BREWES, William

Brewes’s early life is obscure. There are no references to him prior to September 1430 when he was elected as one of jurats who governed Dover and it is likely that his sudden appearance among the governing elite resulted from a marriage into a Portsman’s family. During this first year as a jurat Brewes was also elected to his first Parliament, which assembled at Westminster on 12 Jan. 1431. Along with the experienced parliamentarian, John Braban*, Brewes spent only 25 days in the Commons before passing over the representation of Dover to New Romney’s baron, John Adam*, who remained there until the Parliament’s close. Brewes received only 45s. of the 78s. 4d. due to him immediately and the outstanding debt was not settled until the eve of his departure for his second Parliament in 1437.4 Add. 29615, ff. 173, 178, 198v; 21980, ff. 1v, 3v.

On his return from the 1431 Parliament Brewes continued to be involved in the government of Dover and the wider administration of the Cinque Ports. From then until April 1439 he represented Dover at nine meetings of the Brodhull,5 White and Black Bks. 1, 3-4, 8-12; Add. 29615, f. 175. and in July 1433 he was elected as Dover and New Romney’s bailiff to be sent to Yarmouth. On his return, in December, he presented to a meeting of the Brodhull a ‘schedule of injuries’ caused by the men of Yarmouth against the liberties of the Cinque Ports.6 White and Black Bks. 2. Meanwhile, in September 1431 he had been chosen as one of the four ‘custodes’, responsible for the management of Dover’s finances, and, five years later he was elected to the first of five terms as mayor. As such he became heavily involved in the dispute with Dover’s member-port of Faversham regarding the contributions made by the latter, partly with respect to the wages of MPs. In August 1436 he put his name to the indenture which accepted the arbitration of Geoffrey Lowther*, John Darell* and Thomas Brown II* to settle the dispute.7 Dover Chs. 194-5. Three years later, possibly as a mark of gratitude for Brown’s help, Brewes was among those Portsmen who rode to Eythorne to mark the obit of his mother.8 Add. 29810, f. 17v.

In January 1437 Brewes travelled to Westminster for his second Parliament. On this occasion he sat alongside Walter Nesham*, the long-serving bailiff of Dover. It is impossible to be sure how long Brewes or his fellow baron sat in this Parliament. In 1436-7 Brewes was paid 53s. 4d. for parliamentary wages, while the following year a debt ‘of Parliament the previous year’ of £6 13s. 4d. was recorded as owing to him.9 Ibid. ff. 7, 8v, 17. He continued to serve among the leading Portsmen during the 1440s. In 1440-1, as mayor, he led a delegation of Portsmen to Canterbury to confer with the men of their member-ports, Faversham and Fordwich. In January 1442 he was recorded as acting as deputy to the mayor, John Ward I*, in legal proceedings in the towns and it is likely that he served in this capacity on other occasions.10 Ibid. f. 32v. In 1443-4, once again as mayor himself, he rode with the jurats to Canterbury to confer with the new archbishop, John Stafford, concerning Dover’s right to operate the passage to Calais, and also met the Portsmen of Sandwich at Langdon near Dover.11 Ibid. f. 56. Brewes’s final recorded extraordinary duty on behalf of the Port came in May 1445 when he was one of four Portsmen who attended the coronation of Margaret of Anjou.12 Ibid. f. 61v.

Little evidence survives of Brewes’s private affairs. He was resident in Shipman ward in Dover, where he paid maltolts, and by 1434 he was one of the four constables of that ward.13 Egerton 2105, f. 39v. Further evidence of his standing in the community comes from the occasions on which he was appointed as an arbiter in disputes between local men.14 Egerton 2089, f. 76v. He appears to have occasionally traded in wine, and in 1435 and 1436 paid the maltolt levied on trade in this commodity.15 Add. 29615, f. 208; 29810, f. 1v. His connexions were probably mainly local: in December 1435, for example, John Braban and John Byngley*, almost certainly acting as feoffees for Joan Brewes’s former husband, delivered seisin of a plot of land called ‘Gylys Coombe’ to her and William.16 E326/3911. By that date Brewes was also in possession of property in Newchurch hundred for which, as a Portsman, he was able to claim exemption from parliamentary taxation.17 E179/234/2, no. 48. The date of his death is not known with certainty but he was still alive, and serving as a jurat, in February 1447 when he witnessed a local deed, and around the same time he claimed exemption from parliamentary taxation on property in Bewsborough hundred.18 Dover Chs. 223; E179/229/142. This undated document relates to one of the three payments of the tax granted in Apr. 1446, the final payment of which was not due until Nov. 1448. He chose his executors from among the elite of the Cinque Ports: they included John Ward and Thomas Gore I* of Dover and Robert Wilde* of Sandwich (who had sat with him in the Parliament of 1431).19 C1/27/304.