LARGE, Robert

Large, like many of the capital’s leading men in the later Middle Ages, was a first-generation Londoner. His family appears to have originated in Warwickshire, where some of his ancestors were buried at Alcester, although his parents seem to have lived in neighbouring Leicestershire, and were buried at ‘Overton’, probably the village of Cold Overton to the east of Leicester.6 Later sources describe Large’s fa. as ‘of London’, but there is no evidence to support this: Stowe 860, f. 51. The identification of ‘Overton’ with Cold Overton is not conclusive, but Large’s testamentary bequests suggest links with Leics. rather than with any of the other Overtons, in Hants and elsewhere. Robert began his mercantile career in 1404-5, when he was apprenticed to the mercer Richard Herry, or Hervy. He duly served his 10-year apprenticeship and was admitted to the freedom of the city at some point before July 1416. His master died later that year and Large served as one of his three executors, along with two more senior members of the Mercers’ Company. Eleven years later, following the death of their stepfather, the guardianship of Herry’s three surviving daughters was committed to Large.7 Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, p. 55; Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 63.

Having obtained the freedom, Large embarked upon a highly successful career as a merchant and became prominent not merely within his own craft but also within the city government. His admission to the livery of the Mercers’ Company took place in the customary three stages between 1416 and 1419, and his rapid rise within the Company was confirmed by his election in July 1420 as one of the wardens, a post which he was to hold again seven years later, before going on to serve as master of the Company on two further occasions.8 Med. Acct. Bks. of the Mercers, 284-5, 290-1, 300-1, 306-7; Sutton, 556. That same year he enrolled the first of his many apprentices, some of whom in time rose to prominence in civic life, like John Harowe*, or in commerce more generally, such as (with the benefit of hindsight most significantly) the young William Caxton (enrolled in 1437-8 along with Large’s own son, John).9 Large’s career is imperfectly documented in W. Blades, Biog. and Typography of William Caxton, 8-12, 147-9. Large appears to have been in demand as a master for apprentices, probably at least in part as a consequence of his influence within his Company. This same standing was also in evidence on other occasions, such as that of his support before the mayor and aldermen in February 1436 of the petition by the hatter Geoffrey Boleyn* to be permited to translate his freedom to the Mercers’,10 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 201. and his inclusion in May 1439 with William Estfield* and other merchants of the Calais staple, among those associated with the treasurer and the barons of the Exchequer to hear a case against a fellow mercer who was accused of selling wool to alien merchants.11 CCR, 1435-41, pp. 221-2.

From an early point in his career, Large was active in the overseas trade. Cloth was the principal commodity he exported to the continent, although by the mid 1430s it is likely that he had also become a merchant of the Calais staple and was thus busy exporting quantities of wool to northern Europe.12 E122/161/11, m. 77; 203/1, f. 34. The proceeds from selling wool and cloth abroad were then used to purchase goods for importation through the ports of Southampton and London. In 1425-6 Large brought into London commodities including alum and buckram, while in the summer of 1438 he imported goods including dyestuffs and various types of linen cloth worth a total of £192 13s. 4d. in a carrack which unloaded at Southampton.13 E122/76/11; 209/1. In common with many of his fellow London merchants Large occasionally drew upon the services of Italian financiers as a means to fund his business ventures. As early in his career as November 1422 Alessandro de Ferentis obtained a royal licence enabling him to draw up letters of exchange for Large in respect of £12 6s. 8d. payable to one John Nowell.14 CCR, 1422-9, p. 483. Many of Large’s business dealings were conducted in partnership with other men: in July 1433 he entered into a bond with Thomas Gille I* and Thomas Brown II* for £100 while they awaited the outcome of arbitration in a dispute between them and two men from Flanders. One of the latter was the master of a ship which had been intercepted by mariners from Dartmouth who had carried off their cargo of wine and salt. Three years later Large went into business with a fellow mercer, William Melreth*, and they became joint owners of a ship called Le Marie of London. Legitimate trade aside, it was accepted, indeed expected, that such ships would engage in acts of privateering against alien shipping, and in September 1436 Large and Melreth were granted royal letters licencing them to man and arm their vessel and to retain the bulk of any goods seized from enemy ships.15 CCR, 1429-35, p. 259; CPR, 1436-41, p. 1.

It was at about the same time that Large began to establish himself as a creditor to the Crown in his own right. Ten years earlier, in 1426, he had first advanced money to the administration as part of a larger group of London merchants, headed by the mayor, but it was not until May 1436 that he made loans on his own account, on this occasion a sum of 100 marks. In subsequent years, he regularly advanced further substantial sums, some of them guaranteed by royal jewels, like the large and ornate gold basin, decorated with the arms of St. George and St. Edward the Confessor as well as those of England and France, which was handed over to him and Estfield as security for a loan of £200 in the summer of 1439. Other benefits reaped by the Crown’s creditors were of a commercial nature, such as the supply in July 1437 to Gilbert Parr, the keeper of the King’s artillery in the Tower of London, of 13 barrels of saltpetre, weighing as much as 5,252½ lb. and worth a total of £150 13s. 11½d. at the prevailing price of 7d. a pound.16 Issues of the Exchequer ed. Devon, 432; E 403/675, m. 12; 723, m. 2; 727, mm. 6, 7; 734, m. 11; 736, m. 5; 741, m. 11; E101/335/25.

The proceeds of Large’s business dealings enabled him to acquire a significant amount of property which, in turn, further increased his income. In 1436 his estates, said to lie in Kent ‘and elsewhere’, were valued at £15 p.a., but this was almost certainly a conservative estimate.17 S.L. Thrupp, Merchant Class Med. London, 382. In London he owned what must have been a substantial residence at the north end of Old Jewry (to judge from the large number of servants, apprentices and other members of his household who were mentioned in his will and also from John Stow’s later record of it in his Survey of London).18 Blades, 8-12; J. Stow, Surv. London ed. Kingsford, i. 278. It is not known when he acquired this property, but the fact that his first wife was buried in the nearby parish church suggests that it was his residence from an early point in his career. Her identity has not been established with any degree of certainty, but it is possible that she was the sister of Large’s executor, Thomas Staunton, a fellow mercer, to whom he referred as his ‘brother’.19 Cal. P. and M. London, 1458-82, p. 9. Little else is recorded of his holdings in the capital. He was, nevertheless, active in the city as a feoffee for the property of others, notably William Cantelowe*, for whom he acted in 1430 as part of an illustrious group of trustees that included the mercers Estfield, Melreth and Henry Frowyk I*, as well as the common clerk John Carpenter II*.20 Corp. London RO, hr 159/38; 161/36; 163/61; 164/62; 167/18; E326/2228. More evidence is available concerning Large’s lands outside London. His second wife was the twice-widowed Joan Turnaunt, who brought him a life interest in property in Winchester acquired by her second husband, the wealthy clothier Richard Turnaunt, as well as a claim to property in Colchester that may have belonged to her own family, and it is likely that it was this marriage that drew Large into affairs in Essex.21 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 675-6. His principal lands in the county were near Thaxted, where by the mid 1430s he had aquired the manor of Horham Hall.22 C1/15/150; 26/441; 61/92. He was active in Essex as a feoffee and acted in a similar capacity in Cambridgeshire where as early as 1426 he was among those granted estates by John Hore*.23 CPR, 1429-36, p. 343; E326/3035, 3041, 3204. In neighbouring Huntingdonshire he was party to transactions concerning the manor of Offord where he acted on behalf of his wife’s brother-in-law John Church, a fellow mercer.24 VCH Hunts. ii. 323; CCR, 1435-41, pp. 355, 438; C1/61/92; Large, 3. Large’s only other known holdings, presumably those referred to in the tax assessment of 1436, lay at Newington in Kent. Once again it is not known when he acquired them, but it is clear from later evidence that they were purchased rather than inherited.25 Cal. P. and M. London, 1458-82, p. 9.

Large’s civic career reflected his growing prominence as a wealthy member of one of London’s leading companies. He was a probably a member of the common council by 1426 and the following year attested the election of the city’s MPs for the first time. Over the next few years he was appointed to the major civic offices in swift succession: he was chosen as an auditor in the autumn of 1428, but before his term had ended was elected in July 1429 as an alderman for Castle Baynard Ward, where he officiated until his death. This accounts for his failure to be elected for a second successive term as auditor in September 1429, since he was then ineligible to serve as a commoner. In December the same year he was appointed to collect a subsidy granted in the recent session of Parliament, and occupied the same position in August 1430. More onerous duties came his way in September that year when he was elected by his fellow aldermen as one of the two sheriffs of London and Middlesex. On relinquishing the post he was immediately chosen to serve again as an auditor, and on this occasion managed to serve for two successive years. In addition, there were also other, more ad hoc appointments. Thus, in December 1431 Large and John Paddesley were appointed to assess the fines that were to be levied on hostlers and other retailers of beer in the capital who had been reported for breaking the assize.26 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 142. This flurry of administrative activity provides an indication of Large’s standing among his fellow citizens in the late 1420s and early 1430s. By the mid 1430s, perhaps as a result of his growing involvement in overseas trade, Large’s career of office holding slowed down. He nevertheless attested the parliamentary election again in 1433 and was himself elected as an MP in August 1435, attending the assembly summoned to meet on 10 Oct., shortly after he had also been chosen to serve what would be his final term as master of the Mercers’. It was not until March 1438 that he was appointed to another civic position, when he was selected as one of five aldermen responsible for receiving the £1,000 raised for the defence of Calais.27 Jnl. 3, f. 176v. This marked the start of a second phase in his career as one of London’s governors, and over the next three years he was appointed to a number of committees, while also serving as an arbiter on several occasions.28 Ibid. ff. 11, 12v-13, 18v.

Large reached the pinnacle of his civic career in the autumn of 1439, on his election as mayor. He was chosen ahead of the prominent tailor, Ralph Holland, whose subsequent rejections in 1440 and again in 1441 provoked outrage among his artisan followers. On this first occasion there was no similar controversy, and the Mercers celebrated their fellow’s election by spending £5 6s. 8d. on 16 trumpeters, horsemen and ceremonial trappings for the procession to Westminster on 29 Oct. Yet, if Large’s election was uncontroversial, storm clouds were gathering in what had become a serious dispute between the city’s tailors and drapers. During the course of his mayoralty Large had to deal with some of the early stirrings of discontent, and in November 1439 he committed one John Pevenel to prison for making unsubstantiated allegations against six drapers.29 Blades, 8-12; Mercers’ Co. Biog. Index Cards; C.M. Barron, ‘Ralph Holland and the London Radicals’, The Med. Town ed. Holt and Rosser, 165-6. The strain of dealing with these events may well have contributed to a decline in Large’s health, and twice in July 1440 his friend William Estfield had to deputize for him in the mayoral chair.30 Jnl. 3, ff. 46, 47v. He survived his term of office, but by the spring of 1441 he was ill again, and on 11 Apr. took the precaution of drawing up a will. Its contents indicate the extent of the enormous wealth he had built up over the previous 20 years, assisted no doubt by assets brought to him by his two marriages. Large asked to be buried next to his first wife, Elizabeth, in the church of St. Olave Jewry, and at a cost of 200 marks established a chantry there for 20 years for the benefit of his soul and those of his wives and former master. An additional £20 was to be spent on a set of vestments and other items for the church. Another set of vestments was to be purchased for the church of St. Margaret Lothbury, and 200 marks was left to fund repairs to the watercourse of the Walbrook in that parish. Large’s other charitable bequests included 40 marks for the ongoing works on the city’s water supply, to be spent within four years of his death, and 100 marks for the maintenance of London Bridge. Outside London, he left vestments to the churches of Alcester and ‘Overton’, as well as £100 to the poor of Leicestershire and Warwickshire. The individuals mentioned in the will (of which part was subsequently lost), included his stepson, Richard Turnaunt, who was left £20, John Church, whose children received 100 marks between them, and many servants and apprentices, Caxton among them, who together benefited from a bequest of 20 marks. Large’s widow, Joan, was left the huge sum of 4,000 marks in goods and chattels, while his three surviving sons by his first marriage (Thomas, Robert and Richard), were left 1,000 marks each, to be paid to them once they had reached the age of 24, although for the time being the money was to be committed to the safekeeping of Thomas Staunton. Large’s daughters, Alice and Elizabeth, were each left 500 marks, the money to be kept for them by his fellow mercer and feoffee Stephen Tychemersh until they either married or attained the age of 25. The bequests were rounded off by a sum of £20 assigned to the Mercers’ Company.31 PCC 16 Rous (PROB11/1, ff. 121v-122v). The will breaks off at the start of a series of bequests of plate to Large’s daughters. Altogether, Large’s legacies amounted to nearly £6,000.

A second (now incomplete) portion of the will concerned the manor of Horham Hall in Essex. This was to be kept by Joan for her lifetime on condition that she did not remarry. In that event, or on her death, it was to pass to Large’s eldest son, Thomas, and the latter’s male heirs, with successive remainders to his other sons and daughters. Should all his children die without descendants the manor was to pass to Staunton and his heirs, and in default to John Church, and then to Richard Turnaunt. The arrangements dealing with the Newington lands and tenements were similar, and were detailed some years later by Staunton in a deposition made before the mayor. In this case, however, they were to pass first to Robert Large junior and his male heirs, with remainders in tail-male to his brothers Richard and Thomas and then to Turnaunt, who in these circumstances would forgo his claim to Horham.32 PCC 19 Rous (PROB11/1, f. 146). As his executors, Large appointed his widow and Thomas Staunton.

Probate was granted on 6 May 1441, but the actual date of the mercer’s death remains uncertain. According to the later testimony of the scrivener Robert Bale, who had drawn up the will, Large had died a day after making it, on 12 Apr., yet an inquisition post mortem taken in Essex rather closer to the event, in the autumn of 1441, reported that he had in fact died on the feast of St. George the Martyr (23 Apr.).33 Cal. P. and M. London, 1458-82, p. 9; C139/105/8. As required by her late husband’s will, Joan Large took a vow of chastity, but at some point during the mayoralty of Thomas Catworth* in 1443-4, in an act that scandalised contemporaries, she broke it by marrying a fourth husband, John Gedney*. A London chronicler reported that she ‘had take the mantel and the ring and should have kept her a godly widow time of her life. And anon after the marriage done they were troubled by holy church because of breaking of her oath and were put to penance both he and she.’34 Med. London Widows ed. Barron and Sutton, 173. Joan’s vow no longer survives, but it is quoted by Blades, 11. The broken vow meant that Joan immediately lost Large’s Essex lands, but in spite of this, and of the outrage in some quarters, both she and Gedney remained closely involved in the administration of her former husband’s affairs. In the spring of 1443, the guardianships of Thomas and Richard (the younger Robert had probably died in the meantime) were committed to Joan, while Staunton appeared to enter into a bond for the payment of their patrimonies when they came of age. There is good evidence that Thomas survived long enough to enter into his inheritance, for he was able to petition Chancery, possibly in the mid 1440s, to ask that two of his father’s feoffees be ordered to explain why they had not released the manor of Horham to him.35 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 279-81; jnl. 4, f. 109; C1/15/150. At about the same time, there were indications that others also took an interest in the Large inheritance, for in September 1445 the common council petitioned the aldermen that those who had taken an unnamed orphan of Robert Large out of the city by force should be prosecuted. The victim of this supposed abduction may have been Richard Large, for by 1448 at the latest he was the only surviving son, and in December that year was evidently trying to recover his patrimony from John and Joan Gedney. In August 1452, having completed his apprenticeship under Geoffrey Feldyng*, he came before the chamberlain to acknowledge receipt of his inheritance.36 Jnl. 4, f. 95; Cal. P. and M. London, 1437-57, p. 114; Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 281-2. Richard’s death in 1458 prompted Staunton to go before the mayor to explain the provisions of Large’s will, and presumably to stake his own claim as next heir to Horham, while Turnaunt would have to be content with the Newington lands. Over the course of the next two decades the remaindermen of Large’s estates died one by one, and the survivors – initially Large’s grandson John Styuecle, the son of his daughter Alice, and later his more distant kinsman Edmund Church (John Church’s grandson) were forced to make good their claim to Horham in the law courts.37 Cal. P. and M. London, 1458-82, p. 9; C1/26/441; 61/92.