PARYS, John, of Winchester, Hants.

This MP may have been related to another John Parys, the Winchester miller who died before 1424. D.J. Keene, Surv. Winchester (Winchester Studies, 2), ii. 1316. His own trade is not recorded, although he may have been a dyer engaged in cloth production since he rented ‘Le Dyhous’ from the civic authorities. Ibid. no. 90. Besides this property, Parys acquired in 1434 a tenement and garden in Parchment Street, next to St. Martin’s church, which he held for 20 years before conveying it to Richard Bowland* and his wife, and he also occupied a house in the High Street, where he lived until the late 1440s. He later refused to pay the rent due for the latter to St. John’s hospital, and was no longer the tenant in 1457. Ibid. nos. 77, 90, 318.

On 22 Dec. 1438 Parys was exonerated by the mayor and council of Winchester from holding the offices of bailiff of the commons and the 24, but apparently being more willing to serve as an MP he was elected to the first of his four Parliaments early in 1445. How much he and his colleague John Grenefeld I* were paid in total for their wages for this long Parliament is not known, although a subsidy levied in the city specifically to foot the bill raised £17 0s. 2d. Clearly this sum would have been insufficient to pay the two MPs 2s. a day for the 190 days the Commons sat in the course of four sessions before they were finally dismissed in April 1446. However, for the next Parliament, assembled at the more distant Bury St. Edmunds, he and John Hambury*, his fellow representative, were each paid £2 1s. 4d. for 23 days’ service (a sum which conformed with the established rate). The following Michaelmas Parys was elected mayor, and as was customary he received £2 to cover the expenses incurred for his journey to Westminster to take the oath of office before the barons of the Exchequer. Winchester recs. W/E1/18; E4/4. It was by no means common practice in medieval Winchester for the mayor to be re-elected to serve a consecutive term, and in the fifteenth century Parys was unique in this respect. During his second mayoralty Parliament met in Winchester itself, for just over four weeks from 16 June 1449. It had been prorogued in May to reconvene for a third session away from Westminster, ostensibly because of fears of plague. Presumably, he and the other civic dignitaries would have been expected to offer hospitality and provide a ceremonial welcome to the King and lords, although the citizens may well have benefited economically from the influx of visitors. A few weeks after he left office as mayor, Parys served in Parliament again, from 6 Nov. 1449. He was away from home attending three more sessions, the last of which, held at Leicester in May 1450, ended abruptly when news reached the King and Council of the outbreak of Cade’s rebellion in the south-east. At the next elections, held at Winchester in the following autumn, Parys stood surety for the attendance in the Commons of Thomas Sylvester*. C219/16/1. Election to what seems to have been his final Parliament in 1453 initially took him to Reading with Richard Bowland as his fellow MP. The sum of £1 17s. 1d. was collected towards their wages and they were also paid £2 for certain costs incurred while absent from home. Both Parys and Bowland witnessed a deed registered in the city court in favour of Henry Smart* on 4 Apr. 1453, during a parliamentary recess. Winchester chamberlains’ acct. W/E1/20; Stowe 846, f. 155v. The constitutional crisis caused by the King’s mental collapse meant that the Parliament was not dissolved until a year later, while the duke of York was Protector.

During the 1450s, for instance in 1451, 1452 and 1459, Parys regularly rode to Westminster at Michaelmas accompanying the newly elected mayor of Winchester to the Exchequer, E368/224, rot. 132; 225, rot. 126; 232, rot. 143. and he evidently continued to take a prominent role in civic affairs. On 23 Jan. 1456 he was one of 16 chosen from the council of 24 who together with 18 from the commons were formally authorized to govern the city during a crisis, and he remained an active member of the ruling council for at least 11 years more. Black Bk. 86, 91. He was present at Winchester in October 1462 for proceedings regarding a claim to the Hampshire manor of Winnall made by John and Maud Humfray against the prior of St. Swithun’s, which was found to be based on a forged deed. Reg. Common Seal (Hants Rec. Ser. ii), 397. Not surprisingly, Parys was sometimes called upon to witness transactions for other citizens, doing so, for example, for John Moule* and his widow. Winchester Coll. muns. 1233-4. Perhaps as a reward for his services to the city, or in lieu of payment of parliamentary wages, by 1457 ‘Le Dyhous’ and the tenement in which he was then living had been let to him for the rest of his life entirely free of rent. He agreed to repair the property, which previously had produced revenues of 25s. p.a. His tenure ceased in 1470, by which date he was presumably dead. Keene, ii. no. 90.