PEVEREL, John, of Winchester, Hants.

Peverel was occupied in the cloth finishing industry of Winchester, for it was as an apprentice to a clothier, Hugh Cran, that he entered the guild merchant in 1376-7, paying an entrance fee of only 6s.8d. Before two years had elapsed he was involved in the administration of the city, and in 1386-7, after his coronership, he was kept busy not only as a chamberlain but also as an auditor and ‘ponderer’. As bailiff of the commons Peverel notified the sheriff of Hampshire of the results of the borough elections to both Parliaments of 1388. After his own second return to Parliament, he and Nicholas Tanner were paid £6 1s.4d. expenses for acting in London on the city’s behalf in a suit against the prior of St. Swithins.3Winchester RO, mayors’ accts. 50 Edw. III-2 Ric. II; ct. roll 10 Ric. II m. 1; chamberlains’ acct. 18-19 Ric. II; C219/9/4, 5.

By 1379 Peverel had acquired a curtilage on the west side of Parchment Street, and in 1392 his former master, Cran, granted him and his wife a tenement in the High Street, opposite the ‘Celare de Helle’, provided that they paid his servant, Margery Hanlow, a pension of four marks a year for the rest of her life.4Stowe 846, ff. 79v, 96v, 98. Peverel died before August 1406.5Ibid. f. 116v. It may have been this John Peverel who took out letters patent in 1396 exonerating him from holding office, and obtained confirmation of the same in 1400 (CPR, 1399-1401, p. 296).