Thank you for your letter of 28th May and cheque for 180 dollars. A search has been made in the official records of the College of Arms and I write to report the result which I must at once state has been disappointing as I have not found any entry in the College's official records which might record an entitlement to Arms of the emigrant Robert Seeley who it is suggested is the child of that name baptised at .Et. John Huntingdon on 4 July 1602.

Originally in England men assumed whatever arms they wished and in cases where two families used the same arms there would be a case in the High Court of Chivalry to decide which family had the better right. The best known case is perhaps that of Scrope V. Grosvenor heard from 1385 to 1390 and won by the Scrope family who retained the arns of AZURE A BEND OE. In 1417 Henry V issued Writs to the Sheriffs of various Counties stating that in future men might not assume their own arms. Thereafter a right to arms could only be acquired either by proof of descent in an unbroken male line from someone using arms ;-,before 1417 or by a new grant of arms. The King delegated the power to grant new arms to the senior Heralds or Kings of Arms. The earliest surviving English Grant of Arms dates from 1439. In 1484 King Richard III incorporated the Heralds into a College of Arms and the College has been on its present site since l555. Between 1530 and 1659 the Sovereign issued commissions to the provincial Kings of Arms to Visit the Counties in their provinces and to record the arms and pedigrees of the principal families in each County. This system was known as the Heralds' Visitations and the Heralds visited Huntingdonshire in 1564, 1613 and 1684. No family of Seeley or any variant or similar spelling of the surname is recorded at any of these Visitations although the following families of the surname recorded their right to Arms at Visitations of other Counties:-

(1) At the Visitation of Cornwall carried out in 1620 (College of Arms Ms:2C1/430) arms of AZURE A CHEVRON OR BETWEEN THREE MULLETS ARGENT with a Crest of AN HERALDIC TYGER SEJANT ARGENT were confirmed to the Ceely family of St. Ives. I attach a photocopy of a printed version of the Visitation pedigree on which everything recorded here has been underlined in pencil. Because of the tight binding of the book the photocopy omits part of the pedigree. The missing part shows that William Ceely of St. Ives married Anna daughter of Thomas Penrose by whom he had issue a second son Francis aged 2 in 1620 and five further daughters namely Priscilla the eldest daughter who was aged 16, Anna the third daughter aged 13, Margaret aged 11, Loveday aged 10 and Jana aged 8.

(2) At the Visitation of Co: Somerset carried out in 1672 (D27/50b) the pedigree as underlined in pencil on the attached photocopy marked (A) was recorded. The College pedigree does not record arms or a crest for this family but cross refers -.he pedigree to that recorded in Corwall in 1620 and described in (I) above. However, I cannot any link between the two families and so cannot say whether they were legally entitled to the arms of ne Cornish family as suggested in the printed version of the pedigree.

(3) At he same Visitation of Somerset (D27/59) the Sealy family of Bridgwater registered their pedigree. but no rignt to Arms or a Crest. Again I have underlined in pencil on the attached photocopy marked(B) of a printed version of the Visitation that part of the pedigree which is recorded here.

Since 1673 the complete text of every Grant of Arms has been preserved at the College in a consecutive series of volumes now numbering over 158 and each containing between one and two hundred grants. This series only contains two Grants of Arms to anyone of the surname. On 25 January 1896 (Grants 69/22) Arms and a Crest were granted to Charles Seely of Sherwood Lodge, Co: Nottingham on his being created a Baronet. His fourth son John Edward Bernard Seely was created Baron Mottistone on 21 June 1933 and In that year had a Grant of Supporters (Grants 100/259). The first Baronet's grandson Hugh Michael Seely was created Baron Sherwood on 14^th August 1941 and two years later on 25 March 194:3 he had a Grant of new Arms, Crest and Supporters (Grants 107/116). These two coats are illustrated and the pedigrees shown under Mottistone and Sherwood in recent editions of Burke's or Debrett's Peerage.

The College records also contain two brief pedigrees of families of Seal(l)y as follows, although no arms or crests are recorded for either of these families:

(a) in a pedIgree of a family named Stockwell of Crutched Friars, Co: London recorded in 1802 (3D14/178) where Anne daughter of William Soley of St. Pauls Covent Garden, Co: Middlesex is shown to have married at St. Margarets, Westminster, on 26 January 1766 Jchn Seally by whom she had children Henry Seally born October 1770 and Maria born in June 1773.

(b) in a pedigree of Atterbury recorded in 1808 Mary (born 15 February 1772) eldest daughter of the Rev. Francis Atterbury, D.D., Precentor of Cloyne, Co: Cork in Ireland married Armiger Sealy of Bardon, Co: Cork by whom she had sons George Francis Sealy born 19 Oct. 1791, Francise Atterbury Sealy born 18 Jan. 179:3, Baldwin Sealy born 1 Feb. 1795 and Armiger Sealy born 27 June 1796..

Before 1673 the College has to rely on the notebooks of the Kings or Arms and Heralds. These record grants and confirmations of arms in varying degrees of detail.

An example of an entry with little information is a coat of GULES A LION RAMPANT OR BETWEEN TWO FLAUNCHES AND A GUSSET IN BASE ERMINE. This is recorded at the College for Cely in three early sixteenth century manuscripts namely EDN 56/25, L10/38b and L2/132. L2 adds the County of Essex. This leads me to think that the arms are those of the family of Richard Cely, a prominent London wool merchant who purchased the Manor of Brett's in the Parish of Aveley, Essex (on the North bank of the Thames estuary) In 1462 and died in 1481 or 1482. His son and heir Richard Cely died in 1494 leaving three daughters as coheirs namely Margaret, wife of John Kettleby, Isabel who first married Robert Warham and secondly Anthony Cook, and Anne. Isabel eventually, inherited the portions of her sisters and sold the Manor to Sir John Baker in 1531. Selections from the correspondence and memoranda of the Cely family. Merchants of the Staple 1475-1488, was published as The Cely Papers edited by H.E Malden in l900 by The Camden Society, Third Series, Volume I.

L2 an early sixteenth century Arnory has another entry on folic 132 of Arms attributed to a variant surnane of Sealey, namely PER PALE ERMINE AND SABLE A CHEVRON CHECKY ARGENT AND SABLE BETWEEN THREE LIONS HEADS ERASED OR for Celly. It is also in EDN 56/28b where "Temp E. 4" is added implying a Grant in the reign of King Edward IV, i.e. between 1461 and 1483. The Arms are also shield number 97 in Sir Thomas Wriotheslev's Rlil of Grants now in the Society of Antiquaries which Sir Anthony Wagner: Garter King of Arms from 1961-1978 thinks is the Roll delivered by Wriothesley who died in 1534 as Garter to King Henry VIII as a Roll of over four hundred grants by him and his predecessors of which he had knowledge. Unfortunately there are no subsequent entries of this family in the College records.

Another coat which appears no later than early sixteenth century collections is ARGENT ON A CHEVRON GULES BETWEEN THREE EAGLES DISPLAYED SABLE THREE ANNULETS OR. This is attributed to Cely in L10/102v; Prince Arthur's Book, Part XV, No. 512; L1/140; L2/118 and EDN 56/116.. Papworth's Ordinary of British Armorials (1874) suggests the arms are those of Sir Benet Celey. I have been unable to find such a man.

Cely and its variants must be distinguished from Cayley, a family still extant and Baronets, whose pedigree will be found in Burke's Peerage and Baronetage Their arms are QUARTERLY ARGENT AND SABLE ON A BEND GULES THREE MULLETS ARGENT. This family held land at Heacham in Norfolk in the twelfth century and may derive their name from Cailly in Normandy.

By the late sixteenth century the College's record of grants is fuller and the only entry between 1550 and 1673 is a grant n 1599. This is a confirmation of Arms and grant of a crest dated 19 July 1599 to Robert Seale, Clerk of the Exchequer. This was made by William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms from 1599 until his death on 9 November 1623. The Arms confirmed could be blazoned OR A FESS AZURE BETWEEN THREE WOLVES HEADS ERASED SABLE and the Crest granted OUT OF A DUCAL CORONET OR A WOLF'S HEAD ARGENT. The text of the Patent states that the Grantee was descended from the Seales of Northumberland but no pedigree was registered and I think it unlikely that there is a connection with Robert Seeley the emigrant (College of Arms Ms. Camden 11/25, Vincent 169/15.6).

I enclose a current College price list of different types of artwork in case you are interested in paintings of any of the Armorial Bearings registered here.

If I can help you any further I should be happy to do so.

Yours sincerely,

Signed
Somerset Herald