DRUELL, Richard, of Exeter and Dartmouth and Stoke Canon and Halberton, Devon.

The origins of the Druell family of Exeter and Halberton have not been established with any degree of certainty, but they apparently first began to play a part in local society in the south-west after the collation of Master John Druell, the later MP’s uncle, as archdeacon of Exeter and a canon of Exeter cathedral in 1444. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, ix. 14, 52. Unusually for an Exeter merchant, no record of Richard Druell’s admission to the freedom of the city has been discovered, but it is likely to have taken place in (or not long before) 1446, the year when he was first among the 36 citizens who elected the mayor and other senior civic officers. Druell was himself chosen one of the city’s stewards, and his subsequent career followed the normal cursus honorum of the leading citizens, with spells of service as a member of the council interspersed with terms as receiver, mayor, and an official of the Exeter staple. It is nevertheless indicative of the unattractiveness of Cambridge (or, in the event, Bury St. Edmunds) as venues for the meeting of Parliament, that Druell, a very recent arrival among the civic elite, was chosen to represent the city in early 1447. It is possible that he possessed particular negotiating skills which qualified him for membership of the Commons, for at Christmas 1446 he had been sent to London to consult Chancellor Stafford in a dispute between the city and Bishop Lacy of Exeter, and on at least two occasions in subsequent months he rode to Tiverton to seek the support of Thomas Courtenay, earl of Devon, in the city’s affairs. Exeter receiver’s acct. 25-26 Hen. VI. Parliament lasted a mere three weeks, but the journey there and back took its time, and Druell was absent from the pursuit of Exeter’s disputes for a total of five weeks. Central to these disputes at the time was an acrimonious disagreement between the citizens and the dean and chapter of Exeter. Druell, now free from his duties as a city steward, was kept busy riding between the comital residence at Tiverton, the bishop’s manor at Radway and Archbishop Stafford, who was then (probably in August 1448) at Eton, Ibid. 26-27 Hen. VI, m. 3. and in the intervening months he served as Mayor John Shillingford*’s principal lieutenant in London. Initially, there was some disagreement between Druell and Shillingford (who had been detained in Exeter) over Druell’s approach to the negotiations, but the intervention of Thomas Cook I* persuaded the mayor of the merits of his understudy’s efforts, and on 30 Oct. he wrote to the council at Exeter that ‘Druell and Speere is beying afore dide gode, for they dide theire part yn the most best wyse’. Letters and Pprs. Shillingford, 5, 8.

Druell had a personal interest in the quarrel, for it was sparked by an incident in which he had himself played a part. At some point during his year as a city steward a malefactor had been pursued into Exeter cathedral by two of the city’s serjeants. When the officials entered the church, the doors were suddenly shut behind them. Druell and his fellow steward Thomas Sampson

folwed fresshely with ynne the space of xvj. fote to kepe the pees and might not entre yn at that dore ne none other dore but at one dore: and so they entred yn, and when they so come yn there they founde the saide sergeantis at grete myschif and … Sr John Jon with a dore barre and Sr Lewis Walssheman John Panton and meny other ministers of the saide churche to thaym unknowed with swerdis custellis long knyvis and yryssh skenes drawyn yn theire hondis to have sleyn the saide sergeantis and wold so have sleyn ham ne hadde y be as God yeaf grace the saide stiwardis with other came yn to kepe the pees. And when they come yn they smote to the saide Richard Druell with a custell apon the Kyngis mace as hit is sygne yet, so that alle bothe stiwardis and sergeantis stode yn despayre of theire lyvys and unneth scaped out of the churche with theire lyvys. Ibid. 78.

The dispute continued throughout the winter of 1447-8 with an exchange of articles between the city and cathedral authorities, but by the spring of 1448 the canons of Exeter were beginning to seek a peaceful settlement, and Master John Druell was taking a leading part in this. Mayor Shillingford wrote to Richard Druell, then again lobbying the chancellor in London, of his uncle’s ‘speciall diligent and tender laboure’ and was able to report that as a result of the chancellor’s intervention ‘ther is by twene the parties … grete gode wyll, worship, courtesy, reverence, yn procession specially; fayre, gode, gentell, and curteys longage; gode chere and right wellcome, gode welfare, and grete festis yn the Chanons parte, and of youre unkell M. John Dru[ell] most specially, and every day better than other’: a valuable development indeed, as John Druell had previously exacerbated the discord between city and cathedral by pulling down a wall to make a gate into his garden. Ibid. 55, 57, 111.

In view of the prominent role that Richard Druell had played in defending the citizens’ rights, it is not surprising that he continued to play his part in Exeter’s government in subsequent years. He served as a member of the council of 12 from 1447 to 1449, and for much of 1448 and 1449 he also held office as a constable of the Exeter staple. In the autumn of the latter year, however, Druell’s civic career suddenly came to an abrupt halt. Although he was among the citizens electing mayor, stewards and council in both this and the following year, within a few days in October 1449 he relinquished both his position at the staple and his membership of the council. It is probable that the interruption to his career was in some way connected with charges brought against him in the court of common pleas by the city attorney, Henry Brock*, who accused him and a fellow member of the council, the merchant John Betty, of abducting his son and heir. CP40/755, rot. 272; 758, rot. 84d. Like Druell, Betty also failed to gain re-election to the council in Oct. 1449. In the autumn of 1451 Druell was no longer among those electing the mayor, and this evident fall from grace may have persuaded him to sue out a royal pardon, which was granted in June 1452. He was now trading from the port of Dartmouth. C67/40, m. 26. It is hard not to suspect some connexion, since Druell was allowed to resume his career among the rulers of Exeter from that very autumn, when he once more took his place among the civic electors. He returned to the ranks of the council in the autumn of 1454, albeit initially as a member of the lesser, second, dozen of the reformed council of 24. He was, however, among the four men out of the second 12 chosen as custodes clavorum. Exeter mayor’s ct. roll 33-34 Hen. VI, rot. 1d. In the crisis year of 1455-6, for much of which Exeter was occupied by the retainers of the earl of Devon, Druell served as city receiver. Exeter’s finances were in disarray, and Druell not only had to accept a girdle of silver silk from the goods of a waif in lieu of a payment of 6s. 8d. for the costs of auditing his account, but on 25 June the mayor and 21 leading citizens agreed that the receiver should advance £20 to be sent as a gift to the duchess of Exeter, and that in recompense ‘the seid Richard receiver aboueseid be charged noo ferther at his accomptes then the revenuys of this cite will atteygne’. Exeter receiver’s acct. 34-35 Hen. VI.

Druell’s performance as receiver secured him the mayoralty of Exeter in the autumn of 1458. The previous spring, the earl of Devon had died at Abingdon and been succeeded by his eldest son, Thomas, the murderer of the city’s recorder Nicholas Radford*. The citizens could, however, not afford to let such considerations overshadow their relations with the most important magnate in the county, and Druell thus rode on more than one occasion in his own person to secure the new earl’s support in their affairs. Central to these was an ambitious project to procure an extension of the city’s liberties, and Druell himself rode to London to petition the King and his council that henceforth every mayor of Exeter might be ex officio considered a justice of the peace in his city. While in London, Druell and his fellows took care to curry favour with Henry Holand, duke of Exeter, by generous gifts of fish and a dinner, and by wining and dining the duke’s servants at the Tower, as well as seeking the support of Henry VI’s secretary and paying one of the King’s priests to badger the monarch over the augmentation of Exeter’s charters. Ibid. 37-38 Hen. VI, d. Despite Druell’s personal efforts, this ambitious project ultimately appears to have ended in failure, perhaps to some extent on account of the political upheavals on the national stage in the second half of his term of office.

It is impossible to tell whether Druell, whose mayoralty ended more than a week before the confrontation at Ludford Bridge, in any way fell foul of the lords supporting the claims of Richard, duke of York, but from Michaelmas 1460 to 1462 he was once again omitted from the ranks of the city council and of the civic electors. The loss of the mayor’s ct. roll for 1459-60 makes it impossible to tell whether he had served on the council in that year. Whatever misdemeanour he had committed was apparently laid to rest by a royal pardon granted in February 1462, and in the intervening years he did regularly receive the annual livery of bread and ale granted to former mayors by the Exeter authorities. C67/45, m. 36; Exeter receivers’ accts. 39 Hen. VI-2 Edw. IV. From Michaelmas 1462 Druell resumed his place on the civic council, and the value his neighbours placed on his counsel is apparent from his election to further mayoralties in 1463 and 1465. The mayoral year of 1463-4 was largely uneventful, although it coincided with a serious quarrel between Humphrey Stafford IV*, Lord Stafford, and John Dynham, which caused the mayor and council to place a guard on the south gate over a period of two days. Otherwise, Druell was able to concentrate on the routine repairs to the civic buildings, and it was during this year that a new bell was bought for the guildhall from William Duke†. By contrast, Druell’s mayoralty of 1465-6 coincided with a dispute with Sherborne abbey, which necessitated a careful survey of the guildhall archives by the mayor and council, but also saw the mayor involved in a rather more obscure transaction, in the course of which Druell, Thomas Dowrich II* and John Hammond*, the receiver, rode to Shute to talk to Lord Stafford about a consignment of 50 ‘kideneys’. Exeter receivers’ accts. 3-4, 5-6 Edw. IV.

By this time, Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, and the King’s brother, George, duke of Clarence, were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Edward IV’s rule, a discontent which culminated in Edward’s exile and the restoration of King Henry VI in October 1470. In November the restored rulers summoned a Parliament, and it appears that Druell was one of the men elected by the citizens of Exeter to represent them in this assembly. Certainly, he was present at Westminster during Parliament, and received payments from the city authorities for a bill of proviso sued out before Christmas – presumably to secure exemption from an expected Act of Resumption – and for copies of various bills passing in Parliament during the Lenten session. Ibid. 10-11 Edw. IV, d.

It seems clear that the Readeption government placed some degree of trust in Druell, who in December was prominent among the commissioners appointed to inquire into offences committed in Exeter, a commission which he himself had sued out at a cost of 2s. 10d. CPR, 1467-77, p. 250; Exeter receiver’s acct. 10-11 Edw. IV, d. It may have been on account of this uncomfortably close association with the restored Lancastrian regime that Druell purchased a general pardon from Edward IV in November 1471. CPR, 1467-77, p. 292. Nevertheless, his reputation among his Exeter neighbours was not permanently tarred. As previously, he continued to receive the annual livery of bread and ale granted to former mayors, and was elected to a fourth and final mayoralty in the autumn of 1481. Exeter receivers’ accts. 11-22 Edw. IV. This is not to say that Druell’s relations with his neighbours were invariably free from controversy. There is at least some suggestion of double dealing in a complaint presented to the chancellor in the second half of the 1460s by William, son and heir of the former mayor, Druell’s old associate John Shillingford. William Shillingford claimed that not long after he had begun the execution of his father’s will Druell had approached him and requested payment of a debt of 100s. He had handed over the money, only to learn afterwards that no such debt had been outstanding. C1/31/9. The details of another dispute pending around the same time between Druell and John, the son of Richard Carswell, have not been discovered. CCR, 1468-77, no. 635.

No similar controversies appear to have marred Druell’s final years, during which he continued to hold local office. In spite of another unexplained hiatus in his membership of the council of 24 from the autumn of 1476, he was elected to a fourth mayoralty in 1481. He took the precaution of suing out a pardon from Richard III in May 1484. C67/51, m. 16. The date of his death has not been discovered, but he was still receiving the mayoral liveries of bread and ale in 1487-8. Exeter receiver’s acct. 3-4 Hen. VII. It seems unlikely that he was the Richard ‘Drewe’, whose widow Joan was at some point in the last quarter of the 15th century quarrelling with one Nicholas Pedeler over the lease of two shops outside the east gate of Exeter: C1/73/19.