MATHEW, William

On his death in 1413 William’s father John, a chandler, left his tenement at the end of High Street near the Eastgate of Winchester to his widow, Joan, who subsequently married John Bailly. This property never came into William’s possession, for after Joan died, in about 1431, it was conveyed to two clerks acting on behalf of Winchester College (presumably to fulfill a testamentary request) and William formally relinquished his title three years later.4 Keene, ii. no. 501; Winchester Coll. muns. 1155, 1159-60, 1162-4; CCR, 1413-19, p. 87. A chandler like his father, he traded in a variety of goods, such as tallow, cards, wire, lead, wax, cotton thread and resin,5 Keene, i. 300; ii. 1294. and entered the guild merchant of the city in 1417-18.6 Hants RO, Winchester recs., W/E1/14. Along with Thomas Gardener* he stood surety for Thomas Bole, one of the constables, when he was fined £5 for failing to do his duty to the mayor, John Veel*, in 1423, and a year later he was elected bailiff of the commons at the same time that Bole was promoted bailiff of the 24. It was during his term as the junior bailiff that he was returned to Parliament for the only time.

Mathew’s activities as bailiff that term brought him into conflict with the former mayor Veel, who was alnager in Winchester throughout the ten years from 1422 to 1432. On 19 Oct. 1428 Veel came before the barons of the Exchequer and made a number of serious allegations against him. First he alleged that Mathew wrongly had in his possession five seals needed to seal sacks of cloth sold in the city, which belonged to the alnagers. Mathew stated in his defence in Hilary term 1429 that four of the seals had come into his possession as executor of the will of Maud, the widow of Thomas Wolley, once a farmer of the alnage, along with other of her moveable goods. These four seals he handed over in the court. The other seal was in the keeping of a lieutenant of the late mayor, Richard Turnaunt*. He declared that he had never intended to defraud the King. Veel also accused him of confiscating cloth worth 50s. in Le Bell Inn in July 1425, while he was bailiff, in contempt of Veel’s own office. Finally, Veel accused the bailiff of having breached the statutes prohibiting those responsible for holding assizes of victuals from trading on their own account. He had sold wine worth £24 in a tavern to John Hampton I* of Stoke, gentleman, his associate Thomas Bole and a number of others. This last suit dragged on until in 1435 a Hampshire jury cleared Mathew of most of the charges.7 E159/205, recorda Mich. rots. 22, 23, 25. Meanwhile, perhaps in connexion with his row with Veel, Mathew offended against the franchise of Winchester in some unrecorded way, but he was restored to the freedom on 10 Aug. 1429,8 Black Bk. 67, 119. and selected to be constable in 1431 and bailiff of the 24 in 1437. He is not recorded thereafter.