GONNE, John

Gonne was evidently a local man, and may have traded as a mercer, since in the summer of 1424 he was pursuing two members of that trade (respectively hailing from Shepton Beauchamp and Totnes) for debts of £6 13s. 4d. and 40s. However, at other times he is known to have dealt in commodities such as lead and iron nails.4 CP40/654, rot. 238; Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1400-45, nos. 576, 601. He is first heard of in July 1415, when he was joint tenant (with John Sadeler) of a holding near the north gate of Bridgwater extending to more than a full burgage, part of the properties belonging to Iseult, wife of Thomas Cave*.5 Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1400-45, no. 574. Within a few years Gonne had made himself a name in the town’s merchant community. He became a member of the guild merchant, and by 1422 was important enough to serve as one of its stewards. He was holding office when elected to his first Parliament. In subsequent years he continued to take an interest in craft regulation and was regularly prominent among the burgesses attesting indentures of apprenticeship.6 Ibid. nos. 616, 655, 657, 673. Similarly, from 1420 to 1435 he was frequently among the men certifying Bridgwater’s parliamentary election returns to the sheriff of Somerset. He performed this duty on no fewer than nine separate occasions, the main exceptions being the Parliaments to which he was elected himself.7 C219/12/4, 5, 6; 13/4, 5; 14/1, 2, 3, 5. Gonne’s neighbours evidently held him in a degree of regard, and called upon him to witness their transactions or serve as a trustee of their property on frequent occasions. Among the most prominent burgesses with whom he was so connected were Thomas Cave and the Gascoignes. William Gascoigne I* had been Gonne’s fellow steward of the Bridgwater merchant guild at the time of their joint election to the Parliament of 1422, and Gonne would not long after witness the transfer of his former colleague’s property to his nephew, William Gascoigne II*.8 Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1400-45, nos. 594, 598, 599, 604, 605, 607, 609, 614, 617-19, 621, 623, 626, 629, 632, 635, 639, 640, 643, 647, 651, 652, 658, 663-5, 667-9, 670, 672. Even so, he was not universally popular among his neighbours, and in 1431 a dispute with John Cosyn, his former fellow steward of the merchant guild, had to be settled in a ‘love-day’ at St. Mary’s church.9 Ibid. no. 650.

There is some doubt over Gonne’s membership of the Parliament of 1425, for although he was clearly elected by the burgesses, and his name was entered on the sheriff’s indenture alongside that of William Gascoigne II, on the schedule which accompanied the indentures to Westminster Gonne’s name had been erased and replaced by that of John Pitt*, who was returned for Bridgwater to every other Parliament between 1423 and 1429. As Pitt’s name had clearly been entered at a later date, it seems reasonable to suppose that it was in fact he, rather than Gonne, who took the borough’s seat in 1425.10 C219/13/3.

Gonne’s local prominence may have brought him to the Crown’s attention, and in the summer of 1421 he was appointed one of the royal customs collectors in his local port. At the same time, he and his fellow collector, Richard Dynt, were also appointed controllers of the tronage and pesage, but (probably on account of the evident conflict of interest) were replaced in that post by Edward Cullyford* within two days.11 CPR, 1416-22, pp. 374, 378. Gonne and Dynt remained in post as collectors after Henry VI’s accession, and continued in office until 1425, in spite of being accused of misconduct on information provided by the Wells merchant John Pedewell* and two associates in the autumn of 1423.12 E159/200, recorda Mich. rot. 34, Hil. rots. 2, 2d. If Gonne and Dynt had indeed been abusing their office to line their own pockets, it is interesting to find the two men associated in 1429 in providing a loan of 20s. to the churchwardens of St. Mary’s for urgent repairs to the church’s steeple.13 Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1400-45, no. 648. That winter saw Gonne return to Crown office as collector of a tax granted by the Commons, and he was also charged with the collection of a second fifteenth and tenth conceded in the same Parliament.

The date of Gonne’s death has not been established, but it may have occurred not long after his final spell in the Commons, as he ceased to attest local deeds about that time. The execution of his will was entrusted to his widow, Alice, who apparently went on to marry the local yeoman Robert Grene.14 CPR, 1446-52, p. 90. She herself seems to have died around 1447, for about that time the wardens of the parish church of Bridgwater accounted for the cost of an anniversary light for an Alice Gonne.15 Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68 (Som. Rec. Soc. lx), no. 754. The MP must be distinguished from a local weaver who was admitted to the freedom of Bridgwater in 1448-9: ibid. no. 757. There may also have been a third namesake: in 1428-9 the churchwardens of St. Mary’s sold excess lead to one John Gonne ‘junior’: Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1440-45, no. 648.