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Great seal   /greɪt sil/   Listen
Great seal

noun
1.
The principal seal of a government, symbolizing authority or sovereignty.



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"Great seal" Quotes from Famous Books



... April, letters patent were issued under the great seal of England, to the petitioners, Sir Thomas Gates and his associates, granting to them those territories in America, lying on the sea coast, between the 34th and 45th degrees of north latitude, and which either ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5) • John Marshall

... because they contained matters of a private nature, and were folded or closed up, in contradistinction to the Patent Rolls which (being addressed to all persons impartially) were left open, with the Great Seal affixed to ...
— Memorials of Old London - Volume I • Various

... length on the return of Charles II. being now conscious, says our cynical friend Anthony, that he might be in danger of the halter, once more he is said to have fled into Holland, waiting for an act of oblivion. For money given to a hungry courtier, Needham obtained his pardon under the great seal. He latterly practised as a physician among his party, but lived detested by the royalists; and now only committed harmless treasons with the College of Physicians, on whom he poured all that gall and vinegar which the government had suppressed from ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... between him and Thurlow. The result was a foregone conclusion. Having to choose between an overbearing Chancellor, and a Prime Minister whose tact, firmness, and transcendent abilities formed the keystone of the political fabric, the King instructed Dundas to request Thurlow to deliver up the Great Seal.[46] For the convenience of public business, his resignation was deferred to the end of the session, which came at the middle of June. The Great Seal was then placed in commission until January 1793 when Lord Loughborough, ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... securing the Protestant religion, and by reason of the difficulties of the times, he desired leave of his majesty to retire from business, and live quietly in the country. But in this he was prevented by a commission, dated the 14th of October, 1681, which having passed the great seal, was produced the 1st of November thereafter, by which commission he was superseded as President of the Session, and in the year 1682, was obliged for his safety to retire to Holland. For though he had the king's promise that he should live undisturbed, yet he ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning

... the severity of the government had overcome the Separatists, forcing them either to disband their congregations or flee from the kingdom. From the time when Bishop Williams was made keeper of the great seal, four years before the death of King James, the high-commission court again became active, and the condition of Puritans in the Church was day by day more uneasy. While some among them looked for relief to a happy issue of the struggle which had been going on in Parliament, ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 • Various

... further pleased to declare that the said United Province of Canada, being one Dominion under the name of Canada, shall, upon all occasions that may be required, use a common Seal, to be called the "Great Seal of Canada," which said seal shall be composed of the Arms of the said four Provinces quarterly, all of which armorial bearings are set forth in ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine

... were thirty-two in number, and governed each a territory, called a generalite. The Intendants were not great lords, nor the owners of offices that had become assimilated to property; they were hard-working men, delegated by the council, under the great seal, and liable to be promoted or recalled at the royal pleasure. They were chosen from the class of maitres des requetes, and were therefore all lawyers and members of the Privy Council. Thus the unity of the administration in Versailles and the ...
— The Eve of the French Revolution • Edward J. Lowell

... upon a cold day in January in 1560 that Francis Bacon "came crying into the world."* He was born in a fine house and was the child of great people, his father being Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. But although his father was one of the most important men in the kingdom, we know little about Francis as a boy. We know that he met the Queen and that he must have been a clever little boy, for she would playfully call him her "young ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall

... of the Lords to amend money bills, and wrote a learned pamphlet on the question entitled The Privileges of the House of Lords and Commons (1702), in which the right of the Lords was asserted. In April 1673 he was appointed lord privy seal, and was disappointed at not obtaining the great seal the same year on the removal of Shaftesbury. In 1679 he was included in Sir ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 • Various

... such remonstrances to Cromwell on the subject that he had to re-arrange the whole Bench. He removed Rolle and two other Judges, appointing Glynne and Steele in their stead, and he deprived Whitlocke and Widdrington of their Commissionerships of the Great Seal, compensating them after a while by Commissionerships of the Treasury. For all this "arbitrariness" Cromwell avowed, in the simplest and most downright manner, the plea of absolute necessity. The very existence of his Protectorate was ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson

... evening of that very day, London rang with the tidings that the Great Seal had been taken from the Cardinal, and that he was under orders to yield up his noble mansion of York House and to retire to Esher; nay, it was reported that he was to be imprisoned in the Tower, and the next day the Thames was crowded with ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... gentleman took a jingling bunch of keys from his pocket, bent down and opened the tin box, from which he took out a square folded parchment, crossed with broad green ribbons, and bearing a great seal. ...
— The Dark House - A Knot Unravelled • George Manville Fenn

... that he must not leave the station. The engineer held his torch high above his head, looked the deputy over, and then went on oiling his engine. In the meantime the Governor had stored his friends away in the dark coach, including the secretary with the company's great seal. Now ...
— The Last Spike - And Other Railroad Stories • Cy Warman

... he added English estates to his Irish. The Babington conspiracy had been detected the year before. By a grant which passed the Great Seal without fee in March, 1587, he acquired much of the principal plotter's property. He obtained lands in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, and Notts, together with all goods and personalty, except a curious clock reserved to the Queen's own use. According to modern taste, the pillage of confiscated ...
— Sir Walter Ralegh - A Biography • William Stebbing

... me of that great seal; it bodes us no good, Chris," she replied doubtfully, and paling ...
— The Lady Of Blossholme • H. Rider Haggard

... Parliament to provide for the exercise of those functions. In spite of Fox's opposition both resolutions were carried, and a third resolution was moved by Pitt, and passed (December 23), empowering the lord chancellor to affix the great seal to the intended Regency ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madam D'Arblay Volume 2 • Madame D'Arblay

... were boundless. He told me to name the price of my distinguished service and, whatever it might be, it should instantly be paid. He undoubtedly expected that I would demand money and position, but I demanded neither. I simply asked for his warrant, under his own signature and the great seal of the Republic, to save from prison and the guillotine two of my friends who were accused of crimes of which they were entirely innocent. Robespierre was surprised. He hesitated; then he asked the names of my friends. I ...
— Which? - or, Between Two Women • Ernest Daudet

... leisure and talents were employed to cultivate that dignified style of eloquence, which, in the corruption of taste and language, still preserves the majesty of the Roman laws. In some respects, the office of the Imperial quaestor may be compared with that of a modern chancellor; but the use of a great seal, which seems to have been adopted by the illiterate barbarians, was never introduced to attest the public acts of the emperors. 4. The extraordinary title of count of the sacred largesses was bestowed on the treasurer-general ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon

... taking a pen, scored out the clause as regards acquittal of the witchcraft, which, he said, must be looked into by the King in person or by his officers, but all the rest he signed, undertaking to hand over the proper deeds under the great seal and royal hand upon payment of L1000. Being able to do no better, I said that would serve, and left him your pearl, he promising, on his part, to move his Majesty to receive you, which I doubt not he will do quickly for the sake of the ...
— The Lady Of Blossholme • H. Rider Haggard

... longed for this sweet hour! and lo, too late it cometh, and I am robbed of this so coveted chance. But speed ye, speed ye! let others do this happy office sith 'tis denied to me. I put my Great Seal in commission: choose thou the lords that shall compose it, and get ye to your work. Speed ye, man! Before the sun shall rise and set again, bring me his head that I ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... carriage in waiting, and was driven rapidly to the bank of the Thames, where he stepped into a boat, and was rowed swiftly down the stream. As the boat shot past the old palace of Lambeth, he flung into the river the Great Seal of England, used in stamping all the royal documents to give them validity. He was fleeing from his palace, his throne, his kingdom, and from people whom he had outraged in his attempt to set up an absolute and personal ...
— Harper's Young People, June 29, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... letter with a great seal). 'Tis fortunate that he is here already. Art thou surprised at this? And didst thou think me mad enough to brave the fury of enraged republicans had I not known they ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... to keep a journal of his proceedings, and any ship captured was to be carried into the nearest port and legally adjudged by a competent court. If condemned, he might dispose of it according to custom. Six weeks later, a second commission under the Great Seal was granted him, in his capacity of a private man of war, to apprehend all pirates, freebooters, and sea rovers, the names of Thomas Too (? Tew), John Ireland, Thomas Wake, and William Maze, or Mace, being specially mentioned. Again, he was enjoined to keep an exact journal of his doings, ...
— The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago • John Biddulph

... had a special grant of two hundred acres made to him on the Peak, and another in the group of equal extent, as a reward for his early and important services. Patents were made out, at once, of these several grants, under the great seal of the colony; for the governor had provided parchment, and wax, and a common seal, in anticipation of their being all wanted. The rest of the grants of land were made on a general principle, giving fifty acres on the Peak, and one hundred in the group, to each male citizen of the age of twenty-one ...
— The Crater • James Fenimore Cooper

... party, the king, and everybody else, had grown pretty well tired of Lord Chancellor Brougham. His head would seem to have been almost turned by his success; for he employed the recess which followed the prorogation in making a sort of royal progress through Scotland, parading the Great Seal on his way, to the great disgust of the king, who seriously thought he had taken leave of his senses, and protested against it being carried across the border. In the course of this strange progress he reached ...
— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt

... old church being collegiate, had for one of its deans Rivallis, who forged the charter and seal of Henry III., by which the Irish possessions of the Earl of Pembroke were invaded, and that nobleman cruelly treated and killed. The more distinguished William of Wykeham, who held the Great Seal in the reign of Edward III., and exercised considerable influence in his day, both in church and state, was also a dean ...
— Handbook to the Severn Valley Railway - Illustrative and Descriptive of Places along the Line from - Worcester to Shrewsbury • J. Randall

... anno 3 of John, and ending with the reign of Edward IV. In these are contained grants of offices, hands, tenements, temporalities, &c., passing under the great seal. ...
— London in 1731 • Don Manoel Gonzales

... of Grand-Pre; While from his pocket the notary drew his papers and inkhorn, Wrote with a steady hand the date and the age of the parties, Naming the dower of the bride in flocks of sheep and in cattle. Orderly all things proceeded, and duly and well were completed, And the great seal of the law was set like a sun on the margin. Then from his leathern pouch the farmer threw on the table Three times the old man's fee in solid pieces of silver; And the notary rising, and blessing the bride and the bridegroom, Lifted aloft ...
— The Children's Own Longfellow • Henry W. Longfellow

... whose hereditary claim was strongest was also the man most fitted to occupy the position of a vassal king. The new monarch made a full and indisputable acknowledgment of his position as Edward's liege, and the great seal of the kingdom of Scotland was publicly destroyed in token of the position of vassalage in which the country now stood. Of what followed it is difficult to speak with any certainty. Balliol occupied the throne for three ...
— An Outline of the Relations between England and Scotland (500-1707) • Robert S. Rait

... cove, Indian Sam suddenly seized his gun, ran down to the shore, and mounted a great rock where seal had been seen. Presently he fired, and then stripping off his shirt, dove headlong into the sea. He soon rose to the surface grasping a great seal, with which he swam to the shore. Although they had eaten a hearty supper, they sat up until midnight gorging themselves with its excessively fat meat. They had one continual feast from the beginning to the end of the expedition, devouring, besides the supplies taken with ...
— Official report of the exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands - for the government of British Columbia • Newton H. Chittenden

... the order entrusted the execution of it to a man named Riston, a dangerous Intriguer, formerly an advocate of Nancy, who had a twelve-month before escaped the gallows by favour of the new principles and the patriotism of the new tribunals, although convicted of forging the great seal, and fabricating decrees of the council. This Riston, finding himself entrusted with a commission which concerned her Majesty, and the mystery attending which bespoke something of importance, was less anxious to execute it faithfully than to make a parade of this mark of confidence. On the 30th ...
— Memoirs Of The Court Of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France, Complete • Madame Campan

... children, and I tell you that you can not now, as then, take the title of the Holy League, the Holy Union, the Protectors of Saint Peter, or Pillars of the Church, because I see that you reckon on the support of the Huguenots; nor can you put upon your great seal of green wax an empty throne, since it is ...
— Cinq Mars, Complete • Alfred de Vigny

... in a chair, in his official robes, by J. Lonsdale. The likeness is excellent, as are the robes, wig, ruffles, &c. but the great seal and mace are even dingier than the orignals. We could have spared the books thrown on the floor, though the paper register in one of ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. XIX. No. 540, Saturday, March 31, 1832 • Various

... yourself in readiness to repair to your said command, and being arrived, to take upon you the execution of the trust we have reposed in you, as soon as conveniently may be, with all due solemnity to cause our said Commission under our Great Seal of Great Britain constituting you our Governor and Commander-in-Chief as aforesaid to be read ...
— A Source Book Of Australian History • Compiled by Gwendolen H. Swinburne

... to the Province of South Australia by commission under the great seal, bearing date 8th July, 1863. It comprised all the country to the northward of the twenty-sixth parallel south latitude, and between the 129th and ...
— The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 • Ernest Favenc

... white-dressed skin by which it was to be closed was already fastened to the letter, though it hung loose with the silken fillets of blue and white which were to attach the great Seal of Janus the III—the helpless infant king whom his wily ministers had stolen from ...
— The Royal Pawn of Venice - A Romance of Cyprus • Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull

... can be chief Governor or Governor of this Kingdom, Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal, Lord High Treasurer, Chief of any of the Courts of Justice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Puisne Judge, Judge in the Admiralty, Master of the Rolls, Secretary of State, Keeper of the Privy Seal, Vice-Treasurer or his Deputy, Teller or Cashier of Exchequer, Auditor or General, Governor ...
— Sydney Smith • George W. E. Russell

... fire, and it had time to cool, and cooled quicklier because it had shocked his English subjects. Moreover, though highly abominable as he considered the Bishop's checkmate, he had got the cash after all by breaking the great seal and having a new one made, which necessitated a new sealing of all old parchments, and royal wax is dear to this day. It would, therefore, not be amiss to smooth those English who were smarting at the broken seal and broken faith. Hugh's chances, then, were not quite desperate, although ...
— Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln - A Short Story of One of the Makers of Mediaeval England • Charles L. Marson

... and given into the hands of the official from over the seas. The friends of the Taotai felt no fear for their money, as the official signed a contract to produce water from the earth, and he signed, not as a simple citizen but as the representative of his government, with the great seal of that government attached to the paper. Of course our simple people thought that the great nation was behind the project; and they were amazed and startled when, after a trip to his home land and a return with only one machine, a few holes ...
— My Lady of the Chinese Courtyard • Elizabeth Cooper

... occurring in the reign of Edward IV.: the two chancellors being Thomas Rotheram, Bishop of Lincoln, and John Alcock, Bishop of Rochester. The former received the Great Seal in May, 1474, in the fourteenth year of the reign, and without any doubt continued chancellor till the king's death; and yet, from April to September in the following year, the latter was also addressed by the same title. During that interval of five months, there are ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 75, April 5, 1851 • Various

... servants. But Job himself, or whosoever was the justest judge, by such hunting for matters against him as hath been used against me, may for a time seem foul, specially in a time when greatness is the mark and accusation is the game. And if this be to be a Chancellor. I think if the great seal lay upon Hounslow Heath nobody would take it up. But the King and your Lordship will, I hope, put an end to these miseries one way or other. And in troth that which I fear most is lest continual attendance ...
— Bacon - English Men Of Letters, Edited By John Morley • Richard William Church

... would have of him a Man of Letters. And a Man of Letters he became. A Man of Runes. He invented new letters in his need, letters that would go farther than the sword, that carried more execution in them than the great seal. Banished from the state in that isle to which he was banished, he found not the base-born Caliban only, to instruct, and train, and subdue to his ends, but an Ariel, an imprisoned Ariel, waiting to be released, able to conduct his masques, able to put his girdles round ...
— The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded • Delia Bacon

... unpleasant title) had bestowed York House on the See of York, as a compensation for York House, at Whitehall, which Henry VIII. had taken from Wolsey. It had afterwards come into possession of the Keepers of the Great Seal. Lord Bacon was born in York House, his father having ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 1 • Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton

... Continent; had taken money from France, and had sent intelligence to Holland. As far, however, as he could be said to have any opinions, his opinions were Whiggish. Since his return from exile, his influence had been generally exerted in favour of the Whig party. It was by his counsel that the Great Seal had been entrusted to Somers, that Nottingham had been sacrificed to Russell, and that Montague had been preferred to Fox. It was by his dexterous management that the Princess Anne had been detached from the opposition, and that Godolphin had been removed from ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 5 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. The design was that the new President of the United States should find a Southern Confederacy in actual existence, with the ordinary departments of government in regular operation, with a name and a flag and a great seal, and all the insignia ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine

... of Kentucky, he sent to the Hon. Stoddart Johnson a certificate, officially signed and bearing the impress of the great seal of State, duly commissioning him as "Mister," a distinctive and honorable title that no Kentuckian had previously borne. This recalls the witty remark of Max O'Rell: "The only thing that Mr. Ingersoll appears to hold in common with ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson

... of War for the Indies conferring with the King on measures to be taken against English piratical ships in the Caribbean;[64] and in 1642 Captain William Jackson, provided with an ample commission from the Earl of Warwick[65] and duplicates under the Great Seal, made a raid in which he emulated the exploits of Sir Francis Drake and his contemporaries. Starting out with three ships and about 1100 men, mostly picked up in St. Kitts and Barbadoes, he cruised along ...
— The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century • Clarence Henry Haring

... to forget that July even when, in the Palace of Westminster, my Lord of Exeter came to the Queen, bearing the Great Seal. It was a full warm eve, and the Queen was late abed. Joan de Vilers was that night tire-woman, and I was in waiting. I mind that when one scratched on the door, we thought it Master Oliver, and instead of going ...
— In Convent Walls - The Story of the Despensers • Emily Sarah Holt

... Patent, wherein is granted full and absolute power of governing all the people of this place, by men chosen from among themselves, and according to such laws as they should see meet to establish. A royal donation, under the Great Seal, is the greatest security that may be had in human affairs. Under the encouragement and security of the Royal Charter this People did, at their own charges, transport themselves, their wives and families, over the ocean, purchase the ...
— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne

... parchment scrolls with large seals pendent from them from Lupo Vulp, and displaying them to the assemblage, "these Royal Letters," he repeated in his steady, stern tones, and glancing round with a look of half-defiance, "passed under the great seal, and bearing the king's sign-manual, as ye see, gentlemen, constitute the authority on which I act. They accord to me and my co-patentee, Sir Francis Mitchell, absolute and uncontrolled power and discretion in granting and refusing licenses to all tavern-keepers and hostel-keepers throughout ...
— The Star-Chamber, Volume 1 - An Historical Romance • W. Harrison Ainsworth

... commission to perform a wonderful work on the earth. It would seem as if his marvellous brain were the bundle of mystic scrolls on which it is written, and within which its terms are hid,—and as if his imperishable soul were the great seal, bearing the Divine image and superscription, which ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862 • Various

... seen the original pardon, under the great seal, countersigned Vaughan, and bearing date 15th ...
— Notes & Queries,No. 31., Saturday, June 1, 1850 • Various

... alone. His horse was one of fierce courage, and had a bridle and furniture of goldsmiths' work, and the caparisons were most richly embroidered with the victorious ensigns of the English monarchy. Thus is he represented on his great seal, with the substitution of a knights' cap, and the crest, for the chaplet. Elmham's account, from which this is amplified, is more particular in some of the details; he relates, that the king appeared on a palfrey, followed by a train of ...
— King Henry the Fifth - Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre • William Shakespeare

... being considered as virtually part of England. Garrisons were placed in every stronghold in the country, and many new castles were raised to dominate the people. The public documents were all carried away to England, the great seal broken in pieces, and the stone of Scone—upon which, for five hundred years, every Scotch monarch had been crowned—was carried away to Westminster, where it has ever since formed the seat of the thrones upon which English monarchs have ...
— In Freedom's Cause • G. A. Henty

... gratitude he felt towards the Baron was not unmixed with a lively sense of services to come; and that, if life were now spared him, common decency must oblige him to make himself useful. Before the archbishop, who had scalded his fingers with the wax in affixing the great seal, had time to take them out of his mouth, all was settled, and the Baron de Shurland had pledged himself to be forthwith in readiness, cum suis, to accompany his liege ...
— Half-Hours with Great Story-Tellers • Various

... Museum, the Foundling Hospital, and Gray's Inn Road. It was a large rambling house, at the corner of Powis Place, and was said to have been the residence of Lord Chancellor Thurlow at the time when the Great Seal was stolen from his custody. It now forms the east wing of an Homoeopathic hospital. Here the Macaulays remained till 1831. "Those were to me," says Lady Trevelyan, "years of intense happiness. There might be money troubles, but they did ...
— Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay • George Otto Trevelyan

... the beauty of the female is mainly that of race. The lioness is a more appreciable working type of feline power than the lion, whose sex-beauty, the mane, is somewhat similar to that of a bison, or a great seal. ...
— The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) • Charlotte Perkins Gilman

... descent and parentage requires to be somewhat modified. His father, Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavel, was an illegitimate son of James first Lord Hamilton, by a daughter of Witherspoon of Brighouse, and died in 1479. Sir Patrick afterwards obtained a letter of legitimation under the Great Seal, 20th January 1512-13; and in a charter of the settlement of the Hamilton estates about the same time, by the Earl of Arran, he was called next in succession, (failing the Earl's lawful issue,) after Sir James Hamilton of Fynnart, who ...
— The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) • John Knox

... great seal came up ahead of them, right in their way, where the ice was thin and slippery. And the sledges drove straight at it, but many fell through and were drowned at that hunting. And a little after, they again saw something in their way. It was a fox, and ...
— Eskimo Folktales • Unknown

... try, and on my way called in at some northern islands where my friend, Captain Bartlett, father of the celebrated "Captain Bob" of North Pole fame, carried on a summer trade and fishery. He himself was a great seal and cod fisherman, and a man known for his ...
— A Labrador Doctor - The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell

... nobleman who had committed some very great crime. M. Voisin, the chancellor, ran to him in his closet, and exclaimed, "Sire, you cannot pardon a person in the situation of Mr. ——." "I have promised him," replied the king, who was always impatient of contradiction; "go and fetch the great seal." "But sire—." "Pray, sir, do as I order you." The chancellor returned with the seals; Louis applied them himself to the instrument containing the pardon, and gives them again to the chancellor. "They are polluted, now, sire," exclaimed the ...
— The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes - Historical, Literary, and Humorous—A New Selection • Various

... and Seymour, quarreled. Each was very ambitious, and very jealous of the other. Somerset, in addition to being appointed protector by the council, got a grant of power from the young king called a patent. This commission was executed with great formality, and was sealed with the great seal of state, and it made Somerset, in some measure independent of the other nobles whom King Henry had associated with him in the government. By this patent he was placed in supreme command of all the forces ...
— Queen Elizabeth - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... will not suffer no Christian man ne Jews to come therein, for they say that none so foul sinful men should not come in so holy place: but I came in there and in other places there I would, for I had letters of the soldan with his great seal, and commonly other men have but his signet. In the which letters he commanded, of his special grace, to all his subjects, to let me see all the places, and to inform me pleinly all the mysteries of every place, and to conduct me from city to city, ...
— The Travels of Sir John Mandeville • Author Unknown

... have caused the great seal of the State to be hereunto affixed this 28th day of January, A.D. 1790, and in the fourteenth year of the independence of the ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 1 (of 4) of Volume 1: George Washington • James D. Richardson

... of state has, as his characteristic duty, the preservation or custody of state papers, acts of the legislature, etc. He is also keeper of the great seal of the state, and authenticates state documents, commissions, etc. Incidentally he has other duties. In some states he prepares the legislative manual; he sees that the halls are ready for the sessions of the legislature, ...
— Studies in Civics • James T. McCleary

... Bar Association of the United States has manifestly cast aside the Sword of Liberty. Justice and Law have ignored the significance of the Great Seal of the United States, with its emblematic olive branch and thirteen arrows, "all proper," and now claim that, without force, Law and moral suasion have carried us through one hundred years of history. Of course, in your study you will read ...
— Lessons of the war with Spain and other articles • Alfred T. Mahan

... that greeted the visitor were those of Lincoln and Douglas. The grand central reception hall was done in tones of ivory, green, and gold, with floor of tile. The medallion center of the tile was the great seal of the State. At one side of the broad staircase was a raised platform, on which stood a grand piano. The elevated apartment served as ...
— Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission • Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

... to remark, that the restoration of the royal family of the Stuarts was attended with the return of the Jews into Great Britain; and that Lord Chancellor Clarendon granted to many of them letters of denization under the great seal. ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 32, June 8, 1850 • Various

... throws light upon that collapse of the Confederacy. Colonel Johnston was at that period the military secretary of President Davis, and, as the catastrophe approached, was much vexed at the interminable debates in the Confederate Congress. Among the subjects of these discussions was the great seal of the Confederacy. It had been decided to adopt for this purpose a relief representing Crawford's statue of Washington at Richmond, with the Southern statesmen and soldiers surrounding it; but though all agreed that Washington, in his Continental costume, and holding in his hand ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White

... into the country for two years, and did not finally commence his career till 1644, when he published a Prophetical Almanac, which he continued to do till about the time of his death. He then immediately began to rise into considerable notice. Mrs. Lisle, the wife of one of the commissioners of the great seal, took to him the urine of Whitlocke, one of the most eminent lawyers of the time, to consult him respecting the health of the party, when he informed the lady that the person would recover from his present disease, but ...
— Lives of the Necromancers • William Godwin

... 1st 1587, her majesty ordered secretary Davison to bring her the warrant, which had remained ready drawn in his hands for some weeks; and having signed it, she told him to get it sealed with the great seal, and in his way to call on Walsingham and tell him what she had done; "though," she added smiling, "I fear he will die of grief when he hears of it;"—this minister being then sick. Davison obeyed her ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin

... supreme spiritual power, the King resolved to withstand it: it was exactly on this point that open discord broke out between them. For a time the cardinal seemed still to maintain his courage; but when on St. Luke's day—the phrase ran that the evangelist had disevangelised him—the great seal was taken from him, he lost all self-reliance. Wolsey was not a Ximenes or a Richelieu. He had no other support than the King's favour; without this he fell back into his nothingness. He was heard to wail like ...
— A History of England Principally in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6) • Leopold von Ranke

... respectively, and their abortive attempts at admission addressed to the Continental Congress, and not to the Congress of the United States. With full right, then, did California, by express resolution spreading the explanation upon the minutes of her constitutional convention[7], avowedly place upon her great seal her Minerva—her "robed goddess-in-arms"—not as the goddess of wisdom, not as the goddess of war, but to signify that as Minerva was not born, but sprang full-armed from the brain of Jupiter, so California, without territorial childhood, sprang ...
— California, Romantic and Resourceful • John F. Davis

... shadowiest of chaperons, she had drifted with the tide of inclination, coming finally to rest in the western capital for no better reason, perhaps, than that some portion of her interest-bearing securities were emblazoned with the great seal ...
— The Grafters • Francis Lynde

... north we have the Library, the cost of which was chiefly provided by John Williams, a Fellow of the College, successively Dean of Westminster, Bishop of Lincoln, and Archbishop of York; he was also Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to James I. As originally built the Library occupied the upper floor only, the ground-floor being fitted up as rooms for the accommodation of the Fellows and scholars, on a special foundation of Bishop Williams, but this lower part is now all absorbed into the Library. The southern and western ...
— St. John's College, Cambridge • Robert Forsyth Scott

... fanatic. The first is a memorial to Bishop Goodrich (1534-1554), a singular instance of a hot reformer commemorated by a brass in which are pourtrayed all the ecclesiastical vestments, he holds his crozier in his left hand, and in his right he carries a Bible from which depends the great seal of England, the bishop having been appointed Lord High Chancellor in 1551; the inscription has been removed. The other is in memory of Humphrey Tyndall, fourth dean of the Cathedral (1591-1614), who is represented in his ...
— Ely Cathedral • Anonymous

... of His Present Majesty, entitled 'An Act for the Establishment of Free Schools and the Advancement of Learning in this Province.' Those arrangements you will immediately carry into effect, by appointing under the Great Seal of the Province the following persons to be Trustees of the Schools of Royal Foundation in the Province in the manner and for the purposes specified in the Act and constituting them a Body Corporate by the name of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning. The persons to be nominated ...
— McGill and its Story, 1821-1921 • Cyrus Macmillan

... entail property go to a bastard, legitimated before the Union under the great seal (by the ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 201, September 3, 1853 • Various

... constitutes a quorum. Bills must pass by majorities of all the members elected; and when so passed and sealed with the great seal, the governor is required to sign them in the presence of the presiding officers and chief ...
— The Government Class Book • Andrew W. Young

... was built by Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and adjoined the site of a palace of the Bishop of Chichester; and this adjoined the Domus Conversorum, or House of Converts, wherein the rolls of Chancery were kept, now replaced by the magnificent building of the new Record Office. Southward is Serjeants' Inn—the building still stands; ...
— Holborn and Bloomsbury - The Fascination of London • Sir Walter Besant

... Hatherley were here last week—no, this week: and I met them on the pier one day, as unaffected as ever. He is obliged, I believe, to carry the Great Seal about with him; I told him I wondered how he could submit to be so bored; on which my lady put in about "Sense of Duty," etcetera-rorum. But I (having no Great Seal to carry) went off to Southwold on Wednesday, and lay off there in the calm nights till yesterday: ...
— Two Suffolk Friends • Francis Hindes Groome

... Rosenberg, "I am about to pay some visits. My first one shall be to Monsieur de Maurepas. He is one of our most active opponents, and I long to become acquainted with my enemies. Come, then, let us go to the hotel of the keeper of the great seal." ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach

... in, offering him the Archbishopric of Canterbury. One would like to see how he would take it. Quietly, I have no doubt. Long preparation has fitted the man who reaches that position for taking it quietly. A recent Chancellor publicly stated how he felt, when offered the Great Seal. His first feeling, that good man said, was of gratification that he had fairly reached the highest reward of the profession to which he had given his life; but the feeling which speedily supplanted that ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., April, 1863, No. LXVI. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics. • Various

... the terms in the grant to Sir William Alexander, but if it were it was made not by Americans, but by Englishmen; and not only made, but set forth under the high authority of the royal sign manual and authenticated by the great seal of the United ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Tyler - Section 2 (of 3) of Volume 4: John Tyler • Compiled by James D. Richardson

... ruled for him during his absence from the country; secondly, the Lord Chancellor (so called from cancelli, the screen behind which he sat with his clerks), who acted as the King's adviser and confidential secretary, and as keeper of the Great Seal, with which he stamped all important papers;[1] thirdly, the Lord High Treasurer, who took charge of the King's revenue, received all moneys due the Crown, and kept the King's treasure in the vaults ...
— The Leading Facts of English History • D.H. Montgomery

... beheaded early next morning in Old Palace Yard. He entreated for a few days' respite, that he might finish some writings, but the King had purposely left town that no petitions for delay might reach him. Bacon produced the warrant, which he had drawn up, and which bore the King's signature and the Great Seal. ...
— Raleigh • Edmund Gosse

... everybody but Popinot himself, who made no complaint. The first clamor over, everybody was satisfied that all was for the best in the best of all possible worlds, which must certainly be the legal world. Popinot remained supernumerary judge till the day when the most famous Great Seal under the Restoration avenged the oversights heaped on this modest and uncomplaining man by the Chief Justices of the Empire. After being a supernumerary for twelve years, M. Popinot would no doubt die a puisne judge of the Court ...
— The Commission in Lunacy • Honore de Balzac

... documents in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland there is a letter patent under the great seal of Charles I, in 1634, granted for the purpose of correcting the irregular sales and restraining the immoderate use of tobacco in Scotland. The letter states that tobacco was used on its first introduction ...
— The Social History of Smoking • G. L. Apperson

... my deeds: 190 You speak the image of my thought. My friend (If Kings can have a friend, I call thee so), Beyond the large commission which [belongs] Under the great seal of the realm, take this: And, for some obvious reasons, let there be 195 No seal on it, except my kingly word And honour as I am a gentleman. Be—as thou art within my heart and mind— Another self, here and in Ireland: ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the Great Seal of the State to be affixed at Columbus, this fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand, Nine Hundred ...
— Ohio Arbor Day 1913: Arbor and Bird Day Manual - Issued for the Benefit of the Schools of our State • Various

... giving a glance as playful, perhaps, as any glance could be upon the countenance of William III. "Is this the only request? I have seen in English history, since it became my duty to study it, a number of precedents of general pardons, granted under the great seal, by monarchs my predecessors, to certain of their subjects who have done some good service, for all crimes, misdemeanours, felonies, et cetera, committed in times previous. Now, sir, from a few things I have heard, it has struck me that ...
— The King's Highway • G. P. R. James

... through countless ages it had come to her as a heritage and an insignia of her religious office and regal authority from some long-dead progenitor of lost and forgotten Atlantis. The loss of the crown jewels or the Great Seal of England could have brought no greater consternation to a British king than did the pilfering of the sacred knife bring to La, the Oparian, Queen and High Priestess of the degraded remnants of the oldest civilization upon earth. When Atlantis, ...
— Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... his statements, on either side, were just what he found expedient in varying circumstances. Dudley, after Amy's death, obtained for him various profitable billets; in 1564 he was made keeper of the Marshalsea, had a commission under the Great Seal to seize concealed prizes at sea without legal proceedings, had the Portership of Berwick, and the Sheriffship of Norfolk and Suffolk, while Leicester stood guarantor of a debt of his for 400 pounds. These facts he admitted before the Privy Council in 1567.* ...
— The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories • Andrew Lang

... "The Great Gem of Learning," who, according to the runes of Rama, verifies the selection. If he is in agreement with it, he sends a secret letter to the Dalai Lama, who holds a special sacrifice in the Temple of the 'Spirit of the Mountains' and confirms the election by putting his great seal on this letter ...
— Beasts, Men and Gods • Ferdinand Ossendowski

... have set my hand, and caused the great seal of this Dominion to be affixed, at the city of Williamsburg, the seat of my government, this thirtieth day of October, in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of King George the Second, King of Great Britain, Annoque Domini, 1753. ...
— From Farm House to the White House • William M. Thayer

... impeded Durie in his Conciliation scheme, on the ground that the Calvinistic Churches were alien from the true faith, and that, in particular, he had "caused letters-patent granted by the King for a collection for the Palatinate ministers to be revoked after they had passed the great seal"; and it was to the truth of both these statements that Hartlib, with others, was required to testify. He was, as we know, a most competent witness in that matter; and he gave his evidence duly, though, ...
— The Life of John Milton Vol. 3 1643-1649 • David Masson

... letters, and wrote the answer on the margin of the paper, leaving it to the secretary to copy. And now the work was almost done; the paper with the great seal, which he ...
— Frederick the Great and His Court • L. Muhlbach

... the late Prime Minister, previous to my departure for Bahia. On the 25th of November, this was accordingly done, and a commission conferring the same pay and emolument as before—without limitation as to time, received the sign manual—was counter-signed by the Ministers—sealed with the great seal—and registered in the archives of the empire; His Majesty further testifying his approbation of my conduct and services, by directing the transmission of the completed patent without payment of the ...
— Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil, - from Spanish and Portuguese Domination, Volume 2 • Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald

... peer could not sit in the House of Peers, nor a Catholic commoner in the House of Commons. A Catholic could not be Lord Chancellor, or Keeper, or Commissioner of the Great Seal; Master or Keeper of the Rolls; Justice of the King's Bench or of the Common Pleas; Baron of the Exchequer; Attorney or Solicitor General; King's Sergeant at Law; Member of the King's Council; Master in Chancery, nor Chairman of ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... 'Ozma of Oz,'" continued the rabbit, "and is sealed with the Great Seal of the Emerald City. Well, well, well! How strange! ...
— The Emerald City of Oz • L. Frank Baum

... as I entered; but my poor father, who was always slow in his movements, had the last of me. Uncle Jack had left the very powerful impression of his great seal-ring on my fingers; Mr. Squills had patted me on the shoulder and pronounced me "wonderfully grown;" my new-found relative had with great dignity said, "Nephew, your hand, sir,—I am Captain de Caxton;" and ...
— The Caxtons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... almost reverent care. Sometimes he shrugged, as one does who is confronted by huge obstacles, sometimes he laughed harshly, sometimes his jaws hardened and his fingers writhed. When he had done—and many and many a time he had repeated this performance, studied the faded ink, the great seal, the watermarks—he hid them away ...
— A Splendid Hazard • Harold MacGrath

... Mrs. Dudley died shortly after her husband. Her maiden name is unknown; she was a relative of Sir Augustine Nicolls, of Paxton, Kent, one of His Majesty's Justices of his Court of Common Pleas, and keeper of the Great Seal ...
— Anne Bradstreet and Her Time • Helen Campbell

... The Great Seal itself, when not in the king's own custody, was entrusted to the "Chancellor," whose salary, as fixed by Henry I., amounted to five shillings per diem, besides a "livery" of provisions. And the allowance of one pint and a half, or perhaps a quart of claret, one "gross ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 13, No. 355., Saturday, February 7, 1829 • Various

... to face with his Father Our Martyr hath stood; Giving unto his hand the white record, With its great seal of blood! ...
— Our American Holidays: Lincoln's Birthday • Various

... the morning I met Lord Widdrington in the street, [Sir Thomas Widdrington, Knight, Serjeant-at-Law. one of Cromwell's Commissioners of the Treasury, appointed Speaker 1656, and first Commissioner for the Great Seal, January, 1659; he was M.P. for York.] going to seal the patents for the Judges to-day, and so could not come to dinner. This day three citizens of London went to meet Monk from the Common Council. Received my 25l. due by bill for my trooper's pay. At the Mitre, ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... Europe, might find a refuge. They also offered to take entire charge of the affair, and their petition, after passing through the usual channels, was approved by the King, George II, a charter was prepared, and the great seal was ...
— The Moravians in Georgia - 1735-1740 • Adelaide L. Fries

... the King's most sacred Majesty and many of the lords of his Majesty's most honourable privy council,'—its constitution and discipline being ratified under the hands and seals of the Right Honourable the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and the two Lord Chief Justices—professed to be founded 'according to the laudable customs of other nations,' and for 'the bringing of virtue into action and the theory of liberal arts into more frequent practice.' Its aims were directed to the end that England might be as well ...
— Art in England - Notes and Studies • Dutton Cook

... next adjoining, and to take possession of the same in the right of the Queen's most excellent majesty, as rightful queen and princess of the same, and after delivered the same over to your use, according to her majesty's grant and letters-patent, under her highness' great seal. Which being performed, according to the ceremonies used in such enterprises, we viewed the land about us, being, whereas we first landed, very sandy and low toward the water's side, but so full of grapes ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1-20 • Various

... time the King, wearied of the perpetual coldness of Madame de Verneuil, which not even his excessive clemency had sufficed to overcome, made a last attempt to compel her gratitude by forwarding letters under the great seal, authorizing the Comte d'Entragues to retire to his estate of Marcoussis, and re-establishing both himself and his son-in-law in all their wealth and honours, save the posts which they had held under the crown, ...
— The Life of Marie de Medicis, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Julia Pardoe

... regulations. Furthermore, in order to give this new pact a stronger warranty, Baudri requested the hing of France. Louis the Fat, to corroborate it, as they used to say at the time, by his approbation and by the great seal of the crown. The king consented to this request of the bishop, and that was all the part taken by Louis the Fat in the establishment of the commune of Noyon. The king's charter is not preserved, but, under ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume II. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... is placed in a most awkward predicament. Some days ago Mr. Hay, the district attorney, in open court tendered him a pardon under the great seal and with the sign manual of Thomas Jefferson. Bollman refused to receive it. Hay urged it upon him. Bollman said that no man could force on him such a badge of infamy. Hay insisted that he was a pardoned man, whether he would or not; and this question will, probably, also come before ...
— Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Complete • Matthew L. Davis

... out a score of armed men To guard this bird of passage to her cage; And watch Fitzurse, and if he follow thee, Make him thy prisoner. I am Chancellor yet. [Exeunt HERBERT and ROSAMUND. Poor soul! poor soul! My friend, the King!... O thou Great Seal of England, Given me by my dear friend the King of England— We long have wrought together, thou and I— Now must I send thee as a common friend To tell the King, my friend, I am against him. We ...
— Becket and other plays • Alfred Lord Tennyson

... the Choice of a Wife,' 'The Sceptic,' 'Maxims of State,' &c. At last he was released by the advance of a large sum of money to Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, James's favourite; and, to retrieve his fortunes, projected another expedition to America. James granted him a patent, under the Great Seal, for making a settlement in Guiana, but ungenerously did not grant him a pardon for the sentence which had been passed on him for treason. He set sail, 1617, in a ship built by himself, called the Destiny, with eleven ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan

... father of John Keats was a livery stable-keep; his mother the daughter of one. Byron's father was a captain in the Royal Guards; his mother a Scottish heiress. Newton's father was a tanner; Pasteur's, a tanner; Darwin's, a doctor of considerable means. Francis Bacon's father was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal; Newton's was a farmer and the headmaster of a school; Turner was the son of ...
— Human Traits and their Social Significance • Irwin Edman

... and Stamford hath lost, Goes deep in the sequestrations; These wounds will not heal, with your new great seal, Nor Jephson's declarations. ...
— Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham • Edmund Waller; John Denham

... that it shall not be commanded by the great seal, nor the little seal, to disturb or delay common right; and though such commandments do come, the justices shall not therefore leave (omit) to do right in any point." St. 2 Edward III., ch. ...
— An Essay on the Trial By Jury • Lysander Spooner

... persecuted ancestors. We offer to supply him with a member of his family condemned to be beheaded by order of QUEEN ELIZABETH, price one thousand, which includes a replica of the Great Seal of England; or, to have another member shot by order of CROMWELL, at half the price; or a sentence of hanging in '98. This would be three hundred only. We advise him to take the complete set at a reduction, and have no doubt we shall come ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, September 22, 1920 • Various

... my opponents; but this I know, I am labouring at my post like a faithful subject, and had all men done the same, our good King would not now have been seen snatching his meal under a hedge like a common mendicant, nor would the great seal of England have had to be secretly carried to him like the booty of ...
— The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 - An Historical Novel • Jane West

... bridge in the world runs from Lambeth to the Horseferry Road, and takes the place of the old British trackway which here crossed the Thames. About the middle of it, if you will grope in the mud, you may or may not find the great Seal of England which James II there cast into the flood. If it was fished up again, why then it is not there. The most beautiful bridge in London is Waterloo Bridge; the most historic is London Bridge; and far the most ...
— On Something • H. Belloc

... independence to the Irish Parliament, was far from final, as appeared in the ministerial declarations of that time. Moreover, Irish Bills did not become law unless sanctioned by the King and sealed by the Great Seal of Great Britain on the advice of British Ministers, facts which implied the dependence of the Irish Parliament. Turning to the commercial issues at stake, he effectively quoted the statement of Foster to the Irish House of Commons in 1785, that they would be mad to reject the commercial ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... abreast. These were the Lord High Chancellor, in wig and robes, carrying the Great Seal of England in a red silk bag. On his right walked a gentleman carrying the golden sceptre, jewelled and quaintly worked, while he on the left carried the sword of state, point up, in a red scabbard, studded ...
— The Panchronicon • Harold Steele Mackaye

... Babington. This was a pretext to represent these fanatics as the instruments of the captive queen. Determined that no circumstance of solemnity suited to the dignity of the person arraigned might be wanting, Elizabeth appointed, by a commission under the great seal, forty persons, the most illustrious in the kingdom for their rank and birth, together with five judges, for ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various

... great seal on our passports and saw it was an American document, and they began to turn pale, as pale as a Russian can get without using soap, and when I said, "Washington, embassador, minister plenipotentiary, Roosevelt, Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight, E Pluribus Unum, whoopla, ...
— Peck's Bad Boy Abroad • George W. Peck

... names of those great men, who won for us, from the forest, the savages, and wild beasts, our fair domain of fertile fields and beautiful rivers, to fade into oblivion? They who have hearts to admire nobility imparted by nature's great seal—fearlessness, strength, energy, sagacity, generous forgetfulness of self, the delineation of scenes of terror, and the relation of deeds of daring, will not fail to be interested in a sketch of the life ...
— The First White Man of the West • Timothy Flint

... Temple, formerly inhabited by the Templars, now a court of justice; the Hospital of St. James, subsequently appropriated by Henry VIII and made a palace. Finally they reached York Place (Whitehall) by Westminster, where Wolsey, the Cardinal and Papal Legate, Archbishop of York and Keeper of the Great Seal, dwelt with his court, comprising about eight hundred persons, including ...
— Historical Miniatures • August Strindberg

... guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defence. I beseech your Lordships," he added, "to be merciful to a broken reed." Though the heavy fine laid on him was remitted by the Crown, he was deprived of the Great Seal and declared incapable of holding office in the State or sitting in Parliament. Fortunately for his after fame Bacon's life was not to close in this cloud of shame. His fall restored him to that position of real greatness from which his ambition had so long torn him away. ...
— History of the English People, Volume V (of 8) - Puritan England, 1603-1660 • John Richard Green

... chamber. The blinds and curtains, all were drawn, the dust lay thick under foot. She let in the light of day at every window. There sat the box in the middle of the floor, hooped with bands of iron and with the great seal of the University of Bonn stamped upon the lock. She broke the seal and turned the lock and then sank down in a sudden faintness of heart. Indeed, how loath she was to put an end to the dream that had just now filled her whole being with rapture, ...
— The Strange Adventures of Mr. Middleton • Wardon Allan Curtis

... Abilities, upon his Return, preferred him to be Secretary to the Lord Elsmore, Keeper of the Great Seal; in whose Service he fell in Love with a young Gentlewoman who lived in that Family, Neece to the Lady Elsmore, and Daughter to Sir George Moor, Chancellor of the Garter, and Lieutenant of the Tower, who greatly opposed this Match; yet notwithstanding they were privately ...
— The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687) • William Winstanley

... transferred, subject to a short delay as to existing taxes and to a special provision in respect of taxes for war expenditure, to the Irish Legislature (clause II). Two judges of the Supreme Court in Ireland, to be called "Exchequer Judges," were to be appointed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, and to be removable only on an address from the Imperial Parliament; and proceedings relating to the reserved powers or to the customs or excise duties were to be determined by such judges (clause 19). Appeals from the Courts in Ireland were to lie to the Judicial ...
— Against Home Rule (1912) - The Case for the Union • Various

... singularly lucky Rich lived in Great St. Bartholomew's, and from his mansion there wrote to the Duke of Northumberland, imploring that messengers might be sent to him to relieve him of the perilous trust of the Great Seal. Christopher Hatton wrested from the see of Ely the site of Holborn, whereon he built his magnificent palace. The reluctance with which the Bishop of Ely surrendered the ground, and the imperious letter ...
— A Book About Lawyers • John Cordy Jeaffreson

... the villains should be regularly enfranchised by a statute was declined in vigorous terms by Parliament. Laws were passed relieving all those who had made grants under compulsion from carrying them out, enabling those whose charters had been destroyed to obtain new ones under the great seal, granting exemption from prosecution to all who had exercised illegal violence in putting down the late insurrection, and finally granting a general pardon, though with many ...
— An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England • Edward Potts Cheyney

... my son. Surely no dream of thine was ever signed by His Holiness, nor bore suspended from it the great seal of the Vatican! The document you hold will be sufficient answer to all questions, and will ensure your wife's position at Court and her standing in the outer world—should she elect to ...
— The White Ladies of Worcester - A Romance of the Twelfth Century • Florence L. Barclay

... all offices at that time were, or might be, legally and publicly sold,—that the king had many and very rich employments in his gift, and, though it may appear strange, not inferior to, if they did not exceed, in number and consequence, those of our present establishment. At one time the great seal was sold for three thousand marks. The office of sheriff was then very lucrative: this charge was almost always sold. Sometimes a county paid a sum to the king, that he might appoint a sheriff whom they ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VII. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... says Locke, was "first hatched (as almost all the mischiefs of the world have been) amongst the great churchmen." The bishops and clergy, by their outcry, had caused Charles's Declaration of Indulgence (March 17th, 1671) to be cancelled, and the great seal broken off it; they had "tricked away the rights and liberties of the people, in this and all other countries, wherever they had had opportunity . . . that priest and prince may, like Castor and Pollux, be worshipped together as divine, in the same temple, by us poor lay-subjects; and that ...
— Books Condemned to be Burnt • James Anson Farrer

... money for his journey, and in the mean time he intended to reside in Holland; but circumstances caused him to be immediately sent into Scotland, where he was received with marked kindness by the King and by the York party, who gave him the custody of the Great Seal and Privy Signet. No persuasions could induce him to take the Covenant; but he performed the duties of his office with a zeal and temper which, we are told, obtained for him the esteem ...
— Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe • Lady Fanshawe

... possible necessity for quick action at the proper time, George had brought with him two copies of a treaty, written in Latin. He brought also plenary authority from the French king, under the great Seal of France, authorizing Monsieur l'Abbe du Boise to sign, execute, and deliver the treaty on the part of France and to receive in return the treaty to be executed by the English king. He also bore authority to make and deliver to King Charles a bill of exchange on Backwell, the goldsmith, for ...
— The Touchstone of Fortune • Charles Major

... a letter enclosed in a bag of rich brocade, contained in another of fine muslin. The mouth is tied with a string of silk, to which hangs suspended the great seal, which is a flat round mass of sealing-wax, with the seal impressed on each side of it. This is the kind of letter which passes between natives of great rank in India, and between them and the public functionaries of Government. [W. ...
— Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official • William Sleeman

... the management of that delicate and difficult matter to a cousin, a Simon Fraser also, by whose treachery it was suppressed; and Lord Seafield caused another pardon to pass the great seal, in which the treason against King William was alone specified; and other offences were left unpardoned. Upon this, Lord Lovat cited the Marquis of Athole before the Lords Justiciary in Edinburgh to answer before them for a false accusation: but on the very ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume II. • Mrs. Thomson

... the clergy who became a prime minister. The reign of Elizabeth was marked, for the first time in the history of England, by the almost total exclusion of prelates from great secular offices. In the reign of Edward III. it was William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, who held the great seal, and the Bishop of Exeter who was lord treasurer,—probably the two men in the whole realm who were the most experienced in public affairs as men of business. Wyclif, it would appear, although he was an ecclesiastic, here took the side of Parliament against his own ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume V • John Lord

... the Spaniard or the King.' Those latter words are significant. What cared the old Elizabethan seaman for the weal of such a king? And, indeed, what good to such a king would all the mines in Guiana be? They answered that the King, nevertheless, had 'granted Raleigh his heart's desire under the great seal.' He replied that 'the grant to Raleigh was to a man non ens in law, and therefore of no force.' Here, too, James's policy has worked well. How could men dare or persevere ...
— Sir Walter Raleigh and his Time from - "Plays and Puritans and Other Historical Essays" • Charles Kingsley

... to it in severity I have discovered in manuscript; and it is also remarkable for turning chiefly on a pun of the family name of the Earl of Clarendon. The witty and malicious rhymer, after making Charles the Second demand the Great Seal, and resolve to be his own chancellor, proceeds, reflecting on the great ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli



Words linked to "Great seal" :   stamp, seal



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