BURGH, Thomas

One of the most prominent burgesses of Bishop’s Lynn during the first half of the fifteenth century, Burgh reached an advanced age, attaining his majority before 1416 and living for 50 years or so after that date. A merchant, he had trading interests in the Baltic, and he was in Danzig in April 1416 when John Maumpas of Lynn appointed him to act as one of his attorneys there.10 King’s Lynn bor. recs., Wm. Asshbourne’s bk., KL/C 10/2, f. 95v. There is no record of how long he stayed in Prussia on this particular occasion, but he was certainly back at Lynn by September 1419 when he attended a congregation (a borough assembly) there.11 King’s Lynn bor. recs., hall roll, 1418-19, KL/C 6/4, m. 21. Just over a year later, he attested the election of Thomas Brigge† and Andrew Swanton† to the Parliament of 1420,12 KL/C 6/5, m. 18. and shortly afterwards he was obliged to find sureties to satisfy the Crown that he would do no harm to John Person of Massingham, with whom he had quarrelled. (Three of his sureties came from London, so he evidently had connexions with that city.)13 Ibid. m. 17. Burgh was involved in another quarrel in the late 1420s when he, John Waryn* and Bartholomew Petipas* sued a number of merchants from Hamburg in the English admiralty court. Claiming that the defendants had seized their goods, they won their suit, but their opponents appealed to the King, alleging that the president of the court, Sir Henry Inglose*, or his deputy, John Tilney† (himself a burgess of Lynn), had pronounced an unjust sentence against them.14 CPR, 1429-36, pp. 36-37. A decade later Burgh sued the Warwickshire knight, Sir Edward Doddingselles*, for debt, suggesting (as does his association with the Londoners who stood surety for him) that he had widespread commercial contacts within England.15 CPR, 1436-41, p. 12. He was also involved in at least one other dispute, for in January 1432 he, Thomas Botkesham* and John Waterden* submitted themselves to the judgement of Lynn’s common council regarding an altercation between them and John Warner†.16 KL/C 7/3, f. 19v. Botkesham and Waterden were probably among Burgh’s closest associates, since in November 1433 they were parties to a transaction settling an annuity of £10 on him and his new wife, Elizabeth.17 CP25(1)/169/187/90. Another associate was John Copnote*, who sat with him in the Parliament of 1425 and made him one of his executors.18 KL/C 7/29, p. 266; KL/C 7/3, f. 28. It is also likely that he was on good terms with Thomas Salisbury*, for whom he acted as an arbitrator in the mid 1430s when Salisbury and his wife separated.19 KL/C 7/3, f. 55.

By 1434, owing to his standing in Lynn, Burgh was considered important enough to swear the oath to keep the peace administered throughout the country.20 CPR, 1429-36, p. 406. His first office in the borough had been that of chamberlain, and he subsequently joined the upper council or 24, served a term as mayor and became alderman of the guild of Holy Trinity. The Trinity guild was not the only such institution with which he was involved, since he also became a member of the lesser guilds of Saints Giles and Julian, which he joined in 1426,21 King’s Lynn bor. recs., guild bk., guild of SS. Giles and Julian, 1392-1445, KL/C 57/43, f. 33v. and Corpus Christi, which he served as a treasurer and afterwards as master. Burgh often had dealings with the feudal lord of the borough, the bishop of Norwich. He attended Bishop Alnwick’s installation in the late 1420s,22 KL/C 7/29, p. 169. and he helped on at least two occasions to prepare for visits that Alnwick paid to Lynn.23 KL/C 7/3, ff. 60, 235. Throughout the 1430s and 1440s, he took part in meetings at Norwich, London and elsewhere with Alnwick, his immediate successors, Bishops Brown and Lyhert, and their diocesan officers to discuss matters related to the borough.24 Ibid. ff. 53v, 64v, 88, 127, 155v, 157, 185v, 186, 191, 194, 224; King’s Lynn bor. recs., chamberlains’ acct., 1446-7, KL/C 39/56. Lynn also received frequent visits from Thomas, Lord Scales, a magnate with an estate in west Norfolk, and during the mid 1440s Burgh took part in negotiations about his water-mill in South Lynn, a property that the Trinity guild acquired from Scales later that decade.25 KL/C 7/3, ff. 175v, 200v; King’s Lynn bor. recs., chamberlains’ acct., 1444-5, KL/C 39/55; CP25(1)/170/190/222; CPR, 1446-52, p. 125; HMC 11th Rep. III, 204. To ensure the ‘good lordship’ of both Scales and the bishop of Norwich, the borough regularly gave them wine and other gifts, and on one occasion in the mid 1440s Burgh and John Nicholasson brought with them a present of wine when they visited Scales at Middleton.26 KL/C 39/55; KL/C 7/3, f. 235. The most important visitor was the King himself, who came to Lynn in 1446, when Burgh was among those assigned to seek money from the local guilds to support the costs of receiving him.27 KL/C 7/3, f. 217v.

Apart from all his other duties, Burgh sat in no fewer than six Parliaments (three of which were consecutive) spread over a quarter of a century. As an MP, he had sometimes to perform duties outside the Commons. In 1439 he and his then associate Thomas Salisbury were entrusted with Henry IV’s charter to the town, which they were instructed to get confirmed; and in 1445 he and the other MP for Lynn, Henry Thoresby*, were expected to recover a sum of 20 marks which the borough had lent the King from the Exchequer.28 Ibid. ff. 115, 117v, 214. Apart from his responsibilities in Parliament and his offices within the borough, Burgh also held several local offices under the Crown. He sat as a j.p., was appointed to at least two ad hoc commissions and served as controller of customs at Lynn. He also served the King abroad, for during his mayoralty the government placed him on an embassy commissioned to meet representatives of the Grand Master of Prussia and the Hanseatic League at Bruges. Lynn contributed to the costs of the embassy (which was intended to restore good relations with the League in the months preceding the Congress of Arras), for in March 1435 the corporation imposed a special tax on its inhabitants to raise money towards it. The following month the borough elected John Thoresby, then alderman of the Trinity guild, to deputize as mayor in Burgh’s absence and appointed Walter Curson* and John Bampton, the town clerk, to accompany him abroad as proctors for the town. For all practical purposes the embassy, which also included the canon lawyer, Stephen Wilton, Master John Stokes, Richard Sellyng and Richard Buckland*, treasurer of Calais, accomplished nothing and it is possible that it never reached the continent. It is worth noting that Burgh was in Lynn during the summer of 1435 and that he gained election to Parliament in the September of the same year. On 17 Dec., a week before the dissolution, Burgh, along with Stokes, Richard Wydeville*, lieutenant of Calais, Sellyng and Buckland were appointed to a new embassy, but early in the following month the diet they were to have attended was prorogued. Eventually a third embassy, consisting of Stokes, John Radcliffe and John Sutton, reached the continent in March 1436. They were obliged to conduct their negotiations (which achieved little) from Calais, because Englishmen were personae non grata in Bruges and other Burgundian territories after the Franco-Burgundian rapprochement the previous September, a volte-face on the part of the Burgundians that had provoked considerable anger in the Parliament that had opened a few weeks later.29 J. Ferguson, Eng. Diplomacy, 91, 93-95; KL/C 7/3, ff. 51v, 52v, 53v, 55.

Burgh was active for some years after finishing his parliamentary career. His term as alderman of Trinity guild (a position usually held for life) came to an end in the late 1450s, but he was still a member of the council of 24 as late as Michaelmas 1467. He probably died a few months after this date, since he was no longer on the 24 a year later.30 KL/C 7/4, pp. 246, 257. While there is no record of any surviving children, there is evidence for some of the property he had held at Lynn, principally ‘Sparowhalle’, a tenement for which he paid the borough an annual rent of 23s. 4d., and a quay. In 1455 the corporation demised two stalls in Grassmarket to him, Richard Frank* and John Curson, and ten years later he and John Pygot conveyed a tenement in Webster Row to a local chaplain, but it is possible that his interest in these properties was that of a trustee, rather than an owner.31 Chamberlains’ acct., 1465-6, KL/C 39/60; KL/C 7/3, f. 26v; deeds, KL/C 50/232, 478.