The Blackburns were probably the leading merchant family of early fifteenth-century York. They originated from Richmond in the North Riding and when the MP’s father and namesake was made a freeman of York in 1397-8 he was already active as a merchant of the Calais staple, shipping wool, hides and fells from both Kingston-upon-Hull and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Perhaps the best indication of Blackburn’s standing among his fellow staplers was his appointment in April 1406, in accordance with an agreement reached with the merchants of the realm in the previous Parliament, as admiral of the seas north of the Thames. His wealth allowed him to become a creditor of the Crown and he lent £100 for the invasion of France in 1415 and, two years later, a further £46 13s. 4d. In York he traded with other prominent staplers, notably John Aldstaynmore* and John Bolton* (to whom he married his daughter, Alice). Meanwhile, in 1412 he had been elected mayor of York; two years later he and his wife were admitted to the guild of Corpus Christi; and around the same time he become one of the city’s 12 aldermen.
The youngest of three sons, Nicholas junior followed in his father’s footsteps, both as a merchant of the staple and as a stalwart of the government of York.
In February 1429 Blackburn was elected as the city’s mayor, and at the end of his mayoralty he appears to have taken over his father’s responsibilities on the city council. It was probably he, rather than his father, who witnessed the parliamentary election in January 1431, and in the following April he was one of seven men appointed to assess the parliamentary subsidy in the city. On 24 Mar. 1432 he was returned, alongside another alderman, Thomas Gare*, to the Parliament summoned to assemble at Westminster on 12 May.
Shortly before Blackburn’s departure for Westminster, his father had died and on 10 Apr. he, along with the other executors, was granted administration of his will. Although at the end of his life Nicholas senior had named his son as an executor, and confirmed his reversionary interest in his estate (after the death of the testator’s widow), earlier on the relationship between father and son had been seriously troubled. In February 1423 Nicholas junior had been bound in the enormous sum of £700 before the sheriffs of York that he would neither ‘disturb nor enter’ his father’s goods or house. When, four years later, Nicholas senior claimed his son had forfeited the bond, he was unable to enforce it as the latter was then serving as sheriff; he appealed to the chancellor of England for a writ of sub poena against him.
These disputes may suggest that Blackburn was a difficult character, an impression given more weight by numerous other similar incidents. In October 1434 he entered into a recognizance for £100 to abide by the arbitration of four of the city’s leading citizens in a dispute with another York merchant, Henry Berwick. Three years later his fellow aldermen, Thomas Ridley*, John Thirsk* and Ralph Clifton, had to find sureties for him in the mayor’s court, entering into recognizances for 40 marks that he would keep the peace towards Thomas Mody, a local walker [fuller].
Little evidence of Blackburn’s career from the mid 1430s has come to light. On 8 Apr. 1434 he was granted the administration of the estate of his late wife, Margaret. Her parentage is obscure, and before long Blackburn married another woman of the same name. He continued to be involved in civic affairs for the remainder of his life, frequently attending meetings of the city council, and being present to witness the parliamentary elections. He does not appear to have invested much of his profits from trade in property in York, since for the parliamentary subsidy of 1435 he was assessed on holdings worth only £15 p.a.; among his fellow aldermen only three were assessed at less.
In Blackburn’s will, made on 7 Feb. 1448, he asked to be buried in the choir of St. Mary, ‘ubi sedere consuevi infra ecclesiam meam parochialem’ and near to the tomb of his dead children. Detailed provision for his funeral included the request that eight poor men clad in black robes would attend his corpse throughout the ceremony and subsequent masses. Besides prayers for the testator’s soul in his parish church, a trental was to be sung by each of the mendicant orders in the city, and ten marks to be distributed in alms. Blackburn’s widow received his capital messuage in North Street, as well as his household goods and chattels, while his property in The Shambles (which he had inherited from his sister-in-law, Joan, in 1429), was to be sold, with half the proceeds going to his widow and the remainder to meet the costs of his provision for his soul. Interestingly, Blackburn made no mention of his surviving children. He appointed his widow and two merchants, John Helmesley and John Shirwood, as his executors, leaving them 20s. for their trouble.
The execution of Blackburn’s will did not proceed smoothly. On 8 Mar. Margaret was granted administration, but the other two executors apparently refused their charge. The most important task was the sale of the property in The Shambles, something which Margaret failed to achieve. Indeed, she may have fallen on hard times after the death of her husband, and in 1450 she was assessed at only 40s. p.a. towards the parliamentary subsidy. On 6 Feb. 1454 the administration of Margaret’s estate was granted to her son-in-law, Thomas Wandesford (who had married Blackburn’s eldest daughter, Agnes), and the merchant, Henry Audernes, who were later joined by a third individual, the clerk Peter Dobbys. They alleged in a petition to the chancellor that Blackburn’s surviving executors, Helmesley and Shirwood, were refusing to allow the sale of his property in accordance with his will.