MARCHAUNT, Robert, of Rye, Suss.

Robert was probably related to William Marchaunt† (d.1423/4), of Iden, Sussex, and his son John II*, who represented Rye in the Parliaments of 1388 (Feb.) and 1423, respectively, while another member of the family, Stephen Marchaunt*, sat for the Port in 1432. None of them are known to have played a prominent role in the administration of Rye, although lacunae in the surviving records keep us ignorant of the names of the jurats and several of the mayors of the period. As landowners rather than seafarers the Marchaunts appear to have kept somewhat aloof from the affairs of the Port. Robert himself first appears in May 1444 when he and his kinsman Stephen were both named among the feoffees of the manor of ‘Salernescourt’ across the border in Kent along with several acres of land in Iden and elsewhere which had been acquired through marriage by Thomas Pope*, the King’s bailiff of Rye. Canterbury Cath. Archs., Dean and Chapter mss, CCA-DCc-ChAnt/S/361. A few months later he was elected to accompany Pope to the Parliament of 1445. As on 1 June 1448 Marchaunt went to the Exchequer to receive an assignment on behalf of Sir Roger Fiennes*, it may be conjectured that the influential knight had played a part in his election of three years earlier, at a time when Sir Roger was treasurer of the King’s household. E403/771, m. 5. Sir Roger came from the leading gentry of this part of Sussex, and himself sat in the Commons of 1445, as a knight of the shire. As is clear from Rye’s return of Robert Berde* to the Parliament of 1449 (Nov.), the Portsmen were not inclined to refuse requests from members of the Fiennes family (in Berde’s case emanating from Sir Roger’s brother James*, Lord Saye and Sele, and warden of the Cinque Ports).

In 1449 Robert Marchaunt was party with his wife to a final concord whereby they conveyed a windmill and some 224 acres of land (most of it arable) in Iden, Playden and Rye, to three feoffees, headed by his kinsman Stephen Marchaunt. Curiously, he was described in the document as ‘citizen and clothier of London’, CP25(1)/241/90/7. so it might be assumed that he had recently moved away from Rye to the capital, and that this transaction marked his departure. Yet of any career in London no trace has been found.