His description is as follows…
14th Century Alloy seal, showing a monk, kneeling left praying with crosier. A sword emerges right to martyr him, whilst the hand of God comes down to condemn the Act.
It reads *S’FRATRISTHOEMDEMULTUN Meaning ‘the seal of the murder of Brother Thomas of Multon’
The seal depicts the death of Sir Thomas de Multon, who died in 1314. Multon’s grandfather, another Thomas, was an able soldier and gave generously to the church towards the end of his life. As a result of this, his son, Lambert was granted a special dispensation in 1246 to the effect that only the Pope could excommunicate either him or a member of his family, making them special members of the church.
Thomas, Lambert’s son was present at tournament at Compiene in 1278. When Lambert died suddenly of a ‘grevious disease’ as Mathew Paris put it, Thomas was summoned to Parliament on 26th January 1297, and made Baron of Gilsland. He was from this point almost constantly engaged in warfare.
He was present at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298, and sealed the Baron’s letter to the Pope in 1301. In September 1307 he was made Keeper of the King’s peace and sent to defend the borders for ‘the better preservation of those parts from incursions of the King’s enemies and punish the rebels… to meet the damages and wrongs sustained by the men in those parts, owing to the thievish incursions of Robert the Bruce’.
It appears that Thomas lost his life at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. The seal could have been used by either of his sons, Henry or John, who flew his fathers standard at the Second Dunstable Tournament in 1334.
