GLOUCESTER, John I

Gloucester was established as a hosteler in Southwark by 1415. That autumn he was accused in the King’s bench of aiding and abetting Sir John Baskerville of Eardisley, Herefordshire, and John Smert, a Warwickshire yeoman, who had allegedly killed one William Ray in the London parish of St. Gregory on 27 Aug. When Ray’s widow brought an appeal against them, Gloucester denied culpability, and was able to secure bail on the pledges of such prominent local figures as Richard Tyler* and John Welles I*, together with John Corve*, one of the clerks of the court. However, by the following Michaelmas he had been put in the Marshalsea, and it was not until November 1416 that he was freed, after a jury came before the chief justice and exonerated him. He was awarded damages of ten marks.1 KB27/618, rot. 31. Gloucester took out a royal pardon in September 1417. Meanwhile, in July that year he had been a juror at an inquisition post mortem concerning the property of Sir Adam Francis† in Southwark.2 C67/37, m. 2; C138/29/53. Six years later he was elected to Parliament, his mainpernors including the former Southwark MPs and putative brothers John† and Robert William†.3 C219/13/2.

In the late 1420s Gloucester, probably in poor health, made arrangements for the financial support of his children, John and Alice, in the event of his death. Apart from £20 in cash, both were to receive quantities of plate, jewels and clothes upon attaining the age of 21, or else upon marriage, which suggests that the MP died a fairly wealthy man. These arrangements were carried out in December 1428 by his executors: Thomas Rasyn, a London tailor, and Thomas Couper, a Southwark scrivener. Supervising them were Thomas Haseley†, the prominent chancery official and clerk of the Commons who owned property in Southwark, John Corve and the rector of the parish church of St. George. Haseley may have later proved to be an important contact for Gloucester’s son, who was then said to be aged 14, two years older than Alice. By February 1432 the latter had married Thomas Goly, a London skinner, and consequently received her portion of her father’s goods, including a ‘Frensshcupp’, a maser bound in silver gilt and a girdle of silver. The transfer was witnessed at Southwark by Haseley and Corve. Young John had probably taken delivery of his share by December 1433, when he released his fathers’s executors from their responsibilities.4 CCR, 1422-9, pp.457-8; 1429-35, pp.172-3, 292.