GORE, Thomas I

It is likely that Gore was a local man. He was first recorded as paying maltolts in Dover in 1430, and early in the same year he was one of the collectors in Mankin ward responsible for the assessment on the occasion of Henry VI’s coronation expedition to France.3 Add. 29615, ff. 167v, 179v. Gore’s election in September 1433 as one of the four chamberlains of Dover proved to be the start of a career in municipal government which would span five decades. He continued as one of the two non-jurat chamberlains until 1436, when, in August of that year, he also witnessed the agreement settling Dover’s dispute with its member-port of Faversham.4 Dover Chs. 195. It seems likely that he was chosen as one of the jurats in the following September, although cannot be certainly identified as such until 1439. That year he was also selected as one of the Cinque Ports’ bailiffs to Yarmouth, further indicating his status within Dover and the Ports generally. Indeed, the fact that he had first attended a meeting of the Brodhull as one of Dover’s representatives in January 1434 suggests that he had already become one of the leading figures in the Port by the time he was first promoted as a jurat.5 White and Black Bks. 3-12.

Continuing to serve as a jurat throughout the 1440s, Gore was again a chamberlain between 1445 and 1449, and in 1445-6 also acted as deputy mayor to Ralph Toke*. Despite his constant involvement in the internal government of the Port he was, however, seldom called upon to perform extraneous tasks. Between July 1440 and July 1448 he only attended three meetings of the Brodhull, and the chamberlains’ accounts do not record any payments to him for Port business.6 Ibid. 13, 20, 24. This is probably to be explained by the fact that, unlike other prominent Portsmen such as the Tokes, Gore was not trained in the law. Nevertheless, his standing continued to improve and in September 1449 he was elected to the first of seven terms as mayor of Dover. Little evidence survives of Gore’s activities during his first year in office, but during the second he attended three meetings of the Brodhull between October 1450 and July 1451, when he was also named as one of the Ports’ feoffees of a property in Great Yarmouth, purchased for the use of their bailiffs there.7 Ibid. 26-28.

At the start of that second term as mayor Gore had been elected as one of the barons to represent Dover in the Parliament summoned to assemble at Westminster on 6 Nov. 1450. He attended the Commons for 134 days, one more than his fellow baron, Richard Grygge*, and appears to have been paid his full parliamentary wages of £13 8s. immediately on his return home.8 Add. 29810, f. 70. According to one account, he resigned his mayoralty early in 1451 and was replaced by his parliamentary colleague,9 Jones, 290. yet no evidence to support this assertion has been found in the Dover records, and while it is possible that Grygge (who was himself elected mayor in the following September) sometimes acted as Gore’s deputy during his absence, it seems likely that our MP served out his term. Parliamentary service does not appear to have had a significant impact on the pattern of Gore’s career in the administration of the Port. He continued to serve as a jurat and he was elected as mayor again four more times. Apart from in April 1454 and July 1461, however, he only attended meetings of the Brodhull when he was either mayor himself or serving another mayor as deputy.10 White and Black Bks. 32-45. During his mayoralty in January 1462, he was one of the arbiters, along with John Joseph† and John Chenew* of New Romney, appointed by the Brodhull to settle the dispute between John Green IV* and the Port of Sandwich.11 Ibid. 44, 46. This appointment probably reflected the respect in which he was held by his fellow Portsmen, rather than the legal expertise that probably provided Joseph and Chenew’s credentials to arbitrate in the matter.

In the spring of 1463 Gore was elected as a baron for Dover for a second time. The circumstances of this election are somewhat mysterious. When the first writs were issued in December 1462 for a Parliament to assemble at York in the following February, the Portsmen of Dover had elected Thomas Grace† and Richard Palmer† on 16 Jan. 1463, but after fresh writs were issued on 28 Feb. Grace and Gore were chosen in a second election held on 1 Apr.12 Add. 29616, ff. 12, 13. It is not known how many days Gore attended this long Parliament (which was eventually dissolved in March 1465), for although Grace was still being paid the arrears of his wages in 1465-6, there is no mention in the Dover accounts of parliamentary wages for his companion.13 Egerton 2090, f. 10. Although the payment of 5s. of an ‘ancient debt’ in 1468-9 may have represented similar arrears: ibid. f. 111. Following his return home from Westminster, Gore continued to serve in the government of the Port. As a jurat he witnessed local deeds during the 1460s,14 Dover Chs. 237, 244, 463. but his activities appear to have become increasingly focused on the Port itself: he did not attend any meetings of the Brodhull after April 1463, despite the fact that he again served as mayor in 1465-6.15 White and Black Bks. 3-12. Indeed, these later years of his career may have been dogged by ill-heath; despite serving as a jurat into the 1470s, he was never named among those sitting in meetings of the mayor’s court after 1466.16 Egerton 2090, ff. 1-40.

Of Gore’s private life little is recorded, save that he was resident in Butchery ward, and also owned property in that of Snargate.17 Egerton 2105, f. 37v; Dover Chs. 261. He made his living through trade, almost certainly beginning as a baker, for in October 1431 he was fined 3s. 4d. for a deficient white loaf in the assize of bread taken before the mayor, and again appeared in the assize of bread the following year.18 Egerton 2105, ff. 1, 29. By the mid 1430s his interests appear to have expanded to other commodities, and in 1435-6 he was paid 14d. for wine supplied to the chamberlains. He was also a shipowner.19 Add. 29615, ff. 199, 205v. In 1457, while mayor, he was one of the men of Dover who provisioned a vessel called Le Michael which the earl of Warwick took to the seas.20 Add. 29810, f. 83v; Egerton 2090, f. 10. Gore’s status within Dover ensured that he was frequently called upon to act on behalf of his neighbours in their private affairs. Thus, he is recorded as an arbiter in local disputes as well as being a feoffee.21 Egerton 2105, ff. 48v, 52v. In the late 1440s, along with Robert Wilde* of Sandwich and John Ward I*, he was named among the executors of William Brewes*, a former mayor.22 C1/27/304; Egerton 2090, f. 3v. Such activities occasionally involved him in litigation. In the early 1450s Robert Colwell petitioned the chancellor to complain that because Gore had withheld deeds relating to land of which he was a feoffee he was likely to be disinherited. Around the same time Roger Londere accused Gore and others of wrongfully retaining property in Willesborough in mid Kent with which they had been entrusted for the performance of the will of Thomas Serlys, and which during his lifetime Serlys had agreed to sell to the petitioner for 100 marks. Gore and the rest responded that Londere, instead of delivering the money to them as specified in the will, had instead paid ten marks of it to Serlys’s widow and had failed to complete the agreed sale within ten years of Serlys’s death.23 C1/15/35, 22/75. Gore sometimes came into contact with leading members of Kentish society. In Hilary term 1461 he was among a group of feoffees including Sir Thomas Kyriel* and William Haute*, of property in Nonington, which the archbishop of Canterbury successfully recovered from them at common law.24 CP40/800, rot. 130d.

Gore was last chosen as a jurat on 8 Sept. 1471, when, however, although his name was entered in the ‘book of the commonalty’, he was not sworn, presumably because of illness or death, and his place was taken by William Forest.25 Add. 29616, f. 68. He appointed as his executors two fellow jurats, Richard Palmer and Henry atte Wode, to act alongside his widow, Elizabeth. In 1473-4 the latter sold some of Gore’s property in the Port to the commonalty, and in February 1477 after her marriage to John Byngham† she and her new husband agreed to assume joint-executorship of our MP’s will.26 Egerton 2090, ff. 97, 137.