MAKESEY, John

Makesey’s career conforms to the pattern common to Northampton’s MPs: that of a single election to Parliament when a young man. He was unusual only in that his election as bailiff came so soon after his service in Parliament (just four months after the dissolution). The fact that he was never chosen as mayor suggests that he was not one of the leading townsmen and very little can be discovered about his career. His term as bailiff led him into litigation in Chancery. John Mounsews, defendant in a suit of trespass sued in the court of King’s bench by one of the leading townsmen, John Spriggy†, accused him and his fellow bailiff, John Church II*, of a serious abuse of office. After arresting Mounsews they allegedly took not only a ‘graund fyn’ to release him to mainprise but also surety in £40 with a verbal condition that he would keep his day in court. Further, although he duly appeared in King’s bench, they threatened to arrest him and his sureties. Since one of these was the town’s former MP, John Baldeswell*, and William Tresham* stood as pledge for the prosecution of the petition, Mounsews appears too well connected to be treated with impunity in this cavalier fashion, but there is nothing to show if he gained redress.2 C1/7/34.

A fuller by trade, Makesey was associated with several of the principal clothiers of the town. When he was elected to Parliament in 1426 John Spring† stood as one of his mainpernors; seven years later he himself stood in the same capacity at the election of the younger William Rushden*; and on 1 Feb. 1434 Richard Wems† granted him a garden in ‘le Knyghtestrete’ for a term of 27 years at an annual rent of 8s.3 C219/13/4, 14/4; Add. Ch. 733. Judging from the infrequency with which he brought actions of debt in the court of common pleas, his own business interests were much less extensive than those of these substantial burgesses. One of his legal actions is, however, of interest. Late in his life, in Hilary term 1455, he sued 22 of his fellow townsmen, including William Syward alias Peryn* and William Hegge alias Etherton*, for laying in wait to kill him at Kingsthorpe, just outside the town, assaulting and imprisoning him, and taking his goods worth 100s.4 CP40/776, rot. 290d. There is no evidence to give this alleged offence a context and no more is known of him.