KEBELL, Andrew

Probably coming from a Kentish family, Andrew was the brother of Richard Kebell, who was living in Gravesend by 1435.4 CAD, ii. A5382; C1/16/581. Together the two brothers purchased land there in 1442, which was settled on Andrew and his heirs.5 CP25(1)/115/316/556. Although usually described as ‘of London’, the MP was associated with townsmen of Gravesend throughout his career, and his regular appearance as a witness of local deeds indicates that he was often resident in the town.6 CCR, 1441-7, pp. 276, 285-6, 290. His first royal post, to which he was appointed in 1437, was as searcher of the port of Gravesend, but before then both brothers had successfully sought positions in government at Westminster: Richard as a clerk of the Chancery,7 CCR, 1447-54, p. 61. and Andrew on the staff at the Exchequer. Andrew was initially engaged as an attorney in the Exchequer of pleas (in 1436 appearing on behalf of the former bailiff of the duke of Gloucester’s liberty in Kent, and for a London wood-monger in a suit against Richard Dallingridge*, the sheriff of Surrey).8 E5/503; E13/140, rot. 7. At home his zeal in carrying out his duties as searcher in the Thames estuary, by seizing consignments of sour wine, beer barrels filled with wool, and smuggled cloth, earned him special rewards.9 CFR, xvi. 334; E159/214, recorda Mich. rot. 4d, 216, recorda, Mich. rot. 15, 221, recorda Mich. rot 3, Easter rot. 10d; E403/736, m. 8. So too did his assignment to take messages from the King’s Council to the treasurer, Lord Cromwell, in Lincolnshire in the summer of 1438.10 E403/731, m. 12. Besides these duties, Kebell also took on administrative tasks for other institutions, such as Reading abbey, for which he was acting as receiver in London in the following year.11 Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Archer mss, DR37/2, box 73/29. That his performance at the Exchequer was deemed satisfactory is indicated by his promotion to the post of comptroller of the pipe, an office owed to the patronage of Master John Somerset*, the chancellor of the Exchequer, and occupied for 14 years, until Somerset’s successor replaced him.12 E368/212, Hil. recorda 1. Kebell was ideally placed to secure leases of crown lands as they became available, for instance that of property in Fobbing and Frindsbury in his home county,13 CFR, xvii. 272; xviii. 75. and in May 1445, by authority of the Parliament then in session, he received a grant of an annuity of £10 for life, backdated to the previous Michaelmas. Henceforth, he was to wear the King’s livery, as issued by the keeper of the great wardrobe.14 CPR, 1441-6, p. 355; E404/61/223; CCR, 1441-7, p. 260. In the 1440s and 1450s various citizens of London sought his assistance in their business affairs, and as ‘of London, gentleman’, he was often the recipient of ‘gifts’ of goods and chattels.15 CCR, 1441-7, pp. 235, 276, 297, 461; 1447-54, p. 99; E159/230, commissiones, Mich. 31 Hen. VI; 232, commissiones, Hil. 34 Hen. VI.

According to the record, Kebell ceased to be searcher of Gravesend in August 1445 on the appointment of William Stalworth, yet, curiously, he continued to exercise (or meddle) in the office, and in the following Hilary term he brought an action in the court of the Exchequer against a hosteler called Thomas Green for having, on 1 Jan.1446, assaulted him and taken goods (wool and fish) which he had discovered concealed on two boats. Green’s defence was that he had been serving as Stalworth’s deputy.16 E13/144, rot. 26d. Kebell first entered the Commons, in the Parliament of February 1449, as an MP for Lyme Regis in Dorset, a place with which he had no known connexion. There can be no doubt that he was a non-resident, and since his fellow MP, William Veysy*, was a close associate of the chancellor of the Exchequer and he himself was one of Somerset’s appointees, it must be assumed that they owed their elections to him and to their roles as officials at Westminster. At a time of escalating crisis in the Crown’s finances, Kebell and Veysy doubtless had a part to play in the presentation of the treasurer’s policies to the Commons, although, unlike the under treasurer, Thomas Brown II*, there is no sign that they received special rewards for preparing financial statements for the assembly. The same applies to Kebell’s return to the next Parliament, which met on 6 Nov., when once again his fellow MP was an Exchequer official: John Gloucester II*. Neither of them had any recorded links with Melcombe Regis, another Dorset borough, which returned them. Following the momentous events of the first two sessions, which witnessed the loss of Normandy and the fall of the King’s chief minister the duke of Suffolk, the Parliament moved to Leicester for its third and final session in the spring of 1450, only for its proceedings to come to a halt with the news of the outbreak of Cade’s rebellion in the south-east. Like many other of the Crown’s officers Kebell saw fit to take out a pardon on 7 July, probably to protect himself from indictment by those opposed to the government. As on other occasions, he was then styled ‘of London, gentleman’, but his name was listed alongside men from Gravesend, close to the turbulent uprisings.17 CPR, 1446-52, p. 340. Parliament was summoned to meet again on 6 Nov. This time Kebell was put down for a seat for Taunton, his name appearing on the schedule returned with the Somerset indenture dated 26 Oct. Yet at some point, perhaps after the schedule had been delivered at the start of the Parliament, his name was crossed out and that of the obscure Thomas Dryffeld* written above it.18 C219/16/1.

If Kebell did sit in the Parliament of 1450-1, it may have been for one of the Cornish boroughs, for which no returns survive. His companion in the previous Parliament, John Gloucester, was returned again by Melcombe, and the two men were both admitted to Lincoln’s Inn on the same day in the spring of 1451, round about the time of the dissolution. Neither of them entered the Inn as students – their admission seems rather to have been on an honorary basis. They remained colleagues at the Exchequer (Gloucester became clerk of the pipe), and most likely also friends; Kebell stood surety for Gloucester subsequently.19 Readings and Moots, i (Selden Soc. lxxi), p. xlv; L. Inn Adm. i. 11; CFR, xix. 20-21. That same spring, he also acted as a mainpernor for others of standing at the Exchequer: Thomas Brown II and John Holme, one of the barons.20 CFR, xviii. 206, 217. Significantly, in October 1451 Kebell joined William Essex*, the remembrancer, in standing bail in King’s bench for Master Thomas Kent, the former clerk of the royal council, who at the height of the crisis of July 1450 had been indicted for plotting to put the duke of Suffolk’s son on the throne, after marrying him to Margaret Beaufort. Kent was cleared of the allegations.21 KB27/762, rex rot. 8. Further leases of crown lands came Kebell’s way in the early 1450s, and on generous terms. The manor of Capel in Kent was leased to him for ten years, and a cottage in Mucking, Essex, for 30 years, while in December 1453 he shared the keeping of a number of properties on and near Tower Wharf in London, again for a 30-year term.22 CFR, xviii. 212; xix. 28, 71-72. Rewards were forthcoming for his labours in making estreats of the revenues paid into the Exchequer and for his labours during vacations. The final acknowledgment of his work, writing the summonses of the pipe, dates from October 1454, four months after he had left office as comptroller when John Somerset died.23 E403/786, m. 14, 800, m. 3. If Kebell ever sailed to France, a record of his journey has not been discovered. Yet he did obtain a share in the ransom of a French prisoner, who in March 1455 was granted a safe conduct to return home to secure it.24 DKR, xlviii. 403. He also continued to have dealings with Londoners, for that month he joined with Robert Basset*, the salter, and others in entering a bond in £10 with the chamberlain of the City.25 London Letter Bk. K, 367-8. Kebell’s third and perhaps final return to Parliament followed the Yorkist victory at St. Albans. On this occasion he represented yet another Dorset borough, Bridport. Again, there is no indication that he had any connexion with the place or its burgesses, but his election may not be so readily ascribed as before to influence from the Exchequer, for he had ceased to hold an important office there.

During this period there was wide scope for the Exchequer clerks to commit fraud and peculation against the Crown, its creditors and its debtors alike, in the increasing gap between the formal processes of their department and the actual arrangements made to pass money from debtor to royal assignee, in which they acted as intermediaries. It looks as if Kebell had been engaged in such a practice earlier, perhaps with the connivance of his superior, the chancellor John Somerset. In Easter term 1454, he successfully pleaded a bill in King’s bench against Richard Burley of Shrewsbury for the sum of £20, which Burley recognized that he owed the two men.26 KB27/772, rot. 72. It was only after the deaths of both Somerset and Kebell that more about this transaction was revealed. It was then alleged that Kebell had used ‘sootyll and untrewe mene’ to obtain from Somerset a tally for £20 assigned on the fee farm for Shrewsbury. Somerset, on his deathbed, bequeathed this £20 to one of his servants, but the latter was unable to obtain it from the administrators of Somerset’s estate (who included Kebell’s one-time colleague in the Commons, William Veysy), for Kebell’s widow, Katherine, refused to hand it over. Kebell had died intestate, and Katherine, along with Robert Morley, had been given administration of his goods by the archbishop of Canterbury.27 A.P.M. Wright, ‘Relations between the King’s Govt. and Bors.’ (Oxf. Univ. D.Phil. thesis, 1965), 245; C1/29/512.

Together with Katherine, in 1457 Kebell had acquired three messuages and some 45 acres of land in Northfleet, close to Gravesend.28 CP25(1)/116/327/836. The date of his death is uncertain. He was the subject of a plea of trespass brought in the King’s bench by Edmund Mountfort* of Warwickshire in the spring of 1458, but failed to appear in court to answer the charge, and may have already been dead.29 KB27/788, rot. 48. In May 1461 his widow, then living in Northfleet, became indebted to a London scrivener in £22 under a statute staple at Westminster, and when she failed to pay on the appointed day a writ was sent out for her arrest on 13 July 1463. Although she could not be found, her property in Northfleet and Gravesend, valued at £7 3s. 6d., was confiscated to pay the debt.30 C131/72/3. It is not known if Kebell left any children, nor what became of those of his brother Richard, who had been entrusted to his wardship.31C1/16/581.