COPENDALE, Adam

Copendale may have been born in the north of England,5 Adam was a first name often used by the Copendales of Beverley, such as the Beverley MP of 1328, and Dr. Adam Copendale, brother of Edmund Copendale† (d.1490), of Hull: HP Biogs. 220. but moved to London in the early years of the century. Having joined the Mystery of Brewers before 1418, from then until 1425 he paid quarterage as a brother of their fraternity (initially the standard fee of 1s. for himself only, but from 1421 double this amount to include his wife). Like other members of the fraternity, Adam was granted a livery hood every year, his being a moderately expensive one made of cloth costing 10s. He contributed to various levies, including one in 1423-4 raised for the repair of Brewers’ Hall, to which he gave 3s. 4d.6 Guildhall Lib. London, Brewers’ Co. mss, acct. bk. 1418-40, 5440, ff. 2-115v; Cal. Letter Bk. London, I, 234. Nothing is known of any property he may have held in the City, although in 1420 he became a feoffee of certain tenements in Fleet Street. In 1424 he stood surety in the mayor’s court for John Poley, a grocer committed the guardianship of another grocer’s orphaned son.7 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 29. Harbouring ambitions to join the more prestigious Vintners’ Company, Copendale called himself a vintner as early as 1420, apparently left the Brewers in 1425, and as a ‘citizen and vintner of London’ contracted later that year to victual the castle of Fronsac in Aquitaine under the command of Sir John Radcliffe*. However, his royal letters of protection were revoked in January 1426, because he stayed in the City instead of joining the garrison as agreed.8 DKR, xlviii. 239; CPR, 1422-9, p. 325. In April 1430, in a transaction no doubt connected with his trading activities, he completed a grant of his goods and chattels to Thomas Kirkby (the Chancery official who was later to be master of the rolls), his own son, Robert, and two London ‘gentlemen’.9 CCR, 1429-35, p. 105. He and Kirkby were later to fall out: many years afterwards, in March 1452, the two men made general releases, the one to the other, of all legal actions pending between them, for debt, account, breach of contract or any other matter.10 CCR, 1447-54, p. 339.

Precisely when, in the meantime, Copendale had left the capital and set up residence in Portsmouth, is not clear, but some significance may be attached to the fact that Kirkby was warden of the God’s House in the town. Copendale had been accepted into the community of Portsmouth well before February 1435, by which date he had already taken on the office of town clerk. As such he was among the local officials whose arrest and imprisonment were ordered following a fracas on the quayside, in the course of which certain commissaries of the admiral of England, the duke of Bedford, were allegedly assaulted while attempting to execute their duties. A dispute over jurisdiction in the port lay behind the affair, and in the event it was Bedford’s men who were indicted before the Hampshire j.p.s. rather than their alleged assailants.11 CPR, 1429-36, p. 471; C1/45/53; C244/12, no. 24. Copendale used Southampton Water as a base for his mercantile activities, and he continued to trade in wine as well as in other produce.12 E122/209/1. In the Michaelmas term of 1439 William Fromond*, another onetime citizen of London who now lived in Winchester, brought an action in the court of common pleas against him and William Hacombley, a London grocer, for a debt of 50 marks.13 CP40/715, rot. 258. Copendale was described in the plea as former citizen and vintner of London, a description also used on the pardon he took out in July 1446,14 C67/39, m. 33. although meanwhile, in the Michaelmas term of 1445, he had been styled ‘of Portsmouth, yeoman’ in a suit brought by Henry Trenchard* the Hampshire esquire for illegal entry into his property.15 CP40/739, rot. 89.

Copendale held royal office as searcher in Southampton Water for three-and-a-half years,16 He was called to the Exchequer to answer for uncustomed wool and other merchandise which he had seized at Southampton and Portsmouth: E159/221, recorda Trin. rot. 18, Mich. rot. 12d; 223, Easter, rot. 5. and as bailiff of Portsmouth as chosen by his fellow burgesses for one before his single election to Parliament in 1449. Subsequently, he was twice placed on ad hoc commissions of inquiry in Hampshire, both of them to investigate alleged breaches of truces at sea. He is not recorded after making his peace with Thomas Kirkby.