CHURCH, Robert, of Sandwich, Kent.

Church is an obscure figure, but was clearly well established as one of the leading figures in Sandwich at the time of his election to Henry VI’s first Parliament in November 1422. In the previous June he had been one of four local men, including the mayor, William Gayler†, and John Green I*, who made a recognizance to appear before the King’s council concerning the Portsmen’s dispute with the prior of Christ Church, Canterbury. In May a group of townsmen had attacked the monks’ wharf at Sandwich, throwing a crane into the sea and threatening to mete out similar treatment to the monks themselves should they enter the town. The monks had complained to the council which had ordered the Portsmen to appear before it and explain themselves. However, before they did so both parties accepted arbitration and entered into an agreement confirming the priory’s rights to the wharf. CCR, 1419-22, p. 265; W. Boys, Sandwich, 368-9; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 170. Church’s election in November, alongside Green, may have reflected the experience he had gained in dealing with this matter. The two men were returned together on two further occasions, in October 1423 and October 1427, although the circumstances of their election and their business at Westminster is not known in either case.

Little is known of Church’s other interests, although in May 1426, as a member of the fraternity of St. James in St. Mary’s parish church, he was party to the lease of a messuage in Sandwich. Boys, 194. In July 1432 he was one of four arbiters in a dispute between a local draper, John Boteler III*, and his apprentice, and he was still alive in June the following year when John Hill, chaplain at St. Bartholomew’s hospital acknowledged Church’s payment of rent arrears from a property in St. Mary’s parish. E. Kent Archs., Sandwich recs. ‘Old Black Bk.’, SA/Ac 1, ff. 5v, 12v. As a Portsman Church claimed exemption from the parliamentary subsidy in Wingham hundred as late as 1435, but by 1442 he was dead and this exemption was enjoyed by his unnamed heirs. E179/124/110; 225/48/128; 226/83.