Although he is generally described as the son of John Cromer of Aldenham, Hertfordshire, there can be little doubt that this distinguished Londoner came originally from Cromer in Norfolk. His name certainly bears out such a connexion, as does the evidence of his will, in which he made generous bequests to the parish church of Cromer and set aside a further £40 for the relief of his poor kinsmen in the town. At some point before May 1406 Cromer and his associates bound themselves to pay £200 to John Drew of London, agreeing that, in case of default, the money should be raised from their Norfolk property: property which, in the MP’s case, may well have been part of a family estate.
Cromer had evidently settled in London by April 1390, when he paid customs duties on eight tuns of wine shipped by him into the port. In the following August he took delivery of a consignment of drapers’ goods worth more than £17; and over the next four years he provided the keeper of Henry of Bolingbroke’s wardrobe with modest quantities of cloth and thread. Between October 1395 and January 1396 he sued at least six people for the non-payment of debts totalling £225 (of which £210 was owed jointly to him and another draper, Philip Bangor, by John Stokes of Norwich).
Over the years, Cromer established himself as a rentier of some consequence, both in and out of the City. His holdings in London were said to be worth over £5 p.a. in 1412, but they must have produced far more by the time of his death 22 years later. He had by then acquired land, tenements, shops and quit rents in the parishes of St. Swithin, Candlewick Street, St. Martin in the Vintry, St. Olave near the Tower and All Hallows the Great. He also owned a plot of land near Aldgate, and was involved in various assizes of nuisance because of his failure to maintain a watercourse there.
Inevitably, a man of Cromer’s wealth and position was often made a feoffee-to-uses, and it is now very difficult to distinguish his own transactions from those of his many friends and associates. This is particularly the case in London, where he became involved in a large number of conveyances, often, but not always, designed to secure another’s title.
One of London’s most eminent citizens, Cromer played a leading part in civic life for over 33 years, and was among the few aldermen who were both affluent and distinguished enough to serve two terms as mayor during the early 15th century. His popularity sprang, in part, from an unwillingness to take bribes, so rare among his contemporaries that the brewers of London could not but register their surprise.
They found him a man a good of gouernaunce, for all the comynalte of the Cite, and all the Cite, was well plesed with hym, and also he was a good man and a lovynge to the craffte of Brewers, and yn his yer he dede no desese to ye seide craffte, ne he wolde nought receyve no yifftes ne rewardes of the same craffte yn all his tyme, but he dede thanke the Maistres goodly with all his herte of her Goode profre that they made to hym, as for to have yove hym yifftes ... and he made promys to be good Frende to hem be all his yer, and so he was.
London English ed. Chambers and Daunt, 182.
During his first mayoralty, Cromer helped to put down Sir John Oldcastle’s rebellion and was largely responsible for the emergency measures which led to the arrest of several supporters of the lollards. He attended seven of the parliamentary elections held in London between 1414 (for the November Parliament) and 1426.
In April 1428 Cromer and his wife obtained a papal indult allowing them to use a portable altar. Although he continued to serve as an alderman until the end of his life and attended meetings of the court of aldermen with impressive regularity, Cromer now gradually began to abandon most of his own business interests. He made his last will on 14 Jan. 1434 and died within the next five days, leaving a young son, William, whom he entrusted to the care of his friend and executor, Henry Barton. He was buried in the church of St. Martin Orgar, Candlewick Street, to which he left some of his property for the upkeep of a chantry. In all, he bequeathed over £496 for charitable and pious works in London, Kent and Norfolk. His widow and son each received 500 marks as well as an impressive quantity of plate and other valuables, while his friends and kinsmen shared a further £583 in cash. As a wealthy widow with a handsome dower, Margaret Cromer had no trouble in finding a second husband. She married Robert, Lord Poynings (d.1446), within six months of Cromer’s death, and lived on for another 12 years. Most of our Member’s estates in Kent descended to his son, who incurred tremendous unpopularity as sheriff there, and was murdered, together with his father-in-law,
Sir James Fiennes
†, Lord Say and Sele, by Cade’s rebels in 1450.