BERNEWELL, Thomas

Bernewell’s family was from Essex and may well have taken its name from the manor of Barne Walden or Berwolden in that county. In 1414 a chaplain named John Bernewell was involved in a transaction concerning this estate.1 Essex Feet of Fines, iii. 263; VCH Essex, v.107; viii. 233. Thomas may well have been a relative of this man, and also of a London mercer, Simon Bernewell, who acquired property at Nether Hall in Essex, and who probably came to the capital at about the same time. Another possible relative, Reynold, was assessed in 1412 as having property in London worth some £8 p.a.2 Reynold may have belonged to the St. Albans family of this name: CP40/592, rot. 105.

Bernewell was a fishmonger by trade, and although little is recorded of his career within the Fishmongers’ Company it is clear that his trading activities resulted in his becoming an important member of that guild. By 1414 he was already sufficiently prominent within his craft to be among those who attested an inquisition into the selling of fish in Old Fish Street. From the outset, Bernewell maintained close relations with his fellow fishmongers. He was particularly prominent as an executor of John Perneys† (d. 1434), and as a result was drawn into several protracted disputes over the latter’s estate, arising from Perneys’s own activities as an executor of Nicholas James*. Thus, in the summer of 1435 Thomas Badby, another of James’s executors, tried to recover over £386 which he claimed Perneys had withheld. In the event Bernewell and his fellow executors were only obliged to find £186. They were also involved in protracted legal action against the wardens of the Fishmongers’ Company in an attempt to recover 100 marks as compensation for obligations entered into by Perneys on its behalf for the purchase of premises in Thames Street. Their own behaviour did not help matters, however, for it was as a result of their intransigence that Perneys’s son, Henry, did not obtain his inheritance until 1442, and there were also lengthy delays after they failed to release their title to the deceased’s premises in the city.3 Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, pp. 1, 283; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 57; C1/9/281, 11/527. Bernewell already possessed considerable experience of the administration of a deceased man’s estate, for earlier in his career, in July 1424, he had been charged with administrating the property of Walter Provost† alias Clerk, who had supposedly died intestate, and whose affairs were complicated by his own executorship of the will of Robert Calche† of Wareham. Moreover, as the court of common pleas was informed in 1426, the bishop of London’s official had evidently been premature in entrusting Bernewell with the settlement of Provost’s affairs, for the dead man had apparently made a will which had been presented before the archdeacon of Dorset’s official.4 CP40/659, rots. 125, 125d; 660, rots. 139, 139d, 325d; 662, rot. 403d.

Like other London fishmongers Bernewell became involved in the buying and selling of a wide range of commodities, a strategy adopted in order to spread the risk associated with over-reliance upon the trade in fish. In July 1419 he appeared in the mayor’s court claiming that he was owed 20 marks by Margaret Morgon for wine he had supplied to her.5 Cal. Letter Bk. London, I, 126; Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, p. 70. His wealth was founded upon wide-ranging business dealings, notably in the fish trade where he established important contacts with suppliers as far afield as Scotland. In April 1434 a ship called the Nicholas of Aberdeen left that port bound for London with 22 barrels of salmon on board belonging to Bernewell. Because of a storm, the ship was forced to put in at the port of ‘la Frith’, on the east coast of Scotland, where, according to Bernewell’s subsequent petition to Chancery, the cargo was seized by a group of Englishmen who took it to Shields in Northumberland. Bernewell’s fortunes were apparently not affected by this reversal, however, for in May 1436 he was granted a licence enabling him to send two ships, La Marie and Le Holigost of London, both owned by him, to Scotland in order to carry back further cargoes of salmon to the capital.6 C1/10/240, 12/144; CPR, 1429-36, p. 517. Equally, it was probably as a result of his trading contacts with the far north that by the early 1440s Bernewell was acting as London host to William Scot, an alien merchant, probably from those parts.7 H. Bradley, Views of Hosts of Alien Merchants, 2. Closer to home, Bernewell had dealings with a fisherman from Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, suggesting that freshwater fish made up a significant proportion of the goods he transported into London.8 CPR, 1422-9, p. 516. Other business transactions brought Bernewell into contact with individuals from various parts of the country, including Kent, Oxfordshire, Sussex and even Cumberland (many of them important members of the gentry like Robert Poynings* and (Sir) Henry Fenwick*). Some of them came to owe him sums of money. In May 1430, presumably as part of a business arrangement, John Parker I* made a gift of all his goods and chattels within the Cinque Ports to a group of men which included Bernewell and was headed by William Prestwick, the clerk of the Parliaments.9 CPR, 1422-9, p. 367; 1436-41, p. 335; CCR, 1429-35, p. 44; CP40/742, rot. 427d; C241/211/12, 213/21, 214/6, 225/20; E159/211, recognitiones Hil. rot. 1; Shakespeare Centre Archs., Archer mss, DR 37/2/Box 89/3.

As well as wine and fish, Bernewell was also concerned in the export of cloth to the continent. So, in the late 1420s and early 1430s he made several shipments of cloth through the port of London, while in July 1437 he was specifically granted a licence to ship 40 cloths to any destination.10 E122/161/11, m. 11; 203/1, f. 17v; CPR, 1436-41, p. 59. This grant, like his earlier licence to import fish from Scotland, had almost certainly been obtained as a result of Bernewell’s activities as a money-lender to the Crown. In 1435 he lent the sum of £100, and ten years later he made another contribution to the Crown’s coffers in the form of a loan of 100 marks.11 E401/743, m. 10; 790, m. 1; E403/725, m. 5; 757, m. 1; CPR, 1429-36, p. 467. Bernewell’s dealings with a London grocer, Thomas Caley, led to the latter’s imprisonment in January 1444 for non-payment of a debt of £12 10s., although it emerged in the mayor’s court that Caley in fact owed him a total of £42 5s. 4d. It was doubtless in connexion with this debt that Caley entered into a series of bonds with Bernewell in the sum of 20 marks.12 Cal. P. and M. London, 1437-57, p. 55; CCR, 1441-7, pp. 224-5.

These trading activities enabled Bernewell to accumulate property in London which, in 1436, was said to yield an income of some £20 p.a.13 S.L. Thrupp, Merchant Class Med. London, 379. He was concerned in a number of transactions involving buildings in the city, but it is unclear from these which, if any, related to his own holdings. Among those for whom he acted as a feoffee was John Carpenter II*, who was beginning the process of accumulating property to endow Whittington College.14 Corp. London RO, hr 159/28, 160/33, 161/54, 171/46; Cal. P. and M. London, 1437-57, p. 25. In particular, it is uncertain whether the assessment of 1436 included the revenues from premises in the parish of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey in London which Bernewell acquired on his marriage to Alice, daughter and heir of William Connerse, a fellow fishmonger, and widow of yet another fishmonger, William Flete. What is more certain, is that like other prominent fishmongers Bernewell himself already owned property in that part of London, in close proximity to the wharves at Queenhithe. Soon after his marriage his own tenements in Distaff Lane, also in St. Nicholas’s parish, were settled on the couple by his feoffees, John Leget and John Fulton. In July 1443 they conveyed the Connerse tenements in St. Nicholas’s parish to a group of prominent feoffees who included Humphrey, earl of Stafford, and William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, but the purpose of the transaction is unclear.15 London hr 155/38, 45, 159/22, 26, 173/12; Corp. London RO, jnl. 3, f. 260; CP40/817, rot. 520.

Alice was herself involved in trade, or at least in the manufacture of clothing, judging from a petition submitted to Chancery in the 1440s. The complainant, Edmund Pellet, was a former apprentice of Bernewell, and in his petition he complained about his treatment at the hands of Thomas and Alice. He alleged that instead of training him as a fishmonger he had learned only ‘shepstrie’, and moreover claimed that Alice had beaten him about the head. During one confrontation with the Bernewells, Pellet had a sharp needle driven through his thumb. He subsequently absconded, intending to become a priest, but he was arrested after Bernewell took procceedings against him under the Statute of Labourers.16 C1/155/43. Bernewell himself was not immune from hostile legal action, or so he claimed in another Chancery petition in which he alleged that he had been the victim of a false action of tresspass taken out by a ‘hackneyman’ in the Bread Street compter. Bernewell had been arrested and put in prison where he languished for some 14 weeks after his opponent had persuaded ‘certain aldermen’ to refuse him bail.17 C1/48/10.

Outside London Bernewell acquired land known as ‘Galyoneshope’ by the Thames in Barking, which he may well have used to provide mooring places for his ships. This was held jointly with two fellow Londoners.18 CCR, 1441-7, p. 145. He and another fishmonger, William Hulyn, also acquired lands at Havering in Essex and in the autumn of 1445 they exchanged most of these for a similar acreage at West Ham, then held by the abbey of Stratford Langthorne.19 C143/450/21; CPR, 1441-6, p. 395; VCH Essex, vii. 14. Further evidence of his dealings outside London is provided by his involvement as a feoffee in transactions concerning the manor and advowson of Isnamstede Cheyne, in Buckinghamshire, which belonged to John Cheyne I*.20 CCR, 1441-7, p. 194.

Bernewell’s involvement in city politics was in evidence as early as 1423 when, in October that year, he attested the election of the city’s MPs for the first time. Two years later, while still a relatively junior member of the common council, he was returned to Parliament himself along with fellow common councilman Everard Flete*. Despite this, Bernewell was not particularly active in the government of London at this stage in his career, perhaps because of his broadening business interests. He was not appointed to any committees of the common council during the 1420s, although he attested the parliamentary elections of 1426 and 1427 and, in 1428, participated at an inquisition taken into the value of the city’s churches. It was not until September 1431 that Bernewell was chosen as one of the four auditors, a post which was traditionally the stepping-stone to higher office within the city oligarchy. A year later he was appointed to levy the subsidy granted by the Parliament of 1432.21 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 71, 123, 147. He was evidently successful in these positions, and at some point during 1433 was elected as an alderman for Queenhithe ward, while in September the following year he was picked as one of the two sheriffs. His time in the latter post was not without controversy, for it coincided with the mounting tension between the city and the dean of St. Martin le Grand over the privilege of sanctuary there. In a petition submitted to Chancery, probably in late 1435, the dean, Thomas Bourgchier, alleged that one of Bernewell’s officials had entered the precinct of the college and ‘grevously smote, wonded and ledde’ a fugitive who had taken refuge there.22 Ibid. 172, 183; C1/12/199. After relinquishing the shrievalty Bernewell was appointed once again as a tax collector, following the grant of a subsidy by the Parliament of 1437.23 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 177, 211.

By this time, however, it looks as if Bernewell’s business had suffered some kind of set-back, one which was serious enough for him to petition the court of aldermen on 6 Oct. 1437 to be exonerated from the office of alderman. The basis of his petition was that he had been forced to contravene the oath sworn by aldermen which forbade them to sell victuals (bread, ale, wine, fish or flesh) by retail either personally or through apprentices. Evidently his financial circumstances had taken a turn for the worse. His petition was accepted by his fellows who, six days later, agreed unanimously that he should be allowed to resign. This marked the end of his civic career, although he was still sufficiently well respected to be appointed as an arbiter the following year.24 Jnl. 3, ff. 178, 190-190v; C.M. Barron, ‘Govt. of London’ (London Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1970), 64. Little else is recorded of him after this date, and it seems likely that he retired from public life in London. He may, however, still have been active in trade, for in August 1441, described as ‘citizen and merchant’ he appointed two attorneys to act on his behalf in the mayor’s court, in December 1445 the Cumberland landowner (Sir) Henry Fenwick sealed to him an obligation for the sum of £20, while in July 1446 a group of men from Surrey and Sussex (including William Ottworth*, Thomas Gynnour* and James Janyn*) was likewise bound to him in the sum of £19.25 Jnl. 3, f. 95; CP40/808, rot. 413; Archer mss, DR 37/2/Box 89/3-4.

Bernewell had died by April 1453 when his widow, Alice, was granted a year’s lease on Botolph’s wharf by the court of aldermen. The rent was some £40 p.a., suggesting that Bernewell had not died penniless. Certainly, there were debts owing to him, which his executor, his old friend William Hulyn, set about collecting.26 CP40/808, rot. 413. Alice herself died in the summer or early autumn of 1454, having asked to be buried next to her husband in the church of St. Mildred Bread Street. She founded a temporary chantry in the church and left quantities of silver plate and other goods to their sons, Thomas and John, both of whom were also fishmongers.27 PCC 1 Stokton (PROB11/4, ff. 2-2v); CCR, 1454-61, p. 185.