MARKEBY, William I

Perhaps from a family originally from Markby near Alford in Lindsey, it is tempting to suggest that William Markeby was the son and heir of his namesake, a goldsmith of London who was alive at least as late as 1452. On chronological grounds, however, this is must be judged impossible, for the latter does not appear in the records of the Goldsmith’s Company until 1406, when our MP was already playing a part in the administrative affairs of Lincoln. Although it is clear that the two men were related – in a Chancery suit of about 1440 our MP’s son is described as the goldsmith’s kinsman – the nature of this relationship cannot be traced. The goldsmith was from a dynasty of goldsmiths with no known association with Lincoln.3 Wardens’ Accts. of Goldsmiths’ Mistery ed. Jefferson, 322; CPR, 1446-52, p. 561; C1/16/274. He was the son of John Markeby, goldsmith, by Joan, da. and h. of John Frenssh, a goldsmith of Chichester: CCR, 1441-7, pp. 357-8. Henry Markeby had been a warden of the Goldsmiths’ Co. in 1363-4: Wardens’ Accts. of Goldsmiths’ Mistery, 88.

The first reference to the MP dates from 17 Apr. 1398, when, as of the diocese of Lincoln, he secured a papal grant of plenary remission of sins at the hour of death.4 CPL, v. 128. Thereafter what is known of his career largely concerns the very active role he long took in the administration of Lincoln. Between 1406 and 1418 he held office as bailiff, treasurer and mayor. Not surprisingly in view of his standing in the city he attended the three common congregations of the early 1420s, on the last occasion, in September 1423, being named as an attestor of the parliamentary election which took place on the same day.5 Lincs. AO, Lincoln city recs., White bk. L1/3/1, ff. 2v, 3v, 5; C219/13/2. When Hamon Sutton I*, by far the richest of the city’s inhabitants, was elected to represent Lincoln in the Parliaments of 1425 and 1426, Markeby stood as mainpernor for his attendance; and he himself was returned to represent the city on 1 June 1433.6 C219/13/3, 4; 14/4. In November following, during the second session of this Parliament, he acted with his son William in the acquisition of a tenement in the London parish of St. Vedast in West Cheap, which the other William, the London goldsmith, had mortgaged and found himself unable to redeem.7 Corp. London RO, hr 162/17-19; C1/16/274-5, 431. At the next Lincoln election of 19 Sept. 1435 Markeby acted as a pledge for his son’s attendance in Parliament; and in July 1437 he sued out a royal pardon as graceman of the guild of St. Mary. This is the only reference to him as the head of the principal religious guild of the city, but it is an office he may have long held.8 C219/14/5; C67/38, m. 11.

Markeby had the wealth to justify his prominence in Lincoln. According to the subsidy returns of 1436 he was one of the most substantial landowners resident there, assessed on an income of as much as £14 p.a.9 CP40/635, rot. 344; E163/7/31/1. Some of his property came to him by acquisition. By the summer of 1416 he had acquired part of the city wall in the parish of St. Peter at Arches, which he held of the mayor and community at a rent of 18d. p.a.; and on 8 Nov. 1417, shortly before becoming mayor for the first time, he made the further acquisition of a tenement in Pottergate in the parish of St. Margaret.10 CPR, 1416-22, p. 45; Lincs. AO, Peake, Snow and Jeudwine mss, PSJ1/A/8/1. The bulk of his property, however, probably came to him by inheritance. By a fine levied in Michaelmas term 1425, he conveyed as many as 20 messuages and 20 acres of land and meadow to his son, William, to hold at an annual rent of five marks. This was a somewhat surprising lease in view of the fact that the younger William had established himself as a lawyer in London, but it may have been connected with the settlement made on the latter’s marriage to a wealthy widow.11 CP25(1)/145/156/22.

This arrangement was to be ended not by the father’s death but by the son’s. In his will of 18 Dec. 1438 the younger William bequeathed plate and £10 in cash to his father together with a life estate in all his lands in Lincoln. The death of the son must have come as a blow to the father because his wife and younger son, John, had already died.12 PCC 26 Luffenham (PROB11/3, f. 204). John was one of the commrs. for the assessment of the subsidy of 1436 in Lincoln: CFR, xvi. 258. He himself must have been an old man, but that did not prevent him serving a second term as mayor in 1439-40 and attesting his 13th parliamentary election in 1442. He was, however, dead by Michaelmas term 1448, when John Rous*, as his executor, had an action of debt pending in the court of common pleas.13 C241/230/6; C219/15/2; CP40/751, rot. 459.