COKSON, John

John may have been related to Robert Cokson of Searby, a Lindsey tax collector in 1416, although no direct evidence survives of his family connexions. The first reference to our MP comes in January 1414, when he was suing in the Grimsby borough court for 21s. 8d. owed him on the sale of a horse.3 Ibid. 1/100/4/3; CFR, xiv. 173. It was not, however, until some eight years later that he began to take an active role in borough administration. On 6 Oct. 1422 he was elected to the mayor’s council, and, at the great husting held a week later, he both served on the jury for the election of the borough officers and was himself elected as one of the six auditors responsible for ensuring the financial probity of the other officers. In the autumn of the following year he was returned as one of the borough’s MPs, with Robert Pye, the mayor on whose council he had served, acting as one of the mainpernors for his appearance at Westminster. It is clear, however, that he did not take his seat, for the borough chamberlains paid the Duffield brothers, Richard* and William*, for their 123-days’ service in this Parliament.4 C219/13/2; Grimsby chamberlains’ accts. 1/600/11. Perhaps Richard, an influential lawyer who had been returned with Cokson, persuaded him to step aside in his brother’s favour. Whatever the truth of this it did not prevent Cokson from finding favour with the electors in 1429 after he had served further terms as an auditor and member of the mayor’s council.5 C219/14/2. Five years later he was in conflict with the man who had supplanted him in 1423. According to a presentment made by the chamberlains on 27 Feb. 1434, he drew his dagger and threatened to stab William Duffield, while Duffield was presented for doing the same to him. Their argument, which is very unlikely to have been connected with the events of 1423, probably arose out of a plea of debt sued by Cokson against Duffield a few days before their confrontation.6 Grimsby ct. rolls, 1/101, 12 Hen. VI.

Little else is known about Cokson. He was a shipowner, since he is styled ‘shipman’ in 1438 when sued by (Sir) John Pygot* in the court of common pleas, to render account as his bailiff in the borough. His service as keeper of the fabric of St. Mary’s church also connects him with the sea, for this church was where the mariners’ guild had its altar.7 CP40/708, rot. 223d; E. Gillett, Grimsby, 82. Aside from his term as chamberlain in 1442-3, the last reference to him comes in the chamberlains’ accounts of 1441-2 when he was paid for riding to Lincoln on unspecified business, which may have concerned negotiations for a loan from the borough to the Crown.8 Grimsby chamberlains’ accts. 1/600/13. By the end of his life he was married to one Joan. In 1442 the couple were joint-plaintiffs in several pleas of debt in which Joan is described as the executrix of another Grimsby man, Peter Empingham, and it is probable that she was Peter’s widow.9 CP40/708, rot. 223d.