunice Seymour, daughter of the Thomas Seymour, Esq., who sealed his will with it in 1767. The cresting and mantling seem purely conventional. If Potwine, or whoever made the ring, had simply been instructed to make a ring with the Seymour arms, he would naturally have turned to some book of heraldry and would have used the full ducal arms, in which the wings are quartered with the lions of England and the lilies of France; for at that period, when silversmiths were ordered to mark silver, they commonly referred to books of heraldry and adopted arms corresponding to the surname of the client. Clearly, in this case a family tradition was followed. No book of heraldry with which the author is familiar, illustrates the wings alone as the arms of the Seymours of Penhow. Miss Talcott well remembered being shown a drawing of the wings which had been in the possession of Capt. Charles Seymour, a Revolutionary soldier, her great-grandfather, and she recalled that other members of the family had copies of the arms with the wings alone.
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