COCK, John I

John’s exact relationship to his contemporaries, Henry and Richard Cock*, is unknown, but it seems most likely that he was Henry’s brother and Richard’s uncle. It is possible that Robert Cock, mayor of Sandwich in 1470-1, was his son, while another kinsman, William, served as jurat in the 1470s and fathered John†, who sat in the Parliament of 1510 .

John was already one of the jurats when he was elected to his first Parliament, alongside Robert Wilde*, on 9 June 1433.3 ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 12v. Nothing is known of his duties at Westminster, but on his return home to Sandwich he continued to serve as a jurat, an office he almost certainly occupied until his death. In July 1434 he attended his first meeting of the Brodhull as one of Sandwich’s representatives, a duty he was to perform on four other occasions, the last being in April 1444.4 White and Black Bks. 4, 11, 12, 17, 19. In July 1435 he was one of the four jurats appointed to collect the sum of £100 which the Portsmen had agreed to lend to the King.5 ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 25. On 27 Dec. 1436, along with Thomas Haddon*, he was elected to his second Parliament, but once again his business while there is un-recorded.6 Ibid. f. 33. On his return from Westminter he continued to play an active role in local affairs and in December 1437 was one of the three candidates put forward by the commonalty to be chosen as mayor. He was similarly named as a candidate in 1438, 1439, 1440 and 1442, but his fellow jurats never elected him.7 Ibid. ff. 38, 46, 50, 52, 59v. Nevertheless, in December 1443 he was placed in the prestigious position of one of the keepers of the keys to the common chest. This was shortly after he had apparently served as one of the Cinque Ports’ bailiffs to the annual herring fair at Yarmouth. Although on 21 July that year the jurat and royal servant, Richard Veer, had been chosen as bailiff at the fair as nominated by Sandwich and Hythe, and his name duly recorded in the register of the Brodhull, when, in 1444, the bailiffs were ordered to present a schedule of their expenses to the Brodhull, Cock did so in Veer’s place.8 Ibid. f. 62; White and Black Bks. 19. On 7 Dec. 1444 he was chosen as a jurat at Sandwich for the last time, and three days later he paid the town £3 11s. for custody of the town’s weights and measures.9 ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 66. There are no subsequent references to him and he may have died before the next election in December 1445.

It is unclear how Cock made his living, although he and other members of his family were holders of land outside Sandwich. In 1430, 1435 and 1442 John claimed exemption from the parliamentary subsidy in Wingham hundred, and by the last date he had also added interests in Eastry hundred.10 E179/124/110; 225/48; 226/83. In Hilary term 1438, styled as ‘gentleman’, he appeared in the court of common pleas, as one of the adminstrators of the goods of another Sandwich man, the late William Rawlyn. Another local gentleman, John Oxenden, claimed that Rawlyn had defaulted on an obligation and demanded payment of the debt. A jury found in favour of the plaintiff and ordered Cock and his fellow defendant, John Gibbe of Buckland, to repay the debt as well as four marks in damages.11 CP40/712, rot. 512.