CLITHEROE, Hugh

By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Clitheroe family was well established in Kingston-upon-Hull and it is probable that Hugh’s father was the namesake who sat for the town in the first Parliament of Henry V’s reign. The Clitheroes’ interests were not, however, confined to the East Riding, for Hugh counted among his kinsmen Richard Clitheroe of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, possibly his uncle. An esquire who appears to have numbered Ralph Neville, earl of Westmorland, among his feoffees, Richard held office at Newcastle as deputy butler and controller and collector of customs and subsidies at various times between 1400 and 1410, and he was escheator in Northumberland from August 1403 to July 1405. In 1400 he was associated with his more prominent namesake and probable relative, Richard Clitheroe† (d.1420), in ensuring the supply of wine to the earl of Northumberland’s forces in the east march with Scotland. Later, in 1409, the two Richards obtained a lease of the Yorkshire estates of Joan, Lady Fauconberg, from the Crown. Previously married to Elizabeth, widow of William Bishopdale†, Richard of Newcastle made an impressive but ill-fated subsequent match.By early 1410, he had become the third husband of Margery Longford, daughter and coheir of Sir Alfred Sulney† of Derbyshire, and widow of two other knights, Sir Nicholas Longford (d.1401) of that county and Lancashire and Sir Robert Leigh (d.1408) of Cheshire.Within a few years, however, the marriage was in deep trouble, and in 1419 the archbishop of Canterbury excommunicated Margery for refusing her husband conjugal rights. Ultimately the couple were divorced, but while it lasted the match greatly enhanced Clitheroe’s landed status, since he enjoyed a joint estate in Margery’s lands. As for his own more modest holdings, he possessed lands in Lincolnshire and property in Newcastle, including a house in the town’s Pilgrim Street that had once belonged to William Bishopdale, his residence for some years from 1403 if not earlier. Richard Clitheroe died in 1431 and was buried in the Franciscan friary at Newcastle. Presumably the subject of this biography was his heir, since Hugh succeeded to his house and other holdings in Newcastle – an arrangement to which Margery formally assented by deeds of late 1431 and 1432 – although it is unclear whether he also came into possession of Richard’s lands in Lincolnshire. He did not however retain the Newcastle residence for long: shortly afterwards, William Bell acquired it and it passed to Durham cathedral priory later in the century.6 Early Newcastle Deeds (Surtees Soc. cxxxvii), 187-91; The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 598-601; DKR, xxxvi. 113; CIMisc. vii. 9; CFR, xii. 59; C1/6/151, 324; Derbys. Chs. ed. Jeayes, no. 1874; JUST1/1537, rot. 21.

There is no definite evidence for Hugh Clitheroe’s paternal inheritance at Hull, although it probably included a messuage in Hull Street settled on him and his wife, Joan, with remainder to his sister, Mary, and illegitimate half-brother, William, in 1441. A decade after this transaction, he appears to have acquired lands and tenements in Scale Lane. Clitheroe must also have held property in the town in the right of his wife, since Joan inherited a messuage in Chapel Lane and three tenements and a garden in Finkle Street. Later, as soon as she became a widow, she settled them on their son and daughter-in-law, another Hugh Clitheroe and his wife. Other deeds show that Clitheroe was party to property transactions in the town as a feoffee, most notably on behalf of John Aldwick*. He was also Aldwick’s executor, in which capacity he played a leading role in founding a chantry and hospital on the dead man’s behalf.7 Cal. Hull Deeds, D. 342, 346, 361-2, 396-7, 403, 433-4, 495-6, 498, 585A; Borthwick Inst., Univ. of York, York registry wills, prob. reg. 2, f. 96; bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, f. 39.

Quite possibly, it was his busy mercantile career at Hull, where after his admission as a freeman in 1422 his main interests always lay,8 Bench bk. 2, BRE 1, p. 254. that prompted Clitheroe to dispose of his putative uncle’s house in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He traded with France and the Low Countries, dealing in commodities like wool, wine and woad, while also taking advantage of business opportunities at home. In 1430, for example, the authorities at Hull paid him for supplying timber and iron work towards the repair of the ferry across the Humber.9 E122/61/32; CP40/699, rot. 313; Customs Accts. Hull, 1453-90 (Yorks. Arch. Rec. Ser. cxliv), 2, 13; Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis van den Handel Met Engeland, Schotland en Ierland ed. Smit, ii. 732; Kermode app. 4; chamberlains’ accts., 1430-1, BRF 2/352. In 1441-2 it fell upon him to accommodate several Dutchmen in the town, in accordance with an Act of the Parliament of 1439 requiring foreign merchants staying in the realm to reside with native hosts.10 H. Bradley, Views of Hosts of Alien Merchants, pp. xxxii, xxxv, 144. Clitheroe was a member of the Calais staple and in 1449 he and other staplers lent the King large sums of money to meet the costs of defending the Calais Pale and sending a trade embassy to Flanders, and in October 1454 he and other northern merchants were licensed to recover sums still outstanding from these loans.11 CPR, 1446-52, p. 323; 1452-61, pp. 211-12. It is possible he owed his position as a stapler to his marriage, since his father-in-law, Robert Holme, was a leading wool merchant. Clitheroe must have enjoyed a good relationship with Holme (d.1449), who bequeathed him sums of cash totalling £100 and appointed him his executor.12 York registry wills, prob. reg. 2, ff. 210v-11v. The Holme connexion brought him into contact with Richard Wastnes of Lincolnshire, and in June 1439 he and his kinsman by marriage, John Holme, were pardoned an enormous sum (£2,806 15s. 6¾d.) in which they had bound themselves on behalf of that distinguished soldier and esquire.13 CPR, 1436-41, p. 429.

Occasionally Clitheroe engaged in disreputable activities which brought him to the attention of the authorities at home and abroad. In 1432 he and others of Hull indulged in a blatant act of piracy by capturing a Danish ship and sharing its cargo among themselves,14 Kermode, 188. and in July 1434 he was among those accused of unlawfully intercepting a Prussian ship, La Marie Knyght of Danzig, while it was en route to Bishop’s Lynn, although subsequent inquiries cleared his name.15 CPR, 1429-36, p. 357; CIMisc. viii. 67. Three years later, the Crown took bonds from him and John Grimsby* in £100 each, to guarantee that they would bring a Dutch ship, Le George, from Portsmouth to Sandwich, although whether after some illegality on their part is unknown.16 CCR, 1435-41, p. 133. While all these episodes were of the 1430s, it is possible that he looked to the general pardon he purchased in July 1446 to safeguard him from the consequences of subsequent incidences of misbehaviour.17 C67/39, m. 8.

Clitheroe’s election as one of the chamberlains of Hull at Michaelmas 1426 heralded the beginning of his office-holding career. Two years later, he began a term as bailiff and in 1430 he was first chosen as an auditor of the chamberlains’ accounts. He was returned to his first Parliament alongside the experienced Robert Holme, probably at this point already his father-in-law. Following his re-election in 1437, he and his fellow MP, John Grimsby, received £7 10s. each for 75 days’ service attending the Commons and travelling to and from Westminster.18 Chamberlains’ acct. 1436-7, BRF 2/355. Upon the granting in May 1440 of the charter by which Hull was newly constituted as a town and county, Clitheroe took office as one of its first aldermen, a clear indication of the prominence he enjoyed there by that date. In July 1442 he gained the farm of the alnage of cloth at Hull, for a term of seven years at 26s. 8d. p.a. His acquisition of the office was an opportunity presented by the recent charter, since the town no longer automatically fell under the jurisdiction of the alnager of Yorkshire. In the event, Clitheroe surrendered it before the farm had run its course, since Henry Banaster took over as alnager at Hull in the summer 1447.19 CFR, xvii. 201-2; xviii. 49.

Just over two months after becoming alnager, Clitheroe was elected mayor of Hull, an office in which he would serve four terms in all. During his first term as such he played a part in securing a new charter permitting the town to acquire land in mortmain to the value of £100 p.a. In between his first and second terms as mayor, Clitheroe was elected to the Parliament of 1445. He and his fellow burgess, Richard Anson*, received £8 10s. each for 85 days’ attendance (including ten days travelling to and from Westminster, but still longer than the combined length of the first two sessions) in the year ending at Michaelmas. For the third session, they both departed for Westminster on 21 Oct. and returned home on 20 Dec. For the final session (between 24 Jan. and 9 Apr. 1446) Clitheroe received wages for a further 80 days’ service. At the same time he was paid his expenses, probably incurred while mayor, in attending on the King and Council at Windsor one Christmas season in connexion with a charter.20 Chamberlains’ accts. 1442-3, 1444-6, BRF 2/359, 361, 362a.

It was certainly while mayor that Clitheroe was re-elected to the following two Parliaments, assembled in February 1447 and February 1449. For the latter, which met at Westminster and Winchester for a total of 107 days, he and his fellow MP, John Killingholme*, received wages of £13 2s. each for the 131 days they spent attending and travelling to and from the three parliamentary sessions.21 Ibid. chamberlains’ acct. 1448-9, BRF 2/363. A few days after the dissolution of the Parliament at Bury St. Edmunds (Clitheroe’s fourth), Hull acquired a charter dated 10 Mar. 1447 in which the Crown granted the borough the reversion of the admiralty of the Humber upon the deaths of John Holand, duke of Exeter, and his son, Henry, who held the office of admiral of England for their lives in survivorship. Five years later, Duke Henry agreed to appoint the mayor and aldermen as his deputies in the admiralty court, and in the spring of 1452 Clitheroe was selected from among the aldermen as commissioner of the admiralty court at Hull. Potentially it was a lucrative office, for he was allowed to take any profits arising from outstanding judgements made in the court before Easter that year, when the town’s farm began.22 VCH Yorks. (E. Riding), i. 53; bench bk. 3, BRE 2, ff. 24v-26v.

During the 1440s and 1450s, Clitheroe also frequently received appointments from the Crown to ad hoc commissions in the town but his attendance at local council meetings throughout much of the latter decade was erratic – he was, for instance, noted for his absence from the disputed mayoral election of 1455 – perhaps because his commercial interests often took him elsewhere.23 Bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, f. 45. His fellow aldermen nevertheless nominated him for election to the Parliament of 1453, although the commonalty did not choose him on that occasion. He was likewise nominated for, but not elected, to the Parliament of 1459.24 Ibid. ff. 23, 67v.

Late in 1460, as the town strengthened it defences as war threatened in the north, Clitheroe was among the townsmen appointed to oversee repairs to Hull’s North Gate and he was one of many who contributed to the cost of a large iron chain strung across the haven. His own political sympathies are unknown but he was not among the leading townsmen who travelled to York in May 1461 to submit themselves and the town to Edward IV’s grace. He was again noted as absent from council meetings in October 1462, although in early 1463 he was chosen to sit with John Spencer I* in the Parliament of that year. In the event, this assembly, originally summoned to meet at York on 5 Feb., was twice postponed, and at a new election held on 3 Apr. William Eland* and John Day† were returned to the Commons instead.25 Ibid. ff. 74, 74v, 81, 87. Ill health was almost certainly the reason for the dropping of Clitheroe, since he was dead by 4 Sept. On the following 18 Nov. John Titelote* was elected in his place as an alderman.26 Ibid. f. 88v; Cal. Hull Deeds, D. 433-4.

Clitheroe left at least three children, of whom his sons, Robert and Hugh, had become freemen of Hull by right of patrimony in 1457.27 Bench bk. 1, BRG 1, f. 22v. They appear not to have participated in municipal government although the younger Hugh may have followed his father’s career in overseas trade, since, in the early 1460s, he contracted a debt of £40 to a German merchant.28 CPR, 1461-7, p. 503. It is possible that the £40 in cash and property in Hedon, Yorkshire, that their maternal grandfather, Robert Holme, had bequeathed to each of them and their sister, Anne, in his will of 1449 had given them the means to establish themselves outside Hull.29 York registry wills, prob. reg. 2, f. 211. Hugh was still alive in 1474 when, as ‘of Brantingham, Yorkshire’, he leased three tenements in Finkle Street in the town to William Patryk.30 Cal. Hull Deeds, D. 466.