FRANKELYN, Thomas (d.1439), of Dover, Kent.

Frankelyn was almost certainly a local man, who took up residence in St. Mary’s ward, Egerton 2105, f. 36v. but his origins are obscure. He may have been the individual who, as a servant of Richard Knightley*, one of the tellers of the Exchequer, travelled to Normandy in 1419 in the retinue of Sir John Bertram*, but no other evidence has been found to link him with Henry V’s campaigns across the Channel, nor indeed with the Exchequer. DKR, xliv. 611. By 1424, however, when the chamberlains’ accounts for Dover are first extant for the fifteenth century, he was the Port’s common clerk. He received an annual fee of £5 for this office, in which he most important duty was to assist the mayor and bailiff presiding over the mayor’s court and at meetings of the jurats.

It was while serving as common clerk that Frankelyn was elected to the Parliament summoned to meet at Leicester on 18 Feb. 1426, as chosen along with John Byngley*. It is not clear when he travelled to Leicester, although he claimed wages for the Parliament’s first session until 28 Mar., eight days after it had ended, and received payments totalling 53s. 4d., ostensibly at the rate of 6s. 8d. a week, with 2s. 8d. for horse-hire. Both he and Byngley returned to Leicester on 23 Apr. (for the second session meeting six days later), and received wages until 6 June (probably the day they arrived back in Dover). For this second session Frankelyn was paid 40s., which included 6s. 8d. for horse-hire and 20d. for a ‘reward’ given to the clerk of the Parliaments. Add. 29615, ff. 95v, 112v.

As common clerk, Frankelyn was occasionally called upon to perform other duties on behalf of the Port. In 1429-30, when the King was at Canterbury, he was among a group of men from Dover, including the mayor, Walter Stratton*, and Byngley, who pleaded for the customary remittance of the parliamentary subsidy. Ibid. f. 158. In September 1432, however, he was replaced by William Every as common clerk. The reasons for this are unclear, although he cannot have been out of favour with the jurats for it was during this official year that he was again elected to Parliament for Dover. With his friend and colleague Byngley, The two men acted together on at least one other occasion. In 1427 they stood surety for Master Peter Dovyn, D.Th, who had been sued by two clerks in the mayor’s court for deception: Egerton 2105, f. 7v. Frankleyn travelled to Westminster in July 1433 and received wages at 6s. 8d. per week for 40 days’ attendance, totalling 40s. This was less than half the amount paid to Byngley, who, as a serving jurat of the Port, received the customary wages of 2s. per day. Ibid. ff. 185, 191, 198. On 8 Sept. 1433, during the prorogation of the Parliament, Frankleyn was again chosen as the common clerk, and before the dissolution, on 7 Dec., he attended a meeting of the Brodhull as one of Dover’s representatives. Unlike Byngley, he was not present at the meeting held the following January, when presumably the business of the Parliament was reported, although he did attend further meetings in July 1434, and April and December 1436. White and Black Bks. of Cinque Ports (Kent Rec. Ser. xix), 2, 4, 8, 9.

There are few other traces of Frankelyn’s career among the Dover records, although he was a frequent pleader in the mayor’s court, and in August 1436 entered into a recognizance for 100s. that he and Henry Powell should submit to the decision of the arbiters appointed by the mayor in one such case. Egerton 2089, ff. 1, 7, 8, 10; 2105, f. 47v. In 1438-9, shortly before his death, he was sent to the Sussex Cinque Ports to collect a grant of £10 which they had made towards Dover’s costs in its dispute with Faversham. Add. 29810, f. 18. Frankelyn was dead by 19 Oct. 1439 when his widow, Joan, came before the mayor to answer for certain customs that she owed. Ibid. f. 19v. Frankelyn had at least one son, also called Thomas. The younger man appears to have gained some legal training and in November 1440 he was acting as an attorney in the mayor’s court. In the same year he was also appointed an arbiter in a dispute before the mayor and bailiff. Egerton 2089, f. 76; Add. 29810, f. 26v. By 1446 he had acquired property in the hundred of Folkestone, on which, as a Portsman, he claimed exemption from the parliamentary subsidy. E179/229/139/99. Like his father, Thomas followed a career in local government: he attended meetings of the Brodhull in April 1448 and twice the following year, and on 8 Sept. 1449 he too was chosen common clerk of Dover. However, unlike our MP he only served in this office for one year. White and Black Bks. 23, 25, 26; Add. 29810, ff. 67, 70.