HOREWODE, Thomas

Horewode was the son of a prominent citizen of Wells, who had represented the city in the two Parliaments of 1413 and had served three terms as master, dying in office in the spring of 1417. Although Thomas was named one of his father’s executors, he may still have been relatively young, since he was not admitted to the freedom until eight years later, on Maundy Thursday 1425, his entry fine being waived in accordance with city custom. Richard Hall* was one of his sureties.4 Som. Med. Wills, 74-75; Wells convocation act bk. 1378-1450, p. 247. It took several more years before Horewode embarked on the customary cursus of civic offices, serving as rent collector in 1432-3. While in office, he was returned to the Commons for the first time, and the first session kept him away from his duties for much of the summer. Perhaps on account of the impending second session he took up no other civic post that autumn, but made up for it a year later, when he commenced a lengthy spell as constable of the peace lasting for four successive years.5 Wells convocation act bk. 1378-1450, p. 282.

Horewode was a merchant active in the trade across the Channel,6 CP40/697, rot. 43; 723, rot. 455. and he was thus subject to the same vicissitudes as others who engaged in such ventures. In the spring of 1436 he procured royal letters of safe-conduct for a ship called the Seinte Nunne which he loaded with a cargo of wine, bacon and cloth in the Breton port of St. Pol de Léon. On 31 Mar., while the vessel was still at anchor awaiting a favourable wind, it was overcome by a flotilla of eight armed barges and balingers from southern and south-western ports (the opportunistic crews of which included traders of some standing, such as the Dorset brothers Robert† and John Abbot I* and the Southampton merchant John Payn I*), and sailed off to Plymouth. Horewode’s indignant complaint produced a high-powered commission of inquiry which succeeded in identifying the culprits, but is rather less certain that the subsequent order for their arrest (directed generally to the King’s officers in the southern and south-western counties) met with any degree of success.7 DKR, xlviii. 301; CPR, 1429-36, p. 608; 1436-41, p. 83; The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 1-2. Horewode also held a share in the George of Wells, a vessel which was sunk in dramatic circumstances on 21 Jan. 1440 by the Christopher of Dartmouth, a ship owned by the prominent Devonian Thomas Gille I*, just outside the port of Dartmouth. On the complaint of Horewode’s associates, the Drogheda merchants William Waleys and Robert Langherste (held to be native Englishmen as respectively born in Lancaster and Newcastle-upon-Tyne), an inquiry was ordered, and on 1 Dec. the parties entered into mutual recognizances for no less than £2,000 to abide by the award of arbiters, who included among others the London fishmonger Stephen Forster* and the keeper of the King’s ships, William Soper* of Southampton. Once again, the outcome of their deliberations is not recorded.8 C1/10/30, 43/33, 44/278, 45/141; CPR, 1436-41, p. 451; CCR, 1435-41, p. 445.

It is uncertain whether Horewode’s recent experience of the lawlessness of his countrymen had any influence on his decision to accept election to the Commons for a second time in early 1442. What is certain is that while he was at Westminster he found time to provide sureties (alongside the goldsmith Thomas Langford alias Goldsmith*of Wells) for the Crown servant William Beaufitz*, who had purchased the farm of the gold and silver mines within the Somerset lordship of Clevedon.9 CFR, xvii. 208. Although it was by no means uncommon for an MP to use his time in the capital for such private business, it is possible that Horewode’s conduct added to existing tensions with his parliamentary colleague, Thomas Hall II*, for two years later they submitted a range of mutual disagreements to the arbitration of their neighbours John Godwin alias Glasier*, William Vowell*, Peter Shetford* and Henry Selwood*, and it may be significant that whereas the arbiters chosen by Hall were prominent and established members of Wells society, Horewode had picked two men with extensive outside interests.10 Wells convocation act bk. 1378-1450, p. 312. Whatever the truth of the matter, in 1445 Horewode sought and gained re-election to the Commons. On this occasion, it seems clear that he was anxious to sit, for both he and his colleague, Thomas Langford, agreed to accept for their parliamentary wages a lump sum of 20s. each, however long the Commons might sit.11 Ibid. 316. Langford and Horewode were by now well acquainted. Even before they mutually guaranteed Beaufitz’s acquisition of the mining rights, Horewode had acted as an attorney in the conveyance to Langford of his wife’s manor of Long Critchell, Dorset: CCR, 1435-41, p. 483.

Not long before his third and final return to Parliament Horewode had been elected to the council of 24 that assisted the master and other officers of Wells in the governance of the city, but before long he formed another association: Thomas Bekynton, bishop of Bath and Wells, appointed the merchant his bailiff in Wells. He nevertheless continue to play a full part in civic life, and continued to be called upon to mediate the disputes of his neighbours and attest their property deeds, as he had done ever since his entry to the freedom.12 Wells convocation act bks. 1378-1450, pp. 272, 290, 303, 304, 307, 310, 313, 314; 1450-1553, pp. 11, 12, 13, 43; HMC Wells, ii. 671, 677, 681; Reg. Bekynton, i. 1264. He also periodically stood surety for the entry fines of new freemen, including that of Richard, son of John Pedewell*, and served on local juries.13 Wells convocation act bk. 1378-1450, p. 249; Wells City Chs. (Som. Rec. Soc. xlvi), 141, 144, 149, 150; KB9/230B/229, 231, 233. The citizens clearly held his administrative abilities in considerable regard, and while in 1448 he escaped the task of having to collect funds for the repair of the water conduit (Thomas Nabbe being appointed in his stead), in November 1452 he and John Attwater * were named supervisors of the new almshouse.14 Wells convocation act bks. 1378-1450, p. 322; 1450-1553, pp. 7, 31. On 1 Oct. 1458 Horewode was replaced as episcopal bailiff by William Edmund*, whose acceptance of a flat fee of 20s. in lieu of his wages as a Wells MP in the Parliament of 1447 he had guaranteed.15 Ibid. 1378-1450, p. 320. Although in subsequent years he continued to serve on the city council and periodically formed part of the committee of citizens appointed to audit the accounts of the city officers, he had not himself held one of the major offices for more than a quarter of a century, when, in the autumn of 1465, he was elected master of his city for the first and only time. By this date, Horewode was no longer a young man. In September 1467 he was one of just five surviving members of the depleted council of 24 who took it upon themselves to replenish their numbers, and a few days later he was for a final time charged with the audit of the city accounts. He was still alive in February 1469 when he was granted a general pardon, but is not heard of thereafter.16 Ibid. 1450-1553, pp. 64, 65; C67/46, m. 7. The extent of his property is obscure, but it included a house and garden near the market place of Wells, where he may normally have resided.17 Reg. Bekynton, i. 1220.