KILLINGHOLME, John (d.1452), of Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorks.

A lawyer employed by Hull for his counsel, John appears to have had family links with the town, since Robert de Killingholme was one of the bailiffs in 1391-2. J. Kermode, ‘Merchants of York, Hull and Beverley’ (Sheffield Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1990), app. 4; J.H. Baker, Men of Ct. (Selden Soc. supp. ser. xviii), ii. 966-7. The subject of this biography should not be confused with a namesake admitted to the freedom of Hull by right of patrimony in 1435-6. A baker, this other John was the son of Gilbert Killingholme who had purchased the freedom only eight years previously: Kingston-upon-Hull recs., bench bk. 1, BRG 1; bench bk. 2, BRE 1, p. 266; bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, ff. 26, 36; E159/235, recorda Mich. rot. 51. He also possessed a connexion with Lincolnshire, where he served as under sheriff in the early 1440s and where the parish of Killingholme lay, just a few miles south of Hull on the opposite side of the Humber. A tax assessment of the mid 1430s found that he held lands in Yorkshire worth £7 p.a., E159/212, recorda Hil. rot. 14. although it is likely that he possessed holdings in Lincolnshire as well. Presumably he had begun to provide the burgesses of Hull with legal advice by 1433, when he was entertained by the mayor and stood surety for the town’s MPs. Kingston-upon-Hull recs., chamberlains’ acct. 1432-3, BRF 2/353; C219/14/4. In Michaelmas term 1439 he stood bail at Westminster for Richard Anson*, E159/214, recorda Trin. rot. 6. but the town did not monopolize his services in the late 1430s and early 1440s. Killingholme served under at least two sheriffs of Lincolnshire, John Neville* and John Sotehill, and he stood surety for the former when Neville received the ancient farms of that county in December 1439. CFR, xvii. 119. His time as under sheriff did not pass without controversy, since during Sotehill’s shrievalty, Maurice Tornay, the vicar of Sutton-in-Holland, sued him in the Chancery. According to Tornay, while serving under Neville Killingholme had falsely put it about that he had been indicted for felony; and now he was threatened with arrest on the basis of a non-existent indictment. C1/11/538. It is unclear whether Killingholme stood down as under sheriff when Sotehill’s term as sheriff expired in November 1443, PRO List ‘Sheriffs’, 79. but the mid 1440s appear to have marked a strengthening of his association with Hull. From 1444 the corporation paid him an annual retainer of 13s. 4d., and in the following year the burgesses dispatched him to London to secure authorization for a chantry founded by John Gregg*, and employed him in securing their rights to operate the ferry at Barton-upon-Humber. Chamberlains’ accts. 1444-6, 1447-9, 1450-1, BRF 2/361-4.

On 27 Jan. 1449 Killingholme was one of four nominees put forward by the aldermen of Hull for election to the first Parliament of that year, whereupon the commonalty chose him and the mayor, Hugh Clitheroe*, to represent them in the Commons. Bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, f. 4. Killingholme’s return was unprecedented, since he had not previously held municipal office, but no doubt his fellow burgesses had a high regard for his professional abilities. It is nevertheless possible that he had sought a seat in the Commons for personal reasons, to gain immunity from a lawsuit that Thomas Allech of Boston, Lincolnshire, was then pursuing against him, the London grocer John Braunche and Henry Bury of Wharton, Lincolnshire, in the court of common pleas. In Michaelmas term 1448 Braunche appeared at Westminster to answer the plea that in June 1441 he, Killingholme and Bury had broken into Allech’s house and close at Boston and assaulted him. Braunche’s co-defendants failed to make a like appearance, meaning that Killingholme was elected to Parliament while the subject of writs directed to the sheriff of Lincolnshire. CP40/751, rot. 130.

Just over two years after the dissolution of the Parliament, Killingholme was appointed common clerk and recorder of Kingston-upon-Hull, with an annual fee of £4 and 3½ ells of cloth for his robes. His brief tenure of these offices was almost certainly due to ill health, since he made his will on 9 Sept. 1452. He sought burial in St. Mary’s church at Hull and provided for a modest funeral and the holding of obits there. Killingholme settled his property in the town on his only child, his daughter Katherine. In the event of her death without heirs, his executors were to sell it and employ the proceeds for the benefit of his soul. He left the remainder of his goods to his widow, asking her to use them to settle his debts and for further charitable purposes. Katherine was among those whom he named as an executor, for which role he also chose two fellow townsmen, Thomas Patrikton and Thomas Sproxton. Probate was granted on 1 May 1453. York registry wills, prob. reg. 2, f. 272.