HATHERLEY, John

Hatherley was a first generation Londoner, whose family almost certainly came from Hatherleigh in Devon.7 There is no definite evidence to support the later suggestion that he was the son of a Bristol man of the same name (Stowe 860, f. 52), although he was clearly intimately acquainted with a number of Bristolians and Londoners of Bristol origin, including William Canynges* and Thomas Norton* (Bristol RO, St. Leonard’s Vestry recs., 40365/D/2/44-45), and William Junyng, who left him various bequests and appointed him to supervise the activities of his executors, who included Norton: Overseas Trade (Bristol Rec. Soc. vii), 205-6. He became a member of the Ironmongers’ Company, a craft which produced several prominent merchants whose trading activities were diverse and often highly lucrative. However, the paucity of the Ironmongers’ records in this period makes it difficult to track his early career, or indeed to say whether he obtained the freedom of the city by redemption, or by apprenticeship. The earliest reference to him in the capital did not in fact augur well for his future prospects: in July 1417 he was involved in a brawl with one John Kirkeby in Queenhithe Ward, where he then evidently lived. Although the alderman of the ward was a fellow ironmonger, Richard Marlowe*, he showed no partiality in finding that both men had broken the peace and by making a report to the mayor and aldermen about the incident which resulted in them being sent to prison. Hatherley and Kirkeby were then fined five marks each and entered into bonds in £100 for their future good behaviour.8 Corp. London RO, jnl. 1, f. 27v.

Like many London merchants, Hatherley traded in a wide range of commodities, and indeed it is likely that his dealings in iron and other metals formed only a relatively small proportion of his mercantile activities.9 CP40/673, rot. 172. His business was initially centred on his shop in Trinity Lane in Queenhithe Ward which he owned as early as 1422, when a ward-mote found that dung, water and other filth were flowing down Garlick Hill and into the lane between his shop and that of a neighbour.10 Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, p. 137. The proximity of his premises to the docks at Queenhithe was vital in enabling him to build a successful business. By the early 1430s he was active as an exporter of cloth to the continent, although compared with the shipments of some of his contemporaries the quantities he shipped were relatively small.11 E122/203/1. He was also concerned in the salt trade, and in July 1439 was embroiled in a dispute with Alderman Thomas Wandesford over the price of a consignment of this commodity. The matter was put to the arbitration of Nicholas Yeo* and Thomas Catworth*, who determined that Hatherley was to pay Wandesford 100s. and hand over 21 quarters of salt for the price of 20. This was evidently not the end of the dispute, however, for in February the following year it was placed before two new arbiters, William Combes* and William Wetenhale.12 Jnl. 3, ff. 18, 37. Hatherley’s other dealings included the importation of a wide range of goods, including alum, wine and cloth into the port of London.13 E122/73/23. As he expanded his business he became a shipowner. In August 1435 he and the grocer William Marowe* were among a group of London merchants who claimed joint ownership of a cog from Prussia named the George, and the merchandise which was on board. Their claim was opposed by merchants of the Hanse based in London, who alleged that the vessel belonged to some of their number, but had been captured while on its way to Flanders. After an investigation it transpired that the George had indeed been captured, but that it had been rescued by another ship and taken to London whereupon Hatherley and his fellows had bought it and fitted it out in readiness for a voyage to Bordeaux, probably in connexion with their dealings in wine. The mayor of London was charged with resolving this dispute, and after the Hansards failed to prove that they still owned the vessel, it was delivered back to the Londoners.14 Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, pp. 283-4. Closer to home, Hatherley established trading contacts across England, including Sussex, Derbyshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, but also as far afield as Newcastle-upon-Tyne.15 Ibid. 263; CCR, 1429-35, p. 59; 1454-61, p. 294; CPR, 1422-9, p. 506; 1429-36, p. 307; 1436-41, p. 211; 1441-6, p. 121; 1446-52, p. 396; Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 103; KB27/749, rot. 38. Throughout his career, Hatherley maintained particularly close ties in his native region, the south-west of England. He associated with a number of south-westerners who had made their careers in the capital, particularly prominent among whom was the lawyer Nicholas Aysshton*, a future royal judge, whom the ironmonger was to chose as an executor, and his colleague Walter Moyle*.16 Cal. P. and M. London, 1437-57, p. 178; CP40/740, rot. 106.

Back in the south-west, Hatherley apparently also dabbled in the property market. It is unclear what lay behind a vicious quarrel with John Trelowyth of Trelowth in Cornwall, who in 1429 accused him of having invaded his property at Trevenell and threatened his tenants, demanding the ludicrous sum of £1,000 in damages. It is unclear what substance there was to these charges, but Hatherley defended himself on a technicality under the Statute of Additions, claiming to be a fishmonger, rather than an ironmonger.17 CP40/675, rot. 338. Another property transaction that turned sour concerned the wardship of the heir and lands of the former justice John Penrose (which included holdings in Cornwall and Surrey, as well as London). The heir was found to be an idiot, and the Cornish part of the estate attracted the covetise of Sir John Arundell II* of Trerice. Hatherley was thus reduced to complaining to the chancellor that the servants he had sent to collect his rents had been threatened with the cutting out of their tongues.18 C139/127/28; C1/7/80; C254/138/58. Apparently more successful was the purchase by Hatherley and his wife Isabel from the north Devon gentleman John Cokeworthy* of a messuage and five shops belonging to the latter in the parish of St. Clement Danes in London. By 1448 Isabel had died, and Hatherley conveyed the property to a group of feoffees who included Stephen Forster*, Robert Danvers* and Geoffrey Boleyn*.19 CPR, 1429-36, p. 324; 1446-52, p. 130.

Hatherley’s main residence nevertheless remained within the walls, in the parish of St. Michael Queenhithe. Here, the ironmonger acquired some 20 tenements of various sizes, which by the early 1480s yielded an annual income of some £38 5s. p.a. One of these, a substantial house worth £5 p.a., was probably the ‘great tenement or inn’ situated in Trinity Lane which Hatherley and his feoffees, Stephen Brown* and John, son of John Leving*, were granted by William Warner of Kent in May 1434.20 E101/675/43, f. 1v; SC6/HENVII/392, 1792; E314/91; Corp. London RO, hr 162/77, 81-82. Two months later, Hatherley, Brown and Leving also acquired property in Debill Lane which ran south from Thames Street to the river. To this came, four years later, further property in the parish, including a brewery called Le Cok.21 London hr 163/17, 166/45, 178/14-15, 195/44; Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, p. 219. Elsewhere in London, Hatherley owned three tenements in Bassishaw Ward and a wharf and tenements in the parish of St. Andrew Baynards Castle, which were together worth an additional £5 16s. p.a.22 E101/675/43, f. 1v; London hr 165/26.

By comparison, relatively little is recorded of any acquisitions which Hatherley may have made outside the city. He gained a title to property in Essex, including the manor of Overhall in Colne Engaine by his marriage to Joan, daughter of Richard Thurcote, who by 1454, following the death of her three brothers, had become her father’s heir.23 C1/19/13; VCH Essex, x. 109. Equally, it is likely that a certain amount of property came his way after his third marriage, to Margaret, the widow of a merchant from Bishop’s Lynn named Richard Gyggys. The marriage probably took place in about 1455, and it was shortly afterwards that John and Margaret, along with Gyggys’s other executors, petitioned Chancery in an attempt to settle a long-running dispute with one John Gedney of Lynn.24 C1/26/437. Hatherley also acted as a feoffee in the transactions of others, most notably concerning properties which had once belonged to the wealthy grocer Henry Halton†. A life interest in this substantial estate had passed to his widow, Margery, who subsequently married another grocer, John Welles II*. Over the course of the next 20 years all six of Halton’s children died, and so in 1434 John and Margery settled Halton’s properties on Hatherley and his fellow ironmonger, John Reynwell*. Seven years later they conveyed the majority of these to an influential group of men headed by Sir John Fastolf.25 Cart. St. Bartholomew’s Hosp. ed. Kerling, no. 1056; London hr 162/59, 170/7. Hatherley was also able to act for his associate and feoffee Stephen Brown who, in 1434, acquired his impressive residence, then known as ‘Pakmannys Wharf’, in the parish of St. Dunstan in the East.26 London hr 162/57; Archaeologia, lxxiv. 139-40.

The acquisition of an impressive collection of properties in London went hand in hand with Hatherley’s growing prominence in the city’s government. Little is heard of him prior to the 1430s, although as early as 1419 he stood surety in the city chamber when the guardianship of the son of a brewer was determined by the chamberlain.27 Cal. Letter Bk. London, I, 213. Unusually, he never served as one of the city’s four auditors, a post which was normally a necessary first step towards higher office. Instead, his participation in city affairs began with his election as one of the two sheriffs in the autumn of 1431, the year in which he also attested the election of the city’s MPs for the first time. In the autumn of the following year he achieved a first appointment under the Crown as a member of a royal commission which was to inquire into the lands held by the widow of a Londoner, while in June 1433 Hatherley was returned to his sole Parliament. At this date he was not yet an alderman, but he achieved this dignity at some point between March and October 1434, when he was chosen for the north-eastern ward of Aldersgate. This was far from being an ideal ward for him to represent, as by this stage he was already well established in the riverside parish of St. Michael Queenhithe. In 1437, however, a vacancy arose in Queenhithe itself, and it is an indication of Hatherley’s standing in the city that he was able to transfer to a ward whose residents included some of the capital’s most prominent merchants. In the meantime, he had participated in the election of London’s MPs to the Parliaments of 1435 and 1437, and in May 1437 was nominated by the city’s four Members to levy and collect the subsidy granted in that Parliament.28 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 211; CFR, xvi. 358.

Hatherley’s public career continued to be a busy one in the 1440s. In September 1440 he was chosen as a member of a deputation that was sent to see the King concerning the vexed question of rights of sanctuary at places such as the college of St. Martin le Grand.29 Jnl. 3, f. 59. His standing among the citizens was evidently greater than his still rather limited administrative experience would suggest, for in October 1442 he reached the pinnacle of the civic cursus honorum when he was chosen mayor. During his year in office he championed the unofficial claim to control of the great beam by the Grocers’ Company, which recorded the expenditure of 39s. 9d. during 1442-3 ‘for divers exspences for the defens of the comyn beem at reqvet of J. Atherley meyre’.30 P. Nightingale, Med. Mercantile Community, 456; Archs. Grocers’ Co. ed. Kingdon, ii. 281. He did nevertheless not enjoy universal popularity among his neighbours. A dispute with Robert Clopton* over an unspecified matter was heard before the court of aldermen in the summer of 1442, and may have been left pending during Hatherley’s mayoralty, as it was still unresolved in January 1444. A dispute between Hatherley and the draper and alderman John Derby over ‘inconvenient or slanderous words’ used by either man likewise dragged on from 1445 to 1447.31 London jnls. 3, f. 144; 4, ff. 14v, 101v, 174; C67/39, m. 15.

Hatherley’s civic appointments were not matched by a similar record of office under the Crown. Following his spell as a tax collector, he had to wait until late 1441 before he (along with a fellow ironmonger, John Leving) was included in an ad hoc commission to hear an appeal from the court of admiralty. Not even Hatherley’s periodic provision of loans to the Crown changed this: in May 1442 he lent the sum of £40, about the same time contributing £26 to a corporate loan advanced by the city. In 1445 he alone provided the rather more substantial sum of £66 13s. 4d. to the Crown’s coffers.32 E401/778, m. 8; 790, m. 1; E403/745, m. 3; 757, m. 1; jnl. 3, f. 137. It took the major upheaval of Jack Cade’s rebellion before Hatherley’s services were once again required. In March 1450 he was among the Londoners charged with trying John Frammesley, the vintner who had sought to raise a rebellion against Henry VI just days after the fall of the duke of Suffolk,33 P. Moralee, ‘The High Treason of John Frammesley’ (London Univ. M.A. thesis, 2012); I.M.W. Harvey, Jack Cade, 70; R. Virgoe, ‘Death of Wm. de la Pole, duke of Suffolk’. Bull. J. Rylands Lib. xlvii. 491. and a year later he formed part of the panels ordered to investigate the charges that had been made against a number of courtiers.

Hatherley was notably inactive during the later 1450s, although in 1455 he attested the parliamentary election for a ninth and final time. In January that year a dispute between him and an apprentice, John Humphrey, was heard before the court of aldermen.34 Jnl. 2, f. 217v. He continued to attend meetings of the court, although from 1456 onwards he was a much less frequent attender. On 5 Dec. 1460 he successfully petitioned the court to be exonerated from his aldermanry, and it is likely that he died later that month or early the following year.35 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, passim; jnl. 6, f. 279v. He had probably been ill for some time, as he had drawn up a will concerning his property in London on 12 Apr. 1459. He asked to be buried in the church of St. Michael Queenhithe (where he had once served as a churchwarden) and bequeathed to the church the vestry he had built under his tenements in Trinity Lane. He asked for prayers to be said for the souls of his three deceased wives, and that the small churchyard of the parish would no longer to be used for burials, except in pressing circumstances. The central provision of Hatherley’s will was, however, the establishment of a chantry, in support of which he settled his tenements and wharf in Debill Lane on the London Charterhouse. Hatherley’s grandson, Robert (son of his daughter Agnes) was left Le Cok to hold in tail, with reversion to the Charterhouse, and it is almost certain that this and other properties in the wards of Bassishaw and Castle Baynard came the way of the Carthusians at a later date. The will was eventually enrolled in the court of husting in February 1466.36 London hr 195/44. As his executors, Hatherley appointed the judge Nicholas Aysshton and William Corbet of London, and shortly after his death they began to make arrangements for the disposal of his property, which before long led to litigation in Chancery against one of the ironmonger’s feoffees, John Gloucester II*, who claimed to have purchased some of Hatherley’s property before he died.37 C1/29/259-62. Hatherley was survived by his daughter and grandson, but also by a fourth wife, Joan, who had been previously married to a member of the Wybbury family of Otterham, Cornwall, and Chagford in Devon, by whom she had at least one son. In 1471 she married William Brocas of Peper Harow in Surrey, and, after outliving him too, died in 1487.38 Surr. Arch. Collns. xxxi. 109; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 497. Joan’s first husband may have been a kinsman of John Wybbury†.