WALSH, John

As the surname by which he was commonly known in England indicates, Walsh originally hailed from Wales – more specifically, from Glamorgan. It is not known when he was naturalized, but in an undated petition for denization, directed to the Commons, he claimed to have been resident in England for 30 years and more, and he may have had denizen status by 1429, when he apparently owned property in Dartmouth.3 SC8/113/5648. It is probable that it was the maritime trade which brought him to south-western England, for he was variously styled a ‘merchant’ or a ‘mariner’.4 CP40/734, rot. 37d; CPR, 1429-36, p. 133. It is uncertain what commodities Walsh traded in, although in an indictment of 1441 he was described as a ‘beremaker’ (as a near-namesake and possible kinsman, William Walsh, had been ten years earlier),5 KB27/722, rot. 16; CPR, 1429-36, p. 133. and it is possible that his primary interests lay in the shipping business: in January 1443 he and his prominent neighbour Robert Wenyngton alias Cane* joined together to purchase half of a Spanish ship called La Marye which had been captured by one David Roche, master of Le Marye Carewe.6 Watkin, 397. Certainly, there was money to be made in the Channel by those unscrupulous enough to do so, and while details of Walsh’s activities are limited, it seems clear that like many of his Dartmouth neighbours he was active as a privateer. Thus, in May 1431 he was among a large group of men from the south-western Channel ports (including the mayor of Exeter, John Hull*) ordered to be arrested and brought before the King’s council.7 CPR, 1429-36, p. 133. Some years later, in 1442, the Taunton merchant Thomas Rokes I* and two men from Brittany complained to the chancellor that Walsh had taken a ship of theirs at sea, brought it to Brixham harbour, and was refusing to return the cargo, even to the Englishman, unless he would agree to pay the freight.8 W. Country Shipping (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. xxi), no. 49; C1/73/84. By 1435, Walsh had also fallen foul of the young earl of Devon, Thomas Courtenay. That autumn the sheriff of Devon was ordered to seize his chattels (along with those of several associates, including William Glover† and Thomas Asshenden*) in distraint for the restitution of other goods which they were said to have taken from the earl.9 KB27/694, rot. 41d.

As Walsh’s association with some of the leading men of Dartmouth demonstrates, these illicit activities did not damage his standing among his fellow townsmen. In the autumn of 1430 he was chosen one of the bailiffs of Dartmouth, and not long after he was named among a group of some 42 men from the port who allegedly assaulted the royal escheator, Baldwin Fulford*.10 Watkin, 112-13; CPR, 1429-36, p. 279. In 1437 he was appointed alongside three other Dartmouth merchants to appraise confiscated goods for the customs collector, Thomas Gille I*,11 Watkin, 109, 115, 134; E122/222, pt. 2, nos. 38/3, 4. and later that year he was elected to his only documented spell in the Commons. Beyond doubt, he now ranked among the leading burgesses of Dartmouth, and a year later reached the pinnacle of his career when he was chosen mayor. In 1440, two fishermen taken prisoner off the shore near Dartmouth, had good reason to complain of Walsh’s power,12 W. Country Shipping, no. 47. not least since his services were now also drawn upon by the Crown to raise shipping to transport troops to France.

By 1429 Walsh had occupied a house in Dartmouth which adjoined that of the former mayor and MP John Foxley†, but his works to improve the property became the subject of a bitter dispute between them, which had to be put to the arbitration of other burgesses, including John More II*, Hugh Yon* and John Rede I*, in the court of the mayor, Thomas Asshenden (later Walsh’s companion in Parliament). His main residence aside, Walsh also owned another tenement, as well as a garden ‘above the towne’, and in October 1436 he rented the cellar beneath the house belonging to John Bridon for a term of ten years at an annual rent of 11s. 4d., probably for use as a storeroom.13 Watkin, 109, 115. Particularly in his later years, he was much in demand as a witness to local deeds or as a feoffee of property in the town,14 Ibid. 112, 115, 118-21, 125-9. and by the 1440s he had joined the ranks of the feoffees of the communal chantry in the parish church of St. Saviour originally established by Richard London.15 Ibid. 118, 126.

Walsh is not known to have had offspring other than a daughter who died in 1441,16 Watkin, 308. so he stipulated by his will that all his possessions in Dartmouth should fall to his widow and his relations John Clerk* and Katherine his wife. He died in mid 1446.17 Watkin, 129; C67/39, m. 25. In accordance with the provisions of his will his widow Isabel kept the house they had lived together. Ultimately, the Walsh inheritance was to pass from John Clerk to his daughter, another Katherine, and her husband, the London tailor Thomas Gay the younger, who was later forced to sue in Chancery for the muniments relating to the Dartmouth property.18 C1/32/275; Watkin, 134. Along with those of other prominent townsmen, Walsh’s obit continued to be kept annually until at least 1539.19 Watkin, 149, 153, 319.