ragged staves

1) A knobbed staff, which appears in the badge or crest of the Earls of Warwick.

This unusual term occurs in the will of Sir Thomas Neville of Furnival: 1407 unum alium ciphum auri cum cooperculo ejusdem cum ragged-staves. Under ‘ragged staff’ the OED says it was a knobbed staff in the badge or crest of the Earls of Warwick: Shakespeare referred later to it as ‘Old Neuils Crest’, that is a bear chained ‘to the ragged staffe’.

places Furnival
dates 1407

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