CHYTTOK, John

Perhaps related to the London draper, Geoffrey Chyttok,7 CPR, 1429-36, p. 330; CCR, 1461-8, p. 432. John was a dyer who became a freeman of Norwich in 1436-7.8 ‘Old Free bk.’, NCR 17c, f. 48d. His earliest documented office is that of sheriff, but it is likely that he had served as a common councillor when he began his term in that office. Early on in his shrievalty, he and his fellow sheriff, Robert Machon, arrested and briefly detained one Richard Aylfeld, although for what reason is unrecorded. Aylfeld subsequently sued them for ill treatment and unlawful imprisonment in the court of King’s bench, where his action reached pleadings in Easter term 1453. In his plea, he alleged that they had unjustly held him at Norwich for two days in November 1450, no doubt a self-serving account since he omitted to mention that they were the then sheriffs of the city. In response, Chyttok and Machon obtained repeated licences to treat with him out of court, and there is no evidence of any trial.9 KB27/768, rot. 57d. Subsequently, Chyttok was twice mayor, an office for which he also received unsuccessful nominations in 1456 and 1464.10 Assembly bk. NCR 16d, ff. 27v, 60. During his first term as mayor his sons, Ralph and John junior, were admitted to the freedom of the city, likewise as members of the dyer’s trade.11 ‘Old Free bk.’, NCR 17c, f. 66d.

Chyttok gained election to the Commons following the same mayoral term. The Parliament of 1459, which met at Coventry, sat for only 31 days, but Chyttok and his fellow MP, Richard Brown II*, were in Coventry for 45, presumably spending the extra two weeks pursuing their city’s interests with members of the government and Lords.12 Assembly bk. NCR 16d, f. 42v. The purpose of the Parliament was to attaint Richard, duke of York, and his allies, and in February 1460, several weeks after its dissolution, the King sent Norwich an anti-Yorkist commission of array. In response, the civic authorities imposed a tax on the city’s residents, in order to finance the soldiers demanded from them, and Chyttok was among those chosen to assess this levy.13 Ibid. f. 42.

Outside Norwich, Chyttok possessed a somewhat dispersed collection of holdings, at nearby Swardeston and Hautbois, at Ranworth and Panxworth elsewhere in east Norfolk, at Tottington in the south-west of the county and at Beccles in Suffolk.14 Reg. Jekkys, ff. 251-3. In the late 1440s, William Wilton and others conveyed lands at Witton and Little Plumpstead (both a few miles east of Norwich) to Chyttok and John Wilton, an unlicensed conveyance that prompted the Crown to seize the properties. In May 1449 the King farmed them out to Robert Lethum and William Fastolf, but Chyttok and Wilton made a counterbid for the farm, which was re-granted to them in the following July. Initially their lease ran only to Easter 1450, although the Crown was to extend it until Michaelmas the same year; it is unclear whether they retained any interest in the lands after that date.15 CFR, xviii. 111-12, 113, 114, 149.

As for his business interests, Chyttok did not restrict himself to the dyer’s craft, since he traded overseas as well. In November 1471, for example, he exported woollen cloths through the port of Great Yarmouth.16 E122/152/10, m. 2. It is very likely that he also had business dealings with London, where he had sent one of his sons to pursue an apprenticeship. In the summer of 1465, Margaret Paston entrusted ‘Chyttock ys son that ys prenteys in London’ with a letter to carry to her husband, John Paston*, then in the City, although it appears that Paston never received it.17 Paston Letters ed. Davis, i. 315. In all probability, the young man was John junior, since by February 1468 a John Chyttok was a draper of the City, coincidentally or not the same trade as the MP’s putative relative, Geoffrey.18 CCR, 1461-8, p. 456. The draper certainly possessed a connexion with Norwich as well as London, for in 1470 the sheriffs of Norwich confiscated several packs of wool and yarn that he had stored there.19 Norwich city recs., ct. roll, 1461-83, NCR 1/19d, m. 1. Furthermore, the will he made before his death in 1504 indicates that, at the very least, he was a close relative of the MP, if not his son.20 PCC 22 Holgrave (PROB11/14, ff. 170v-171).

In his own will, dated 22 Oct. 1471, the MP asked to be buried in the Norwich church of St. Martin-at-Palace, to which he left ten marks, and provided for chaplains to sing there for the souls of himself, his family and benefactors. Apart from St. Martin’s, he made bequests to several other religious institutions in the city, including each of the four friaries and the hospital of St. Giles, to which he gave 20s. in return for an obit. He awarded his wife, Cecily, a life interest in part of his chief messuage in Norwich (that is, the hall, buttery, pantry and a chamber above the gates), all his houses on the messuage’s north side and his holdings at Ranworth and Panxworth. His son and namesake also features in the will, although it does not identify him as a Londoner: the younger John was to have immediate possession of the rest of the chief messuage, along with the reversion of the properties left to Cecily, provided he fulfilled certain conditions in return. Chyttok also directed his executors to sell three other messuages in Norwich, and to give Cecily £40 from the proceeds. Finally, he appointed her and Henry Wilton executors of the will and his son, John, its supervisor. Not mentioned in the will, proved on 10 Jan. 1472, were his other son, Ralph, who had probably predeceased him, and his daughter, who married William Philippes, a Norwich alderman.21 Reg. Jekkys, ff. 251-3; Frost, 140n.

The will that John Chyttok, citizen and draper of London, made in 1504 shows that he owned a couple of manors at Ranworth and lands at Panxworth, both parishes associated with the MP, as well as other holdings in Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Among his religious bequests, he left no fewer than 200 marks to the four mendicant orders at Norwich and provided for a priest to sing masses for two and a half years in the church of St. Martin-at-Palace, where the MP lay. The executors of the will, dated 15 Mar. 1504 and proved on the following 4 Dec., included the bishop of Ely and the abbot of Bury St. Edmunds.22 PCC 22 Holgrave.