LOUTH, Richard

Richard was one of the four sons of the successful York mercer, Robert Louth. When his father died in 1407, he was still a minor, and it was not until 1415 that he was admitted to the freedom of the city. In the same year he was admitted to the guild of Corpus Christi along with his mother.4 Freemen of York (Surtees Soc. xcvi), 123; Reg. Guild Corpus Christi, York (Surtees Soc. lvii), 17. Louth’s career in the government of York began in February 1423 when he was named one of the city’s chamberlains, and it was in this capacity that, on 1 Mar., he attested the parliamentary election.5 C219/13/2. His cursus honorum followed the familiar path of the city’s mercantile elite, and in September 1426 he was appointed as one of the sheriffs. His shrieval year saw him and his colleague, John Dodyngton, fall foul of the barons of the Exchequer. They had been ordered to distrain William Belford, one of the farmers of the alnage in York, for his failure to render account. The sheriffs returned the writ stating that he could not be found; the barons took this as insufficient and concluded that it had been done ‘in favour of the aforesaid William Belford and to the damage and deception of the King’, fining the sheriffs 40d. each.6 E159/203, recorda Mich. rot. 18d.

Membership of the council of 24 almost certainly followed at the end of Louth’s shrieval year, but it was not until March 1432, when he was again present at the parliamentary election, that his membership of that body can be proven. By this time he was also prominent in the York Mercers’ Company. In April 1430 Louth was among the senior members of the company, including William Bedale*, who met to fill a vacancy which had arisen in the hospital of Holy Trinity. In March 1433 he was elected as master of the company, a position he held for the customary one year.7 York Mercers, 32, 39. Later that year, in June, he was again present in the council chamber to witness the return of his brother, John, as one of the city’s MPs.8 C219/14//4. John was already an alderman by this stage of his career and Richard’s elevation to their ranks occurred shortly after. By 22 Sept. 1436 he had joined the aldermanic bench and in December of that year he was himself elected to Parliament. Nothing is known of the activities of Louth and his colleague, William Bowes II*, in the Commons, although on their return to York both men appeared in the council chamber, along with the collectors of the parliamentary subsidy, to testify that they had apportioned the £16 9s. 8d. customarily deducted from the city’s tax assessment on the grounds of poverty.9 York City Archs. Liber Misc. viii. E39, p. 155.

Scant evidence survives of Louth’s private affairs. In October 1437 he was pardoned of his outlawry before the justices of the common pleas for his failure to answer Master John Forster, prebendary of Fridaythorpe, in a law suit for a substantial debt of £100.10 CPR, 1436-41, p. 102. He may have faced other similar troubles, for in July of that year he sued out letters of protection to go overseas in the retinue of the newly-appointed lieutenant-general of Normandy, Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick. The letters – issued to both him and his brother, Nicholas – were evidently a mere expedient designed to fend off creditors, for they were revoked less than a year later in February 1438 on information from the sheriffs of York that Richard remained in the city.11 DKR, xlviii. 319; CPR, 1436-41, p. 132. The date of Louth’s death is unknown, but he was still alive in the spring of 1440, when he was engaged in the settlement of the affairs of his deceased brother John.12 CP40/717, rot. 34.