BYE, John

Presumably after completing some training in the law, Bye began his service for the civic authorities at Winchester in about September 1407, when he was paid 6s. 8d. for conducting business for the city at the bishop’s court of the pavilion, and in the following year he and a Sussex lawyer, John Vincent†, assisted the mayor and commonalty to defend the liberties of the citizens, as contained in royal charters, which had met with challenge in London.7 Ibid. 14; Winchester recs. chamberlains’ accts. W/E1/11. He should not be confused with another John Bye, the ‘tapener’ (clothworker) who was an executor of the will of Lucy (d.c.1404), wid. of Richard Frye† of Winchester: Stowe 846, f. 114. Perhaps he was already occupying the office of town clerk, although there is no definite evidence of his tenure of this position until Henry V’s reign, and, if so, he must have combined it with the clerkship at the nearby town of Southampton, where he did duty for about four years from the autumn of 1409. Bye took an active interest in Southampton’s affairs: when the warden of God’s House hospital and the prior of St. Denys’ priory went to arbitration over certain disputed rents, he was named as an arbiter on behalf of the former, and helped make an award in December 1409.8 Cart. God’s House, ii. 314. Marriage to a local widow brought him a tenement on the west side of English Street, which he let out to tenants,9 Ibid. 345-6. and in the Winchester court rolls of the early fifteenth century he is generally referred to as ‘burgess of Southampton’. However, he is not mentioned as living in Southampton after 1417, by which date his wife’s property had been taken over and rebuilt by Peter James* and his associate Walter Fettiplace. Indeed, from 1413 onwards he concentrated more of his time on the affairs of the inhabitants of Winchester, and began to have property interests there. In 1414, Bye and Thomas Middleton† of Southampton acquired a capital tenement and four cottages in Wongar Street, Winchester, which Bye conveyed to Thomas Gardener* three years later.10 D.J. Keene, Surv. Winchester (Winchester Studies 2), ii. no. 410; Stowe 846, f. 138v.

On the same day that Bye was sworn into the franchise of Winchester, 23 Dec. 1420, he was formally excused all civic offices except those of mayor, auditor and MP. Furthermore, in return for the good service he had done the city at various times previously he was exonerated from making any payment for admission. As it was specifically stated that he was free to plead at the bar in the city courts, and to act as attorney for pleas touching the city,11 Black Bk. Winchester, 53. it may well be the case that he took over the recordership of Winchester at this stage, replacing William Wood I*, who received a similar exoneration from civic office at the same time. A measure of Bye’s standing in the city is provided by his attendance at the Hampshire elections to four of the Parliaments meeting between November 1414 and 1422, on each occasion as a witness to the electoral indentures drawn up by the sheriff at Winchester castle.12 C219/11/5, 12/4, 6, 13/1. Along with the mayor and other local dignitaries he took part in a survey of the city streams at Pentecost 1422, and he was active as an attorney at the assizes held in Winchester that July.13 Chamberlains’ accts. W/E1/15; JUST1/1531, rot. 47d. Bye was returned with William Wood to the Parliament meeting on 9 Nov. following. Three days earlier he was authorized by Joan of Navarre (Henry IV’s widow) to act along with two other local lawyers as her attorney and receiver in Winchester with regard to sums of money due to her as part of her dower. Bye was made mayor in 1428, and during his term new ordinances were drawn up for the government of the city.14 Winchester recs. W/A2/6; Black Bk. Winchester, 66. In the following year (1429-30) he was paid travelling expenses for going with his successor in the mayoralty, Richard Turnaunt*, and three servants ‘pro cc. marcis domino Henrico Cardinali’ (probably a loan from Winchester to the Crown, negotiated by Cardinal Beaufort).15 Chamberlains’ accts. W/E1/16.

Little is known about Bye’s property in Winchester, save that from 1429 to 1440 he held a tenement outside Durn Gate, and at other times a building in High Street. By 1435 he was also in possession of a house in Kingsgate Street which Alice Byngham (d.1433), the widow of another lawyer, William Byngham, had inherited after the deaths of her father and sister, but how he came by this interest remains unclear.16 Keene, ii. nos. 151-2, 866, 979. Regarding no. 866 Keene says Joan Bye was in possession by 1435-6, but the source quoted (Winchester recs. W/H1/36) merely gives the surname. In the Michaelmas term of 1445 he appeared in person in the court of common pleas to bring an action against Richard Dogger of the Soke, a sawyer who had allegedly broken into his closes, fished in his ponds and stolen his goods.17 CP40/739, rot. 261. However, in December following he was himself stated to be in possession of stolen property, after he purchased a butt of malmsey from an originally Venetian cargo taken at sea by pirates and brought by Genoese merchants from Cartagena to Southampton.18 CPR, 1441-6, p. 463. Not a particularly wealthy man, he contributed no more than 10d. towards the wages of the Winchester MPs of the Parliament of 1445-6.19 Winchester recs. W/E4/4. In his later years Bye brought more actions in the common pleas: against a husbandman of Barton Stacey, a servant who had left his employment, a yeoman of Twyford for the theft of two brass seals, and, in Michaelmas term 1450, a corveyser of Andover and a baker of Stockbridge for assaulting him at Andover.20 CP40/754, rot. 45; 757 rot. 239; 759, rot. 296.

These last suits reflect Bye’s removal from Winchester at some point in the 1440s. He was called ‘of Stockbridge’ when appointed a tax collector in 1446 and 1449, and ‘of Andover’ subsequently. Under the latter description he was named as an executor of the will of Richard Bone, a priest who died in possession of two gardens in Kingsgate Street, Winchester, and in this capacity he petitioned the chancellor for redress after Simon Longe of Romsey, who pretended to be a feoffee of the property, menaced the tenants and so vexed him that he could not carry out the provisions of Bone’s will.21 C1/17/66. He is last recorded as ‘of Andover, gentleman’ in Trinity term 1453, when William Warbleton*, the former shire-knight, sued him for a debt of £10 under a bond dated April 1451. Bye appeared in court in person to deny the charge on the basis that he had complied with conditions endorsed on the bond, which required the payment of £4 11s. 8d. into the Exchequer at Easter 1452.22 CP40/770, rot. 290.