HOWLOT, Thomas

Thomas’s origins are obscure,3 He is not to be identified with Thomas Houghlot of Canterbury, cordwainer and scrivener, pardoned in 1468, as suggested in HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 475 but it is likely that he was a local man and related to Clement Howlot (d.1448), a wealthy inhabitant of New Romney who made a bequest of money to the corporation in his will and for whom Thomas acted as a feoffee.4 NR/FAc 3, f. 5. Clement mentioned two sons, Stephen and Bartholomew, in his will but his relationship with Thomas is not made explicit. Our MP first paid maltolts in 1448 in Holyngbroke ward, continuing to pay them there until 1453, after which he did so in Bochery ward.5 Ibid. ff. 7, 11, 15, 17, 19, 24v, 26v, 29, 31v, 34v, 37v, 40v, 42v, 47, 49, 52v, 54v, 57, 59v; assmt. bk. 1467-1492, NR/FAc 4, ff. 4v, 16v, 26v, 39v, 50v, 70. His earliest employment on official business for New Romney came in 1451-2 when, along with John Kempe, the common clerk, and two others, he received 4s. for riding to Canterbury to confer with Archbishop Kemp. This may have been in connexion with the billeting in the town of the soldiers of the retinue of Richard Wydeville, Lord Rivers, as later that year he and John Porter II* received 7s. 4d. for their efforts in securing the troop’s departure from Romney.6 NR/FAc 3, f. 16v. Howlot was probably already a jurat by this date, but his status is not confirmed until March 1453, when the names of the jurats were entered in the town accounts. A mark of his importance came two years later on his first nomination to represent Romney in the Brodhull.7 White and Black Bks. 34. In 1457-8 he was one of those jurats who rode to Dover to meet Guy Ellis*, a former bailiff of Romney, with whom the jurats were in dispute over the payment of parliamentary wages for his service in 1453-4.8 NR/FAc 3, f. 33. He was himself elected to Parliament in October 1459. Along with John Porter, he received wages for 41 days spent at Coventry, as well as 12d. for his expenses in travelling to Dover to record the parliamentary election in the lieutenant’s court.9 Ibid. f. 39v. In April the following year he was chosen to attend his second Brodhull meeting, where he probably made a formal report on the business of the Parliament. Along with his fellow deputies, Robert Scras* and Thomas Couper†, he received a payment of 8s. 3d. for riding to Dover to discuss that Port’s dispute with its member-port of Faversham; and that December he acted as deputy to the bailiff of New Romney, John Challey, by holding and adjourning the bailiff’s court in Challey’s absence.10 Ibid. f. 42; White and Black Bks. 41; NR/JB 2, f. 56v.

Having been elected to his second Parliament in October 1461, Howlot was present at the opening on 4 Nov. but subsequently received payment for no more than 33 days’ attendance, although his fellow baron, John Joseph†, was remunerated for 52, somewhat longer than the duration of the session, which ran until 21 Dec.11 NR/FAc 3, ff. 44, 48. During the 1460s Howlot’s standing in Romney continued to rise, so that by the end of the decade he was one of the leading Portsmen. Between April 1461 and May 1470 he attended 18 out of 26 meetings of the Brodhull.12 White and Black Bks. 42-60. Meanwhile, in June 1465, along with Robert Scras, he had attended the coronation of Elizabeth Wydeville and in the following year he led a delegation from New Romney sent to negotiate with the men of their member-port of Lydd.13 NR/FAc 3, ff. 56, 58v. Howlot’s activities in 1470-1, when the barons of the Cinque Ports declared themselves for the earl of Warwick and the restored Lancastrian monarchy, are obscure. He had attended the meeting of the Brodhull in July 1470 and was possibly Romney’s bailiff to Yarmouth in the autumn of that year, as the Brodhull ordered the delegates to choose between him, Thomas Couper and John Castlake. He again attended the Brodhull in April 1471, and a month later, when Edward IV visited Canterbury after regaining the throne, he was one of those Portsmen who met the King and his council to argue for the restoration of their liberties.14 Ibid. f. 72; White and Black Bks. 61. The following year, along with Scras and John Chenew†, he met the new warden of the Cinque Ports, Sir John Scott†, at Lydd. His position as a leading Portsman in the early 1470s was further demonstrated by his attendance at every meeting of the Brodhull between July 1471 and his death.15 NR/FAc 3, f. 74; White and Black Bks. 63-67.

Little evidence survives of Howlot’s private affairs. It is unclear whether or not he was involved in trade but his employment as the bailiff’s deputy in 1460 and his occasional involvement as a feoffee suggest that he may have had some legal training. In 1463, along with John Porter, he sued for debt in the bailiff’s court as administrator of the goods of a local man, John Brokland, and he later acted as a feoffee for Porter himself.16 NR/JB 2, f. 97v; NR/FAc 3, f. 52. Howlot was last named as one of the jurats of Romney in March 1473, but probably died soon afterwards, as his maltolts for that year were paid by his unnamed widow.17 NR/FAc 4, f. 70.