heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

184 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
Though the monument of Walworth in the church of his burial has
passed away, three memorials of him still remain at Fishmongers' Hall
'the third in succession, rebuilt by Roberts, 1831).
First, the dagger, or, as Stowe calls it, the " baselard," which is preserved
in a glass case in the drawing-room, and is undoubtedly a weapon
of the period, though, in 1731, a publican in Islington pretended to possess
the actual poignard.
Secondly, on the stairs, there is a statue of Walworth by Pierce, with
a dagger in his hand, and beneath the statue this inscription :
" Brave Walworth, Knight, Lord Mayor, that slew
Rebellious Tyler in his alarms ;
The King, therefore, did give (in
The dagger to the city arms.
lieu)
In the 4th year of Richard II., anno Domini " (1381).
It would be an unpardonable act of heresy to profess any doubt on this
subject within the precincts of Fishmongers' Hall, but here I may venture
not only to repeat, but to prove, the improbability, if not impossibility, of
the statement.
In the " letter-books," which I have already mentioned,
it is recorded
that on the iyth April, 1384, in full congregation holden in the upper
chamber of Guildhall, London, and summoned by William Walworth, mayor,
it was agreed and ordered that the old seal of the office of mayoralty of
the said city should be broken, seeing
it was too small, rude, and ancient
and unbecoming, and derogatory from the honour of the city,
and that
another new seal of honour which the same mayor had had made, should
in future be used for that office,
" in place
of the other."
" In the new seal (from Historical Account of the Guildhall, by E. Price ;
Stowe and Strype, vol. i.
p. 506), besides the figures of Peter and Paul,
" beneath the feet of the said figures a shield for the arms of the said city
" is perfectly graven," &c. The record continues : " Therefore the old
" seal of the office was delivered to Richard Odyham the chamberlain, who
" broke it, and in its place the said new seal was delivered to the mayor, to
" use the same as his office of the mayoralty should demand and require."
On these arms the dagger appears, and Wat Tyler
was not slain
until the isth of June following. The dagger
is really a short sword,
emblematical of St. Paul, the patron saint of the corporation.
It is curious that Walworth should have been associated with two
alterations in the city seal, once, as I have already mentioned, in 1376, and
once in 1384. This may account for the legend; but as the insertion of so
trifling an addition as a mullet was only done with the consent of a full
meeting of the corporation, and recorded in the letter-book, it is not likely