DRURY, John

Drury was almost certainly a local man, related to the namesake, John Drury, esquire, who witnessed a deed at Sandwich in 1417. He was perhaps the son of the Portsman Henry Drury, who in 1421 claimed exemption from the parliamentary subsidy in Eastry hundred,4 E179/124/93; W. Boys, Sandwich, 52. where he himself was to be similarly exempted in the 1440s. His putative father was probably dead by 1431, when John was assessed towards the subsidy at £6 for lands in Wingham hundred which he held in gavelkind.5 E179/124/110; Feudal Aids, iii. 72.

It was not until December 1435, when he was first chosen to the ranks of the jurats, that Drury appeared in the Sandwich records. Thereafter he was a permanent feature among the town’s governing elite. Drury quickly made an impression in the town and within three years of his first election he was a chosen as one of the keepers of the keys to the common chest, as well as being a candidate for the mayoralty. On 12 Dec. 1438 he attended his first meeting of the Brodhull, a duty he repeated on six other occasions before his first mayoralty, and in July 1439 he was chosen as one of the Ports’ bailiffs to the annual Yarmouth herring fair.6 White and Black Bks. 10, 12, 16, 17, 21. His status was probably enhanced by his marriage to Joan, the widow of a local gentleman, Thomas Horne. This brought him into conflict with another landowner, Aymer Digges (d.1444), and his wife, Eleanor, Horne’s sister. In Michaelmas term 1438 Digges sued Drury and his new wife in the court of common pleas in an attempt to recover a chest containing the muniments relating to the manor of ‘Popyshale’ with its appurtenances in Coldred and Waldershare. Eleanor claimed this manor as heir to her niece Katherine, who had died childless. The result of the litigation is unknown, although when in 1443 Drury claimed exemption from the parliamentary subsidy in the hundreds of Eastry and Cornilo he did not do so in Bewsborough, where the disputed manor lay.7 CP40/711, rot. 465; E179/124/110; C139/116/45; Archaeologia Cantiana, xl. 23; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. xlii), 65. He later claimed in a Chancery petition that in 1440 he and John Horne, Thomas’s brother, had delivered seisin of property in Coldred that had been assigned to Joan as her dower to Digges and his wife in return for an annuity of £10. Eleanor (whose husband was by then dead), disputed Drury’s assertion that Aymer had provided for the payment of the annuity in his will and claimed that Joan had in fact waived her dower rights for a one-off payment of eight marks.8 C1/16/570; C4/2/64.

It is not clear whether Drury actively sought the mayoralty of Sandwich, although his name was put forward as one of the three candidates from whom the jurats made their choice on more occasions than any of his colleagues. He was an unsuccessful candidate in 1443 and 1445, but meanwhile, in May 1445, he was one of the four barons of the Port chosen to carry the canopy at the coronation of Queen Margaret.9 Sandwich ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 67v. This honour was followed by his eventual election as mayor in December 1446. During this first of three mayoralties he attended a meeting of the Brodhull on 18 Apr. 1447, but he was not among those barons who travelled to the first court of Shepway held by the new warden of the Cinque Ports, James Fiennes*, Lord Saye and Sele, in July. In 1448 he attended two further meetings of the Brodhull, including the special assembly in September called to settle the dispute between Nicholas Anlaby and the commonalty of Dover.10 Ibid. f. 71; White and Black Bks. 22, 23, 25. The following January he was elected to his first Parliament, called to assemble at Westminster on 12 Feb. 1449. He travelled there with the experienced parliamentarian, Thomas Haddon*, although nothing is known about their time in the Commons.11 Sandwich ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 74v. On 1 Dec. 1449 Drury was chosen for a second mayoral term and he travelled to New Romney on 21 July 1450 for another meeting of the Brodhull.12 White and Black Bks. 26. While mayor, and styled as ‘esquire’, he took the precaution of purchasing the royal pardon offered that same month in the wake of Cade’s rebellion. In November, along with Gervase Clifton*, the lieutenant of Dover castle, and Richard Cock*, he was commissioned to arrest two local men and keep them in custody awaiting the King’s pleasure.13 CPR, 1446-52, pp. 353, 445. Having returned to the ranks of the jurats in December 1450, he attended a meeting of the court of Shepway the following July. It is not known why he and seven other men of Sandwich were ordered to be arrested and brought to Chancery in September 1452, but it may have been related to charges of piracy, for the mayors of Southampton and Portsmouth were instructed to make similar arrests. Whatever the reason, Drury was once again returned to Parliament, on 20 Feb. 1453, on this occasion his colleague being the parliamentary novice and fellow jurat, Robert Mayhew*.14 Sandwich ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 70v, 90v; CPR, 1452-61, p. 56. On 22 June 1455 Drury was chosen as representative for Sandwich and Hythe among the Ports’ bailiffs at the annual Yarmouth herring fair, and he was present when his appointment was confirmed at a meeting of the Brodhull a month later (for which Sandwich’s treasurers paid him 5s. 8d. in expenses).15 Sandwich ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 97v; Sandwich treasurers’ accts. 1454-5, SA/FAt 2.

On 6 Dec. 1456 Drury was once again chosen as mayor, and as such he travelled to another meeting of the Brodhull eight days later.16 White and Black Bks. 37. It was during his term of office that on 28 Aug. the following year Sandwich fell victim to an audacious raid on the Kent coast led by Pierre de Brézé, seneschal of Normandy. The French ships, sailing out of Honfleur, had anchored in the Downs the previous night and in the morning de Brézé and Charles de Marais, the captain of Dieppe, assaulted the Port both from land and by sailing up the Wantsum channel. The raiders set fire to large parts of the town and pillaged goods, later exaggerated by the French to be worth £200,000. The initial reaction to the raid was organized by Drury who, it seems, was killed during the defence of the town along with some of his officers. A force was quickly organized by Sir Thomas Kyriel*, lieutenant of Dover castle, who drove the invaders back to their ships, killing some 120 Frenchmen.17 R.A. Griffiths, Hen. VI, 815; D. Gardiner, Historic Haven, 137-9; Sandwich roll of mayors, SA/ZB 11. Oddly, there is no mention of Drury’s death in Sandwich’s ‘Old Black Book’, or any note of the election of an interim mayor, but there are no subsequent references to him in the local records. The series of Sandwich annals state that John Nesham† was mayor during the year of the French raid and it looks as if he assumed the responsibilities of the office on Drury’s death.18 Sandwich recs. and annals, SA/LC/9. All versions of the annals curiously state that the magistrates had ‘avoided the town, because of the plague’, just before the raid took place. Drury clearly had time to make a will before his death as in Hilary term 1461 his widow and executrix, Joan, rendered account on his behalf at the Exchequer for the forfeiture of Scottish coins.19 E159/237, recorda Hil. rot. 6d.

Little more evidence survives of Drury’s private affairs. He was a resident of St. Peter’s parish, while his property outside of the town allowed him to claim gentle status and he was styled as such in proceedings before the Westminster law courts.20 Sandwich deeds 1311-1421, SA/TB 1. His holdings included land on the archbishop of Canterbury’s manor of Sandown, for which he owed suit of court, and which his heirs sold to William Kenet†.21 E. Kent Recs. (Kent Rec. Ser. vii), 77-78, 123. In 1441 he was granted custody of Sandwich’s water mill for an annual rent of ten marks, and six years later he paid as much as 23 marks p.a. for a lease of the common crane on the wharf. It is likely that he was also involved in trade, perhaps dealing in wine, and in 1448 he secured letters of withernam against Claude Bek, a Norman merchant trading in the Ports.22 Sandwich ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 56v, 72v, 73v. The John Drury of Sandwich who died in 1496 was possibly his son.23 HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 284.