FERNHAM, Alexander

A mason by trade, Fernham gained the freedom of Ipswich by paying an entry fine of 40s. in March 1417.2 Add. 30158, f. 1. He was already a resident of the town at that date, for in the previous year he had used the borough court to sue two servants who had left his household without permission.3 Suff. RO (Ipswich), Ipswich bor. recs., petty ct. roll, 1415-16, C/2/3/1/49, rots. 4d, 5d. In 1418 he participated in a property transaction, by which Thomas Astylle* and his wife made a release to him of a tenement in the town.4 Add. 30158, f. 2.

In 1432 Fernham and other burgesses joined the duke of Norfolk in a conveyance of the manor and advowson of Crownthorpe in Norfolk, apparently on behalf of John Wymondham*, who acquired estates at Crownthorpe in this period.5 Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Barrett-Lennard mss, U1384/T7/2; F. Blomefield, Norf. i. 401-2. In 1434 the community of Ipswich granted Fernham the keeping of a fulling mill so that he could recoup £12 which he had spent on behalf of the town.6 N. Bacon, Annalls of Ipswiche ed. Richardson, 97.

Fernham survived into the following decade, but he disappears from view after 1442 and may have died shortly after that date. Nothing is known about his wife, but he had two daughters, Joan and Isabel. Isabel had married John Stutt but she was a widow by September 1432.7 Add. Ch. 10143.