ARCHDEACON, Edmund

The origins of the Archdeacon family are obscure. In January 1418 an Edmund Archdeacon exported 23 tuns and one pipe of wine from Sandwich, but is unclear whether this was our MP or an older namesake.2 E122/127/8. The future MP was certainly resident in Sandwich by March 1436 when he was among the members of a local jury empanelled by royal commissioners sent to investigate the seizure of a Flemish ship by the mayor, Robert White*.3 E159/212, recorda Hil. rot. 3. In December 1439 he was chosen as one of the two treasurers of the town, an office he appears to have retained until 1441. In December of that year he was ordered to render account for his tenure as treasurer, along with his colleague William Perot, by the following March. He was also of sufficient status to stand surety for the men granted the custody of the town’s common crane in that year and the next.4 ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 56, 59v.

On 6 Dec. 1445 Archdeacon was elected to the ranks of the jurats. His service would appear to have been continuous until his death and it is evident that he played an important role in the affairs of the town throughout the late 1440s. On 13 Oct. 1446 he was chosen to represent Sandwich at a meeting of the Brodhull and he was among the six jurats sent to attend the first court of Shepway held by James Fiennes*, Lord Saye and Sele, when he was appointed warden of the Cinque Ports in 1447. In July 1449 he was one of the Portsmen who travelled to Dover to consult with the lieutenant, Gervase Clifton*, over the election of the Ports’ bailiffs to the annual Yarmouth herring fair, and he attended another meeting of the court of Shepway in that year.5 Ibid., ff. 75, 84v, 85v; White and Black Bks. of Cinque Ports (Kent Rec. Ser. xix), 22. In November 1450 he was elected to his only Parliament alongside the leading Portsman, Richard Cock*, but no details of their parliamentary service are known, although Archdeacon’s attendance at a meeting of the Brodhull on 27 July the following year may have been to report on the business of the Parliament. In August 1451 he attended the first meeting of the court of Shepway held by the new warden, Humphrey Stafford, duke of Buckingham, and he travelled to New Romney for another meeting of the Brodhull in July the following year. This was his last recorded duty on behalf of Sandwich and he was not among the jurats named in December 1452.6 ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 70v, 83v, 89v; White and Black Bks. 27, 29. It is probable that he died soon afterwards. On 12 Oct. 1453 he was placed in mercy for not attending the archbishop of Canterbury’s manorial court of Sandown (where he was a tenant) and the bedell noted that he had enfeoffed his land there on two other Sandwich men. Curiously, he was still being distrained for his non appearance in 1456.7 E. Kent Recs. (Kent Rec. Ser. vii), 77-78.