JOLYE, Hugh

Styled a ‘merchant’ in a royal pardon he received in March 1460, Jolye was active by the spring of 1440, when he witnessed a conveyance between two fellow burgesses of a meadow at Hindlip, just north of Worcester. His own holdings in the His properties in nthe city city included properties in the High Street and Huckster Street, among them a tenement he purchased from Margery, the widow of William Poleyn*, in 1454-5.3 C67/43, m. 5; Collectanea, 49; SC6/1076/25.

At about the same time that he acquired the tenement, Jolye was sued in the Chancery by another Margery, the widow of the former town clerk of Worcester, John Bykerstath*. Some years earlier, Bykerstath had bought the office from his predecessor as clerk, John Colyer, who had held it for life. According to her bill, submitted no later than 1456, Colyer had sold the remainder of his life term to Bykerstath and his trustees, of whom Jolye was one. She now claimed that the trustees were in breach of trust, because they were ignoring Bykerstath’s wish that she should receive the profits of the office in the event of his predeceasing Colyer, who was indeed still alive. The outcome of the suit is unrecorded since Margery’s unendorsed bill is the only surviving record relating to it.4 C1/17/126.

Exactly when Bykerstath died is unknown, although it is likely that Jolye, several times a bailiff of Worcester, served alongside him in the administration of the city. Jolye had already held the office when he entered Parliament for the first time. The short Parliament of 1447, which met at Bury St. Edmunds rather than Westminster, opened on 10 Feb. that year, although a commonplace book kept by Jolye’s fellow MP, John Porter I*, records that he and Porter did not arrive at Bury until two days later.5 Bibliotheca Phillippica, iii (Sotheby’s Sale Cat. 28 Nov. 1967), 72.

Just a few months after completing his last term as bailiff, Jolye drew up his will. Dated 4 Dec. 1465, this indicates that he was a man of some status, for he requested burial in the Lady chapel at Worcester cathedral if he should happen to die in the city. He donated 6s. 8d. to the cathedral and he left a further £4 to the prior and convent there to conduct his funeral and interment. Jolye also made bequests to the city’s friaries and its parish church of St. Helen, to the chaplain serving a chantry in the same church and to the poor of the city, for whom he set aside £5 to receive on the day of his burial. The will shows that he had a wife, Isabel, and two sons, William and Thomas. He directed that she should enjoy possession of all his lands and tenements in Worcester for the rest of her life, provided she made a daily donation of 3d. to three poor people, who were to pray for his soul. After her death, William was to succeed to a tenement and a tavern in Huckster Street and a newly-constructed tenement in the High Street, and Thomas to his father’s dwelling place in the High Street and a nearby garden. Each son was also to receive £40 after Isabel died. Jolye appointed four executors, his wife, two sons and a local chaplain, and was dead by 24 Oct. 1466, the date of the will’s probate. William Jolye was certainly of age when his father died, for he had attested the election of Worcester’s MPs to the Parliament of November 1449. Both he and his brother Thomas were later to serve terms as a bailiff of the city. William also features in a petition Hugh Baker of Radnor submitted to the council of the young Edward, prince of Wales, in the 1470s or early 1480s. According to the petition, he and John Payn, the son of Maurice Payn*, were wrongfully withholding certain unspecified lands in Worcestershire which should have descended to Baker as the heir of his uncle, Hugh Wryrth of Worcester. Baker claimed that Wryrth had conveyed these properties to the fathers of William and John to hold to his use, and he requested that both of them should appear before the prince and his council to explain why they were occupying the lands in question. Jolye’s widow survived him by nearly 20 years. In her will of 15 Mar. 1485, she named William and Thomas as her executors and, like her late husband, requested buried in Worcester cathedral. Her will was proved on the following 15 June.6 PCC 15 Godyn; Collectanea, 34; Worcester Chs. 112; T.R. Nash, Worcs. ii. app. p. cxi; SC8/344/E1311; Worcs. Archs., ba 3590 vol. 1, f. 53.