DERLOND, Thomas

The identification of Weymouth’s second representative in the Parliament of 1453 presents problems, for no local man of this name has been discovered and by this date the burgesses were prepared to choose complete outsiders. In the absence of another candidate, it is possible that the MP was a London fishmonger of this name. Few details of this apparently insubstantial man’s career have come to light, but he evidently hailed from Gillingham in Kent, where in 1427 he owned lands (including a messuage in Lidsing known as ‘Derlandes’) and moveable property worth more than £50.1 C131/229/28.

Much of what is known of the fishmonger relates to actions for debt brought against him by a succession of creditors in the late 1420s and early 1430s. Thus, in the spring of 1430 the stockfishmonger William Sharp sued him in the common pleas for a debt of £18 6s. 8d. under the terms of a bond, which Derlond for his part claimed to have sealed under duress, while being held captive by Sharp and his associates in 1427.2 CP40/677, rot. 70d. About the same time, another London fishmonger, Thomas Badby, sought to recover a larger debt of £58 from him before the mayor of the staple of Westminster.3 C241/223/21; C131/63/24; 229/28. Derlond’s troubles provide some evidence of his connexions: when sued by Sharp he was able to field sureties who included the lawyers Henry Hickes* (like him a native of the Medway towns) and Richard Jay*.4 CP40/677, rot. 70d. His evident economic difficulties may account for his subsequent disappearance from the records.