‘Serious Money’: The Benefits of Marriage in London, 1400–1499

Notes

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• The thirty-four (or thirty-nine?) who never married a widow: Barton; Billesdon; Blakden; ?Cannynges; Capel; ?Chalton; ?Chester; William Chichele; Clopton; Colet; Cook; Cotton; Croke; Everard; Evote; Fabian; Forster; Hayford; Lock; Marshall; Marowe; Martin; Merlawe; Middleton; More; Norman; ?Olney; Plummer; Rawson; ?Rede; Shaa; John Tate I; John Tate II; Robert Tate; Tilney; Waldern; Whittingham; Whittington; Woodcock.
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• Sutton AF, ‘Agnes Don-Bretton, Merchant Stapler, Widow and Matriarch of Southampton and London circa 1450 to 1516’, The Ricardian, 22 (2012), 92.
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• Irelond issued from apprenticeship in 1452. Calendar of Letter Books Preserved among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at Guildhall, ad 1275–1499 [hereafter Letter Books A–L, ed. R. R. Sharpe, 11 vols (1899–1912)]. Letter Book K, 379–80; Letter Book L, 43. Hawkyn’s will, TNA, PROB 11/4, ff. 11–12 (proved Mar 1455), indicates problems over estate. See Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 2, 12. Ireland ended as a debtor: TNA, C 1/62/435–438. For Lees and Irelond, see A. F. Sutton and L. Visser-Fuchs, ‘Richard III’s Books XIV: Pietro Carmeliano’s Early Publications’, The Ricardian, 10 (1994–1996), esp. 371–73.
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• Aylesby’s will, LMA, GL MS 9171/4, ff. 66v–67v (made and proved Aug 1441). Margery received £200, all Aylesby’s movables, and those she had brought to the marriage, while Josselyn received the lease of Aylesby’s dwelling where the widow lived. See: Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the Court of Husting, London 1258–1688, ed. R. R. Sharpe, 2 vols, (1889–90) (hereafter CWH), vol. 2, 584; and M. L. Kekewich, C. Richmond, A. F. Sutton, L. Visser-Fuchs and J. L. Watts (eds), The Politics of Fifteenth-Century England: John Vale’s Book (Stroud, 1995), 97–102.
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• Thrupp, The Merchant Class, 328, only names his widow Elizabeth, the second of two wives, with no details. P. E. C. Croot, Alan Thacker and E. Williamson (eds), Victoria County History, Middle-sex, vol. 13, City of Westminster Pt 1 (2010), 87. No will survives for Barry.
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• Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 2, 13. Hockley estate: LMA, CLRO HR 239(7). Marshall and his wife’s heiress was granddaughter Elizabeth, TNA, PROB 11/6, ff. 118v–19v (1474); she was also the heiress of her mother’s father, Thomas Dorchester, ironmonger, and married John Tate III, the papermaker. A. F. Sutton, A Merchant Family of Coventry, London and Calais: The Tates, c. 1450–1515 (1998), 22.
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• Thomas Austin, alderman 1388–1392 (Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 1, 400); left his three children £100 each, and his wife therefore had about £300 (LMA, GLMS 9171/1, ff. 244–45, Dec 1391); on her brother’s death, Felicia inherited the land. Commons 1386–1421, vol. 4, 896–99 (Woodcock). Thrupp, The Merchant Class, 374–75.
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• Byfeld’s will, TNA, PROB 11/6, ff. 36v–39 (1482); Sutton, Mercery, 537–39.
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• De Refham, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; D. Keene and V. Harding, Historical Gazeteer of London Before the Great Fire: vol. 1, Cheapside, (Cambridge 1987), 105/12 and 26. See note 13 (Barry and Cantelowe).
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• B. Hanawalt, The Wealth of Wives (Oxford, 2007), 98–103. For London custom, see C. M. Barron, ‘The ‘Golden Age of Women’ in Medieval London’, Reading Medieval Studies, 15 (1990), 35–58. For a less sanguine view, see J. S. Loengard, ‘‘Plate, Good Stuff and Household Things’: Husbands, Wives, and Chattels in England at the End of the Middle Ages’, The Ricardian, 13 (2003), 328–40, regarding hostility of the common law to women’s ownership of anything. For inequalities within marriage, see, for example, J. M. Bennett, ‘Medieval Women, Modern Women: Across the Great Divide’, in D. Aers (ed.), Culture and History 1350–1600. Essays on English Communities, Identities and Writing (1992), 153–55.
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• For Woodcock, see note 15. For Cooks, see note 12 (Kekewich et al., John Vale’s Book).
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• Sutton, The Tates, esp. 12–15; Thrupp, The Merchant Class, 325, 342–46, 371. Also see notes 17 and 24.
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• Pace Hanawalt, Wealth of Wives, 95–96, 112, 114; Thrupp, The Merchant Class, 342–46.
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• Calendar of Letter Books.
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• Pace Hanawalt, Wealth of Wives, 107; Letter Book K, 111, 368.
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• Sutton AF, ‘Alice Domenyk’, The Ricardian, 20 (2010), esp. 31–32, 46–47.
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• John Norlong, TNA, PROB 11/5, ff. 96v–98 (proved Feb 1466); Purchase executor. Sutton, Mercery, 183–84. Purchase’s will, Lambeth, Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, Reg. F, ff. 202–5 (1503).
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• Davies M, ‘Thomasine Percevale’, in Barron and Sutton, Medieval London Widows, 185–207, esp. 192–95.
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• Reddaway TF, Walker L, The Early History of the Goldsmiths’ Company 1327–1509 (1975), 292, 305–6; Seman’s wills, CWH, vol. 2, 459, and TNA, PROB 11/3, ff. 107–08 (1431).
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• Letter Book L, 79, 85–86.
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• Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 1, 100.
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• Thrupp, The Merchant Class, 383; Richard’s will, TNA, PROB 11/5, ff. 32v–35v (proved 1464); Katherine’s will, GL MS 9171/6, ff. 47–48v (1469); John’s will, TNA, PROB 11/4, ff. 108 (1458); Thomas’s will, TNA, PROB 11/6, ff. 147r–v (1475).
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• For Chichele, see: Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 1, 10, vol. 2, 2; Commons 1386–1421, vol. 2, 560–62 (agrees with present author’s order of Chichele marriages); and will, Reg. Chichele, vol. 2, 564–68. For More, see Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 1, 396 (date of exit from aldermanry not precisely known, but approximately 1400); Commons 1386–1421, vol. 3, 773–75; and will, CWH, vol. 2, 351–52 (Sep 1400, enrolled Apr 1402). Merlawe’s wills, TNA, PROB 11/2B, ff. 169–70, and CWH, vol. 2, 428–29. Letter Book K, 4–5.
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• Letter Book I, 126, 129; no record of children receiving their estates. Stapleford’s will, CWH, vol. 2, 405.
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• No precise date of election; he was always designated as a grocer in the City’s records thereafter; see Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 1, 167, vol. 2, 5; the designation of ironmonger continues in non-city records. Cambridge’s wills and testament give all sources of his lands; see TNA, PROB 11/3, ff. 122–24; he bought much of the Stapleford estate.
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• Calendar of Patent Rolls 1416–22, (1911), 93, 434; Edith’s will, LMA, GL MS 9171/4, ff. 117r–v (1443).
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• Identified, W. G. Davis, Ancestry of Mary Isaac (Portland, ME, 1955), 233.
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• Bally’s will, TNA, PROB 11/2B, f. 89v (proved 23 Dec 1417); the Bally children were not heard of again. See Otes’ will, CWH, vol. 2, 422–23 [dated 5 Sep 1420 and enrolled 1420; original text essential, HR 148 (39)]; Letter Book I, 266; and Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 2, 7.
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• Osbarn’s will does not survive. Letter Book I, 26. Halton, Commons 1386–1421, vol. 3, 273–75, acknowledges the importance of marriage.
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• Commons 1386–1421, vol. 4, 802–5; this acknowledges the importance of marriage for Welles.
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• Letter Book I, 127; Agnes Halle’s will, CWH, vol. 2, 378–79; Katherine’s will as widow of John Oo, and her will as wife of William Norton, LMA, GL MS 9171/3, ff. 292–93 (1429 and 1431); Norton’s will, LMA GL MS 9171/4, f. 46 (proved 1440); Commons 1386–1421, vol. 3, 855–56 (Norton).
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• Beaumond’s wills, CWH, vol. 2, 426, and TNA, PROB 11/2B, ff. 40–45 (proved 1416); Middleton’s will, CWH, vol. 2, 427–28 (enrolled 1421–1422, when four Beamond children were alive); Letter Book I, 256; Kekewich et al., John Vale’s Book, 79–80.
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• History of Parliament Trust, London, unpublished article on Hugh Wyche for the 1422–61 section, by Matthew Davies. I am grateful to the History of Parliament Trust for allowing me to see this article in draft, citing especially TNA, C 1/74/89. Married (1) Dionisia Beaumond, and (2) Joan, daughter of Richard Woodcock, salter (£200 from father in 1416), and widow of Robert Colbrook, ironmonger. Joan’s full Woodcock inheritance may have been substantial after the death of siblings, and her Colbrook estate was certainly large. Wiche was nominated as alderman 1449, and elected Oct 1458. A. F. Sutton, ‘Women of the Mercery’, London and the Kingdom. Essays in Honour of C. M. Barron (Donington, 2008), 173–77.
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• See Mercers’ Company, Wardens’ Accounts 1347, 1394–1464, for all apprenticeship dates, etc., regarding Pykyngs. Verney’s 1478 will [J. Bruce (ed.), Letters and Papers of the Verney Family (1853), 24–29] suggests that his children were born in about 1457–1458.
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• Wyght’s wills, TNA, PROB 11/1, ff. 47v–48 (proved Dec 1392), and CWH, vol. 2, 299. Letter Book H, 424; Commons 1386–1421, vol. 2, 72–74.
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• Letter Book H, 78, 425. Agnes was possibly the widow of draper Roger Abbot, the custody of whose three daughters Weyland received in 1395; CWH, vol. 2, 318. Weyland’s will, TNA, PROB 11/2A, ff. 39v–40, 58v (proved Sep 1404): this access of capital did not obviously contribute to Elton’s civic career, but would have helped him commercially.
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• Elton’s will, TNA, PROB 11/2B, ff. 112v–13v (proved 1418); Tatersale’s will, TNA, PROB 11/3, ff. 86v–88 (1429); Thrupp, The Merchant Class, 369.
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• Basset’s full marital career is unknown: he married Alderman Richard Nayler’s widow, Elizabeth (with about £900), in 1483–1484, and then died; she then married Alderman John Stokker, who died in 1485. Nayler’s and Stokker’s wills, TNA, PROB 11/6, ff. 52r–v, 63v–64v. Letter Book L, 221; Thrupp, The Merchant Class, 323. Elizabeth’s will as Lady Abergavenny mentioned all four husbands; N. H. Nicolas (ed.), Testamenta Vetusta (1826), 406.
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• Letter Book L, 172–73 and note; Shosmyth left no will. See Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 1, 82, vol. 2, 16.
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• The size of the Don estate is not known, but may have been substantial; see: A. F. Sutton, ‘John Don’, Hampshire Studies (2013) and note 10; and Letter Book L, 18–300 passim.
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• His second wife was Cristina, third wife and widow of Robert Ryder, brazier (d. 1386); the extent of her Ryder estate is not known, but it was sufficient for Reynwell to offer Ryder’s only son, a priest, the option of his 6-year chantry. See: Ryder’s will, CWH, vol. 2, 263; Letter Book H, 446; Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 1, 403; and Reynwell’s will, PROB 11/2A, ff. 36–37v (1404).
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• CWH, vol. 2, 552–53; Widow’s will, TNA, PROB 11/8, f. 48v (1487).
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• Wetenale married (2), before 1441–1442, Alice, widow of John Edward of Bury St Edmunds; he was elected alderman 29 August 1438 and sheriff 1440–1441, a sequence possibly linked to this marriage. See: Catalogue of Ancient Deeds, 3570, 3652; Thrupp, The Merchant Class, 373–74; Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 2, 8; and Wetenale’s wills, TNA, PROB 11/4, f. 119r–v, and CWH, vol. 2, 531.
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• Thrupp, The Merchant Class, 368–69; Taillour’s will, TNA, PROB 11/6, ff. 79v–81v.
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• M. Erler, ‘Vowesses’, in Barron and Sutton, Medieval London Widows 171–76; Commons 1386–1421, vol. 3, 170–73 (Gedney), vol. 4, 675–76 (Turnaunt); Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 2, 4 (Gedney), 7 (Large).
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• Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 1, 24, 100, 218; vol. 2, 18; Revell’s will, TNA, PROB 11/8, ff. 346v–48v (proved Mar 1491); Letter Book L, 321.
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• Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem Henry VII, vol. 1 (1898), no. 1055; Sir Ralph’s will, TNA, PROB 11/10, ff. 147–48v (1494); Margery’s will, TNA, PROB 11/21, ff. 198–99v (1523).
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• Oulgreve’s will, TNA, PROB 11/6, ff. 58v–59 (proved Feb 1473); Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 2, 13; James’ will, CWH, vol. 2, 598–99.
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• Beaven, The Aldermen, vol. 2, 9, 164; Commons 1386–1421, vol. 2, 365–67. For Brockley, see Thrupp, The Merchant Class, 327, 376.
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• Nothing is known of his first wife; he married (2) Beatrice, widow of John Cokayne, and a coheiress of the Waleys family of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. History of Parliament Trust, London, unpublished article on Nicholas Morley for the 1422–61 section, by Linda Clark. I am grateful to the History of Parliament Trust for allowing me to see this article in draft. Morley was brother-in-law of Beat- rice. See: Melreth’s will, TNA, PROB 11/3, f. 257r– v (1445), and CWH, vol. 2, 506–07; and Sutton, Mercery, 249 note.
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• Barron, ‘Golden Age’, 38.
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