GREENSHILD, Henry (d.?1471), of Sandwich and Woodnesborough, Kent.

Probably the son of John Greenshild, a local gentleman with property in Whitstable, Herne and Woodnesborough, Henry first appeared in the Sandwich records in December 1453 when he was appointed as one of the town’s treasurers, and in the following year he was among those appointed to the town’s first formally-constituted common council. He was one of the four men appointed by the mayor and jurats in St. Peter’s parish who together chose another 17 men from the parish to join the council. It is likely that Greenshild remained a common councillor until his election to the ranks of the jurats on 5 Dec. 1457. This rapid rise to prominence in the town’s affairs, first to jurat and then to mayor just a year later, can probably be explained by the crisis that followed the French descent in the previous August of 1457. This had seen the death of the mayor, John Drury*, as well as other leading townsmen, and the destruction of many buildings. Greenshild’s relative wealth, from property outside the town, elevated him to a new importance within Sandwich and in December he was charged, along with his fellow jurat, Matthew Hygon* (with whom he had been appointed treasurer in 1453), to assist the treasurers in collecting unpaid rents. ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 104. This importance was confirmed on 4 Dec. 1458 when he was elected mayor. Little evidence survives of his activities during this first term in office, and, unusually for a mayor, he attended neither of the two meetings of the Brodhull held in 1459. White and Black Bks. 40. In Michaelmas term that year, however, he was accused of contempt by Simon Shipton, a servant of William Olyve, searcher of ships in the port of Sandwich. Shipton alleged that on the previous 17 July Greenshild had seized velvet cloth and other goods being shipped from Sandwich without payment of customs by a foreign merchant, Adrian Puke: that, accompanied by one of his servants and a Brabantine merchant, he had taken the merchandise by force and imprisoned Shipton himself for 23 days. Writs were sent out to the lieutenant of Dover castle to attach Greenshild and the others, but no return was made until Michaelmas term 1462, when Otwell Worsley, the earl of Warwick’s lieutenant at Dover castle, returned that the defendants could not be found. E159/236, recorda, Mich. rot. 12. Meanwhile, notwithstanding these accusations, on 3 Dec. 1459 Greenshild had been re-elected mayor and it was while holding office that, on the following 18 Sept., he was returned as one of the parliamentary barons for the Port. He travelled to Westminster with another parliamentary novice, Alexander Reynold*, to attend the momentous assembly which witnessed Richard, duke of York, make his claim to the throne, but the details of their parliamentary service are unknown. ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 109v.

Greenshild’s first two mayoral terms coincided with the period of open warfare between York and Lancaster. Sandwich played an important role in this, initially as the base from which the Lancastrians, led by Henry Beaufort, duke of Somerset, and Richard Wydeville, Lord Rivers, attempted to wrest control of Calais from the earl of Warwick and the other Yorkist lords in the winter of 1459-60, and then as the base from which the Yorkists launched their march on London in June 1460. Greenshild’s role, if any, in these events is not recorded in the local or national records, although in December 1459 he was appointed to muster the men appointed to go to sea with the Lancastrian treasurer of Calais, (Sir) Gervase Clifton*, and to inquire into treasons committed by certain prisoners held in the town gaol. CPR, 1452-61, pp. 555-6. He carried out these responsibilities by virtue of his office of mayor, and there is no evidence that he was ‘an avowed Lancastrian’. D. Gardiner, Historic Haven, 147.

In December 1460, during the parliamentary recess, Greenshild returned to the ranks of the jurats. He continued to sit regularly in the mayor’s court throughout the next few years and his status was confirmed in July 1463 by his nomination as one of the Ports’ bailiffs to the annual herring fair at Great Yarmouth. On 26 July that year he attended his first Brodhull to see his election confirmed, and he travelled to New Romney again in April the following year, no doubt to report to the delegates on events at the fair. White and Black Bks. 48-49. Soon, however, Greenshild’s relations with some of his neighbours at Sandwich deteriorated. In November 1465 he brought an action in the mayor’s court against a fellow jurat, John Brown. The background to the case is not known, but the hearing ended with Greenshild being committed to the town gaol, although he was allowed to return home for a meal that day before apparently spending the night in the wardman’s custody. Despite this, a year later on 1 Dec. 1466 Greenshild was chosen as mayor for a third time from a list of three candidates also including William Fennell* and Robert Cock†. On that day the mayor, jurats and commonalty decreed that all new acts and statutes made during the preceding three mayoralties should be annulled. The reasoning behind this ruling is unclear, but it seems unlikely to have been related solely to Greenshild’s imprisonment in 1465. It was, however, probably behind the refusal of eight men to take the jurats’ oath. The recalcitrants included Richard Cheldesworth (the out-going mayor), William Kenet† (mayor in 1461), and the defeated mayoral candidates Fennell and Cock. On 23 Dec. they were given until ten o’clock that morning to take the oath or be deprived of the freedom of the town. The deadline having passed and still adamant in their refusal, they were duly punished. Three days later Greenshild travelled to Dover to present a letter to the warden of the Cinque Ports, the earl of Warwick, concerning ‘the liberties of the town and the election of the mayor’. The nature of the negotiations that followed this incident are obscure, but evidently some compromise was reached. On the following 28 May Greenshild and Kenet entered into recognizances of £100 to keep the peace towards each other; on 17 July Cheldesworth was readmitted to the freedom and on 2 Oct. the remaining men were restored and all sworn in as jurats. The next mayoral election of December 1467 saw Kenet chosen from a candidate list also containing Cock and John Aldy†, another man who had been deprived of his freedom the previous year, while Greenshild returned to the ranks of the jurats. Indeed, there seems little sign that there continued to be two irreconcilable factions among the Sandwich elite, and in April 1468 Greenshild served as deputy mayor to Kenet. ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 127v, 166v-67v, 171, 179; Gardiner, 147-8.

Even so, in December 1468 Greenshild was not named among the jurats, and this marked the end of his career in the government of the town. It is possible that he took exception to his failure to secure re-election to the jurats’ bench: the treasurer’s account for 1468-9 records 6d. paid when Greenshild was arrested ‘in þe townys name’ and a further 2s. 4d. ‘for gere þat was lost att freres when Herry Greneshylde & þe commons made arrest’. There is nothing to indicate that the arrest had a wider ‘political significance’ related to the worsening relationship between the Ports’ warden, Warwick, and the King. E. Kent Archs., Sandwich treasurers’ accts. 1468-9, SA/FAt 6; Gardiner, 148.

The remainder of Greenshild’s life is obscure. In November 1467 he had demised his property in Sandwich to a group of three local men, a grant which was recorded in the year book in September the following year. ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 182. It seems likely that he then retired to his manor of Hamwold in the nearby parish of Woodnesborough. Yet he maintained his connexions with Sandwich, particularly with regard to making provision for his soul by donating property to the local hospital of St. Thomas the Martyr. In January 1471 he enfeoffed one Herman Risbargh of Canterbury in 15 acres of land in Hamwold, and on 3 May the following year, perhaps after Greenshild’s death and for the performance of his will, Risbargh transferred the same to the wardens of St. Thomas’s to the use of the 12 paupers who dwelt there. The property was said to have an annual value of 13s. 4d and may have included lands received in mortgage from Thomas atte Welle in 1453 as well as family holdings. In November 1481 at an inquisition held before the escheator of Kent at Dartford, jurors stated that Greenshild’s grant to the hospital had been made contrary to the Statute of Mortmain and that the paupers had wrongfully enjoyed the issues for over eight years. W. Boys, Sandwich, 149, 155-6; Archaeologia Cantiana, lxxv. 34.