CHAPTER 5
Professionalism in Administration
Notes
1 McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 21, 40-41, 64, 100, 145.
2 Hammer, op.cit., 23; Petchey, op.cit., 171-72; Rogers, op.cit., 20.
3 Tanner, op.cit., 224, notes that 80% of the Norwich wills he analysed were drawn up within a year of probate.
4 KL/C7/2 ff.51, 135b; KL/C12/11.
5 Red Reg. f.64; C.Cl.R. 1323-27, 431.
6 KL/C7/3 f.35; KL/C7/4 f.53b; PROB 11/9 qu.27.
7 KL/C7/3 f.205; C.P.R. 1452-61, 313; C1/26/437.
8 See for example Red Reg. ff.17, 146b. At Ipswich, although 21 was recognised as the usual age of majority, the custumal indicates an age of 14 was sufficient to validate property transactions; however, this was probably only in the case of orphans - otherwise apprenticeship dictates, or those of parents, often determined when a male would begin his career as an independent adult; Twiss, op.cit., 88, 160.
9 KL/C6/3 m.11r; KL/C10/2 f.78. What we have here is probably estimation or uncertainty, rather than clerical error.
10 KL/C9/1 f.17; KL/C7/2 f.16; KL/C7/4 f.48; C47/43/277.
11 E.g. in November 1428 William Style applied for the franchise on behalf of his apprentice John Heyward, then absent in Prussia; John returned to take his freeman's oath in January 1431. KL/C7/2 f.124b; KL/C7/3 f.5.
12 John Frost, former apprentice of Robert de Botkesham, and John son of Robert atte Lathe were obliged to pay the regular fines on these grounds, when they became freemen in 1401 and 1377 respectively; KL/C6/2 m.3d; Red Reg. f.158b.
13 Red Reg. ff.108b, 137b, 168b; William was jurat, on and off, between 1342 and 1361, Andrew for most of the period 1389-1434, making the latter at least 72 when he died.
14 Red Reg. ff.73b, 157b. Robert therefore held the chamberlain's office at a relatively late age; by contrast, Philip Wyth junior held the same office at the early age of 22.
15 Thrupp, Merchant Class of Medieval London, 194-95; Hammer, op.cit., 24.
16 C. Platt, Medieval Southampton: the Port and Trading Community, A.D. 1000-1600, (London, 1973), 263.
17 Meech and Allen, op.cit., 179.
18 Brunham is a quite exceptional case who was first elected jurat only four years after his entrance to the franchise (by patrimony) in 1353. One might normally expect that such an apparently lengthy political career would indicate two separate persons of the same name; but in fact Brunham's term as jurat was unbroken except for those years when he was chamberlain or mayor, and when the records themselves have gaps. His son John became a freeman in 1394, and the records clearly identify our man thereafter as John senior. John's great influence in the borough is suggested not only by his length of service and his role as Gild alderman tempore Henry IV, but by the fact that he had allies in the jurats in the persons of his in-law Kempes, relative Robert de Brunham, and former apprentice Edmund Belleyeter. Red Reg. ff.118, 143b, 172.
19 24% of the Ipswich group and 37% of the Colchester group, compared to 58% of the Lynn office-holders.
20 Although there is some suggestion that 13 was the age of majority regarding entrance to the franchise in Colchester; Red Paper Bk., 79.
21 Rot.Parl., I, 231, 243; Campbell ix, 4; E179/107/10 m.4d; Red Parch. Bk., 62.
22 Despite this, the impression given by other evidence suggests quite a few officers from Colchester, Ipswich, and Yarmouth lived into their late 50s and early 60s.
23 An approach applied with success to his material by Hammer, op.cit., 23-24.
24 See chapter 3.
25 Appendix II, table 2.
26 It has not been possible to calculate the average jurat age pre-1350 due to the survival of very few lists of memberships.
27 Paradoxically, one consequence of the older age of mayors in the fifteenth century was a greater tendency for them to die in office, which may partly explain the decrease in the average number of times the mayoralty was held (appendix II, table 3).
28 KL/C4/11; KL/C2/29.
29 The average age of councillors is artificially high because, in the first few years of its existence, many members were older burgesses who had not previously qualified for jurat status.
30 Hammer, op.cit., 3-5; Studer, op.cit., xxiv; Reed, op.cit., 203-04; Rogers, op.cit., 20; Wilkinson, op.cit., 24-25, 33. See also C. Phythian-Adams, Desolation of a City: Coventry and the Urban Crisis of the Late Middle Ages, (Cambridge, 1979), 123-24, and the clear promotionalism in Worcester in 1467, T. Smith, ed., English Gilds, (Oxford, 1870), 409.
31 On this see also Hudson, Leet Jurisdiction in the City of Norwich, lxii-lxiii.
32 John Geet of Ipswich, sergeant 1430/1, bailiff in the 1450s; William Hadleigh of Colchester, sergeant 1329/30, bailiff in the 1340s.
33 All tempore Edward III and adding to the impression we have of the low regard for parliamentary attendance at that time.
34 KL/C7/3 ff.45b, 276b; KL/C7/4 f.84. Ipswich's John French, when referred to as gaoler in 1412, appears only to have been deputising for his relative William Frensh; P.P.R. 14 Hen.IV m.2d.
35 Records of Norwich, I, 274. Allowing also for London influence.
36 These 4 cases are discussed in chapter 2 and chapter 3. Dobson, York City Chamberlains' Account Rolls, xxxvii-xxxviii, notes that of the 79 persons who became mayor 1396-1500, 71 had served previously as chamberlain, and that for election to mayoral and shrieval office "previous experience as chamberlains was most often a sine qua non."
37 Red Parch. Bk., 39.
38 Noted in chapter 1.
39 See Note 36.
40 KL/C7/3 ff.101b-102b. None of the critics had any association with the reform fervour of a quarter-century earlier.
41 KL/C39/55; KL/C7/4 passim; C1/27/154, 155; C1/62/110; PROB 11/8 qu.14.
42 Add.Ms. 30158 f.8b; Bacon, op.cit., passim; C219/16/5; I/C1/1/2/8; PROB 11/11 qu.24.
43 Hammer, op.cit., 7, 8; Rogers, op.cit., 20.
44 KL/C7/4 f.204b.
45 These figures seem abnormally high; probably something more like 30% of all jurats rose to the mayoralty.
46 Except for the naming of aldermen first, there is no trace of a 'pecking order' in the lists of the council at Colchester, which had a less sophisticated administrative system.
47 Red Reg. f.144.
48 C.P.R. 1317-21, 206, 1354-58, 465, 1381-85, 399, 479, 1408-13, 483, 1429-36, 407; C.F.R. 1399-1405, 231, 1405-13, 131, 1413-22, 240; Bodl.Norf.Ch. 722; Saul, op.cit., appendices III H, VII G.
49 Lawson, op.cit., preface; Muir, op.cit., 122; Wedgwood, History of Parliament: Biographies, xxxvi; Glover, op.cit., 164.
50 Muir, op.cit., 127.
51 Lawson, op.cit., 72-73.
52 Dogget Roll 17-38 Hen.VI m.2d; Wedgwood, History of Parliament: Biographies, 783-84.
53 D/B 3/1/1 f.31b; D/B 3/1/3 ff.23b, 28b. We may note that refusal of office was permissible in the circumstance of a man being elected to a second office in the same year.
54 One is inclined to ask how it was that Lynn's reform leader Bartholomew Petypas, a merchant, former apprentice of a prominent jurat, a man of influence and capability, and officer in the Merchant Gild, does not appear among the jurats until after the collapse of his party.
55 Examples in chapter 2.
56 Thrupp, Merchant Class of Medieval London, 233.
57 Similarly, the appointment of men like Lynn's Richard de Gervestone and Hugh de Massingham to organise the resettlement of Berwick-on-Tweed in 1297 was a natural choice; C.P.R. 1292-1301, 227.
58 For an example, see the survey by Saul, op.cit., 44ff.
59 C.P.R. 1321-24, 119, 288, 1324-27, 87, 204, 354, 1327-30, 101, 1340-43, 108; C.Cl.R. 1318-23, 462, 1333-37, 37, 68; Ms. Rawlinson Essex 11 f.176r; Saul, op.cit., 99-102, appendix III F.
60 C.P.R. 1388-91, 464, 1391-96, 389, 1396-99, 367; C.Cl.R. 1385-89, 169; Saul, op.cit., 124; Ms. Gough Norfolk 20 f.14.
61 Saul, op.cit., 125, appendices III F, III G; C.P.R. 1381-85, 399, 479, 1385-89, 543, 1399-1401, 151, 188, 232, 336, 1401-05, 276, 1405-08, 206, 1408-13, 483, 1413-16, 421; C.Cl.R. 1385-89, 169, 641, 1402-05, 125; C.F.R. 1399-1405, 231, 1405-13, 131; Cal.Inq.Misc. 1392-99, 75.
62 Saul, op.cit., 54; his estimate was under 1% of the town's population.
63 See chapter 2.
64 C219/7/11-13; KL/C39/24, 30; KL/C50/Be 547; Red Reg. ff.110, 150b.
65 C.P.R. 1381-85, 380, 1405-41, passim; C219/10/4; E122/95/1; Red Reg. f.165; KL/C39/19-35, 37, 39, 43, 45-47, 50-53, 91.
66 Red Reg. ff.46, 61; KL/C17/2; R232B, box 2, #4141; C.F.R. 1307-37, passim; E122/93/8, 25; C219/5/7; SC6/938/12-14. Strictly speaking, the searchers for coin were not part of the formal customs network.
67 C.P.R. 1317-21, 489, 1324-27, 26, 33, 1327-30, passim.
68 C.F.R. 1391-99, passim; C.P.R. 1399-1401, 159, 1401-05, passim.
69 C.P.R. 1401-05, 477; 1413-16, 222, 1416-22, 424; C.F.R. 1413-22, 113, 130, 191, 193, 1422-30, 294; C.Cl.R. 1413-19, 80, 97; Palmer, Perlustration of Great Yarmouth, II, 180; Red Parch. Bk., 17, 21; KL/C39/42.
70 Y/C4/155; C.F.R. 1452-61, 176; C.P.R. 1452-61, 517, 672, 1461-67, 421, 2467-77, 250; Morey, op.cit., 148; Wedgwood, History of Parliament: Biographies, 316; N. Davies, ed., Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century, (Oxford, 1971), I, 263, 275, 537, II, 161.
71 Red Reg. ff.123, 157; KL/C39/40, 91; C67/22 m.24r; C.Cl.R. 1377-81, 269; C.P.R. 1370-96, passim, 1399-1401, 214.
72 KL/C38/1; Red Reg. ff.132-33; E40/2962; C267/7/14; Bodl.Norf.Ch. 245; C.Cl.R. 1402-05, 456, 1409-13, 293; C.P.R. 1391-96, 587, 1396-99, 99, 239, 436, 1399-1401, 214, 1401-05, 298, 359.
73 KL/C7/3 passim; KL/C18/1; KL/Gd 14, Gd 25; C.P.R. 1429-36, 132, 1436-41, 587, 1441-46, 344, 475, 1446-52, 36, 592, 1452-61, 672; C.F.R. 1437-45, 147.
74 Martin, Borough and Merchant Community of Ipswich, 187-88.
75 C.F.R. 1319-27, 256, 1327-56, passim; C.Cl.R. 1327-30, 269, 328, 1333-37, 58, 1339-41, 147; E122/50/12-19, 22; E356/2 m.11d; E356/3 mm.3r, 6-8, 26r; McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 120-21 (who has misidentified the member of the parliamentary committee).
76 Chapter 2.
77 C.F.R. 1391-1405, passim; C.P.R. 1396-99, 429, 1399-1401, 62, 1401-05, 189, 432, 1405-08, 392, 1416-22, 143, 210, 1429-36, 40; C.Cl.R. 1396099, 429; E122/50/39; Morey, op.cit., 388; Roskell, op.cit., 184; Col.C.R./49 m.33r; Red Parch. Bk., 46.
78 C.F.R. 1405-37, passim; C.P.R. 1408-13, 361, 1429-36, 205; Col.C.R./45 m.39r, /56 m.19d.
79 Saul, op.cit., 56.
80 C.P.R. 1334-38, 281, 577, 1338-40, 20, 143, 156, 1340-43, 108, 255, 1343-45, 94, 391, 1345-48, 117, 1354-58, 129, 468, 1358-61, 74; C.F.R. 1327-37, 438, 1337-47, 309, 467; C.Cl.R. 1343-46, 266, 573; Saul, op.cit., appendices II E, III F, III H; E101/25/36; KL/C39/17. Whether or not Drayton left the 1343 company of his own volition is not clear; Sayles, "The 'English Company' of 1343," 200-01.
81 C.P.R. 1354-91, passim; C.Cl.R. 1354-60, passim, 1374-78, 470-71, 1381-85, 145, 1389-92, 306; C.F.R. 1356-68, 270, 1368-77, 232, 1377-83, 28, 248, 1383-91, 192; Rot.Parl., II, 375; Cal.Inq.Misc. 1348-77, 186, 1377-80, 217, 221; C67/22 m.22r; KL/C39/23, 29, 30, 39; Saul, op.cit., 125, 172, appendices III F, III H; Thrupp, Merchant Class of Medieval London, 339; H. Le Strange, Norfolk Official Lists, (Norwich, 1890), 15, 45.
82 John Grete (constable 1359, M.P. 1366) as searcher of ships in Essex, 1361; C.F.R. 1356-68, 92; C.P.R. 1361-64, 62. Only two Colchester men were active in the customs service for more than five years - John Godestone mostly before he came to Colchester; however, Sayer le Lorimer, not involved in borough government, made a career as searcher in Essex (and, for a while, throughout England) in the 1340s; C.F.R. 1337-47, passim; C.P.R. 1343-45, 187.
83 C.P.R. 1327-30, 324, 1370-74, 443, 1377-81, 26, 1391-96, 131, 1399-1429, passim; C.F.R. 1307-19, 82, 1383-91, 236, 1399-1405, 89, 1413-30, passim; Saul, op.cit., appendices III F, III H.
84 C.P.R. 1327-30, 126, 1334-38, 28.
85 Saul, op.cit., 102-03.
86 I find the attempt of Saul, op.cit., 82-83, to reconstruct an intelligible policy of royal selection unconvincing.
87 C.Cl.R. 1279-88, 154, 1339-41, 35; C.F.R. 1337-47, 155-56; C.P.R. 1338-40, 202; G.C.R. 11-12 Ed.I m.5r; Red Parch. Bk., 190.
88 C.P.R. 1343-45, 43; C.Cl.R. 1427-1516, 150; Red Reg., passim.
89 C.F.R. 1307-19, 390; it is difficult to judge the validity of the excuses for retirement or replacement. Possibly local executives, as officers of the king, were able to take some initiative in replacements, as in the Mayster case.
90 Saul, op.cit., 89.
91 Ibid., 88.
92 Ibid., 28; Swinden, op.cit., 662.
93 KL/C39 passim; Red Reg. passim; KL/C5/2 m.1r; KL/C5/3; KL/C38/2 m.2r; KL/C6/2; E122/94/3, 7, 8, 10; C.P.R. 1313-17, 57, 1338-40, 345, 1377-81, 11, 1381-85, 128, 1385-89, 439, 1399-1401, 467.
94 KL/C39/49 m.1r; C.P.R. 1358-61, 473, 1422-29, 292; C.F.R. 1327-37, 82, 1430-37, passim; SC8/11637; R.R. 25-33 Ed.III mm.6r, 10r.
95 E122/50/4; C.F.R. 1272-1307, 477, 491, 1391-99, 30, 162; C.P.R. 1301-07, 77, 263, 1391-96, 623, 1396-99, 78, 1399-1401, 383; Martin, Borough and Merchant Community of Ipswich, 192. Bernard was an associate of the Godestones, in customs collection, other administrative work, and commercial ventures; C.F.R. 1391-99, 197; E122/193/33 f.42b.
96 E.g. C.P.R. 1338-40, 202.
97 E122/50/30 m.2d.
98 Hammer, op.cit., 18, found that even in 1529 fewer than one-third of Oxford's rulers could sign their names.
99 R.R. 15-16 Ed.III m.4d; Kerling, op.cit., 162.
100 Col.C.R./44 m.20d; Gray and Potter, op.cit., 3-4; Great Domesday Book ff.144b-145.
101 Col.C.R., I-IV, passim; Col.C.R./20 m.24r, /28 m.27d; E40/7951; Britnell, op.cit., 483.
102 Tanner, op.cit., 115; N.C.C. Doke ff.65b-66; IC/AA2/1 f.90.
103 P.P.R. 2-3 Hen.V m.2d.
104 See extracts in Thrupp, Merchant Class of Medieval London, 123-24.
105 Bodl.Norf.Roll 9. We may better appreciate our poverty when we think of the some 120,000 letters, 500 account ledgers, and thousands of other documents relating to the life and business of the fourteenth century Italian merchant Francesco di Marco Datini; I. Origo, The Merchant of Prato, (1963), 347.
106 KL/C7/4 f.51b; C.Cl.R. 1354-60, 342.
107 KL/C10/2 f.115; Meech and Allen, op.cit., 4. The evidence for John Kempe having acted as his mother's amanuensis has most recently been laid out by Sebastian Sobecki, "'The writyng of this tretys': Margery Kempe's Son and the Authorship of Her Book," Studies in the Age of Chaucer, vol.37 (2015), 257-83.
108 McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 25, 117; Lawson, op.cit., 249; Wedgwood, History of Parliament: Register, xc-xci; Roskell, op.cit., 46.
109 See Saul, op.cit., 34-35, for discussion of the phenomenon at Yarmouth.
110 McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 140-45; KL/C6/3 m.8r.
111 KL/C6/3 mm.6d, 9r. See McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 161-63, for an account of similar diversity of tasks assigned to the Norwich M.P.s of 1445.
112 Cart. St. John's Abbey, I, 640, 670; Colch. Ms. 57 passim.
113 McKisack, Parliamentary Representation of English Boroughs, 25; E101/447/5; J.C. Davies, op.cit..
114 Twiss, op.cit., 118-20; C.Ch.R. 1257-1300, 185; Red Reg. f.15; Cal. Pleas Rolls, Exchequer of Jews, III, xxv-xxvi; Col.C.R./18-33 passim.
