LUNDENEYS, Richard

Members of the family of Lundeneys had been living in Winchelsea for over 150 years before Richard’s election to Parliament, having settled there before the foundation of the new town in the 1280s. Richard’s father, Robert, represented the Port in the Commons of 1368, 1372 and 1377, as well as twice serving as mayor, although after his marriage to an heiress of the Oxenbridges he removed the chief residence of the family to Brede, a few miles away.6 W.D. Cooper, Hist. Winchelsea, 163; Suss. Arch. Collns. viii. 234; Cat. Rye Recs. ed. Dell, 220-1. Nevertheless, ties with Winchelsea remained close, and Richard was a Portsman for most of his life. As such, throughout the first half of the fifteenth century he claimed exemption from parliamentary subsidies on his substantial moveable possessions in a number of places outside Winchelsea, notably at Brede, Udimore, Icklesham and Ore.7 E179/225/34a, 36, 50, 59; 226/69, 71; 227/94; 228/107, 131; 229/138, 151. A man of some substance, he owned a number of mills, including ‘Constermelle’, from which corn was stolen in 1418, and in Winchelsea itself a stone-built mill near Pipewell, and a windmill in the parish of St. Giles, both of which he leased to a local miller.8 Ct. Rolls Rape of Hastings (Suss. Rec. Soc. xxxvii), 196; Cooper, 39; Sale Cat. Battle Abbey Chs. 96. Elsewhere in the town, he acquired in 1430 a house in St. Thomas’s parish, and he and one of his kinsmen offered a mortgage to Geoffrey and Agnes Cook secured on other property nearby.9 Cat. Winchelsea Recs. ed. Dell, 82; Cat. Rye Recs. 230.

Lundeneys became active in the government of Winchelsea at least by 1431, at Easter that year taking up the role of jurat, which he filled on the nomination of successive mayors, John Godfrey* and William Fynch*. Both as jurat and churchwarden of St. Thomas’s he was party to the arrangements made in 1432 for the final completion of the provisions in the will of John Salerne† (d.1410).10 Cott. Julius BIV, ff. 42-43v, 47v-50. Lundeneys’ nomination as a deputy from Winchelsea to the Brodhull which met on 17 Dec. 1436, served as a preliminary to his election shortly afterwards to represent the Port in the Parliament summoned for the following 21 Jan. Four months after the dissolution he was sent to another Brodhull, meeting on 22 July 1437. As four of the other delegates from the Ports, including the mayor of Winchelsea William Alard*, had also sat with him in the Commons, it is likely that they were expected to deliver a report on the proceedings of the Parliament. An important part of the business of the July Brodhull was the appointment of bailiffs to officiate on the Ports’ behalf at the annual herring fair at Great Yarmouth, and on this occasion Lundeneys was one of those chosen. After their return home, Lundeneys attended the Brodhull of 9 Dec., when, as was customary, the bailiffs reported on the events of the fair.11 White and Black Bks. 8-10.

Still living in August 1449,12 E179/229/138. Lundeneys was dead by 1459 when transactions were completed regarding land in the new marsh near Rye, of which he had been a feoffee.13 Cat. Rye Recs. 124. Indeed, he probably died much earlier, for in March 1451 his son Robert had taken his place among the barons of Winchelsea listed as exempt from taxation,14 E179/229/154. and served as one of Winchelsea’s deputies to the Brodhull and bailiff to Yarmouth in 1453. In 1458 Robert released to Simon and Malina Farnecombe (John Godfrey’s daughter) his title to a plot of land and site of the mill in the parish of St. Giles which had once belonged to his father, and three years later also gave up his interest in a certain rent at Fairlight which the MP had formerly received.15 White and Black Bks. 31; Huntington Lib., San Marino, Battle Abbey mss, deed 1415; Bolney Bk. (Suss. Rec. Soc. lxiii), 63.