File:Medieval vesica shaped copper alloy seal matrix (FindID 195565).jpg

English: Cast copper-alloy pointed-oval seal matrix. The seal has a small incomplete suspension loop at the top on the reverse, which is otherwise flat and undecorated. The face of the seal is engraved in the centre with a standing forward-facing female with draped head and long draped gown, holding a shield in either hand. Each shield depicts different arms, probably those of the lady's family and her husband's family.

The shield in her right hand (which would appear on the left in an impression taken from the matrix) is Per pale indented; that in her left is A chevron between three escallops.

The inscription surrounding is set between a pair of dotted borders, and reads * SECRETV' MARGARETE DE HOYLAND, which translates as 'Secret [seal] of Margaret of Hoyland' or 'Privy [seal] of Margaret of Hoyland'.

Length 35.78 mm, width 22.77 mm, thickness 3.79 mm.

Medieval seal matrices with names are usually conventionally dated to the 13th century. Clive Cheesman has dated this one from its style to the late 13th or early 14th century, and has suggested that this Margaret of Hoyland may be the same person as Margaret, widow of John of Holland or Hoyland, who petitioned the king in 1305 and again in 1307 concerning a debt inherited from her husband (National Archives Discovery catalogue, records SC 8/266/13272 and SC 8/2/55).

This seal matrix confirms that the de Hoylands used the red and gold Per pale indented or Barry pily arms and not the Azure semy-de-lys and a lion rampant (sometimes guardant) argent used by Thomas Holland (d. 1360), the husband of Joan, the 'Fair Maid of Kent', who was unrelated. The two families were often confused, and as early as the 16th century were thought to be inter-related. See C. Cheesman, 'The seal of Margaret de Hoyland' in The Coat of Arms (the journal of the Heraldry Society), vol. 10 (2014), 23-27 and pls. 1-2.