HAMLIN, John

A lawyer, Hamlin bears the title of ‘magister’ in a rental kept by the priory of Llanthony by Gloucester. In 1417, he represented the prior of Llanthony in a dispute with the proctors of a local chantry, and he witnessed various charters on behalf of the same religious house in subsequent decades.3 R.A. Holt, ‘Gloucester’ (Birmingham Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1987), 215; C115/81, ff. 79v, 82, 119; 84, ff. 121, 121v, 122v. Trans. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. lxxiv. 94 posits a connexion with Somerset for Hamlin but it cannot be proved that the MP was John Hamlin of Beckington in that county: E210/5091; CFR, xiv. 394; xvi. 16. During his first term as bailiff of Gloucester, he had dealings with the prior of Great Malvern, Worcestershire, as well. In Trinity term 1422, he and his fellow bailiff, Roger Ball†, stood surety for the prior, pledging that he would appear in the court of King’s bench at Westminster.4 KB27/645, rot. 62d.

Although Hamlin did not begin his career as a municipal office-holder until late in Henry V’s reign, it is quite possible that he had been active in Gloucester before the fifteenth century. A ‘Johan Hamelyn’ was one of the burgesses whom Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, commissioned in March 1396 to inquire into all the fines, amercements, forfeitures and other rights in the town which he enjoyed by grant of the Crown. A few years later John Hamelyn and 23 others from Gloucester ran into trouble with the central authorities. In 1401, they petitioned the Crown about certain indictments of treason, felony and trespass against several of their number, although who is unspecified. By then those indicted were languishing in the Marshalsea prison in Southwark, and the purpose of the petition was to seek the appointment of Thomas, Lord Berkeley, Sir William Beauchamp† of Powick, Sir John Greyndour† and Robert Burdon to hear and determine these indictments, but to what effect is not known.5 SC1/63/288; SC8/254/12687.

In Hamlin’s first Parliament the Commons complained to the Crown about the activities of ‘Welshmen’ and others who impeded the free transport of goods to Gloucester, Bristol, Worcester and other towns on the Severn. Quite possibly he and his fellow burgess, Thomas Stevens*, played some part in preparing or promoting the petition in question, to which the King responded by ordering that his lieges should enjoy the right of free passage on the river for their rafts or barges. Hamlin was returned to his second Parliament while serving as steward of Gloucester, and he was elected to his final term as bailiff before the same assembly ended. This term also coincided with a property dispute between the town and the local hospital of St. Bartholomew. In February 1434, William Westbury, j.k.b., and the serjeant-at-law, Thomas Rolf, were appointed to hear an assize of novel disseisin between the prior of the hospital on the one hand and Hamlin, his fellow bailiff John Luke and the commonalty of Gloucester on the other.6 PROME, x. 470-1; Gloucester Corporation Recs. 57.

It seems likely that Hamlin had died by the time of the compilation of a comprehensive rental for Gloucester in 1455. At that date, two stables and a curtilage he used to hold in Southgate Street were in the hands of John Riggeby. A namesake who was the incumbent of the Gloucester parish of St. Mary de Grace in the mid 1440s was perhaps his son.7 Gloucester Rental 1455 ed. Cole, 18; W.R. Williams, Parlty. Hist. Glos. 186.