BROWN, John

Brown is first recorded in the final years of Henry V’s reign, when John atte Nende alleged in a petition to the chancellor that ‘torcenousment et encontre droit’ he had been dispossessed of a tenement, five cottages and a meadow in Wilton by three local men, who included John Brown ‘the elder’ and John Brown ‘the younger’.4 C1/69/64. Presumably the latter was the future MP. The lack of surviving records for Wilton in the early decades of the century makes it difficult to chart his progress in the government of the town, and his common name means there is uncertainty attached to his identification with John Browns living elsewhere in the county.5 e.g. John Brown of Maiden Bradley, Wilts.: Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, ii. 146; KB9/133/30, 42. Another namesake was bailiff of the Wilts. hundred of Amesbury in May 1462: KB9/135/78. However, as he is known to have been a chandler by trade it is unlikely that he was the ‘gentleman’ of Wiltshire who in February 1432 joined William Darell* the under treasurer in standing surety at the Exchequer for the new alnager of London, Robert Charingworth.6 CFR, xvi. 72. This is likely to have been the man who in his capacity as Charingworth’s deputy had seized cloth at Castle Combe, Wilts. in the previous year: E159/208, recorda, Mich. rot. 8, and who was himself appointed alnager of London in 1433: CFR, xvi. 111, 223, 251. That John is to be identified with John Brome II* the Exchequer official.

In the course of that decade, Brown became a leading figure in Wilton, and in February 1436 he served as a juror in the town for the inquisition post mortem on John, earl of Arundel.7 C139/71/37. He was elected to the Parliament assembled in January 1437 in company with another Wilton man, John Mundy*, and with the support of John Whithorne*, the most prominent of the townsmen and himself a veteran of 11 Parliaments, who stood surety for his attendance in the Commons.8 C219/15/1. It is likely, but now impossible to prove, that Brown had previously held a local office, although he is not recorded as mayor until the autumn of 1439. Not long afterwards, perhaps during William Hull’s mayoralty of 1440-1, he and John atte Fenne* were associated with the mayor in making demands that the prior of Ivychurch should perform the office of bailiff and portreeve in the borough as custom required. This went contrary to the King’s writ which had charged them to exonerate him. Walter, Lord Hungerford† and (Sir) John Stourton II*, to whom had been granted the governance of the priory (together with the duke of Gloucester, and the bishops of Bath and Wells, Salisbury and Rochester), petitioned the same bishop of Bath, in his capacity as chancellor, to complain about their stance, insisting that Brown and the others should be made to answer in Chancery.9 C1/1/52, printed in Procs. Chancery Eliz. ed. Caley and Bayley, p. xxxix.

In 1442-3 Brown and Mundy were sent by the authorities at Wilton to Canford in Dorset to seek guidance from Cardinal Beaufort, at that time lord of the borough by royal grant.10 Stewards’ accts. G25/1/88. He was one of the four auditors (of whom two were invariably the out-going mayor and the current mayor) in 1451-2, and again officiated as mayor himself in 1453-4. Although further service as auditor and mayor followed, as well as regular appearances as a member of the council of 12, it does not seem that he ever represented Wilton in the Commons for a second time. Brown rode with the mayor Mundy and the steward Robert atte Fenne* to Salisbury in a matter relating to the hospital of St. Giles, Wilton, during Mundy’s mayoralty of 1454-5. That same year he took part in the election of the MPs for Wilton on 16 June 1455 (as one of 11 burgesses named alongside the mayor), although in the event their choice of one of the Members was changed before the county court met in the town four days later.11 Ibid.; gen. entry bk. G25/1/21, f. 1; C219/16/3. In these years Brown served again as a juror at inquisitions post mortem, doing so in 1459 with regard to Elizabeth, wife of John Blake esquire, in June 1460 to Sir Maurice Berkeley II* of Beverstone, in October that year to John, earl of Shrewsbury, and in July 1462 to William, Lord Botreaux.12 C139/176/27, 179/57, 58; C140/7/15. In the local records of this period he was usually called ‘John Brown, chandler’, and sometimes appeared in an official capacity as ‘John Chandler’ instead of John Brown.13 e.g. gen. entry bk. G25/1/21, ff. 24, 25, 27. All this while the obligation of the prior of Ivychurch to do duty as portreeve had not been forgotten, but in 1470-1, some 30 years since he had first been involved in the debate, Brown stood surety that the prior would pay 20s. for exoneration from the office.14 Ibid. f. 30.

After many years of service in the administration of his home town, Brown became one of Wilton’s ‘benefactors’. On the day of the borough elections in 1468 he generously gave the mayor and burgesses a silver bowl, weighing nearly 22 ounces, and it was agreed that in return prayers would regularly be said for him in the parish church of the Holy Trinity. Later, he also gave to the use of the borough a standing cup of silver gilt so that the burgesses would pray for his soul every year on election-day.15 Ibid. ff. 12, 13, 602. He died at an unknown date in 1472; his name on the list of burgesses compiled at Michaelmas that year was annotated ‘mort est’.16 Ibid. ff. 31, 593.