Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/270

210 Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. as the form for the earlier organization was prescribed in the original inclusive Royal Patent of 1606 to the First and Second Colonies of Virginia. The form was closely followed by the Home Council and the Council for the First Colony, and was probably used by the Second Colony when it issued its Commission to Capt. John Smith in 1617 and "made me Admiral of the Country for my life under their hands and the . . . Colonels (thus printed) Scale, for New Englajid." He, Captain Smith, claims his title, but gives no Council Seal in any early issue of his map prior to 1631. The shape of the early seals was a vesica 2f by i| inches, more or less, with " the King's Arms engraven on the one side thereof, and his portraiture on the other." " And the Seal for the Council of the said Second Colony shall also have engraven round about the one side thereof the aforesaid words, ' Sigillum Regis Magnae Britanniae Franciae et Hiberniae,' and on the other side, ' Pro Concilio {sic) secundae Coloniae Virginiae.' " There are no supporters, no other legend, and no room for either in this early design. After the early Popham failure at Sagadahock, the Second Colony did not press the settlement of the country and had little need of any seal. The Royal Patent of 1620 to the re-organized " Plymouth " syndicate or Council aforesaid grants them a common seal, but does not dictate the design. We know that " Mr. Clarentious " (Wm. Camden, King of Arms) was consulted about the contemporary design for the common seal of the rival association, the re-organized Virginia Company, and it is pleasant to think that he may also have supplied the one in question. There is some hope that we may find the design of both seals in the notes at the British Museum called " Camden's Gifts." There is no record of either at the College of Arms, but they may have been erased at the surrender of the Patents. The better known design of the London (or Virginia) Company shows two armed men for supporters, as the Southern Virginia Colony was intended as a bulwark against Spanish aggres- sion. The rival organization was less exposed to attack and made its appeal for more pacific settlement. It chose as the supporters for its coat of arms, apparently, Religion or Education and Colonization. The earliest known example of their coat of arms is on the title page of Capt. John