MORE, John II

The John More who represented Dartmouth in two of the Parliaments of Henry VI’s minority was a local merchant, and probably the son of a man who had sat for the same constituency in the Parliament of 1386. He married twice, his first wife Isabel having died by the early years of Henry VI’s reign. Nevertheless, provision for her soul seems to have occupied him for years after, and it was probably to celebrate her obit that he paid 4d. to the churchwardens of St. Saviour’s in 1430-1 to have the church bells rung.6 Watkin, 299. The extent of More’s property in Dartmouth is obscure, but it included a garden on the south side of la Forde, and a tenement to the west of the King’s way. Some of it was held from the churchwardens of St. Saviour’s, from whom he purchased slates for its repair in 1432.7 Ibid. 107, 119, 297, 310.

The parentage of More’s second wife, Joan, has not been discovered, but she may have been the widow (or just possibly a daughter) of the Dartmouth draper William Smith, of whose will she was an executor.8 CP40/680, rot. 169. Certainly, it seems that the marriage was not popular with Smith’s putative heir, John, who by 1424 (not long after the couple’s marriage) was suing them for disseising him of a tenement in Dartmouth, and infractions into his other property.9 CP40/682, rots. 2, 15d; Watkin, 106, 111, 116.

More was active in local administration in at least a minor capacity by July 1400 when it was probably he who was employed by the sheriff of Devon to summon the water-bailiff of Dartmouth. He first held more senior town office in 1413, when he was elected the town’s bailiff.10 CPR, 1399-1401, p. 322. Little is known of his activities in that capacity, but as was customary he regularly attested the deeds recording business transacted at the guildhall.11 Watkin, 95-96. Following his term of office, More retired back into private life for another decade. Only in December 1423 did he once again take up office, this time as controller of customs in the south-Devon district. Further appointments soon followed. In the autumn of 1425 he was elected mayor of Dartmouth, and within weeks he added to this the office of deputy butler in the port. His official conduct evidently met with the approval of his neighbours and the Crown alike, for he not only continued to hold his royal appointments for several years, but was re-elected for a second term as mayor, and in the final days of his tenure presided over his own return to the Commons as one of Dartmouth’s representatives.

More’s business interests did not differ much from those of many of his fellows in that he combined legitimate trade with the occasional act of piracy. Described as a chapman or ‘soper’ in 1415, his commercial ventures were not restricted to England alone, and he was a shipowner in at least a small way, since in September 1422 he was one of a group of Dartmouth men who together bought the royal balinger Nicholas from the clerk of the King’s ships, William Soper*, at a cost of £66 13s. 4d.12 Navy of Lancastrian Kings (Navy Recs. Soc. cxxiii), 66, 109, 146, 251. In 1415 he took the precaution of securing a royal pardon, probably in connexion with allegations made against him about that time by a Milanese merchant, Francesco de Gastaldo, who accused More and a fellow Dartmouth merchant, John Rede I*, of taking his merchandise, wool and jewels, as well as inflicting bodily injuries on him. A trial in the court of admiralty before the admiral’s lieutenant, John Urban†, resulted in Gastaldo’s condemnation to pay the costs of the action, even though More and Rede had admitted that certain of his goods had come into their hands and had readily offered to make restitution. The Italian was understandably unhappy with this verdict and appealed, causing the issue of a commission of oyer and terminer to investigate the matter further.13 C67/37, m. 59; CPR, 1413-16, pp. 406-7. Similar charges were brought against More in 1431 by two merchants of Ghent and Sluys who complained that their goods had been captured at sea and taken to Dartmouth by a group of West Country men, including him and his fellow merchant Hugh Yon*, in two balingers called La Marie and Le George, two barges, Le Gabriell and La Petyr, and other ships. As a result, a commission was issued to the mayor of Dartmouth, then John Foxley†, and others for the arrest of More and his associates.14 CPR, 1429-36, p. 154. A further offence of similar character was said to have taken place in Dartmouth itself. On 12 Aug. 1433, so John de Port, a Portuguese merchant claimed, a group of English traders including More, as well as the royal searcher in the port, William Attwyll*, and the wealthy Exeter merchant John Hull*, had boarded his ship with an armed following of some 60 men, and had cut the vessel’s sail from the yardarm. They had gone on to ransack the cellars where de Port’s property was stored and seized it. De Port brought his case before the chancellor, but the writs of subpoena he procured were never served, as the Exeter men curtly informed the messengers that any attempt to do so would prove fatal to them. In the late autumn the Iberian placed his grievance before the Commons, and by mid December he had secured a special act of Parliament. In January, de Port’s opponents appeared in the court of King’s bench, and More roundly denied any involvement in the alleged offences, while his co-defendants claimed to have struck a bargain with the Portuguese to buy some of his cargo, a deal which de Port had subsequently refused to honour. The claims and counter-claims evidently baffled the justices, and in September 1435 a commission of four Dartmouth men, headed by John Hawley*, was appointed to investigate the matter further.15 SC8/135/6718; C1/9/177; KB27/691, rot. 73; CPR, 1429-36, p. 469.

While this affair was occupying the courts, More completed a second term as mayor of Dartmouth. Now, however, the matter caught up with him. In June 1435 his arrest was ordered along with that of Hull and their other associates, and in July More bound himself in £40 to appear at Westminster in late October. 16 CPR, 1429-36, p. 474; CCR, 1429-35, p. 367. Perhaps as protection against a fresh petition in Parliament, he now also secured election to the Commons who were to assemble at about the same time. What his parliamentary status could not protect him from was the loss of his last remaining Crown office: on 28 Oct. he was stripped of the deputy butlership.

It is not impossible that More welcomed the end of his official career. Although he continued to act as a trustee or feoffee for his neighbours,17 Watkin, 115; C1/7/110; Harvard Law School Lib., English deeds, 277. he did not live for much longer and was certainly dead by June 1438, last appearing in the records in August 1436. He was survived by his wife Joan, who cannot be identified with absolute certainty with the tavern-keeper who by February 1439 was married to one John Stephen.18 CP40/726, rot. 358. If they were the same person, the marriage did not last long, for More’s widow was once more single in March 1440, when she granted one of her tenements to Nicholas Hawley.19 Watkin, 119. More’s place in Dartmouth society was filled by his putative son, John, who had sat alongside him in the Parliament of 1435 as a representative for the nearby borough of Totnes.20 It is possible that in 1435 John II was returned for both Dartmouth and Totnes, but the election return which distinguishes him as ‘of Dartmouth’ suggests that two men of the same name were indeed elected: C219/14/5.