THE WOOLSACK

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 573, 3 July 1933, Page 7

THE WOOLSACK

HISTORY OF FAMOUS CH AN CELLOR'S SEAT. . The "woolsiack" is a large square bag of wool, without back or arms, and coyered with red cloth. It has been said that the woolsack had its origin in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when an Act of Parliament was passed to prevent the exportation of wool, and that woolsiacks were placed in the House of Lcrds as: seats for the judges, in order to rem'ind them constantly of the importaiice of wool as a national source of wealth'. The reason assijgned seems probable, but the date is evidently earlier. It was believed that woolsiacks were placed in the House of Lords in the reign of Edward III, at which time there was much legislation over the wool trade; no actual mention of th'e woolsacks, however, has been traced before the reign of Henry VIII, when it wias directed that "The Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer or any other Officer who shall be under the degree of ia. Baron of a Parliament shall sit} and be placed at the uppermost part of the Sacks in the Midst of the said Parlia,ment Chamber, either there to sit upon one Form oi* upon the uppermost sack." D'Ewes, in his journal, writing of the Parliament of Elizabeth, says that when her Majesty was absent the Lord Keeper, Sir .Nicholas Bacon, "sate on the first woolsack which is placed athwart the House, the Seal and Mace by him." The otlj,er woolsacks were then, as now, allotted to the judges. By the Standing Orders of the House of Lords, 1621, it is declared that "the Lord Chancellor sitteth on the Woolsack as Speaker to the House," i.e., not in his judicial capacity.