SPICER, Thomas

A merchant involved in the Prussia trade,6 Ibid. f. 45v. Spicer was almost certainly from the same family as John Spicer†, who sat for Lynn in earlier Parliaments.7 It is not known how, if at all, the John Spicer of Lynn who died in 1440 was related to the other two men: Norf. RO, Norwich consist. ct., Reg. Doke, f. 121. A burgess of considerable substance, his apprentices included Robert Passhelee, who went to Prussia on his business in the mid 1430s, and Walter Cony*, who would sit for the borough in the Parliament of 1455.8 KL/C 7/3, ff. 45v, 54, 69, 71v, 90v. Spicer is first heard of in August 1424 when he submitted evidence to the borough’s authorities about felonies and trespasses committed by German-speaking residents of Lynn.9 KL/C 7/29, p. 82. Later in the same month, he and John Thoresby agreed to offer a vessel they jointly owned, a balinger or whale boat, for a month’s service operating against the King’s enemies at sea.10 Ibid. 84.

So far as the evidence goes, Spicer began his career in local government in the following year, upon his election as a chamberlain of Lynn. Apart from performing the duties specifically associated with the offices he held, there is some evidence for his participation in other matters concerning the borough. For example, in October 1427 he attended a congregation of all Lynn’s merchants,11 Ibid. 159. and in March 1435 he helped to assess contributions towards Lynn’s costs in sending representatives to negotiations at Bruges between English, Prussian and Hanseatic merchants.12 KL/C 7/3, f. 51v. Following his only Parliament, an assembly much concerned with law and order, he was among those Norfolk residents required to swear an oath to keep the peace administered throughout the kingdom.13 CPR, 1429-36, p. 405.

Spicer was still active in his later years. In 1437 he helped to supervise new building work at Lynn’s south gate, and in the following year he helped to brief Richard Frank* and Walter Curson* before they discussed matters relating to the borough with the bishop of Norwich, its feudal lord.14 KL/C 7/3, ff. 87v, 94. Still alive in February 1440 when he was appointed coroner, he was dead by 29 Mar. 1441 when John Botyld replaced him as one of Lynn’s constables. There is no evidence relating to any children he might have had and nothing is known about his widow, save that some months after his death she resided in his tenement next to the guildhall, a property which was in the hands of Simon Pygot* by the early 1460s.15 King’s Lynn bor. recs., scabins accts. Trin. guild, 1438-9, 1440-1, 1463-4, KL/C 38/17-18, 20. Spicer had paid an annual rent of 20s. for this tenement to the borough’s Trinity guild. He had hired chambers from the guild (presumably for business purposes) near the end of his life and he owed it at least £15 when he died.16 KL/C 38/18. Elsewhere in Lynn, he had possessed a messuage afterwards owned by William Pilton*, who at one stage also held the tenement subsequently acquired by Simon Pygot.17 PCC 1 Wattys (PROB11/6, ff. 3v-4); scabins accts. Trin. guild, 1467-8, 1468-9, KL/C 38/21, 22. It is possible that Spicer had held property outside the borough as well, for at one stage – the date is unknown – he had conveyed land at ‘Westwade’ to Richard Nele, vicar of North Wootton (a parish near Lynn) and others, perhaps his feoffees.18 CAD, iii. D849. It is likely that he himself had been acting as a feoffee when he, Sir Thos Tuddenham*, William Yelverton* and others had received a conveyance of a messuage in Litcham, Norfolk, from Thomas Middleton and several associates in late 1434.19 Norf. RO, Wodehouse mss, KIM 2K/1.