GERMAN, Gilbert, of Wye and Canterbury, Kent.

Gilbert was probably the son of Simon German of Wye near Canterbury, who, the tenant of the manor called ‘Germans’, was alive in 1390. Add. Ch. 16461; E. Hasted, Kent ed. Drake, vii. 354. Nothing is known about his education, but he trained as a lawyer, perhaps under the guidance of John Sheldwich* of Canterbury. German travelled to Rochester in October 1414 to witness the election indenture in which Sheldwich was returned as one of the city’s representatives in the Parliament summoned to meet the following month. C219/11/4. By this time he had inherited his putative father’s property in Wye, and he seems to have remained resident there until at least 1426, as he was described as of Wye, ‘gentleman’ when in the Michaelmas term that year he was sued in the court of the common pleas for a debt of £20. CP40/663, rot. 168d. On 20 Sept. the following year he was admitted to the freedom of Canterbury and pardoned the normal fee in consideration of the ‘good counsel’ he had previously rendered the city. CCA-CC-F/A/1, f. 185.

Around the same time German was elected to his first Parliament, as one of the barons for the Port of Dover. His election arose from his employment as legal counsel in the dispute between Dover and its member-port, Faversham, a dispute which centered upon Faversham’s refusal to pay taxes, including the cost of parliamentary wages, to its head-port, and was not to be finally settled until 1438. Dover Chs. ed. Statham, 184-95. As well as attending Parliament, German accompanied his fellow MP, Walter Stratton*, to Canterbury where the dispute was discussed with Geoffrey Lowther*, the lieutenant of Dover castle. German sat in Parliament from its opening on 13 Oct. 1427 for six weeks, and after the Christmas vacation was paid for attending from 14 Jan. (although Parliament did not reconvene until 27 Jan.) for five-and-a-half weeks before he and Stratton departed and the MP for Romney, John Adam*, took over the representation of Dover. German was also paid 20s. for his fee as the Port’s legal counsel and for his ‘friendship’. Further payments came his way in 1429-30, for attending a meeting of the Brodhull on Dover’s behalf, and he also received a reward of 5s. for his advice in ‘divers matters’. Add. 29615, ff. 125v, 132, 136v, 137v, 151v, 158v. In 1432 he was again elected to represent the Port in the Parliament summoned to meet at Westminster on 12 May. On this occasion he received wages for ten weeks at 10s. per week, the duration of the single session which ended on 17 July, with a few days spent travelling. In that year he also attended another meeting of the Brodhull on Dover’s behalf, perhaps to report the business of the Parliament. German appears to have remained Dover’s principal legal counsel until at least 1435, when he was paid 33s. 4d. for his advice regarding a loan demanded by the King. In the same year, however, Dover dispensed with his services in the Faversham dispute, instead retaining another local lawyer, John Pirie*. The final payment to German recorded in the Port’s accounts came in 1437-8 when a total of 20s. was delivered to him on three separate occasions, although this may represent the settlement of old debts rather than any new employment. Ibid. ff. 175, 177, 205v-6; Add. 29810, ff. 2v, 7.

Meanwhile, German had continued to be employed in legal matters by his adopted home of Canterbury. In 1435-6 he was dined by the bailiffs, to whom he offered guidance in their dispute with the abbot of St. Augustine’s over the manor of Langport. German’s election as MP for Canterbury to the Parliament assembled in January 1437 was probably in connexion with this matter. He sat for 55 days (ten longer than his colleague John Lynde*), and also received a special payment of 13s. 4d. for his labours in the settlement of the Langport dispute engineered by Cardinal Beaufort. Indeed, it was German who delivered to the cardinal the city’s obligation agreeing to abide by the award. CCA-CC-F/A/1, ff. 236v, 243, 250. It was probably in recognition of his efforts that he was chosen as one of the 12 jurats at Michaelmas 1438. German continued to serve the city throughout the 1440s, although his ability to act may have been temporarily restricted by his appointment as escheator of Kent and Middlesex in 1445. Having been chosen as one of the jurats for a third time at Michaelmas 1446, at the end of the official year he was elected to serve alongside Lynde as one of the city’s bailiffs. During these two years he assisted the former bailiffs, John Bartelot and William Atwode, then appearing before the duke of Gloucester (the warden of the Cinque Ports) on unspecified business, and was also paid 10s. for his labours in London on the city’s behalf. CCA-CC-F/A/2, ff. 15, 20v. This latter payment may have been related to the case brought against him and Lynde in King’s bench concerning the collection of fines in the disputed manor of Langport by the bailiffs of Canterbury long before, in 1416. KB27/747, rex rot. 24d.

German’s connexions were those of a lawyer with extensive contacts both at Westminster and throughout Kent. In November 1428 he had entered into a recognizance at the Exchequer on behalf of John Tamworth*, the former collector of customs in Chichester, binding himself in the sum of £80 on condition that Tamworth repaid nearly £95 in dues that he had concealed from the Crown. The exact nature of German’s association with Tamworth is unknown but he did not act as his attorney when he appeared before the barons of the Exchequer. E159/204, recorda, Trin. rot. 15d; 205, recogniciones, Mich. Further links with the mercantile community are suggested by his acting as guarantor in October 1429 that the Kent merchant, John Daundelyon, would make a shipment of corn to London and not elsewhere, and by his inclusion in a ‘gift’ of goods and chattels made ten years later by Walter Burgate of Dartmouth to a group of men mainly comprised of Burgate’s fellow-Devonians. CPR, 1429-36, p. 4; CCR, 1435-41, p. 342. Yet it was in company with a number of other lawyers, mainly from Lincoln’s Inn, that in 1431 he witnessed transactions whereby two manors in Cambridgeshire, previously held by John Rickhill*, were conveyed to a body of trustees headed by the treasurer, Walter, Lord Hungerford†. CCR, 1429-35, pp. 132-3. His contacts within Kent are hinted at by a case in the court of common pleas in Michaelmas term 1433 when he, John Darell* and Edward Lymsey brought an action against Thomas Aleyn who had detained their jewels contrary to his promise. CP40/691, rot. 653d.

By this time German may well have been a prosperous man, although in December 1431 he had been assessed on property worth no more than 10s. a year in Canterbury. Feudal Aids, iii. 58. Besides this he also held 20 acres of land in Chilham, Kent, which, in July 1438 he conveyed to William German, possibly his brother. CP25/1/312/468. In all probability he also had property in Dover, allowing him to enjoy the liberties of the Cinque Ports and represent the town in Parliament; he used this status as a Portsman to escape payment of parliamentary subsidies in Canterbury in 1431, 1440, 1445 and 1449. The exemption certificate of 1440 also reveals that he possessed land in the hundred of Wingham. E179/124/97, 106, 140/4, 5; 227/106. It was in Wye, however, that German’s main holdings lay. According to a rental of the manor of Wye compiled between 1452 and 1454 he had held at least 75 acres there but by then had disposed of them to Thomas Willok and two Canterbury men. H.E. Muhlfield, Survey Manor of Wye, 34, 59, 60, 62, 64, 74, 116. German’s disposal of these holdings suggest that he was without an heir and there is no evidence of him having married. On the other hand he may have been in financial difficulties. On 30 Jan. 1456 he obtained a general pardon (in which he was described as of Canterbury, gentleman, former escheator of Kent and Middlesex and bailiff of Canterbury), and made sure that the Exchequer was instructed not to trouble him for defaults on his payments. C67/41, m. 11; E159/233, brevia Mich. rot. 45d. That same Hilary term he was being sued for debt by the bishop of London, in his capacity as executor of Cardinal John Kemp, the archbishop of Canterbury. CP40/780, rot. 429d. He is not recorded thereafter. Members of his family continued to live at Wye, including a ‘yeoman’ named Hamon German, who in 1462 stood surety for the defendant in a suit in the common pleas. CP40/804, rot. 114d.