This last point leads to the consideration of a sub-group of seals from the vicinity of Kenfig in south Wales a number of which use a particular variant of radial motif. While one-off examples such as the seals of John Mygnoth and Gilbert de Clare are of interest, they may just be aberrations; individuals experimenting with established types, perhaps in a deliberately subversive or provocative manner and possibly because they had other seals that represented them in more conventional ways.²⁶ Instead, perhaps even more remarkable than the use of an apparently standard image subtly adapted for a particular individual is a communal seal that employs such a motif. The common seal of Kenfig dates from the mid-thirteenth century, the earliest impression validating a document of c. 1250 × 1299 (Fig. 11.3).²⁷ What makes this seal stand out is, paradoxically, its very ‘ordinary’ design, for without the legend the image of four conifer branches or ears of corn with small pellets in the angles would undoubtedly be mistaken for that used on the seal of an individual of rather humble status.²⁸ Along with a number of borough towns including Cardiff, Kenfig had been founded by the Anglo-Norman lords of Glamorgan and, despite raids by the Welsh in the 1230s and 1240, the town prospered enough to warrant fourteenth-century ordnances controlling innkeepers and butchers, among others.²⁹ Being closely connected to other towns in south Wales and on a trade-route to Bristol, it is highly unlikely that the leading burgesses who probably commissioned Kenfig’s common seal were unaware of contemporary trends in the imagery for urban communities, or could not afford a bespoke matrix. Instead, it implies that variants of the radial motif were considered appropriate for a variety of seal owners, at least within certain localities and at particular times.

Table 11.1.

Ten seals (16 impressions) used to validate documents relating to Margam Abbey all display a very similar radial motif comprising long, thin arms terminating in a teardrop or rounded shape with distinct ‘spikes’, that appears to be a stylised representation of teasels radiating from a central hub. This motif has previously been described as an ‘escarbuncle’ by one cataloguer, significantly (if unintentionally) assigning to it a term that implies a recognised armorial charge.30 All ten seals with this motif belonged to men, eight of whom were from native Welsh families, one of whom was from an Anglo-Norman settler family, and one with a name suggesting Anglo-Welsh origins (Table 11.1). All ten men were active within the Kenfig and Afan areas of Glamorgan, and all impressions of the seals are appended to documents datable to the last decade of the twelfth and first quarter of the thirteenth century.

An obvious conclusion might be that the matrices were the product of one craftsman or workshop that just happened to use a particular variant on the radial motif. This is a possibility, but they were certainly not cast or engraved as a set and there is enough variation to suggest different manufacturers. The seal of Rhys Goch had quite naturalistic teasel-heads and a small central disk (Fig. 11.4, a); that of Alaithur ab Idnerth (Fig. 11.4, b) has a much larger central feature and a frame around the contours of the whole design; while the seal of David Scurlage has noticeably rounded teasel heads (Fig. 11.4, c).³¹ Rather than a common point of manufacture, it may instead be suggested that the choice of motif was a deliberate one on the part of the seal owners, and one, moreover, that was connected to refined gradations of status within a kinship group and locality.

One of the seals with the teasel motif was owned by Gruffudd ap Cadraut Gillemicel, a member of a family with Irish origins who held land around Kenfig.³² It is of considerable interest to note that the seal of his kinsman Walaveth ap William Gillemicel, includes a clear representation of teasel heads, but in this instance has as a central motif a drawn bow and arrow ready to shoot.³³ The bow and arrow was a motif found on a number of seals from south Wales in this period and has obvious resonances with the famed bowmen of the area. Gruffydd ap Cadraut Gillemicel held land in his own right, but in one quitclaim to Margam Abbey he had as pledge Lleision ap Morgan ap Caradog and the document was validated with the seal of Morgan ap Caradog, lord of Afan and the most powerful native nobleman in the region.³⁴ This attestation of two ‘rulers’ (to use Huw Pryce’s term) indicate that, although Gruffydd was a landholder and owner of a seal, his position within free native society was not of the very highest level, perhaps akin to that which in English terms would be considered a lesser nobleman or member of the knightly class.³⁵

Another ‘teasel’ seal owner was Rhys Goch, forester of the Anglo-Norman lord of Ogmore and a member of the native Welsh family who controlled the lowlands between Ogmore and Kenfig.³⁶ On a number of occasions he witnessed documents alongside Alaithur ab Idnerth, who with his brother Iorwerth has been described as one of the ‘most significant native landowners’ in the upland area immediately to the north-west of Margam Abbey.³⁷ Both Alaithur and Iorwerth owned ‘teasel’ seals, with images and letterforms so similar that the matrices were almost certainly made by the same craftsman (Figs 11.4, b and 11.5).³⁸

In fact all the native Welshmen who owned seals with ‘teasel’ motifs were members of the landholding and militarily active nobility, the uchelwyr (‘free men’); they were not however the most powerful within their kinship group or the wider region. All undoubtedly knew each other, as well as the Anglo-Norman ‘teasel’ seal owner David Scurlage. He held a knight’s fee with the obligation of castle-guard at Cardiff, and was a member of a settler family of roughly comparable status to the Welsh owners of seals with the same motif.³⁹ David Scurlage witnessed a document issued by Alaithu ab Idnerth along with Rhys Goch, and like Rhys he acknowledged Morgan ap Caradog as his overlord.⁴⁰ From this evidence it may be proposed that the stylised representation of teasels was used as a sigillographic image to indicate a certain mid-level status within the landholding elite of Glamorgan in the early thirteenth century.