Probably a Southampton man by birth, Armorer was engaged in the business of naval supplies, but may also have been a lawyer. Certainly he was often placed in positions of trust by fellow townsmen: in 1394 John Yry, one of the burgesses, appointed him as supervisor of his will; two years later he provided securities in Chancery for Alexander Day, who was then appealing against a sentence of excommunication passed by the abbot of Westminster; from 1400 he served as feoffee of the property in Southampton belonging to William Audley, esquire; and later he acted similarly for two sometime mayors, William Ravenstone and John Renaud, as well as for members of the wealthy Chamberlain family. Armorer also appeared as a trustee of the manor of Suttons Place in Shirley and the ‘Broke’ in Totton, on behalf of Nicholas Banaster.
It is a measure of Armorer’s competence in administrative matters, that Richard, earl of Warwick, should have employed him as his pesager in Southampton and farmer of all his property there from 1408 until 1418 or later. This period also saw Armorer occupying a position of some importance in the administration of Southampton, in particular during the ten years or more that he held the office of bailiff, his especial responsibility being the collection of the local customs and the payment of the fee farm at the Exchequer.
Meanwhile, Armorer had acquired property in Southampton. In 1404 he and his first wife had taken possession of a large house on the east side of English Street, which they made their home. Later he purchased a tenement on the opposite side of the street and became co-lessee of two more buildings there, but in 1407 it was alleged that he was eight years behind in his payment of rent to ‘God’s House’ hospital for the former property. By now a man of some means, in July 1408 Armorer joined with a local merchant, Thomas Middleton, in making a loan of £200 to the earl of Kent, the latter pledging a large quantity of plate and jewels which were afterwards redeemed by the King. He continued to build up his property interests in the town and its suburbs, acquiring ‘Lytyllhampton’ (Hampton Croft) outside the north gate near some gardens of his, and by 1420 he was possessed of four houses in French Street, one of these being a sizeable mansion with two roofs, a vault, a large garden and a well. Armorer’s second marriage brought him holdings further away, in Winchester and Petersfield; and in 1428 at the Hampshire assizes he laid claim to annual rents of 26s.8d. from property in Alton, which his wife had inherited from her mother, Elizabeth Thuddon.
Armorer is last recorded in November 1428, when he sold his dwelling-place in English Street, and he died before the following spring. His widow continued for a while to contest their suit at the assizes and to pay rent to the municipal authorities and ‘God’s House’. By 1454 one of the towers on the town walls had come to be known as ‘Armorer’s Tower’, so perhaps Armorer had paid for its construction.