CREWE, John

Crewe first appears in the records in 1421, when, described as a yeoman of Leominster, he was one of several prominent townsmen (among them two sometime MPs, Reynold Smyth† and William Presthevide*) sued for close-breaking by Roger Morris, no doubt a kinsman of another of the borough’s former MPs, Edmund Morris†.1 CP40/643, rot. 562d. He is not to be conflated with another resident of Leominster, John Crowe, who, in 1432, sued him for debt: CP40/686, rot. 365d. It was Crowe who was a juror at the inquisition post mortem of John Abrahall* in Sept. 1443: CIPM, xxvi. 74. All else that is known of him also comes from his occasional appearances as a litigant in the central courts. He was almost always described as a yeoman, such as when sued for debt by Thomas Hood* and borough’s overlord, the abbot of Reading, in 1427 and 1430 respectively. But, in 1436, he was styled ‘burgess of Leominster, merchant’, and this gives a better indication of his standing.2 CP40/664, rot. 259; 678, rot. 304; 701, rot. 159d. In 1430 he sued seven local husbandmen for taking his goods worth 100s. at Eyton, a couple of miles to the north of Leominster, and it may be that he had property there as he certainly did in Leominster itself (in 1437 he brought an action for close-breaking there). He may also have had commercial interests in London: in 1435 he was sued for debt by the wealthy London mercer, Henry Frowyk I*, and in Trinity term 1436 he appeared in person in the court of King’s bench to sue John Hood* and others for trespass.3 CP40/678, rot. 304; 696, rot. 186d; 705, rot. 278; KB27/701, rot. 50. A readiness to travel to London may explain his election in 1437.4 C219/15/1. His fellow MP, William Raves*, had earlier brought at least two minor debt pleas against him: CP40/688, rot. 221; 692, rot. 144. He was still alive in 1443 when defendant in an action of debt.5 CP40/730, rot. 190.