FENNE, Thomas atte (d.1471), of Great Yarmouth, Norf.

One of the sons of a prosperous Yarmouth merchant and shipowner, atte Fenne enjoyed a long life. He and his two brothers each inherited a share of Hugh atte Fenne’s property following their father’s death in 1409, although their widowed mother retained a substantial part of her late husband’s estate during her lifetime. Apart from holdings in Yarmouth itself, Hugh had owned lands at Bradwell to the south-east of the town, at Herringby in Norfolk and on the coast, to the north at Bacton and to the south at Corton, Suffolk. The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 65-66; R. Virgoe, ‘Will of Hugh atte Fenne’, Norf. Rec. Soc. lvi. 32. Christine atte Fenne remarried, and Thomas came to the borough court in January 1415 to acknowledge a release of lands in Great Yarmouth to her new husband, his stepfather, Peter Savage. Yarmouth ct. roll, 1414-15, Y/C 4/125. For whatever reason, Thomas was also to dispose of other parts of his inheritance. A dozen years later, Judge William Paston acquired the reversion of the manor of ‘Latymerys’ in Bacton, which was originally to have vested in Thomas after the deaths of his mother and stepfather. CP25(1)/169/186/38. Furthermore, in 1438, he conveyed away lands that his father had held in Herringby and elsewhere to Sir John Fastolf, although his own son, also Hugh, would regain them after the knight’s death in 1459. Virgoe, 32, 33.

During the seven years or so following his appearance there at the beginning 1415, atte Fenne occasionally used the borough court as a plaintiff, Yarmouth ct. rolls, 1422-3, 1424-5, 1427-8, Y/C 4/132, mm. 1, 7d; 134, m. 1. but he appears not to have taken up office at Yarmouth before the mid 1420s. When he did, it was to the newly created position of chamberlain, to which the borough appointed him and Thomas Hall I* in 1426. In the following year the Crown appointed him tronager of the port of Yarmouth, and during his time as such he farmed the tronage from the borough for an annual rent of £4 6s. 8d., reduced to £4 p.a. in 1430. Ibid. 1428-32, Y/C 4/137, m. 14; 138, m. 18; 139, m. 11; 140, m. 11. Atte Fenne became a bailiff of Great Yarmouth for the first time in 1432 and an MP in the following year while still bailiff. The Parliament of 1433, which sat until the end of that year, showed itself suspicious of foreigners resident in England and wanted to take action against them, A. Curry, ‘Introduction to 1433 Parl.’, PROME, xi. 73. but it is unclear whether the burgesses of Great Yarmouth, a port which had extensive contacts with the Low Countries and elsewhere, shared this view. Atte Fenne himself was a merchant, so it is likely that many of his own interests were in the foreign trade. Yarmouth ct. rolls, 1437-9, 1448-9, Y/C 4/146, m. 3d; 147, m. 6d; 155, m. 19.

In January 1441 Christine Savage, now a resident of Norwich and again a widow, appointed atte Fenne’s son, Hugh, one of her executors. Reg. Doke, f. 167. Hugh, who later represented Great Yarmouth in the Parliament of 1450, would enjoy a far more prominent career than that of his father, but Thomas was nevertheless an important figure in local terms. He was serving his second term as bailiff when Christine made her will, and was re-appointed to that office on three further occasions. Shortly after the conclusion of that term, Ralph Browning* sued him and Simon Folsham, his fellow bailiff of 1440-1, in Chancery. Browning said that the two men had disallowed (on a legal technicality) a suit for debt he had brought before them in the borough court. Afterwards, he had secured a writ of error removing the case to the court of King’s bench, but the bailiffs, ‘by subtile and unsad ymaginacion and counseil’, had written out a new record of the plea he had made at Great Yarmouth, so that it would appear invalid in King’s bench as well. The purpose of Browning’s bill was to force his opponents to account for their actions, but the outcome of this chancery suit is unknown. C1/11/433. Some three years later, atte Fenne defended another lawsuit, this time at Yarmouth. Brought by a fellow burgess, Hamon Pulham*, in association with his second wife, it related to a debt of £10, probably a private matter unconnected to Thomas’s activities as an office-holder. Yarmouth ct. roll, 1444-5, Y/C 4/151, m. 2.

By the mid 1440s, atte Fenne was the King’s coroner in Great Yarmouth, a responsibility he was also exercising in 1462, when he and his fellow coroner, Hamon Pulham, investigated the activities of John Lyghter, a local butcher suspected of felony. Ibid. Y/C 4/167, m. 5 of file stitched on to m. 18. Again appointed bailiff at Michaelmas 1447, he was soon involved in further litigation in Chancery. John Elger, John Stroude and John Westgate (acting in their capacity as the executors of Joan Cranele) filed a bill accusing him and his co-bailiff, Robert Pynne*, of biased conduct in the borough court. They said that they had brought a debt suit against Albright Yansone de la Wyke (presumably a foreigner) who had been unable to provide a sufficient discharge for the sum in question. The bailiffs had nevertheless unfairly favoured the defendant and deliberately delayed giving a judgement, thereby forestalling their recovery of the money owed. C1/16/573. As with Browning’s suit, this bill is the only part of the litigation to survive. It was also during (or perhaps shortly after) atte Fenne’s third term as bailiff that the government ordered him to assist a commission appointed to investigate illegal shipments of wool and woolfells from Great Yarmouth made by Robert Pynne. The commissioners, Richard Heynes and Robert Pylton, had tried to hold an inquiry at Yarmouth in April 1448, but Pynne had allegedly used his authority as bailiff to obstruct them. PPC, vi. 328-30.

During the following decade, atte Fenne was a customs collector in Great Yarmouth and served his last two terms as a bailiff. After mid 1460, he ceased to hold office in the borough, apart from that of coroner, although he was keeper of the local hospital of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1466. Yarmouth ct. roll, 1465-6, Y/C 4/170, m. 4d. In the same year, he became a feoffee of a manor in Scoulton, Norfolk, which his son, Hugh, had recently bought from George de la Chaumbre. CPR, 1461-7, p. 471; CP25(1)/170/192/20; C140/55/22. Atte Fenne lived to see his grand-daughter, Margaret, Hugh’s daughter and heir, marry George Neville, Lord Abergavenny, and to act as a feoffee for that couple as well. CIPM Hen. VII, i. 1. Still alive in May 1471, he had died by the following April when his executors (his widow, Joan, and Roger Reedhode) were pursuing a debt in the borough court. Yarmouth ct. rolls, 1470-2, Y/C 4/175, m. 4; 176, m. 3d.