Editing Broad arrow (section)

===Later use===
A letter sent by [[Thomas Gresham]] to the [[Privy Council of England|Privy Council]] in 1554, relating to the shipment of 50 cases of [[Spanish real]]s (coins) from [[Seville]] to England, explained that each case was "marked with the broad arrow and numbered from 1 to 50".<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=William B. |editor-last=Turnbull |editor-link=William Barclay Turnbull |title=Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Reign of Mary, 1553–1558: preserved in the Public Record Office |publisher=Longman & Co. |location=London |year=1861 |page=141 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/foreign/mary/pp132-142 }} (text [[Calendar (archives)|calendared]] and modernised).</ref>

A proclamation of [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] issued in 1627 ordered that tobacco imported to England from non-English plantations should be [[Seal (emblem)|sealed]] with "a seale engraven with a broad Arrow and a Portcullice".<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=James F. |editor-last=Larkin |title=Stuart Royal Proclamations |volume=2 |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1983 |isbn=0198224664 |page=133 }}</ref>

A proclamation issued by [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] in 1661 ran:
{{blockquote|And His Majesty doth further command, That on all other Stores, Where it may be done without prejudice to the said Stores, or Charge to His Majesty, as Nails, Spikes, and other the like Stores, that the broad Arrow be put on some part of the same, whether by Stamp, Brand, or other way, as shall be particularly directed by the principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesties Navy, to whom the care thereof is committed.<ref name="fair482">Quoted in {{harvp|Fairbrother|1914|p=482}}.</ref>}}

An [[Order in Council]] of 1664, relating to the requisitioning of [[Merchant vessel|merchant ship]]s for naval use, similarly authorised the [[Navy Board|Commissioners of the Navy]] "to put the broad arrow on any ship in the River they had a mind to hire, and fit them out for sea";<ref name="fair482"/> while the [[Embezzlement of Public Stores Act 1697]] ([[9 Will. 3]]. c. 41) sought to prevent the theft of military and naval property by prohibiting anyone other than official contractors from marking "any Stores of War or Naval Stores whatsoever, with the Marks usually used to and marked upon His Majesties said Warlike and Naval or Ordnance Stores; ... [including] any other Stores with the Broad Arrow by Stamp Brand or otherwise".<ref name="fair482"/>

[[File:Benchmark in Edinburgh.jpg|left|thumb|upright|An [[Ordnance Survey]] [[Benchmark (surveying)|benchmark]] in the UK]]

From the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, the broad arrow regularly appeared on military boxes and equipment such as canteens, bayonets and rifles. The prisons built by the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] for the [[French Revolutionary Wars]] were equipped with mattresses and other items bearing the broad arrow: at [[Norman Cross Prison]], Huntingdonshire, this was proven effective, when a local tradesman found in possession of items bearing the marks was convicted and sentenced to stand in the pillory and two years in a [[house of correction]].<ref>{{cite journal|title= Fort in the Fens|last= Monger|first=Garry |journal=The Fens |year=2021 |pages=20–21 |volume=31 |publisher=Natasha Shiels}}</ref> The broad arrow was routinely used on British [[prison uniform]]s from about the 1830s onwards.<ref>{{harvp|Fairbrother|1914|p=482}}:
{{quote|"The Prison Commissioners ... wrote, on 2 March last: 'It [the broad arrow] is referred to in the Public Stores Acts in 1875, but was in use many years before that date. It has been used in Convict Prisons and Hulks for more than 80 years, and was also used in Australia.'"}}</ref>

An instance of the Admiralty using the mark in a salvage case occurred at [[Wisbech]], [[Isle of Ely]] in 1860: "The barque ''Angelo C'', laden with barley, from [[Sulina]], lying at Mr Morton's granary, has been marked with the 'broad arrow', a writ at Admiralty having been issued at the instance of Peter Pilkington, one of the pilots of this port, who claims £400 for salvage services alleged to have been rendered to the vessel during the great gale of the 28th ult."<ref>{{cite news|title= Wisbech|newspaper= Stamford Mercury |date = 15 June 1860|page= 4}}</ref>

[[Image:WD Ordnance Survey Marker Bermuda.JPG|thumb|[[War Department (UK)|War Department]] [[Ordnance Survey]] marker, Bermuda]]
Topped with a horizontal line, the broad arrow was widely used on [[Ordnance Survey]] [[Benchmark (surveying)|benchmarks]].<ref>{{cite web|title= Ordnance Survey|url= https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/benchmarks/|website= www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk|access-date= 30 March 2021}}</ref> Broad arrow marks were also used by [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] countries on their ordnance.

The Board of Ordnance was absorbed into the [[War Department (United Kingdom)|War Department]] in 1855, but the broad arrow continued to be used by its successor bodies: the War Department 1855–57, the [[War Office]] 1857–1964, and by the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]] from 1964 onwards, before being phased out in the 1980s.