CALDWELL, John (d.1461), of Ipswich, Suff.

One of the most important Ipswich burgesses of his day, Caldwell was active in that borough by late 1418, when he helped the bailiffs and portmen to arbitrate between two fellow townsmen. Ibid. f. 2. He himself became a portman in May 1420, and a year later he stood surety for William Debenham* upon the latter’s election to the first Parliament of 1421. Debenham reciprocated by likewise standing surety when Caldwell, shortly after completing his first period in office (two consecutive terms) as bailiff of the town, was elected an MP. C219/12/5, 13/5. While the Parliament of 1427 was still in session, Nicholas Stanhowe of Norwich began proceedings in the Exchequer against Caldwell and his erstwhile co-bailiff, John Joye*. Stanhowe’s action related to a suit for debt he had won against Richard Dysse of Ipswich in the borough court the previous spring. In the Exchequer, he complained that Caldwell and Joye had allowed Dysse to go at large before he had paid off the debt, amounting to £40. Whether in connexion with the Exchequer lawsuit or for some other official misconduct, the Crown subsequently imposed fines on the two former bailiffs. E13/138, rot. 10; CFR, xvi. 49-50. Several months after the dissolution of the Parliament of 1427, Caldwell and Joye faced further legal proceedings relating to their time in office. The plaintiff, a burgess of Bury St. Edmunds, alleged that they had unjustly confiscated a silk belt and a pair of ornate knives from him at Ipswich. CP40/671, rot. 523d.

There is also evidence of a Chancery suit relating to Caldwell’s term as one of the bailiffs of 1442-3, although on this occasion no fault was attached to his performance in the office. The case revolved around a debt of £9 13s. 4d. for which the plaintiff, Robert Smith, an Ipswich merchant, had been sued in a borough court by John Smith, a local vintner. In his bill, brought shortly after Caldwell’s term had expired, Robert claimed that he was not responsible for the debt, since it was owed for a tun of wine which Caldwell and the other bailiff, Thomas Denys*, had sent him to buy from John. The bill is the only piece of evidence relating to the case to have survived, and it is impossible to verify the truth of Robert’s claim. C1/46/363. It is unclear whether Smith was John Smith II*.

Caldwell evidently had an interest and perhaps some expertise in building work, since he was involved in a variety of construction projects during his career. On 17 Jan. 1435, for example, he agreed to make a bridge at ‘Stoke bridge’, in return for the payment of pontage by the inhabitants of Ipswich, and on the same day he was among those selected to build ‘de novo’ a house at the end of the Guildhall. In the winter of 1448-9 he undertook to rebuild the town’s gaol near the west gate. Five years earlier, he had helped to maintain and repair the ‘pageant’ of the local Corpus Christi, of which he was an active member, and in 1445 the borough assigned him 40s. p.a. from its rental income, to repay the expenses he had incurred in that regard. Add. 30158, ff. 6v, 8v, 9, 11, 12v; Bacon, 106.

Caldwell became alderman of the guild in April 1446. As alderman he had two assistants, including William Rydout*, with whom he later quarrelled. In September 1455 Rydout and another burgess, William Heede, were ordered to appear before the bailiffs to show why they should not be disenfranchised for suing Caldwell, a free burgess, unjustly and contrary to the charter which King John had granted to the town. It would appear that they had sued him in Chancery, since later that month they were required to produce the bill by which they had obtained a subpoena against him, but this has not survived. Add. 30158, ff. 9v, 20; Bacon, 113.

Alongside his busy official career, Caldwell found time for his own interests. While he had apprentices, Add. 30158, f. 6v; C1/73/162. he was no mere tradesman. Although he possessed a stake in the local brewing industry, producing ale and keeping an inn in the first half of the 1420s, Amor, 242. a royal pardon he received in July 1446 identifies him as a ‘merchant’. C67/39, m. 8. His activities as such were significant, for they extended to ventures abroad and he was one of the few Ipswich burgesses who could afford to employ overseas factors. Amor, 133. Exchequer records show that he was trading with the Low Countries in association with John Deken* in the late 1420s. E159/205, brevia Mich. rot. 3. Another associate was John Baryngton, with whom he co-owned a ship called Le Trinete of Ipswich, and in 1436 the crown licensed him and Baryngton to arm it for defence against the King’s enemies. CPR, 1429-36, p. 512. In October 1442, Caldwell and Richard Felawe*, perhaps yet another business partner, gave a recognizance for £100 to the King as a guarantee that they would not hinder in his duties (Sir) Miles Stapleton*, recently appointed to command a fleet entrusted with safeguarding the English coast from enemy attack. CCR, 1441-7, p. 113.

Later that decade, Caldwell was the defendant in a Chancery case brought by Hans Stendell, a merchant and burgess of the Prussian port of Danzig. According to Stendell’s bill, Caldwell had sent his apprentice, Thomas Bradde, to Prussia to trade on his behalf, but once there Bradde had become indebted to a number of local merchants and had been arrested. He had managed to secure his release after he and two sureties had acknowledged the debts (totalling £138 6s.) before the alderman and company of English merchants in Danzig on 2 Oct. 1444. They had also bound themselves to Stendell to pay that sum by the following Easter, and the Prussian sued Caldwell in Chancery on the strength of the bond, to which he claimed he no longer had access. C1/73/162. Stendell’s bill is the only document from this suit to have survived, but it was probably in response to it that the bailiffs of Ipswich and others made a formal declaration in a borough court held in late 1445 or 1446. They stated that Caldwell had never in fact appointed Bradde to act as his agent or to deal with any matter involving commercial credit. They also certified that Bradde had become indebted to Caldwell in the sum of no less than £138 10s. (almost identical to that claimed by Stendell) during his apprenticeship, and that he was now a prisoner in Ipswich gaol. HMC 9th Rep. pt. 1, p. 259. Before the mid 1450s, Caldwell was also party to another Chancery suit concerning his trading interests in Prussia, this time as the plaintiff. He claimed that he had made William Baldry* his factor and entrusted him with four packs of woollen cloth worth £200 with which to trade in Prussia, but that Baldry had failed to hand over the goods he had acquired in exchange for the cloths and brought home. C1/16/427.

Caldwell survived into the early 1460s, having outlived all of his three wives. His last spouse, Joan, who had possessed a connexion with Bury St. Edmunds, appears to have died shortly before mid 1454, when John Fyllebregge, her son from a previous marriage, began a Chancery suit against one of her feoffees over a messuage in that town. C1/24/158. In his will, dated 9 Nov. 1460, Caldwell sought burial in the churchyard of St. Laurence at Ipswich, beside the grave of one of his wives, although without identifying her by name. He left a manor at Monk Soham in east Suffolk to his eldest son, Benet, who was however to provide another son, ‘dan Robert’ (presumably a priest), with an annuity of 40s. from its issues, so long as Robert ‘be well rewlid and gouernyd’. The will reveals that a third son, Edmund, was then a prisoner in Brittany, but not the circumstances of his capture, which may have occurred while he was trading on Caldwell’s behalf. The MP directed that Edmund should have a ‘place’ on the quayside at Ipswich where ‘Herman’ lived, while giving Benet the option to enjoy prior possession of that property for a term of eight years if he would pay off his brother’s ransom of £54 5s. 6d. Caldwell left his fourth son, Thomas, a dwelling at ‘ye Waldiches’ with its gardens and stables. Finally, he requested a priest to sing for the souls of himself, his wives, kin and friend, William Debenham, and appointed his sons, Benet and Edmund, as his executors and John Drayll, another Ipswich burgess, as supervisor. Owing to his enforced absence abroad, Edmund appears a strange choice for the role of executor, unless the MP believed his son’s release to be imminent. The will received a grant of probate on 29 June 1461, showing that Caldwell was no longer alive at that date. Archdeaconry of Suff. wills, IC/AA1/1/7/4.

On the following 8 Aug., the still captive Edmund Caldwell acquired a royal licence for a vessel belonging to two Breton merchants to enter English waters, presumably to collect money or goods towards his ransom. Freed soon afterwards, and nothing daunted by his experiences, he was preparing to return across the Channel in early 1462. On 18 Feb. that year, the Crown issued him with letters of protection for 12 months, prior to his embarking for Calais in the retinue of its captain, Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, although in what capacity is not stated. C76/145, mm. 8, 23. A few years later, Edmund’s brother, Thomas Caldwell, another merchant, fell out with their father’s feoffees. At some stage in the second half of the 1460s, Thomas sued these trustees, among them his eldest brother Benet, in the Chancery, accusing them of refusing to convey to him the property left to him by the MP. C1/33/100; 61/6.