COCK, Richard

A member of the family prominent in the government of Sandwich throughout the fifteenth century, Richard was probably the son of Henry Cock, twice mayor of the town, and nephew of John, his contemporary on the jurats’ bench. He first appeared in the local records when he was elected as a jurat in December 1439, probably within a year or so of the death of his putative father, and in his first year as jurat he travelled to New Romney to represent Sandwich at a meeting of the Brodhull.4 White and Black Bks. of Cinque Ports (Kent Rec. Ser. xix), 13. Clearly well regarded among his fellow townsmen, within two years of joining the jurats’ bench he was elected to the first of five terms as mayor.

One of Richard’s first tasks during his initial mayoral term was to attend the Parliament summoned to meet at Westminster on 25 Jan. 1442. Nothing is known, however, of his activities in the Commons. In the following April he attended another meeting of the Brodhull, where he doubtless reported on parliamentary business, and in June he was called upon to arbitrate on behalf of the commonalty of Sandwich with the former mayor, John Green I*, over the settlements of debts owed to him.5 Ibid. 15; ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 57v. Cock’s first mayoralty was evidently a successful one, for in December 1442 the commonalty elected him to a second term of office. After the end of this second mayoralty, he continued to be involved in the government of the town, attending six meetings of the Brodhull between April 1445 and September 1448. Meanwhile he had been one of the barons picked to attend the coronation of Queen Margaret. In July 1447 the Brodhull appointed him, along with Ralph Toke* of Dover, to be auditor of the bills presented by the barons of Fordwich concerning the costs of their dispute with the abbot of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury.6 White and Black Bks. 19, 22-25; ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 67v. Having been among the unsuccessful candidates for the mayoralty of Sandwich in 1444, 1445, and 1447, he was chosen as mayor for a third time in December 1448.

Cock was returned to his second Parliament in November 1450. It was a measure of his standing at that time that it was he, rather than the incumbent mayor, John Drury*, who was sent to this contentious Parliament, which was summoned in the wake of Cade’s Rebellion and the return to England of Richard, duke of York. His fellow baron on this occasion was another jurat, albeit a parliamentary novice, Edmund Archdeacon*. It is possible that Cock’s election was influenced by the intervention of Humphrey Stafford, duke of Buckingham, the new warden of the Cinque Ports. It had been on Buckingham’s nomination that, on the previous 19 May, during the Leicester session of the Parliament of November 1449, Cock had been appointed by the King as collector of customs and subsidies in the port of Sandwich; while less than a month before travelling to Westminster he had been among those Portsmen whom the Brodhull selected to request the parliamentary writs from the duke and to present a petition to him regarding their exemption from parliamentary taxation.7 CFR, xviii. 134-5; White and Black Bks. 28. Buckingham’s right to nominate one of the collectors of customs in Sandwich was part of a deal which allowed him to recoup from the Crown some of the arrears owed to him as former captain of the Calais garrison. These arrangements were confirmed in the Parliament of 1453, and during his time as customer Cock frequently delivered money directly to Buckingham or his attorney to meet his requirements.8 E122/127/25.

As customer, Cock was also employed on various ad hoc commissions to conscript ships for service in the King’s wars or inquire into incidents of piracy. He also continued to be involved in the government of Sandwich. He attended meetings of the Brodhull and court of Shepway in 1451 and at the end of that year he was again elected as mayor.9 ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 71, 83v. In the following December, in an apparently unprecedented step, he was named as one of three deputy mayors to John Nesham†, and accordingly served in this capacity at a meeting of the Brodhull in April 1453.10 Ibid. f. 90v; White and Black Bks. 31. In December 1454 he was elected to what would be his final term as mayor and as such, on 20 June 1455, was returned to his third Parliament. While it was not unusual for serving mayors to be returned as one of the barons for Sandwich, Cock’s election on this occasion may also have been related to his duties as customer and his interests in the financial arrangements for the Calais garrison which featured highly on the agenda at Westminster. Gervase Clifton, the then treasurer of the town and marches (and lieutenant of Dover castle), sat with him as one of the knights of the shire for Kent.

A more likely reason for Cock’s return to Parliament, however, was the dispute in which he and his fellow baron, John Green IV*, were then involved over the office of tronager and pesager within the port of Sandwich. On 4 Dec. 1452 Henry VI had granted this office to Thomas Swetman, but when Swetman tried to exercise it on 20 July 1454 Cock and Green, then mayor, had prevented him from weighing 20 sacks of wool belonging to a Lombard merchant. Swetman had complained to the barons of the Exchequer and on 12 Nov. Cock and Green appeared in person before them and were briefly committed to the Fleet prison for contempt before being released on bail. On 20 Oct. 1455 Cock obtained royal letters of pardon and in that Michaelmas term, shortly before the opening of the Parliament’s second session, he pleaded his pardon in the Exchequer court. The background to this case is revealed by proceedings there in the following Hilary term. On 7 Feb. 1456, during the parliamentary session, both Cock and Green appeared before the barons again and were committed to the Fleet for their offence of appointing a local man, William Nede, to the office of tronager and presager during their respective mayoralties, in contempt of the King’s grant to Swetman. Having quickly found sureties for their release (rather than going through the long process of suing out writs of parliamentary privilege), they returned to the court on 2 Apr. when it was finally decided that the office of tronager and presager was properly in the gift of the mayor and commonalty of Sandwich in accordance with their ancient privileges.11 E159/231, recorda Mich. rot. 23, Hil. rot. 25.

Following his return from Westminster, Cock continued to be employed in the government of Sandwich, serving there as jurat and keeper of the keys to the common chest, and by the Crown’s appointment as one of the customers in the port. In September 1456 he travelled to New Romney for a meeting of the Brodhull and on the following 11 Mar. accounted for his final term as mayor.12 White and Black Bks. 36; ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 103v. In November 1456 he appears to have briefly lost his office as customer, being replaced by William Bracebridge, but on the death of the other official, Simon Rainham, in March 1457 he was re-appointed.13 E359/20; CFR, xix. 169-70, 172. His purchase of further letters of pardon in January 1458 may relate to concerns over his period of service as one of the collectors of customs in Sandwich: C67/42, m. 38. In November that year he received the custody of the Port’s common crane, agreeing to pay the commonalty £4 6s. 8d. a year for its maintenance, this significant reduction of its previous farm doubtless reflecting the damage done by Pierre de Brézé’s raid on Sandwich in August. It is unclear whether Cock suffered any personal loss at the hands of the French raiders, but in June 1458 he and John Green were chosen by the commonalty to travel to Westminster to address the King’s council on the losses suffered by the town as a whole. At the same time, the jurats decided to build a new bulwark at Fisher’s Gate. Cock was able to use his influence to obtain a promise from his fellow jurats that this new fortification would not obstruct his quay and hinder access to the Wantsum channel.14 ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 104v-105v.

If Cock did travel to the Westminster to appear before the council on 12 June 1458 it was almost certainly his last activity on behalf of the Port of Sandwich. He appears to have died on 18 July that year (from which date he ceased accounting as collector of customs). He had appointed his wife as his executor and it was she who appeared before the barons of the Exchequer in Hilary term 1459 to render his final account as customer. By May 1462, when she purchased letters of pardon as executor of her late husband’s will, Joan had married the Winchelsea man, John Copledyke*.15 E359/20; C67/45, m. 30. After Copledyke’s death she married Thomas Hextall*.

Little evidence survives of Cock’s private affairs. He was clearly a man of some standing: in pardons granted him in 1455 and 1458 he was styled as ‘esquire’ and in 1442 he claimed exemption from the parliamentary subsidy in Eastry and Wingham hundreds.16 E179/124/110. Most of his property dealings are obscure, although in December 1455 Richard Cheldesworth, the son of the town’s former bailiff, granted him and his wife a messuage in St. Clement’s parish. It is also unclear whether he had any children and his exact relationship with the jurat, Robert Cock, and the cordwainer, Richard Cock, who both lived in Sandwich during the 1460s is not known.17 ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 101, 115.