Fauconer’s father may well have been John Fauconer of Honing in Norfolk. The MP certainly had East Anglian connexions, for in July 1398 he appeared as either sole trustee or joint owner of Robert Ashfield’s holdings in the Norfolk villages of Tunstead and Ryston. He was already by this date a man of some consequence in the City, having just begun his first term as warden of the Mercers’ Company, and having taken on at least five apprentices since his assumption of the company livery in 1391.
Fauconer’s business activities were diverse, but most of his income appears to have come from dealings in wool and cloth. By August 1403 he had business connexions in Gloucestershire and Coventry, but his chief interest clearly lay in the overseas market. His successive appointments as collector of customs in the ports of Southampton, Boston and London presented him with a unique opportunity to establish himself in this lucrative branch of commerce. It is now impossible to determine the scale of his investments, which must have been considerable. The surviving customs accounts for London show that he shipped fairly regular consignments of cloth and mercers’ goods into the City between 1410 and 1430. This may have been done in his own vessels: in June 1407 he was given custody of a boat which had been driven ashore off Southampton, and in June 1412 he sold one of his ships, Le Thomas de Londres, with all its fittings to the Crown for 400 marks, assigned to him out of the wool custom which he himself was then collecting.
With characteristic shrewdness, Fauconer invested some of his growing fortune in property. In June 1409 Joan Waterfall offered sureties of £200 as a guarantee of her readiness to settle the reversion of all her land and rents in Coventry upon feoffees holding to his use. Two years later, Fauconer consolidated his position there by acquiring five messuages along with extensive farmland in the surrounding countryside. He clearly made use of the local cloth market, for at a later date he accused the sheriff of Warwickshire of obstructing his efforts to sue two tradesmen from the area. Meanwhile, by 1412, the mercer and his wife had begun to establish themselves in Kent as well, being named among the landowners who owed homage to the lord of the manor of Thornham. Their holdings here appear to have been part of a larger estate which comprised the manor of Binbury and other land to the east of Maidstone, all of which they settled upon Bartholomew Brokesby, the archbishop of Canterbury’s steward, in February 1413. The Fauconers also owned over 200 acres of land, three messuages, a mill and a flock of 205 sheep in the Faversham area which, together with the nearby manor of Davington, were in their joint possession by the late 1420s. The Philippa Fauconer who obtained letters of protection for her tenants, servants, land and possessions in Berkshire ten years later was almost certainly the MP’s widow, although there is no direct evidence of how she acquired these particular properties. Fauconer may have also purchased land in Hampshire, perhaps during his term as collector of customs at Southampton. In July 1413, over six years after he left office, he was suing a Winchester man for failure to render an account, and in March 1417 he acted as an attorney for the delivery of several Hampshire manors to Thomas, Lord Camoys.
Although long and distinguished, Fauconer’s civic career was not without its discreditable side. Some months after his term as sheriff of London came to an end he and his colleague, Thomas Polle, were sued by John Read, a weaver, who alleged that they had wrongfully detained him, confiscated his goods and demanded illicit sureties. The matter was settled in May 1406, with both parties agreeing to accept the award of independent arbitrators. Fauconer seems to have come in for a good deal of abuse during his years as an alderman. In June 1413, for instance, Geoffrey Loney bound himself in £40 not to speak scandalous or defamatory words about the mercer.
Fauconer’s will is not known to have survived, although the date of his death may be fixed at some point between 21 Sept. and 9 Nov. 1434. He left a widow and at least one daughter, named Thomasina, who was then married to Sir John Graa. The latter’s chronic financial problems had undeniably influenced his choice of wife, since Thomasina appears to have been her father’s only surviving child and sole heir. Her sister, Katherine, had died young after her marriage to Sir William Moleyns’s son, William, which took place in, or shortly before, May 1417.