HONYWOOD, John

Although some members of the Honywood family occasionally used the alias Wigan, suggesting that they may have had connexions with Lancashire, their name derived from Henewood in Postling near Hythe, where they owned a manor from the reign of Henry III.3 E. Hasted, Kent ed. Drake, viii. 37-38, 215; HMC 4th Rep. 437; Hythe ct. bks. Ric. II – Hen. VI, H 1022. It seems likely that our MP and his brother Thomas were younger sons of John Honywood, who had sat for Hythe in 1397. Their putative elder brother, Alan, left Hythe in about 1430 to settle in the Sussex Port of Hastings.

John first appeared in the local records in February 1440, by which date he was already a jurat. Two years later he attended his first meeting of the Brodhull as one of Hythe’s representatives.4 White and Black Bks. 16. In 1444 he was also employed in riding to Dover and London with several of his fellow jurats to consult Gervase Clifton*, the lieutenant of Dover castle, Richard Needham* and John Greenford* concerning Hythe’s dispute with a Folkestone man, John Golston.5 Jurats’ acct. bk. H 1055, ff. 43v, 62v. His service on the bench of jurats was not constant in the early years of his career, but along with his brother Thomas he ensured that a Honywood served in the government of Hythe almost continuously from the early 1440s for 30 years. Like his putative father, John made his living principally from selling livestock, mainly cattle and pigs for consumption, but also horses which he regularly provided for his fellow Portsmen to use to travel to meetings of the Brodhull and for other communal business. He also occasionally traded in wool, fells, cloth and victuals. In all these ventures he was joined by his brother Thomas and the two men habitually paid maltolts together. They received rents worth 11s. 8d. together, but by the mid 1440s John had also acquired rental property in Hythe worth 5s. p.a. on his own.6 Ibid. ff. 10, 23v, 57v, 78, 88v.

In January 1447 John was elected as one of the barons to attend the Parliament summoned to Bury St. Edmunds, although it is unclear how many days he spent there. A further measure of his standing in Hythe came in July 1448 when, along with the bailiff Nicholas Brockhill* (with whom he had sat at Bury) he was chosen by the Brodhull to be one of the Portsmen of Hythe appointed to arbitrate in the dispute between Nicholas Andlabye of Dover and the Port of Sandwich.7 White and Black Bks. 24. This was not the only communal business he was employed upon in this period. In the previous year he had ridden to Dover to arrange an arbitration by Needham and Ralph Toke* in a dispute concerning two local men, as well as travelling to London and Addington, Surrey, to discuss the appointment of Hythe’s bailiff with Archbishop Stafford. The demands made by the town’s business continued throughout 1448-9 and in that year Honywood also went to Gravesend to meet the warden of the Cinque Ports, James Fiennes*, Lord Saye and Sele, as well as making further journeys to London and Dover.8 Jurats’ acct. bk. H 1055, ff. 110, 124-5, 139v. On 4 Oct. 1450, along with Alexander Leigh*, he was elected to his second Parliament, called to assemble at Westminster on the following 5 Nov. Both men left Hythe the day before Parliament’s opening, returning home again on 20 Dec. Honywood departed again for the second session on 18 Jan., two days before it commenced, and remained at Westminster until the last day of the month. After travelling to Westminster again on 18 Feb., Honywood probably remained there until the close of the second session on 29 Mar. He left Hythe again on 3 Apr., during the prorogation, and was present when the third session commenced on 5 May, returning home on 10 May. Both he and Leigh were said to have returned to Westminster on 5 June when the Parliament was apparently still in session, but the date of their homecoming is not recorded. Between these two last visits to Westminster, on 23 May, Honywood visited New Romney to attend a meeting of the Brodhull, doubtless to report on the business of the Parliament. In total he claimed 133 days wages at the accustomed rate of 2s. per day, and asked for the total amount due, £13 6s., to be deducted from the maltolts he owed in January 1452.9 Ibid. ff. 28, 161; White and Black Bks. 27.

Honywood continued to play an active role in the affairs of Hythe throughout the remainder of the decade. In 1453, for example, he claimed allowance from his maltolts for payments towards the expenses of the Ports’ bailiffs to Yarmouth, their ship service for the Gascon expedition, for travelling to meet the archbishop and for communal business at Canterbury. At the end of his account for that year the commonalty owed him a total of £4 5s. 7¾d.10 Jurats’ acct. bk. H 1055, f. 178. In 1455 he entertained both John Scott† and John Fogg† in his house in Hythe and in 1458, with his brother and their wives, he played host to the lieutenant of Dover castle, Sir Thomas Kyriel*.11 Jurats’ acct. bk. H 1019, ff. 32v, 64. Despite not serving as a jurat since 1454, in February 1457 he was chosen as bailiff of Hythe. As such he held the town courts in person and attended meetings of the Brodhull.12 White and Black Bks. 37-38. In the following February he was re-elected as a jurat and continued to hold that office throughout the 1460s.

On 14 June 1461 Honywood, along with Thomas Stace*, was elected to Edward IV’s first Parliament. It is not clear how long he spent at Westminster on this occasion, but when he accounted for his maltolts in January 1464 the debt owed to him by the commonalty had risen to £6 8s. 9¼d. By this time, as well being a jurat, Honywood was also common serjeant with an annual fee of 33s. 4d. One of his duties in this office was to ride to Dover with the return of the parliamentary election in 1463.13 Jurats’ acct. bk. H 1019, ff. 1v, 133, 121v. A different office soon followed and July 1464 he was chosen as one of the Ports’ bailiffs to Yarmouth during the annual herring fair. On 19 May the following year, along with his brother and two others, he was chosen to represent the Port at the coronation of Elizabeth Wydeville.14 Ibid. f. 149. Naturally, given his standing in Hythe during the 1460s, Honywood was also frequently called upon by his fellow townsmen to act as a feoffee and an executor and overseer of wills.15 Archaeologia Cantiana, xlix. 133; li. 31. In February 1469 he was elected for a second time as bailiff of Hythe. During his year in office, like many of his fellow Portsmen, he became involved in the political machinations of the warden of the Cinque Ports, Richard Neville, earl of Warwick. When Warwick and the King’s brother, George, duke of Clarence, landed in Kent from Calais that July, the men of Hythe contributed towards the costs of their march north to join up with the northern rebels led by Robin of Redesdale. John was no exception and in January 1470 he somewhat brazenly asked allowance from his maltolts for 6s. 8d. contributed to the rebels’ cause.16 Jurats’ acct. bk. H 1058, f. 35v.

Honywood did not live to see the consequences of the Ports’ ill-considered support for Warwick in 1469-71. In his will on 29 June 1470 he asked to be buried in the chapel of St. Edmund in Hythe parish church, where the parish priest was to perform a trental, at the cost of 16s. 8d. He left the substantial sum of £26 13s. 4d. for the employment of a chaplain to celebrate mass near his tomb, and £3 6s. 8d. for the painting of the ‘crest and tabernacle’ in the church. Further bequests were destined for the fabric of the churches of Dymchurch, Boroughmarsh, Saltwood and Postling and the sisters of the hospital of St. Bartholomew in Saltwood. Honywood gave precise instructions to his executors and feoffees concerning the disposal of his property, most of which, including lands in West Hythe, Saltwood and Postling, was held in gavelkind with his brother, Thomas. His interest in these was to be settled on his widow, Joan, as were six acres he held ‘upon the cliff at Saltwood’, with remainder to his daughters, Alice and Katherine, and their husbands. A third daughter, Marion, was allowed a messuage and stable in Hythe for an annual rent of 6d. payable to his brother and widow. Katherine was provided for by the messuage where she lived in Saltwood, while Alice was to keep his shop in Hythe itself. The daughters were also bequeathed a silver goblet and six silver spoons each. The testator’s nephew, John†, was also left a shop in Hythe, while his sister, Agnes, received £3 6s. 8d. with which to purchase a ‘wareson’. Probate was granted to his executors, his widow and sons-in-law, Walter Coly and William Jenkin, on 18 July that year, while the will’s execution was to be overseen by his brother.17 Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Canterbury consist. ct. wills, PRC 32/2, ff. 202-4. The date of Joan’s death is unknown: in 1471 she joined the fraternity of the Blessed Virgin in St. Leonard’s church, something her late husband had also done in the last year of his life, but there are no subsequent references to her.18 H.B. Mackeson, Fraternity of the Blessed Mary at Hythe, 30.