† half-sealn.
Obs.
The impression of the reverse side or ‘foot’ of the Great Seal, with which certain documents used to be sealed. (Cf. half-bull n. at half- comb. form 2o) Abolished in 1833.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > indication > marking > imprinting > sealing > [noun] > seal > official or sovereign
green waxa1350
secret seal1378
privy seal1410
signet1410
Great Seal1419
private seal1440
common seal1449
cocket1451
privy signet1477
half-seal1509
targec1510
broad seal1550
1509–10 Act 1 Hen. VIII c. 16. §4 Lettres patentes..under the great seale or halfe seale of Englond.
1530 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxf. (1880) 91 A wrytyng..under the halff seale.
1566 Act 8 Eliz. c. 5 Nomynated and appointed by her Maiestie, her heyres or successours, by Commyssion under the Half Seale as it hath ben heretofore used in such Cases.
1641 Rastell's Termes de la Ley (new ed.) f. 179, Halfe seale is a seale used in Chauncery for the sealing of Commissions unto Delegates upon an appeale in a cause civill or marine.
1832 Act 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 92 §4 Nothing herein..shall ..affect..the Right of His Majesty to grant any such Commission under the Great Seal or under the Half Seal as aforesaid, to hear..any Appeal..which may before the said First Day of February [1833] be pending.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1898; most recently modified version published online September 2016).
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