PETWORTH, William

Sometimes styled ‘clerk’ or ‘Master Petworth’, William was evidently a man of some education. He took his surname from his birthplace in Sussex but he had formed a connexion with Colchester by the mid 1430s. In May 1435 John Saveyn* and another burgess acknowledged in the borough court that they owed him 60 marks, and he was admitted a freeman of the town in October 1436.5 Colchester bor. recs., ‘Oath bk.’, D/B 5 R1, f. 87d; ct. rolls, 1434-5, 1436-7, 1438-9, D/B 5 Cr52, mm. 21d, 30; 54, m. 30; 56, m. 4. It is possible that he had come to Colchester from London, and that he continued to pursue a career in the City for some time after becoming a freeman. A William Petworth was among those to whom Edward Fitzsymond of Essex and his wife conveyed certain properties in the City in February 1438, and William Petworth of London, merchant, brought suits for debt in the court of common pleas against two men from Halstead in 1442.6 Corp. London RO, hr 167/67; CP40/727, rots. 67d, 276d. At Colchester Petworth became involved in the wine trade although he appears also to have dealt in other commodities and he counted a fellow burgess, John Rouge*, as a business partner. Their commercial interests extended well beyond Colchester and at one stage – the date is unknown – they pursued a suit in the Chancery over the losses they had incurred when a ship and its cargo of salt went down in the English Channel. The defendant, a mariner from Deal in Kent, had been piloting the ship into Winchelsea in Petworth’s native Sussex when it sank, a disaster they blamed on his negligence.7 Colchester ct. rolls, 1438-9, 1448-9, 1451-3, 1455-6, D/B 5 Cr56, m. 4; 63, mm. 8, 15; 64, mm. 2, 11d, 20d; 65, mm. 2d, 11d, 18d; 66, mm. 2d, 12d; C1/73/94.

Soon after becoming a freeman, Petworth began acting as a feoffee, witness and arbiter for other burgesses,8 Colchester ct. rolls, 1438-40, 1452-3, 1455-6, D/B 5 Cr56, mm. 5d, 6d; 57, m. 25; 65, m. 9; 66, m. 16; ‘Justices’ bk.’, 1435-43, D/B 5 Sb1/1, f. 20. but he did not hold office in the borough until the 1450s. An alderman when returned to his only known Parliament, he was still an MP when elected bailiff for the first time. Shortly before the end of the last session of the Parliament of 1453, it was decided to levy loans from 16 towns, including Colchester, towards the costs of keeping the seas. As with Ipswich and Maldon, the contribution sought from Colchester was £100, which Petworth and his associate as bailiff, John Foorde*, duly levied and paid to Richard, earl of Salisbury, and the other keepers of the sea. Through administrative oversight, however, the Exchequer afterwards took action against them and their counterparts from the other two towns for non-payment, proceedings not halted until later in the decade.9 PROME, xii. 267-8; E159/235, recorda Mich. rots. 63d, 70.

It would appear that Petworth did not hold further office in Colchester after completing his second term as bailiff in 1460. Still alive in January 1461, when amerced for keeping a ruined gutter in a lane next to his house,10 Colchester ct. roll, 1460-1, D/B 5 Cr71, m. 10d. he was dead by the following 23 Sept. when the Church authorities ordered the abbot of Colchester to prove his will.11 Reg. Bourgchier (Canterbury and York Soc. liv), 199.