Bernewell’s family was from Essex and may well have taken its name from the manor of Barne Walden or Berwolden in that county. In 1414 a chaplain named John Bernewell was involved in a transaction concerning this estate.
Bernewell was a fishmonger by trade, and although little is recorded of his career within the Fishmongers’ Company it is clear that his trading activities resulted in his becoming an important member of that guild. By 1414 he was already sufficiently prominent within his craft to be among those who attested an inquisition into the selling of fish in Old Fish Street. From the outset, Bernewell maintained close relations with his fellow fishmongers. He was particularly prominent as an executor of John Perneys† (d. 1434), and as a result was drawn into several protracted disputes over the latter’s estate, arising from Perneys’s own activities as an executor of Nicholas James*. Thus, in the summer of 1435 Thomas Badby, another of James’s executors, tried to recover over £386 which he claimed Perneys had withheld. In the event Bernewell and his fellow executors were only obliged to find £186. They were also involved in protracted legal action against the wardens of the Fishmongers’ Company in an attempt to recover 100 marks as compensation for obligations entered into by Perneys on its behalf for the purchase of premises in Thames Street. Their own behaviour did not help matters, however, for it was as a result of their intransigence that Perneys’s son, Henry, did not obtain his inheritance until 1442, and there were also lengthy delays after they failed to release their title to the deceased’s premises in the city.
Like other London fishmongers Bernewell became involved in the buying and selling of a wide range of commodities, a strategy adopted in order to spread the risk associated with over-reliance upon the trade in fish. In July 1419 he appeared in the mayor’s court claiming that he was owed 20 marks by Margaret Morgon for wine he had supplied to her.
As well as wine and fish, Bernewell was also concerned in the export of cloth to the continent. So, in the late 1420s and early 1430s he made several shipments of cloth through the port of London, while in July 1437 he was specifically granted a licence to ship 40 cloths to any destination.
These trading activities enabled Bernewell to accumulate property in London which, in 1436, was said to yield an income of some £20 p.a.
Alice was herself involved in trade, or at least in the manufacture of clothing, judging from a petition submitted to Chancery in the 1440s. The complainant, Edmund Pellet, was a former apprentice of Bernewell, and in his petition he complained about his treatment at the hands of Thomas and Alice. He alleged that instead of training him as a fishmonger he had learned only ‘shepstrie’, and moreover claimed that Alice had beaten him about the head. During one confrontation with the Bernewells, Pellet had a sharp needle driven through his thumb. He subsequently absconded, intending to become a priest, but he was arrested after Bernewell took procceedings against him under the Statute of Labourers.
Outside London Bernewell acquired land known as ‘Galyoneshope’ by the Thames in Barking, which he may well have used to provide mooring places for his ships. This was held jointly with two fellow Londoners.
Bernewell’s involvement in city politics was in evidence as early as 1423 when, in October that year, he attested the election of the city’s MPs for the first time. Two years later, while still a relatively junior member of the common council, he was returned to Parliament himself along with fellow common councilman Everard Flete*. Despite this, Bernewell was not particularly active in the government of London at this stage in his career, perhaps because of his broadening business interests. He was not appointed to any committees of the common council during the 1420s, although he attested the parliamentary elections of 1426 and 1427 and, in 1428, participated at an inquisition taken into the value of the city’s churches. It was not until September 1431 that Bernewell was chosen as one of the four auditors, a post which was traditionally the stepping-stone to higher office within the city oligarchy. A year later he was appointed to levy the subsidy granted by the Parliament of 1432.
By this time, however, it looks as if Bernewell’s business had suffered some kind of set-back, one which was serious enough for him to petition the court of aldermen on 6 Oct. 1437 to be exonerated from the office of alderman. The basis of his petition was that he had been forced to contravene the oath sworn by aldermen which forbade them to sell victuals (bread, ale, wine, fish or flesh) by retail either personally or through apprentices. Evidently his financial circumstances had taken a turn for the worse. His petition was accepted by his fellows who, six days later, agreed unanimously that he should be allowed to resign. This marked the end of his civic career, although he was still sufficiently well respected to be appointed as an arbiter the following year.
Bernewell had died by April 1453 when his widow, Alice, was granted a year’s lease on Botolph’s wharf by the court of aldermen. The rent was some £40 p.a., suggesting that Bernewell had not died penniless. Certainly, there were debts owing to him, which his executor, his old friend William Hulyn, set about collecting.