SCOLES, Richard

It is conceivable that Scoles was a kinsman of a fellow townsman, John Scales*, whose surname was a variant of his own. It is unclear when he became a freeman of Hull, where there were at least two burgesses named Richard Scoles in the early fifteenth century. One, an apprentice of William Pound, became a freeman there in 1408, and the other, apprenticed to Hugh Clitheroe†, obtained the freedom status seven years later;4 Kingston-upon-Hull bench bk. 2, BRE 1, pp. 245, 252. yet neither of them was necessarily the MP. What follows is based on the premise that the subject of this biography was a prominent wool merchant of that name, since his wealth makes him the most plausible candidate for the MP and the holder of the offices listed above.

In December 1426 the Crown issued a licence to export woolfells and wool free of customs to this Robert Scoles and other Hull merchants, to compensate them for the cargoes they had lost with La Isabella of Calais, a vessel owned by the earl of Warwick that the King’s enemies had sunk off Dover in the previous September.5 CPR, 1422-9, p. 385. Within a year of receiving the licence, Scoles was appointed a chamberlain of Hull, the first of his known municipal offices, and at Michaelmas 1431 he began a term as one of the town’s bailiffs. Nearly a decade later, he became one of the first aldermen of Hull, and no doubt he would also have become mayor had he not died soon afterwards.

Apart from his municipal responsibilities, Scoles served briefly as a searcher of ships at Hull, and on one occasion during his term as such he intercepted a consignment of English and Flemish gold coins on a boat sailing out of the Humber.6 H. Bradley, Views of Hosts of Alien Merchants, p. xlvii; E122/184/9. He and his associate as searcher, John Spencer I*, took up their appointments as such in spite of a lawsuit that their predecessors, Robert Haddlesey and Robert Beaume, had begun against them just two days earlier. On 30 Jan. 1438 Haddlesey and Beaume informed the barons of the Exchequer that Scoles and Spencer, along with Adam Douce, a woolman from Beverley, and 16 other unknown accomplices, had assaulted them and prevented them from carrying out their duties. On the following 12 Feb., Scoles and Spencer appeared before the barons in person and entered a plea of not guilty. Douce, however, could not be found and thereafter the case was continually postponed from term to term amidst problems in assembling a local jury.7 E159/214, recorda Hil. rot. 11d. Ironically, Spenser and Beaume found themselves serving together in the meantime, since the Crown named them for the office when it made a fresh appointment of searchers at Hull in October 1438.8 CFR, xvii. 58.

In the late summer of 1439 Scoles himself saw service on a Hull jury that made presentments for smuggling offences,9 E159/216, recorda Hil. rot. 14. and in the following autumn he was elected to his only Parliament. The main task allotted to him and his fellow MP, Richard Anson*, each of whom received wages for 28 days’ attendance at Westminster, was to secure the charter subsequently granted to their town in May 1440. This incorporated Kingston-upon-Hull as a county in its own right and added the office of alderman, of which Scoles was one of the first holders, to the municipal administration. The town also paid Scoles expenses for his activities immediately after the Parliament: for waiting upon the King at Westminster, probably in April 1440, he received 2s. 4d., and to reimburse him for his outlay on the gilding of a new mayoral mace a further 33s. 4d.10 BRE 2, f. 12; B.P. Wolffe, Hen. VI, 362. It was the Parliament of 1439 that required all alien merchants in the realm to reside with a native counterpart, and late in life Scoles hosted several such foreign visitors from the Low Countries.11 Bradley, pp. xxxv, 153-4; E101/128/31.

Scoles died within a year of the Parliament, either in late 1440 or early 1441, and on 2 Feb. 1441 Thomas Riculf, the attorney representing him and John Spencer against Haddesley and Beaume, informed the barons of the Exchequer that he was no longer alive.12 E159/214, recorda Hil. rot. 20d. His will has not survived but an account relating to his hosting of foreign merchants reveals that his executors were Alice and Robert Scoles, probably his widow and son.13 E101/128/31. Robert gained admission to the freedom of Hull by right of patrimony that same year, and afterwards served there as chamberlain (1469-70) and sheriff (1476-7).14 Kermode, app. 4.