HUNNYNG, Richard

Of unknown origins, Hunnyng enjoyed a career that extended beyond the immediate confines of his borough. In early 1424, the Crown appointed him controller of customs at Bishop’s Lynn, an office in which he was still serving a year later, when he obtained a royal licence to buy 300 quarters of corn in Cambridgeshire and to export them overseas through that Norfolk port.4 CPR, 1422-9, p. 270. It is unclear whether this was a once only, speculative venture or indicates regular involvement in the corn trade: more than a decade later, when Thomas Burgoyne* sued him over an alleged debt of 40s., he was referred to as a ‘spicer’.5 CP40/715, rots. 213, 442, 662d. Also in the mid 1420s, Thomas Shelford, a canon of Wells cathedral and a former clerk of the Chancery, appointed Hunnyng an executor of his will of 1426.6 Som. Med. Wills (Som. Rec. Soc. xvi), 117-18. How the two men had become acquainted is unknown, although the choice of Hunnyng as executor suggests that Shelford possessed a family connexion with eastern England.

There is no definite evidence of Hunnyng’s own immediate family, other than that he had a wife, Agnes, with whom he received a papal indult, permitting the confessor of their choice to grant them plenary indulgences at their death, in March 1430.7 CPL, viii. 184. It is nevertheless likely that the Thomas Hunnyng who attested the Cambridge election to the Parliament of 1453 was a relative, possibly his son.8 C219/16/2. Similarly, there is little evidence for Richard’s real property. According to a subsidy return of the mid 1430s, he then held lands worth £5 p.a., although the return does not reveal where these lay.9 E179/240/268. He did however possess a messuage in Cambridge that featured in a dispute between him and one Walter Huntyngtone of Essex. At some stage in the first half of the fifteenth century, but apparently not after the mid 1430s, he sued Huntyngtone in the Chancery. According to his bill, Walter had tried to claim part of the messuage for himself. Afterwards, he and Huntyngtone had agreed to refer the matter to the arbitration of John Burgoyne* and John Kirkby, acting for Hunnyng, and the nominees of Huntyngtone, John Ansty* (or perhaps his father) and Nicholas Caldecote*. In due course, the arbitrators had awarded the messuage to Hunnyng while ordering him to pay £60 to his opponent. Hunnyng’s complaint was that Huntyngtone had breached the award, despite already having received £48 of that sum.10 C1/71/122. This bill does not refer to Burgoyne, who died c.1435, as dead; hence the suggested date.

It is possible that the arbitration process occurred at about the time of Hunnyng’s sole recorded Parliament, and that his time in the Commons influenced his choice of arbitrators. At least one of his nominees, Burgoyne, also sat in the Parliament of 1433, as a knight of the shire for Cambridgeshire, and it may well be that Burgoyne’s associate was John Kirkby II*, who represented Reading in the same assembly. The Parliament lasted for 107 days, although Hunnyng received expenses for 74, indicating that his attendance was reasonably rather than remarkably assiduous.11 Cambs. Archs., Cambridge bor. recs., treasurers’ acct. 1433-4, City/PB Box X/70/8. Hunnyng lived for some years after its dissolution, attesting Cambridge’s election to the Parliament of 1437 and serving as one as of its bailiffs, his only known borough office, in 1440-1.