HOLMEHEGGE, Nicholas

Although this MP’s background is obscure, he was evidently related to Richard Holmehegge, the stockfishmonger of London with whom he was associated in 1443 in a gift of goods and chattels made by John Bowre, a ‘gentleman’ from Berkshire.5 CCR, 1441-7, p. 158. He had settled in Southampton by 1433, and from then until his death regularly used the port for his trading ventures. Like his kinsman he traded in fish, notably herring and salmon, but he also dealt in other victuals, including wine. For example, he bought ten butts of malmsey worth £36 13s. 4d. off a Venetian carrack lying in Southampton Water in November 1442, and imported a cargo of 12 tuns of wine in the following February and another of 21 tuns in January 1448. On other occasions his merchandise from the Meditteranean included 6,000 ‘brikes’ and 12 barrels of soap, and among his shipments were rabbit skins, alum, linen, canvas and salt. His principal export was woollen cloth – some 50 whole cloths of good quality were shipped in his name in August 1444.6 Port Bk. 1435-6 (Soton. Rec. Ser. vii), 26; E101/128/31 m. 20; E122/140/62, ff. 1v, 3, 5v, 7v, 19, 57v, 58, 61v; 141/25, ff. 4, 10v, 12, 13, 15, 31, 50; 141/29, ff. 4, 5, 9v, 20, 51v, 55, 57v; 141/33, f. 8v; 142/1, m. 3d; 209/8, ff. 2v, 16. Holmehegge regularly sent consignments of wine and fish to Winchester, and he had other, albeit less profitable connexions with the tradesmen of Salisbury, Poole and Newbury, to whom he sent carts laden with herring, oil and garlic. He organized his business methodically and with attention to cutting costs. In 1444, for instance, he brought into Southampton a load of corn from Newbury, sent the carts back laden with wine and herring, and arranged for them to return again with sacks of wool. Although he seems rarely to have dealt with merchants in London, he did dispatch some grapejuice there in 1448.7 Brokage Bk. 1443-4, i (Soton. Rec. Ser. iv), 15, 47, 55, 62, 83, 88, 93, 119, 133; ii (ibid. vi), 152, 154, 185, 207, 209, 244, 291; Port and Brokage Bks. 1448-9 (ibid. xxxvi), 96, 102. As a sideline, Holmehegge apparently also traded in wood: on 1 Apr. 1449 he obtained from Bishop Waynflete a seven-year lease on an area of woodland called Holemore in Bishop’s Waltham, paying £40 for the right to cut down the timber.8 Reg. Common Seal (Hants Rec. Ser. ii), no. 325; Hants RO, Reg. Waynflete 1, f. 2**.

When he first arrived in Southampton Holmegge lived in a comparatively modest dwelling on the east side of English Street, for which he paid 6s. p.a. rent, and in the early 1440s he also leased another in Simnel Street.9 Cart. God’s House, ii (Soton. Rec. Ser. xx), 283, 343. His second marriage, to the twice-widowed Joan Marche, gave him considerably more property, most notably a block of nine messuages, complete with vaults, cellars and gardens, at the ‘New Corner’ of the road leading from English Street to French Street, which she held for life with remainder to her son, John Marche. It was there, in St. Michael’s parish, that he now took up residence, and a settlement of December 1445 ensured a further remainder of this estate to any issue Joan might have by him. There was also an adjacent house which had belonged to her first husband, William Ledys, three tenements in the suburb, and at least four other dwellings, a shop and a vacant plot of land.10 Southampton recs., SC4/2/277, 277a; Southampton Terrier, nos. 69-70, 200-8, 217-18, 412, 427, 461, 487. Holmehegge set about recovering debts owed to his wife as executrix of William Marche, by bringing several actions in the court of common pleas in 1445, but whether these were ever successful does not appear.11 CP40/739, rot. 492d.

As one of the bailiffs of Southampton, Holmehegge made the return to the sheriff of Hampshire for the Parliament of 1442, and after the town achieved the status of a county he attested the electoral indentures for those of February and November 1449, 1453 and 1455.12 C219/15/2, 6, 7; 16/2, 3. Meanwhile, he had served the first of two terms as mayor, and had himself represented the urban county in the Parliament of 1450. In the Hilary term of 1457 loans had to be raised in Southampton in order to pay arrears of the fee farm payable to the Crown. Holmehegge lent the largest sum, £10, which was twice the amount offered by any other inhabitant. In return he was exonerated from paying £10 12s. 3½d. to purchase some wool confiscated by the bailiffs, the difference being said to be owing to him for another loan made when he had been mayor in 1454-5. During that mayoralty he had evidently been responsible for the mistreatment of the duke of Somerset’s yeoman-porter, one John Chapman of Shaftesbury, for in November 1457 the steward of Southampton paid Chapman 33s. 4d. to put a stop to his allegations that Holmehegge and other officers of the town had wronged him. Chapman made a formal quitclaim of all legal actions against Holmehegge and others including his successors as mayor, John William* and Walter Clerk*.13 Southampton recs., stewards’ bks. SC5/1/8, ff. 1v, 6, 17v; 9, ff. 32v, 33.

Despite his association with William and Clerk, who emerged in the late 1450s among the leaders of the political faction stridently opposed to the followers of the highly litigious John Payn I*, Holmehegge appears to have exercised an uneasy neutrality as the quarrels among Southampton’s ruling elites became more heated. Earlier on, he had joined Payn in lending support to John Serle† in the latter’s suits against his father-in-law, the prominent merchant Peter James*, in his case by acting as a pledge for Serle’s petition to Chancery; and he had also been linked with Payn in 1451 as a co-feoffee of lands and tenements in the town.14 Southampton recs., SC4/2/283-4; C1/73/144-5. In 1460, when Clerk’s quarrel with Payn came to a head, not only at home but also in the central law courts, Holmehegge may have been forced to take sides. At the mayoral elections held on 19 Sept. Clerk’s friend, the outgoing mayor Richard Gryme, nominated Holmehegge with Walter Fettiplace† as the two candidates from whom the new mayor should be chosen in the usual way. But Payn’s son and namesake, in alliance with Andrew James*, entered the guildhall with a mob of 100 men, and with drawn daggers and threats secured the election of their own candidate, Robert Bagworth. The arrest of Clerk at Payn’s suit held up the business of the Parliament which assembled less than three weeks later, bringing Southampton’s troubled affairs to the Crown’s attention, and on 1 Dec. (probably the last day of the Parliament) a mandate was sent by the King to the aldermen of Southampton to conduct another mayoral election according to the custom.15 CPR, 1452-61, p. 639. Although Holmehegge was not chosen (Bagworth apparently remained in office), the fact that he did agree to serve once more as an alderman indicates that he was ready to compromise with Payn’s faction.

During the final months of Holmehegge’s life, early in 1461, he and his wife were the subject of a petition to Chancery from John Lions of Sandwich, who alleged that they refused to re-grant him seisin of a messuage in Southampton which they held as feoffees to his use.16 C1/28/95. The MP may have died on the following 18 June, the day that his and his wife’s obits were kept subsequently.17 Southampton recs., SC4/1/1; stewards’ bk. 5/1/11, f. 14. His will, which has not survived, was proved by Bishop Waynflete on 11 Oct. Holmehegge’s widow and executrix was acquitted administration of his goods three days later, and in December she received from the bishop a licence to hear religious services wheresoever she might be in the diocese.18 Reg. Waynflete 1, ff. 67*v, 69*v. Shortly afterwards, Joan made an enfeoffment of the 13 messuages in her possession so that her will might be performed, and in May 1462 she issued her instructions for the foundation of a perpetual chantry in St. Mary’s church for the souls of herself, Holmehegge and her parents. If the mayor and burgesses were prepared to do so within two years of her death, they might have 11 of the messuages in order to provide the chantry-chaplain with a salary of ten marks p.a., and distribute 26s. 8d. every year to the mayor and the steward, as well as to priests, clerks and poor men; otherwise, the precentor of St. Mary’s, the warden of God’s House, or Joan’s executors were to take responsibility for this benefaction. The other two messuages were to be sold by the executors and the money raised spent for the benefit of the souls of Joan and her last husband.19 Southampton recs., SC4/2/292-3 (later copied into Southampton’s Black Bk.: Black Bk. iii (Soton. Rec. Soc. 1915), 2-9). These two messuages became the subject of a petition to Chancery in the course of the next three years when Holmehegge’s son, Gregory, and the latter’s wife, Agnes, alleged that the MP had intended both properties to pass to them in fee tail after Joan’s death. In this contention they were supported by one of the feoffees, who said that Joan had made her will contrary to Holmehegge’s wishes, and that when she was ‘liyng in hir bed seke’ she had required him for the sake of her conscience to make sure this was rectified. The suit led to an action in the town court and to Gregory’s arrest,20 C1/28/96; 31/22. but he may have eventually proved successful, for in July 1479 he settled on his wife a messuage with a vault and garden in English Street in the parish of St. Lawrence, in fulfilment of a promise made by his late father at the time of the couple’s betrothal. In his will of May 1487 he asked to be buried next to his father in the chancel of St. Mary’s.21 CCR, 1476-85, no. 710; PCC 3, 4 Milles (PROB11/8, ff. 24, 30).