HONYWOOD, Alan, of Hastings, Suss.

It seems likely that this Alan Honywood was the first born son of John Honywode, who had represented Hythe in the first Parliament of 1397, and grandson of a namesake who had done so in 1393, although the will of the latter, made in 1401, mentions two Alans – the son of John and the son of Robert Honywode – each of whom received the same bequest of half a mark. Archaeologia Cantiana, l. 98. In 1430 Alan, the son and heir of John, sold certain property near the market-place in Hythe which had once belonged to his late father. HMC 6th Rep. 521. The sale may mark his departure from Hythe, for he is not otherwise mentioned in the local records. It is of interest, however, that his putative brother John joined him in the Commons of 1450 as one of the barons of that Cinque Port, while John’s brother Thomas represented Hythe in two other Parliaments of the period.

On leaving Hythe, Alan became a baron of another of the Cinque Ports, Hastings. As such he claimed exemption from taxation on his moveable goods at Wilting, outside the liberty, doing so from October 1430 onwards, and later in the decade he made similar claims with regard to his possessions at Crowhurst and Ore. In the late 1440s he also held land at ‘Sandlake’. E179/225/50, 59; 226/69, 71; 228/112, 118; 229/138, 151, 154. Honywood was chosen to be a delegate from Hastings to Brodhulls assembled at New Romney on as many as 13 occasions between April 1446 and 1458. White and Black Bks. 20, 21, 26, 27-31, 36, 38. He was also selected as one of the Ports’ bailiffs to the autumn herring fair at Yarmouth in 1446 and 1450. The fair in the latter year can have been barely over when he was sent to his only known Parliament, which assembled at Westminster on 6 Nov. It was during the final session of the Parliament in May 1451 that he was chosen as bailiff of Hastings for the first of two consecutive terms. They were not without incident, for his conduct in office was called into question in April 1452, when John Clyve* formally complained at the Brodhull that Honywood, without reasonable cause, had removed him from the post of bailiff to Yarmouth in the previous year. Honywood accepted responsibility for Clyve’s dismissal and submitted himself to the judgement of the assembly, which fined him 40s. and ordered him to compensate Clyve with 20s., although as he paid these penalties promptly he was pardoned half the sums due. The serious nature of his offence was, however, underlined by the decision of the assembled Portsmen that anyone behaving in this arbitrary fashion in future would be penalized by as much as £20, and be ‘disabled from the Brodhull for ever’. It may well be that a clash of personalities lay behind the incident. Five years later, in July 1457, Clyve was again dismissed as bailiff to Yarmouth, and it was decided that the choice of a replacement should be made from three other men from Hastings, of whom Honywood was one. Ibid. 29, 38.

Alan is not recorded after 1458. It is likely that he was closely related to the John Honywood returned by Hastings to the Parliament of 1478, perhaps being his father.