CATTERICK, John

John’s father was a mercer who served as chamberlain of York in 1429-30 and sheriff in 1430-1. The son gained the freedom of the city by patrimony in 1425, followed by his younger brother, William, some 14 years later.4 J. Kermode, ‘Merchants of York, Hull and Beverley’ (Sheffield Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1990), app. 4. Little evidence survives of John’s activities before his father’s death in 1434, but in May 1428 he was named among the jurors responsible for the assessment of the parliamentary subsidy in York.5 York Memoranda Bk. ii (Surtees Soc. cxxv), 198. By 1436 Catterick had joined the Mercers’ Company of the city,6 York Mercers, 46. and in March 1437 he was elected one of the company’s constables, an office he continued to hold until his election as master in 1442.

By that date Catterick had embarked upon the familiar cursus of York’s mercantile elite in civic government.7 The York MP must be distinguished from a namesake who was serving as escheator of the duke of Bedford’s lands in Yorks. and Northumb. in 1439. It was probably this individual who five years earlier acted as proctor for Elizabeth, the daughter of William, Lord Fitzhugh, in her wedding negotiations. He continued to be active in Yorks. affairs into the 1460s. This John Catterick was mostly likely a member of a Richmondshire gentry family resident at Stanwick. The identification is complicated, however, by the fact that in 1441 a John and William Catterick were among the men whom Lord Fitzhugh enfeoffed with the manor of Kingston, Notts. Another of the feoffees was the York merchant and alderman, Nicholas Wispington*, so it may be that the York Cattericks did have connexions in this regard: HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 163; Yorks. Deeds, ix (Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. cxi), 38-39; CPR, 1452-61, pp. 30, 564; Patronage, Pedigree and Power ed. Ross, 50. In February 1440 he was elected one of the city’s chamberlains and in September 1443 he was chosen one of the sheriffs. His shrieval year was notable for several bills exhibited in the Exchequer against him and his colleague, John Goodale, when they rendered account in Michaelmas term 1444. By one, Nicholas Robinson, a servant of one of the clerks of Chancery, claimed that they had made a fraudulent return to a writ requiring them to arrest and deliver to Chancery William Steynour, a York stainer, on charges brought by Robinson. By another, Robinson claimed the sheriffs had returned a similar fraudulent writ concerning John Broke, a York hosier. Two further bills alleged that the sheriffs had wrongfully arrested and imprisoned Robinson and one Richard Bardon at York during the previous Lent, forcing them to pay fines of 8d. each for their release. The sheriffs for their part told a different story, claiming that Robinson had come to the city armed and had assaulted the sergeant. The outcome of these cases is not recorded.8 E13/143, rots. 4d, 6, 6d, 9d. The sheriffs themselves also brought litigation relating to their shrievalty into the Westminster courts. In Michaelmas term 1445 they sued Thomas Hewyk, a York bookbinder, for defaulting on an obligation for nine marks made in October 1443. In his defence Hewyk claimed that he had been forced to seal the obligation while imprisoned by the sheriffs at Slingsby in the North Riding.9 CP40/739, rot. 196d.

Little evidence survives of Catterick’s subsequent involvement in civic affairs, but in January 1447, when he was already a member of the city’s council of 24, he attested the parliamentary elections in the city. Catterick also witnessed the election of January 1449 (by which time he may have already joined the ranks of the aldermen), and on the following 20 Oct. he was present at the elections to see himself chosen as one of the city’s MPs for the Parliament called to assemble at Westminster on the following 6 Nov. His brother, William, stood surety for his attendance in the Commons.10 C219/15/7. Catterick’s activities at this troubled assembly (which saw the impeachment of the King’s chief counsellor, the duke of Suffolk) are not documented, but he and his parliamentary colleague, Thomas Barton I*, are known to have set out for Westminster on 30 Oct. and received wages until their return home on 28 Dec. Their wages for this first session were settled quickly: £20 of the £23 12s. owing to both men was paid by the city chamberlains before 3 Feb. 1450. There is no explicit reference in the surviving audited city chamberlains’ accounts to the two men travelling to London or Leicester for subsequent sessions of the Parliament, but it seems unlikely, given the importance of the business being conducted there, that York would not have been represented in the Lower House throughout the term of the Parliament, and a payment of £6 to Catterick recorded in the chamberlains’ rough account book for wages in September 1450 confirms his attendance at the later sessions.11 York City Chamberlains’ Acct. Rolls, 59; York City Archs., chamberlains’ accts. 1450-1, CC1a, f. 63.

In February 1453, Catterick’s reached the pinnacle of his career in civic government when he was elected as mayor. It was in this capacity that on 26 Feb. he witnessed another parliamentary election, his name heading the list of attestors.12 C219/16/2. Besides that, however, little evidence survives of any extraordinary duties during his mayoral year. Catterick made his living through trade, although, in common with many other members of York’s mercantile elite, he may have cut back his overseas ventures in later life in favour of investment in property. For much of his career, he had traded mostly with the Hanseatic towns and those of the northern Low Countries. These ventures were not without incident and in 1440 he was among a group of English merchants whose goods were seized in Danzig, and received £7 in damages for his share of the losses. In the same year he was among a group of York merchants, including Thomas Gare*, who sued several Dutch merchants before the council of Holland.13 Hanserecesse, 1275-1430, ed. Koppman, ii. 562; Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis van den Handel Met Engeland, Schotland en Ierland ed. Smit, ii. 732. His interest in the Hanseatic trade continued into later life: in June 1450 he and his brother were allowed to recover £100 lent towards the costs of an embassy to Prussia led by Master Thomas Kent, clerk of the King’s council, by shipping wool free of customs from Kingston-upon-Hull.14 CCR, 1447-54, p. 148. To a lesser degree, Catterick was also active in domestic trade: various debts owing to him from other York traders in 1440 probably arose from commercial transactions, and in 1453-4 he supplied the city chamberlains with paper, as well as iron for the repair of the King’s staith on the river Ouse.15 CP40/717, rot. 32d; York City Chamberlains’ Acct. Rolls, 80, 83. Little evidence survives of his property holdings in the city, although in 1444 he was renting a tenement there from the masters of Fosse Bridge, and in the rental of the Holy Trinity Guild in 1451 he was listed as holder of a tenement in Little Peterlane. Similarly, the extent of Catterick’s personal wealth is obscure. In 1450 he was assessed towards the parliamentary subsidy at an annual income from property of eight marks.16 E179/217/56.

Catterick’s personal connexions seem to have been shaped by those made through trade.17 York Memoranda Bk. iii (Surtees Soc. clxxxvi), 128; York Mercers, 57; York Bridgemasters’ Accts. ed. Stell (York Arch. Trust, 2003), 56, 58. Around 1435, along with another mercer, Richard Bukden*, and the chaplain Thomas Skipwith, he was appointed as the administrator of the goods of a local woman, Alice Davy. These included the sum of £100 entrusted to her by her son, John, who had gone overseas in the King’s service. When rumours reached York of John’s death, the administrators ‘toke to their ward the forseide goodes’ and when John finally returned (doubtless to the surprise of Catterick and his colleagues) they allegedly refused to hand over the money.18 C1/11/244.

The last years of Catterick’s life are obscure. He was still serving as an alderman in September 1455, and may have been a regular attender at the council’s meetings, for he was among those councillors who in that month agreed to impose fines upon those who were late in turning up. The previous year he had paid 3s. 4d. for a light outside his tenement in the Mercery, one of the 12 stations of the city’s annual Corpus Christi play.19 York Memoranda Bk. ii. 198; York City Chamberlains’ Acct. Rolls, 91. There are no further references to him.