RANKYN, Simon

While not foremost among the Cambridge townsmen of his day, Rankyn was very much involved in the affairs of his borough. He had begun his career as an office-holder before entering the Commons, since he was one of the treasurers of Cambridge when elected as an MP. His parliamentary wages feature in the expenses section of the account of him and his co-treasurer, Thomas Sturmyn. Paid at the then standard daily rate of 2s., he received £4 10s. for the 45 days that he spent attending and travelling to and from Parliament, as did his fellow MP, Richard Bush*. In addition, the borough allowed him and Bush an additional 10s. in expenses for their part in negotiations between the town of Cambridge and the bishop of Norwich which took place in London while the Parliament was sitting.3 City/PB Box X/70/1.

The town’s relations with the university of Cambridge were much more fraught than any differences it might have had with the bishop. Following the involvement of the townsmen in the unrest that broke out in Cambridge during the Peasant’s Revolt, the town had forfeited its franchises. Although the Crown had restored these in 1382, it transferred certain important jurisdictional rights to the university. Relations between the town and university had again become bitter during Henry V’s reign and, no doubt to forestall a repetition of serious unrest, the practice grew up for representatives of the two sides to confer at an annual ‘Magna Congregatio’. In about 1423, shortly after he had ceased to be an MP, Rankyn attended one such ‘great congregation’ where he was among those representing the town’s suburbs.4 The Commons 1386-1421, i. 288; Cambridge bor. recs., ‘Cross Bk.’, City/PB Box I/4, f. 13. By the mid 1420s, the leading townsmen were also in dispute with each other over the manner of electing the borough’s ruling common council or ‘twenty-four’. This led to a reorganization in April 1426, in which Rankyn was involved. The previous method of election is not known, but the proceedings of the reorganization recorded in the town’s ‘Cross Book’ show that Rankyn was among the second group of burgesses elected to the new council following an initial election of its first eight new members.5 The Commons 1386-1421, i. 289. In the following July, he was considered (although not pricked) for jury service at the gaol delivery sessions in the town, and it was not until the gaol delivery of early 1430 that he served in this role.6 JUST3/8/12/3; 14/21. By the latter date, he had already completed a term as one of the bailiffs of Cambridge, an office in which he would serve at least six terms in all.

In 1437 and again three years later Rankyn was involved in transactions concerning properties in Huntingdon but his interest in them is unclear. By this stage in his career he had become associated with Walter Cotton of Landwade, who had pursued a successful career as a mercer in London and was the father of William Cotton*. Together they took action against Robert Thorpe*, a merchant from the Suffolk town of Dunwich, for a debt of just over £28, in a suit which had led to Thorpe’s outlawry by May 1437. Twelve years later, John Thorpe of Stowmarket, presumably a relative of Robert, received a pardon for the outlawry that he had incurred after Rankyn and Cotton had sued him for the same sum.7 CPR, 1436-41, p. 12; 1446-52, p. 197.

Still active in the mid 1440s, Rankyn served his last recorded term as bailiff of Cambridge in 1446-7. In July 1446, not long before that term began, the King made a grant in frankalmoin of two tenements in Chesterton to Clare Hall, Cambridge, which he had acquired from several feoffees. Rankyn was among these trustees but for whom they were acting is unknown.8 Add. Chs. 33544, 33547; CPR, 1441-6, pp. 457-8. In the following year Rankyn was one of 17 defendants named in a lawsuit brought by a merchant, Thomas Kyrkeby, in the court of common pleas at Westminster. When pleadings in this suit opened in Trinity term 1447, Kyrkeby alleged that the defendants, who also included William Tame*, John Cook II* and 11 other burgesses from Cambridge, had illegally maintained a suit that Richard Togood* had brought against him in the local borough court. Following out of court negotiations between the parties, there were further pleadings in Easter term 1448, at which both plaintiff and defendants agreed to a trial by jury, although this probably never occurred. The records of this case refer to Rankyn as a ‘fyssher’, indicating that he was a fishmonger by trade.9 CP40/746, rot. 512d; 749, rot 117.

Rankyn did not live beyond the late 1440s. He was certainly dead by Michaelmas 1451, when his executors, the same Richard Togood and John Rankyn, took action for a debt of £14 in the borough court at Great Yarmouth against Robert Pynne* of that town.10 Norf. RO, Gt. Yarmouth recs., ct. roll, 1451-2, Y/C 4/158, m. 1. While there is no definite evidence for the MP’s family, evidently John was a relative, one of several Rankyns living in Cambridge at the end of the century. A John Rankyn owed hagable rent – a charge payable by the holders of certain houses in Cambridge to the King – in 1493 and seven years later another Simon Rankyn was renting a house on the great bridge from the town. They were probably brothers, since the widowed Joan Rankyn of St. Clement’s parish mentioned her sons, John and Simon, in her will of 1498.11 Cambridge Docs. ed. Palmer, 42, 57, 66; Cambs. Archs., consist. ct. Ely, reg. CV4, f. 122.