RESEARCH into a rare silver seal dug up in Buriton has unearthed a medieval feud between the village rector and a local landowner at loggerheads over timber tax.

Last September on fields at Bolinge Hill?Farm between Buriton and Petersfield Charles Walker found a silver seal for imprinting a crest into hot wax sealing letters.

On April 19 Portsmouth Coroner David Horsley ruled the inch-and-a-half long seal was treasure trove.

It is now likely to be bought from Mr Walker, who found it using a metal detector, by Winchester Museum.

The crest identified it as belonging to Dr Charles Layfield, (1676-1715), rector at St Mary’s Church Buriton from 1688 to 1699; the seal was found exactly 300 years after his death.

Farm owner Susan Shone said: “He must have dropped it while walking on the fields.”

Katie Hinds of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said the seal was “quite rare” and in “very good” condition.

Layfield took over as rector from Dr Edmund Barker, and became caught up in a long running feud between Barker and lord of Ditcham Park manor, Richard Cowper.

The bitter dispute was over a church imposed tax (tithe) on timber taken from the woods at Ditcham.

The first Baron Guildford, Lord Chief Justice Francis North, heard that Cowper “lampooned, and made scandalous verses which did very much disquiet and discompose Dr Barker.”

North ruled in favour of Barker, but when Layfield moved to Buriton 12 years later, Cowper’s son and heir, also Richard, was still refusing to pay the tithe.

It’s thought the dispute only died when Layfield left Buriton.

Layfield was also a prebendary at Winchester Cathedral, which meant he lived off taxes and income due to the church, and in the cathedral there is an empty sepulchre with his name on.

It is thought he was buried elsewhere instead in the cathedral grounds, but his grave is today unknown.

However, in St Mary’s there is a memorial stone to an Anna Layfield, thought to be Charles’ wife, who died in November, 1696.