BROWN, Richard II (d.1461), of Norwich.

Admitted to the freedom of Norwich in 1433-4, Norwich city recs., ‘Old Free bk.’, NCR 17c, f. 48. Brown resided in ‘The Greyhound’, a house in St. Stephen’s parish in the city. F. Blomefield, Norf. iv. 169. The names of his parents have not survived, although it is possible that he was a relative of two other merchants, Edmund Brown (d.1446), and Robert Brown, who was active in Norwich in the first half of the 15th century: Norwich consist. ct. Reg. Wylbey, ff. 116-17; C219/14/5; 16/1; CFR, xvi. 287. A merchant, he operated through Great Yarmouth in the late 1450s and early 1460s, exporting cloth and importing a variety of goods, E122/151/69, 70, 71A, 72; 152/2. and he probably also traded through Bishop’s Lynn, where he possessed property and other interests. Derbys. RO, Okeover mss, D231M/T470-1; PCC 23 Stokton. But it is unclear whether he was the Richard Brown admitted to the freedom of Lynn in 1439-40: Cal. Freemen Lynn, 44. He may have had commercial ties with the Baltic, for in the late 1440s or in early 1450 a Richard Brown was one of a group of English merchants who chartered a Dutch ship to carry merchandise to England from Prussia. Unfortunately for these merchants, French and Breton ships intercepted the vessel and in the process of escaping them it landed (or ran aground) somewhere near Spurn Head in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Presumably in response to a petition bringing the matter to his attention, in August 1450 the King commissioned Sir John Melton* and others to secure the ship until the question of ownership of it and its cargo was decided. CPR, 1446-52, p. 389. There was also a Richard Brown, possibly the MP, who served on a similar commission of inquiry concerning another shipwreck, that of a Prussian vessel that had foundered off Great Yarmouth in 1452. B. Cozens Hardy and E.A. Kent, Mayors of Norwich, 27, and HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 121, suggest that the MP was the Richard Brown commissioned in 1443 to raise a small fleet to carry supplies to the garrison at Le Crotoy in Picardy (see CPR, 1441-6, p. 245), but this was clearly Richard Brown I* of Winchelsea.

As far as Brown’s career as a municipal office-holder is concerned, there is no evidence definitely relating to him predating his election as one of the sheriffs of Norwich, although it is likely that he had served as a common councillor before this date. He rose further up the city’s hierarchy not long afterwards, for he was an alderman for the ward of Wymer by March 1453. Queen Margaret of Anjou visited the city in the following month (perhaps while on her way to Walsingham to give thanks for her pregnancy), and he was among those called upon to make a loan, in his case seven marks, towards preparing a suitable reception for her. ‘Old Free bk.’, NCR 17c, f. 18v; R.A. Griffiths, Hen. VI, 257. On 1 May in the same year, Brown was among those nominated for the mayoralty but, in the event, he did not gain election to that office until 1454. Assembly bk. NCR 16d, f. 18v. During his mayoralty, he made a judgement in a boundary dispute between two owners of property in the parish of St. Peter Hungate, John Paston* and Thomas Ingham*, Norf. RO, deeds, Dun (A) 9, 495 x 2. and he himself was the defendant in a suit that a Scotsman resident at Norwich brought in Chancery. The plaintiff claimed that Brown, surmising his nationality, had arrested, beaten and imprisoned him, even though he had sworn an oath of allegiance to the English Crown a long time previously. He also alleged that Brown had robbed him of 40s. from his purse and taken money and goods from his house, to the distress of his pregnant wife, who had then given birth prematurely. C1/24/250. The plaintiff’s name is indecipherable in this damaged bill. These claims are unverifiable, since the bill is the only piece of evidence relating to the case to have survived. As mayor, Brown was ex officio one of the city’s j.p.s, and in accordance with recently established practice, he remained on the bench, and served a term as alderman of the guild of St. George, after completing his mayoralty. Recs. Norwich ed. Hudson and Tingey, i. 305.

Shortly after Brown’s term as mayor ended, the elections for the Parliament of 1455 took place. In East Anglia, John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, made strong efforts to control the elections. Both the knights of the shire returned for Norfolk were his men and others of his followers, like John Jenney* and John Paston, attempted to influence the election at Norwich as well. The city’s return has not survived, but it is likely that Brown had a part to play in it, since it was in connexion with the election there that Jenney warned Paston that he trusted ‘right well all the aldermen except Broun and sech as be in his dawngere [debt]’. Why Jenney should have distrusted him is not recorded. Paston Letters ed. Davis, ii. 119-20. Brown’s own election to the Commons came late in life. Although the relevant return no longer exists, an entry in Norwich’s assembly book shows that he and John Chyttok* were the city’s MPs in the Parliament of 1459, which met at Coventry. It also records that they received an extra 16d. per day in wages beyond the normal daily rate of 2s. because they had spent a total of 45 days in Coventry, although the Parliament had sat for only a month. Evidently, they had spent the extra two weeks away from Norwich pursuing their city’s affairs, perhaps by seeking the goodwill of government ministers and members of the Lords. Assembly bk. NCR 16d, f. 42.

The late 1450s were a busy period for Brown. Apart from sitting in the Commons, he was active as one of the executors of Ralph Segryme* (perhaps his brother-in-law), PCC 23 Stokton. and continued to take part in the city’s affairs. In April 1456 he obtained a royal pardon, in his capacity as a former mayor and as Ralph’s executor, C67/41, m. 3. He obtained another pardon in Feb. 1458: C67/42, m. 21. and a year later he and Segryme’s other executors informed a civic congregation that they intended to present the city with 200 marks from the deceased’s estate for the repair of its walls. Assembly bk. NCR 16d, ff. 31v-32. In October 1457, he and three other citizens were involved in negotiations with Andrew Doket, president of Queen’s College, Cambridge, in connexion with a sum that the city had agreed to give the college. Ibid. f. 34. Brown received another nomination for the mayoralty in 1458, Ibid. f. 36v. but he was not re-elected to that office. He remained an aldermen (in practice an office normally held for life), but otherwise his term as mayor a few years earlier was his last major position of responsibility.

In late 1460, Brown and other citizens represented their city in negotiations with the prior of Norwich, Ibid. f. 46. and early in the following year, with the country in a state of civil war, he helped to supervise the financing of a force of 120 men that the civic authorities had agreed to send to the aid of Henry VI. Ibid. f. 47. He lived to see Edward IV take the throne, and he lent the city the substantial sum of £52 while it was seeking to have its charter confirmed by the new King. Ibid. f. 57v. Within a couple of weeks of Edward’s accession, he sought exoneration from all civic offices for three years. The King granted his request, although in return he had to deposit 12 coats of mail with the chamberlains of Norwich, for use in the city’s defence. Ibid. f. 48. Notwithstanding his exemption from office, he was re-elected alderman in March 1461.

Brown died in the late summer or early autumn of the same year and was buried in the chancel of St. Crowche’s church. In his will, dated 15 Aug. 1461, PCC 23 Stokton. he left 600 marks’ worth of his goods and his ‘household stuff’ to his wife, Alice, and 100 marks to each of his six children, five of whom were still minors. As for his real property (valued in 1451 at £5 p.a. for the purposes of a royal tax), R. Virgoe, ‘Norwich taxation list of 1451’, Norf. Archaeology, xl. 150. he awarded Alice a life interest in the house where he lived, after which it was to be sold, but directed his executors to sell all his other holdings immediately. Apart from his ‘place’ at Lynn, these consisted of property in St. Paul’s parish (purchased by his father) and The Crowne in St. Crowche’s. His ‘sister Segryme’ (perhaps Ralph’s widow) must have lived in or near The Crown, because he also directed that whoever bought it should allow her access rights. For the good of his soul, Brown asked that a priest should sing for him, his relations, his ‘brother’ Segryme and all his friends for 20 years in St. Crowche’s church. Directing that the cleric should receive a substantial salary of over £5 p.a., he also bequeathed to the same church ten marks for its fabric, 40 marks towards the building of its steeple and a green vestment. Brown left money to the poor of Norwich (a very generous gift of £200), to various religious institutions in the city, to the prisoners in the castle and guildhall there and to the convents at Thetford, Bungay and Shouldham (where his ‘cousin’, Dame Katherine, was one of the nuns). He appointed Alice his principal executor and named as her co-executors John Gilbert, John Drolle* and his son-in-law, Edmund Redknape, a London mercer who had married his daughter, Margaret. Norwich city recs., ct. roll 1461-83, NCR 1/19, m. 6 This list of executors proves that the MP was not the Richard Brown of Norwich who features in a Chancery suit of the late 1460s or early 1470s, since Master Henry Cossey was his executor: C1/43/156. A few years later Alice Brown was buried beside her husband in St. Crowche’s, to which she gave money for two new windows. In her will of 6 Mar. 1465, she left 20 marks and various household items to each of her children by the MP and to each of her two grandchildren, Leonard and George Redknape, five marks. She made provision for the welfare of her late husband’s soul by directing that a priest should sing for her and Brown for five years after her decease. On 1 Sept., following the deaths of both of her unmarried daughters, Alice added a codicil to her will in which she redistributed their legacies among her surviving children and others. She died later in the same year. Reg. Cobald, ff. 68-69.