MAYNELD, Thomas

Mayneld’s origins are obscure, although it is possible that he had some connexion with the borough of Colchester in Essex. He was resident in London by 1391, and probably for some time before, and in March that year he was among a number of denizen merchants who exported cloth through the port of London.5 E122/71/16, f. 19v. He had at some point obtained the freedom of the City as a grocer, and by 1400 had risen to become a liveryman of the Grocers’ Company. In that year he also served for the first time as one of the wardens of the craft. He served as warden four times in all, serving in consecutive years from 1420 to 1422. This was unusual, and may have reflected an unwillingness on the part of some grocers to hold office during a period when many members of the craft were experiencing financial difficulties. These difficulties were compounded by an ongoing dispute between the Grocers and the university of Cambridge over rights of scrutiny at Stourbridge fair, and in 1419, after the matter was referred to the King’s council, Mayneld was among those grocers who were paid 9s. plus expenses for going to the palace at Sheen, presumably in an attempt to persuade the council of the justice of their case.6 P. Nightingale, Med. Mercantile Community, 378, 387; Ms. Archs. Grocers’ Co. ed. Kingdon, 87, 136-7, 143.

Mayneld himself may have been among the wealthiest members of his Company, and was apparently relatively secure. His business dealings, like those of many of the City’s greater merchants, concentrated upon the export trade, rather than upon domestic retail and distribution of goods. By 1401 he was exporting large quantities of cloth through the port of London, a few years later he had also built up trading connexions in Bristol, as well as closer to home in Kent and Suffolk, and he was among those who took wool to the continent through the Calais staple, where in 1423-4 his shipments amounted to more than 80 sacks.7 E122/71/16, f. 19; 72/4, ff. 2, 3; 76/2; E101/189/7; CCR, 1399-1402, p. 504; C241/194/7; 195/16, 49, 84; 197/53; C131/216/43. As a prominent merchant he had regular dealings with alien traders: in 1402 and 1403 he found sureties for a number of alien merchants, among them Angelo Cebba, a Genoese whose merchandise had been seized by the earl of Arundel’s men after his ship had been wrecked on the south coast, and members of the Alberti family of Florence.8 CPR, 1401-5, p. 132; CCR, 1402-5, pp. 223, 345, 375. On other occasions, it was Mayneld himself who had to seek restitution of his own cargoes seized by the French.9 CPR, 1401-5, p. 134; CCR, 1399-1402, p. 546.

Beyond the confines of his company, Mayneld first secured public office as one of the customs collectors in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, an office which he held for just over a year at the same time as his second wardenship of the Grocers in 1408-9. This was, however, to remain an isolated Crown appointment, and his civic career in London was to remain equally undistinguished: in spite of his wealth and his four terms as a company warden he never rose beyond the city auditorship, the lowest rung on the city’s career ladder, serving just a single term in the office in 1413-14.10 Cal. Letter Bk. London, I, 117.

In the course of his business dealings Mayneld, like most merchants, came to be owed sums of money by numerous customers and other business associates.11 CPR, 1405-8, p. 132; 1408-13, p. 442; 1416-22, p. 285; 1422-9, p. 443. In his case, however, there is some evidence that, even by contemporary standards, he was ruthless in his pursuit of debtors, both in the royal and city courts. In 1405 he was pursuing John Kent, a Southwark tawyer, in the court of common pleas for a debt of 100s., as well as damages of four times that sum.12 CP40/576, rot. 325. In July 1406, John and Joan Barre of Essex acknowledged before the mayor of the staple at Westminster that they owed Mayneld the sum of £60. They were to repay the money by Christmas and in the meantime were required to pledge as security their manor of Elmstead, said to be worth £17 6s. 8d. p.a., and goods worth £5. A year later Mayneld was awarded the manor, having foreclosed on it only seven months after the debt had been due.13 C131/221/31; C241/198/79. It seems, however, that periodically his enthusiasm for retrieving monies owed to him worked to his disadvantage, for in March 1408 he was brought into Chancery accused of demanding repayment of £50 which the debtor, the London armourer John Grenefield, had already repaid in two instalments.14 C241/198/61; C131/222/15; CCR, 1405-9, p. 378. On another occasion, in the autumn of 1412, he tried to argue that a valuation of £24 9s. 1d. placed upon the goods and chattels of another debtor, a vintner of London named John Cole, was too high. This was probably an attempt by Mayneld to gain possession of a tenement worth five marks p.a. in St. Bride’s parish. It was determined, however, that the debt was only £29 and that Cole and his wife were ready to pay Mayneld the remaining £4 10s. 11d.15 C241/204/29; CCR, 1409-13, pp. 411-12. In some cases Mayneld was more lenient: a certificate was not issued in respect of an overdue debt of £6 4s. 8d. from a London fishmonger for almost three years after the repayment date set by the mayor of the staple,16 C241/197/53. and in 1409 he released the Hertfordshire property of another (deceased) fishmonger, Thomas Kyke, presumably on settlement of his debts.17 C131/221/11; 222/17; C241/198/76; CCR, 1405-9, p. 512.

The extent of Mayneld’s property in London is difficult to quantify, not least because of the problems in distinguishing transactions in which he acted as a feoffee from those where the buildings concerned were actually held by him. A rare exception was property in the parish of St. Mary Aldermary which he acquired from a fellow grocer, William Middleton, in February 1407 and which was settled upon Mayneld and his wife in May the same year. He also owned tenements in the parish of St. Alban Wood Street, but his principal residence was in the parish of St. Dunstan in the East where he served as a churchwarden.18 C143/438/22. Mayneld may have regarded himself as upwardly mobile, but even so he badly overreached himself when in March 1415 he confronted the alderman of Tower ward, William Sevenoak† (an old acquaintance and fellow churchwarden of St. Dunstan’s) and threatened him with the fate suffered a generation earlier by the notorious Sir Nicholas Brembre† [ie. hanging] if he did not conduct himself well and honestly, an affront for which he was hauled up before the mayor and aldermen. Mayneld pleaded guilty and was committed to Newgate for a year, but Sevenoak intervened on his behalf, and he was released and instead bound over in £200 to be of good behaviour.19 Cal. Letter Bk. London, I, 132. He was also drawn into a lengthy dispute over the inheritance of Joan, widow of Hugh Fastolf†, which was claimed by her coheirs, who included Thomasina, wife of Sir John Boys*, and her aunt Lady Margaret Philipot, from Thomas Thirlewynd, a London tailor for whom Mayneld acted as a feoffee. In July 1422 Boys and Thirlewynd had promised to accept the judgement of the King’s council, but – probably on account of Henry V’s unexpected death not long after – no solution had been reached by May 1425 when the matter was instead put to the arbitration of the mayor, recorder and 12 aldermen. The resultant award was generally favourable to Joan Fastolf’s coheirs, although Thirlewynd’s party were adjudged a messuage and other lands in the parishes of St. Michael Paternoster and St. John Walbrook, and the matter, far from being settled, seems to have dragged on for several more years.20 Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, pp. 177, 179-80, 189; Corp. London RO, hr 157/59, 60; The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 320. More cordial were Mayneld’s relations with a fellow grocer and putative kinsman, Thomas Southam, for whom he stood surety in the court of aldermen in 1419.21 Corp. London RO, hr 134/66, 67; 145/52; 148/44; CPR, 1405-8, p. 461.

Perhaps as a result of his public clash with the influential William Sevenoak, Mayneld failed ever to rise beyond the city auditorship. He nevertheless commanded some respect within his Company, and in 1420-22 served a further two-year term as one of its wardens. It was shortly after relinquishing this office that, on 19 Oct. 1422, he was chosen as one of the two representatives of the commonalty who were to attend the first Parliament of Henry VI’s reign. The reasons for Mayneld’s election are difficult to determine, but it is possible that it was related to the Grocers’ continuing efforts to protect their trade at this time. Certainly, among the business of the Parliament were matters like the confirmation of the privileges of the Calais staple, the question of the validity of the customs duties imposed upon the merchants of the Hanseatic league by the city of London, and the drop in the prices commanded by English cloth, purportedly as a result of the activities of alien brokers.22 Nightingale, 392; J.S. Roskell, Commons of 1422, 51.

Mayneld drew up his will on 21 Mar. 1426, asking for burial in his parish church of St. Dunstan in the East, and leaving to his wife £80 above and beyond what she was entitled to by the custom of London. To each of his two daughters he bequeathed the sum of £50 along with various household goods, and left other cash bequests to friends and associates. His tenements in the parish of St. Alban Wood Street were assigned to his widow, after whose death they were to be sold and the profits divided between his daughters. Finally, ever conscious of the debts which were still owed to him, Mayneld left a total of £85 to his friend Thomas Southam on condition that he assisted his executors in recovering them. The date of probate is not recorded, but it is almost certain that Mayneld died before the end of the year. He was certainly dead by February 1427, when one of his executors, Robert Colbroke, came before the chamberlain of the City to deliver a sum of money which Mayneld had held in trust for the son of a London fishmonger.23 PCC 28 Luffenam; Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 55. Mayneld’s relationship with another London grocer of the same name who had died intestate by Jan. 1449 has not been established: PCC 13 Rous (PROB11/1, f. 97).