RYPPS, Richard

Rypps first appears in the records of Rye in 1449, when chosen by John Hammond†, the newly-elected mayor, to be his attendant and keeper of the keys for the forthcoming year. In the event, he continued to occupy this position for two annual terms. A few days after his appointment, he accompanied Hammond to a Guestling at Hastings, and later on returned there for negotiations to settle the disputes between Rye and its member-port of Tenterden. It seems likely that Rypps made a living by trading in wine, for he supplied the wine which the commonalty gave to a herald sent by the warden of the Ports, the duke of Buckingham.6 Rye mss, 60/2, ff. 11-12. In 1451 he was added to the body of jurats of Rye, perhaps immediately after one of them died or resigned, for he was numbered 13 on the list which otherwise invariably totalled 12. He retained this position for four years before his election as mayor. As a jurat, round about Christmas 1452 he travelled to London with the then mayor Robert Onewyn I*, and it was in association with Onewyn that he once more became involved in finalizing the settlement with Tenterden.7 Ibid. f. 32.

The two men were elected to the Parliament summoned to meet at Reading on 6 Mar. following, which moved to Westminster for its second session from 25 Apr. to 2 July 1453. The Parliament was eventually dissolved in April 1454, and that summer Rypps received a payment of £3 1s. 6d. towards his parliamentary wages. This did not amount to much for a Parliament which had lasted 160 days all told, and he evidently had difficulty gaining the rest of the sum due to him, for further payments merely dribbled in over the next three years, and were for the most part made in the form of allowances on maltolts he owed on the sale of salt and other commodities. Even then, ten small payments amounted to a total of just £3 12s. 3d. (which meant that, if he had attended all the sessions, he had received less than 1s. a day). It is notable too that it was only when Rypps became mayor that he managed to claw back some of his parliamentary wages.8 Ibid. ff. 37, 44, 44v, 48, 48v, 49v, 50, 55.

Shortly after his election as mayor in 1455, Rypps hosted a visit by the lieutenant warden of the Cinque Ports, he himself providing oats, hay and litter for eight horses at the visitor’s lodgings.9 Ibid. f. 49. With the mayoralty also came the task of representing Rye at Brodhulls at New Romney, and this he did five times while mayor for his two consecutive terms and a further seven times subsequently.10 Ibid. ff. 80v, 104v; White and Black Bks. 35-38, 41, 45, 47, 48, 50, 53, 54. Around Easter 1460 he accompanied the then mayor, the deputy bailiff, three other jurats and the common clerk to Dover, after they had been summoned to see the warden under ‘gravissima pena’ and at risk of being in contempt of the King.11 Rye mss, 60/2, f. 78v. The nature of their alleged offence is not revealed. While at the Brodhull of July 1462 Rypps was named as one of the Ports’ bailiffs at the autumn herring fair at Yarmouth. He was also called upon to witness deeds at Rye, including the important conveyance of ten years earlier whereby the fortification known as ‘Ypres Tower’ passed from John Ypres to Thomas Stoughton*.12 Cat. Rye Recs. deeds 122/12, 13; 124/3; 137/17.

Little is known about Rypps’s own property, although as he was one of the 20 men taxed at the highest rate of 3s. 4d. for a half-scot collected in Rye in May 1459, his holdings may have been substantial.13 Rye mss, 60/2, f. 64. As a baron of the Port, in 1463 he claimed exemption from taxation on his moveable goods outside the liberty, at Hope.14 E179/189/96. Rypps’s last appearance in the records was as a delegate to the Brodhull of April 1466.15 White and Black Bks. 54. Isabel Rypps, who was to be at Dover in August 1482 to make an agreement with Thomas Hextall* and Robert Sydeley regarding the sum of £20 which they had received by a ‘withernam’ awarded against her home Port of Rye, may have been his widow.16 Ibid. 85.