FAWKES, Thomas, of Bishop’s Lynn, Norf.

Members of the Fawkes family had been burgesses of Lynn since the very beginning of the 14th century, and had used the port for their business, exporting forage and grain to Zeeland and Norway.Cal. Freemen of Lynn, 5, 13, 20; Red Reg. f. 145d; CPR, 1364-7, p. 189. Thomas himself was admitted to the freedom, along with his brother Edmund, on 17 Oct. 1375 (by payment of a £2 fine), their pledges for admission being Edmund Beleyeter and Robert Botkesham. In 1385-6 Fawkes served as a scabin of the Holy Trinity guild of merchants. His own main trading interest was in cloth.Red Reg. f. 121; N.S.B. Gras, Early Eng. Customs System, 531, 542; Lynn Town Hall, Gd 47. Although by 1392 he had become one of the council of 24, he never attained a post higher than that of chamberlain, nor was he ever chosen as one of the mayor’s councillors; but he was considered important enough to be an elector of the borough’s parliamentary representatives in 1384, 1386, 1388 and 1394, and of the town officers in 1393, 1394 and 1395, and, eventually, to sit as an MP.Red Reg. ff. 115d, 117-18, 120-1, 124d, 127, 129d. Fawkes was named in November 1403 as a feoffee of lands in nearby North Runcton, West Winch, Hardwick and Middleton.CP25(1)168/182/40.