CHAPTER 4
Attitudes Towards Office-holding
Notes
1 Although this is not to say that some men (not merely the town clerk) did not pursue careers in professional administration; see chapter 5.
2 As have A. White, Self-Government at the King's Command: a Study in the Beginnings of English Democracy, (Minneapolis, 1933), 128; Saul, op.cit., 44; Reynolds, op.cit., 121.
3 Saul, op.cit., 91.
4 I thank the King's Lynn archivist for the opportunity to study this document a few days after its discovery, at which time it had not been catalogued; I refer to it here as KL/Roll of wages. Damage to the top of m.1 and loss of m.2 make it difficult to determine the exact nature of the document. Two-thirds of the persons listed are among the men falling within the scope of this study.
5 Red Reg. f.160b. In 1378, in the context of paring of the budget, the corporation ordained that tax-collectors would henceforth have to operate at their own expense.
6 And also officers of the staple, not mentioned in the roll; C67/23 m.6r.
7 Red Parch. Bk., 32, 39, 194; Strutt, op.cit., xi. Each bailiff was also provided with a livery worth 20s.
8 Black Domesday ff.74-75; I/C1/3/1/1 ff.4-5; Gross, op.cit., II, 122; Gomme, op.cit., 34-35.
9 Records of Norwich, II, 44; Swinden, op.cit., 494; D/B 3/3/68.
10 KL/C39 passim; KL/C37/2; Parkin, op.cit., Add.Ms. 37791 f.45. Parkin may be correct in suggesting that the 1271 payment to the mayor was only an instalment of a full £10 annual salary.
11 KL/C37/5 m.1r; Martin, Borough and Merchant Community of Ipswich, 82; Black Domesday f.74.
12 Add.Ms. 30158 f.25.
13 Swinden, op.cit., 494; Red Parch. Bk., 43; Add.Ms. 37791 ff.45, 48b; KL/C39 passim.
14 Palmer, Continuation of Manship's History, 194; D/B 3/1/1 f.4b; McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 82, 87, 89-90; McKisack, "Parliamentary representation of King's Lynn," 588; KL/C39 passim.
15 McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 90; Roskell, op.cit., 141; Muir, op.cit., 143; General Court Roll 12-14 Ed.IV m.2r; Add.Ms. 30158 ff.24, 25, 28b; Dogget Roll 6-7 Ed.IV m.4d.
16 Dobson, York City Chamberlains' Account Rolls, xxxii.
17 KL/C39/39 m.3d; KL/C7/2 f.152b; McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 88, 90, 91, 97; Wedgwood, History of Parliament: Register, cxxv.
18 Saul, op.cit., 57.
19 Ibid., 82, 92, 106-07.
20 C.F.R. 1337-47, 352; Col.C.R., II, 47; Red Paper Bk., 11; Gras, op.cit., 97.
21 Martin, Borough and Merchant Community of Ipswich, 73; Saul, op.cit., 25, 37, 92; C1/28/512. We shall investigate corruption more closely in chapter 6.
22 Twiss, op.cit., 167.
23 One has only to see the quantity of Ipswich rolls, the bulk of the Yarmouth rolls, and the drastic increase in size (both in number of membranes and size of membranes) in the later fourteenth century Colchester rolls, to appreciate that the business of the principal sessions was not to be dispensed with quickly.
24 Col.C.R./34 m.21d.
25 However, it was more probably to cope with illnesses or other causes of absenteeism. There is no systematic division of labour evident in the records. Judging from Ipswich recognisances, it was common for both bailiffs to be present on even these relatively informal occasions (there being no good reason not to take witness lists at face value). At Yarmouth it may be that certain of the bailiffs did more work than others, but this appears to have been a matter of chance; Saul, op.cit., 24.
26 Swinden, op.cit., 494.
27 Saul, op.cit., 34; Glover, op.cit., 165; KL/C7/4 f.110
28 Red Reg. f.125.
29 Alsford, Urban Administration in Medieval Norwich, 75; Saul, op.cit., 63, 138; C.F.R. 1347-56, 300; C.P.R. 1338-40, 133, 1370-74, 355; Red Paper Bk., 7. Yarmouth ex-bailiff Ralph Ramsey was, in 1405, pardoned £160 arrears from his account at the Exchequer as sheriff of Norfolk; C.P.R. 1401-05, 483.
30 Swinden, op.cit., 494; D/B/ 3/1/1 f.22; D/B/ 3/1/2 f.22; D/B 3/3/14 m.1r; Add.Ms. 30158 f.8.
31 Col.C.R./28 m.12r, /37 m.34d; P.P.R. 20-21 Ric.II, mm.3d, 6d.
32 E.g. see KL/C39/35, 37; Glover, op.cit., 81.
33 Martin, Borough and Merchant Community of Ipswich, 134; D/B 3/1/2 f.6b; Col.C.R., I, 202.
34 Martin, Borough and Merchant Community of Ipswich, 142, 189; Red Reg. f.155; Saul, op.cit., 47.
35 C. Palmer, ed., A Booke of the Foundacion and Antiquity of the Towne of Greate Yermouthe, (Great Yarmouth, 1847), 106; Rot.Parl., II, 37.
36 C.Ch.R. 1257-1300, 185-86; Swinden, op.cit., 497.
37 Records of Norwich, I, 191-92, 286.
38 Red Paper Bk., 16, 159.
39 Dogget Roll 17-38 Hen.VI m.4r; White Domesday f.14.
40 D/B 3/1/1 ff.4b, 31b; D/B 3/1/2 ff.2, 12b; D/B 3/1/3 ff.21b-24; D/B 3/3/4 m.6r, /21 m.1r.
41 Richards, op.cit., 425, 463; KL/C37/3 f.99; Add.Ms. 37791 f.48b.
42 Add.Ms. 37791 f.50; Red Reg. ff.153b, 166; KL/C7/2 f.56; KL/C9/1 f.15b; KL/C7/3 f.273b; KL/C39/28 m.1r, /30 schedule.
43 Reynolds, op.cit., 180-81; Dobson, "Urban decline in late medieval England," 13; McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 27. At a higher level of society knighthood was unpopular because of the responsibilities it incurred (the efforts of Ipswich's Richard Leu to avoid it have already been mentioned); Denholm-Young, op.cit., 22.
44 KL/C5/1 m.3r; KL/C7/2 f.51; KL/C7/3 f.212; KL/C6/6 m.18d.
45 KL/C2/29; KL/C7/4 ff.28b, 41b; KL/C7/3 ff.78b, 101b, 106.
46 KL/C7/3 ff.5-6, 15; KL/C7/2 f.84.
47 W. Jones, "Rex et ministri: English local government and the crisis of 1341," Journal of British Studies, XIII (1973), no.1, 19; KL/C7/3 f.199b.
48 C.Ch.R. 1427-1516, 152, 197; Bacon, op.cit., 123.
49 Rose, op.cit., 126-27; Muir, op.cit., 115, 146; Lawson, op.cit., 268-69.
50 C.P.R. 1381-85, 214, 1385-89, 505, 508, 1391-96, 187, 379, 1401-05, 355, 1405-08, 376, 1408-13, 199; Rose, op.cit., 167. Colchester already had a wall, since Roman times, but doubtless what was meant was repairs and rebuilding rather than construction.
51 C.P.R. passim.
52 E122/50/1; Cal.Memo.Rolls 1326-27, 235.
53 E101/457/19; E122/158/15; C.P.R. 1345-48, 220.
54 Braunch was M.P. in September, and obtained his exemption in October, 1353; Gunton was last mayor in 1364/5 and obtained his exemption in May 1366.
55 Lawson, op.cit., 128, suggests that Toppes' temporary retirement from public life was prompted by the threats of his political enemies.
56 Records of Norwich, II, 66, 220.
57 KL/C7/3 ff.41b, 140, 242b, 279b.
58 Add.Ms. 30158 ff.30b, 33b.
59 C.Cl.R. 1302-07, 246; C.F.R. 1327-37, 48.
60 KL/C7/4 ff.92b, 165; Red Reg. f.158b.
61 Rogers, op.cit., 37, felt this was the case at Stamford, where the material benefits of office were not, he considered, substantial.
62 KL/C2/29; Records of Norwich, I, 95.
63 KL/C6/4 m.10r; KL/C7/2 f.157.
64 Cozens-Hardy and Kent, op.cit., 20; Add.Ms. 37791 f.48b.
65 Col.C.R./12 m.17r.
66 Col.C.R., II, 123.
67 KL/C7/2 ff.48, 51.
68 Black Domesday ff.71-74.
69 E.g. see Saul, op.cit., 58-59.
70 C.P.R. 1370-74, 38, 1377-81, 403, 444.
71 McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 108, 114; Wedgwood, History of Parliament: Biographies, 856-57; R.R. 12-13 Ed.III m.2r, 25-33 Ed.III m.11d; N.C.C. Heydon f.44. One member of the Timperley family settled in Ipswich and was thrice bailiff in the reign of Henry VII.
72 Wedgwood, History of Parliament: Biographies, 252-53; Palmer, Continuation of Manship's History, 195; C.F.R. 1461-71, 95.
73 Add.Ms. 30158 f.16; McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 113-14; Morey, op.cit., 334-37. Winter may have been a member of a prominent Norfolk gentry family.
74 Red Parch. Bk., 32; Red Paper Bk., 8, 11, 16.
75 D/B 3/1/2 f.23b.
76 I/C9/10/1; White Domesday f.18b. It is significant that this ordinance was made at the same time as that prohibiting bailiffs from retailing wine, ale, or victuals, during their terms of office.
77 KL/C39/23; Records of Norwich, I, 102, 109-12.
78 Thrupp, "Social control in the medieval town," 49; Meech and Allen, op.cit., 9. C. Phythian-Adams, "Ceremony and the citizen: the communal year at Coventry 1450-1550," Crisis and Order in English Towns 1500-1700, (Toronto, 1972), 60, suggests that "the exaggerated social precedence of ceremonial occasions was an office-holder's basic reward."
79 J. Foxe, Acts and Monuments of Matters ... Happening in the Church, (London, 1641), I, 560; KL/C7/3 ff.217b, 229b. One might wonder what effect the former event had on Despenser's attitude towards the peasant rebels in 1381.
80 D/B 3/1/2 f.9b; Records of Norwich, I, 34.
81 Dobson, "Urban decline in late medieval England," 7.
82 KL/C6/4 m.22r.
