BSG.CS.01922 — Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Tiverton / Cullompton, Nehemiah Upcott & Son*

Found in Amsterdam (in urban works), Netherlands, 26mm.

22 / GO, UPCOTT & SON // missing but partial stamp on rivet stub - foot privy mark S F, SAML. BURRIDG... around

Originally recorded on Euro-Plombs.

*From Peter Maunder, "Mike Patrick suggested Nehemiah Upcott of Cullompton. We knew that Upcott had been shipping serge to Portugal in the early 1800s. As far as I knew, they were manufacturers (ie sergemakers) rather than merchants in the late eighteenth century. However, yesterday I found a single entry in a port record for Tophsam dated 1794 which showed that Nehemiah Upcott exported 8 bales of serge to Rotterdam in June that year, alongside Tiverton and Wellington merchants. I made a selective search of earlier years but found no other Upcott entries. I don't at present have access to the next set of records without visiting the Devon Heritage Centre. These go up to 1798, and I would anticipate that Upcott had further trade with Holland in those years. In my opinion, therefore, this seal probably belongs to Nehemiah Upcott & Son of Cullompton, and dates to the mid 1790s."

See Peter Maunder’s comprehensive history of the Tiverton cloth trade.

The fullest collection of Tiverton cloth seals (about thirty) is on permanent display in Tiverton Museum.