HASTYNG, John

Hastyng was active by the early 1400s, when he and his first wife pursued a lawsuit in the court of common pleas. The purpose of this action was to recover a debt owed to the late Robert Folsham, probably Margery Hastyng’s previous husband since she sued as his executrix.6 CPR, 1405-8, p. 127. Sometimes styled a ‘mariner’, Hastyng was a shipowner, with a quay at Great Yarmouth and a stake in its fishing industry.7 Ct. rolls, 1418-19, 1425-5, 1428-9, 1433-4, Y/C 4/128, m. 2; 134, m. 9d; 137, m. 10d; 142, m. 15. Like other Yarmouth burgesses, he would regularly have encountered foreigners during his career. Fishermen and merchants from abroad frequently visited the port, and on one occasion in the early 1420s he hosted a ‘ducheman’ who had come there for the salt trade.8 Ibid. 1423-4, Y/C 4/133, m. 11.

In April 1413, the admiral of England (Thomas Beaufort, earl of Dorset) received orders to permit Hastyng and ten other masters of fishing vessels from the port to pass freely out to sea.9 CCR, 1413-19, p. 7. Four years later, Hastyng and Geoffrey Pamping†, along with others from Winterton and Cromer, were licensed to take two boats to fish in ‘foreign parts’, so exempting them from service on Henry V’s second expedition to France.10 CPR, 1416-22, pp. 89, 101. On another occasion, he and five other ‘fishermen’ of Great Yarmouth, Roger Hoddys, John Aunsell, Thomas Umfrey, Thomas Covehithe† and Richard Pays, petitioned the King and his council for a similar licence, to avoid having their vessels seized for another royal expedition across the Channel. The date of their petition is uncertain, although they may have submitted it prior to Henry VI’s French coronation, for which the young King embarked in April 1430.11 SC8/162/8079. It is also possible that this petition is from Henry V’s reign, and the TNA catalogue is certainly wrong in suggesting a date of ‘c.1437’ for it: first, because Hen. VI never went back to France after returning to Eng. in early 1432; secondly, because neither Hastyng nor Covehithe (who died in the winter of 1430-1: The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 674) was still alive in 1437.

In 1417, Hastyng’s fellow burgesses elected him to the first of his four terms as a bailiff of Great Yarmouth. During the second of these terms, he and his fellows presided over the borough’s elections to the Parliaments of 1420 and May 1421. When he himself gained election to the Commons of 1422, his sureties included Geoffrey Pamping, probably a friend as well as a business associate, since Pamping nominated him as an arbitrator in 1424.12 Ct. roll Y/C 4/133, m. 7. Hastyng participated regularly in parliamentary elections at Yarmouth. Apart from those he attested, he was a surety for the newly elected Thomas Dengaine* in that of 1425 (which he attended in his capacity as bailiff), for William atte Fenne* in 1429, for Thomas Hall I* in 1432 and for John Pynne* in 1433.13 C219/12/4, 5, 13/1, 3, 5, 14/1-4.

It is likely that Hastyng was relatively elderly when he began his final term as a bailiff of Yarmouth in the autumn in 1433, given that he had made his will a few months earlier. In the will, dated 25 Apr. that year,14 Ct. roll Y/C 4/148, m. 22. he requested burial in the churchyard of St. Nicholas’s church in Great Yarmouth, next to the porch and beside his deceased wife (presumably Margery). He left his then wife, Joan, and her heirs his house in the town, along with his household utensils and jewels, upon condition that she paid off his debts and held commemorative services for him at St. Nicholas’s in the two years following his death. Exactly when he had married Joan is unrecorded, but it was certainly before January 1427 when they obtained a papal indult allowing them to keep a portable altar.15 CPL, vii. 551. The will names two children, probably (but not certainly), his issue by her. To his son, Simon, Hastyng left his lands and tenements at Aylsham to the north of Norwich, and to his daughter, Margaret, a property in Great Yarmouth, provided she came of age or married. Along with Joan, they were to receive the residue of his personal property after the fulfilment of his bequests. Hastyng chose Joan, William Barbour of Dunwich, and William atte Fenne to act as his executors. Richard Ellis†, a man from a prominent local family with which he was associated on various occasions during his career,16 Ct. rolls, 1419-20, 1420-1, 1421-2, 1422-3, Y/C 4/129, m. 5d; 130, m. 8d; 131, m. 1; 132, m. 3. was to be their co-administrator and John Haverlond, prior of Norwich cathedral, the mother house of St. Nicholas’s church, was appointed supervisor.

Having made his will, Hastyng lived for well over another year. He completed his last term as bailiff, and he was among those in Norfolk expected to swear the oath to keep the peace administered throughout England in 1434.17 CPR, 1429-36, p. 407. In June the same year, a borough court ordered him to repair his quay and a gutter running alongside his tenement.18 Ct. roll Y/C 4/142, m. 15. Hastyng’s will bears the probate date of 14 Jan. 1435,19 Ibid. Y/C 4/148, m. 22. suggesting that he died earlier that month or in late 1434. For more than a decade after his death Joan and her co-executors were involved in several lawsuits in connexion with his estate, and in June 1440 they took the precaution of having the will enrolled on the town’s court roll.20 Ibid. 1434-5, 1435-6, 1439-40, 1447-8, Y/C 4/143, mm. 6, 6d; 144, m. 5d; 148, m. 22; 154, m. 2d. Joan found another husband not long after Hastyng’s death, for she was the wife of Robert Pynne* of Yarmouth by January 1436.21 Ibid. Y/C 4/144, mm. 4, 5d; 148, m. 22.