PHYPPES, John, of Winchelsea, Suss.

Phyppes was first recorded on 10 Apr. 1453, when attending a Brodhull at New Romney as a representative of Winchelsea. The Brodhull considered the process of a suit against one Eleanor Southen brought by him and his wife Parnel, the executrix of her former husband William Nevewe of ‘Cane’. Ibid. 31. At the end of the same month he was in Dover, where he served on a jury at an inquiry held by the lieutenant-warden of the Ports regarding the Portsmens’ claims for exemption from the taxes granted by the Parliament of 1445-6. E179/228/131. Chosen as a delegate to five more Brodhulls, in the years up to 1468, White and Black Bks. 33, 39, 43, 56. Phyppes also attended meetings of the Brotherhood during his term as mayor of Winchelsea. It remains uncertain which Parliament he attended, that of 1459 or 1470, although the former is more likely for when the Readeption Parliament of 1470-1 met he was serving as mayor and during Henry VI’s reign it had only happened once (in 1433, in unusual political circumstances) that Winchelsea had elected a current mayor as an MP.

Otherwise, there are glimpses of Phyppes’s trading concerns, for instance his shipment of produce on Le Bote of Winchelsea. E122/34/17. He was a feoffee of land in Icklesham and in the liberty of Winchelsea in association with Thomas Thunder II* in 1461, and witnessed deeds at Winchelsea on other occasions. Add. Chs. 20104, 20208, 30924.