GERMAN, Robert (d.1402), of Nottingham.

Resident in Nottingham by 1361, in 1376 German acquired a curtilage in Castle Gate, and later held other properties near Bugge Hall, in the street leading to the Franciscans’ house, in Middle Pavement, and a soft, a garden and a dovecote at Chesterfield Cross.Nottingham Archs. ct. roll 1279 m. 11; Nottingham Recs. i. 281. In 1361 he had served as a juror in the town at the inquisition post mortem on Thomas Holand, earl of Kent. His municipal career, however, was on the whole uneventful; for, although elected to Parliament no fewer than ten times in 20 years, he was bailiff only once and never, so far as is known, mayor. In 1395 he was one of the burgesses taking part in an assize of bread. He occasionally acted on behalf of fellow wool merchants and townsmen: in 1390 he became a feoffee of the property of John Crowshaw; two years later he went surety before the King’s bench for Thomas Mapperley and John Samon, and about the same time he was enfeoffed of the property of a former mayor and MP, Richard Hanneson.Notts. IPM (Thoroton Soc. xii), 49; Nottingham Archs. ct. rolls 1291 m. 6, 1296 m. 23d; Nottingham Recs. i. 289, 335; KB27/526 fines m. 1. German exported wool from Kingston-upon-Hull to the Netherlands. Early in 1388 a shipment of his on the Godberade of Camfer, Zeeland, was lost in a shipwreck off Cromer. He was given royal permission to load another vessel with the same quantity of wool and woolfells without paying additional customs.CCR, 1385-9, p. 378.

German made his will on 24 Aug. 1402 in St. Peter’s church, Nottingham, where he was to be buried. He left 20s. towards the fabric of the church, 46s.8d. to that of Tollerton church, some four miles away, and the residue of his goods to support a chaplain at St. Mary’s altar in St. Peter’s. His property was to pass to his widow with remainder to his sons, Robert and Thomas, each of whom was bequeathed 20 marks. The boys were entrusted to the guardianship of their mother. There is no record of probate.Borthwick Inst. York, York registry wills, iii. ff. 86-87.