MELRETH, William

Little is known of Melreth’s origins although his family almost certainly hailed from Meldreth in Cambridgeshire, and he remembered the parish church there in his will. He maintained a connexion with the county throughout his life.9 CCR, 1429-35, p. 289. William came to London in 1395-6 to begin an apprenticeship under the mercer William Foucher, from which he had issued by 1410, when he was admitted to the first of the three stages which led to membership of the livery of the craft (a process which he duly completed in 1413). Four years later he presented the first of what would become a large number of his own apprentices, and it seems that his rise among his fellows was swift, for as soon as 1419 he was elected one of the wardens of his Company, and he would go on to serve as master of the Mercers on no fewer than four separate occasions.10 Med. Acct. Bks. of the Mercers, 302-3, 350-1, 374-5, 414-15, 442-3, 534-5, 562-3, 566-7; Sutton, 556. This was no doubt in part a reflection of the success of his business ventures, particularly his trading activities overseas. Like many of his fellow mercers he was particularly active as an exporter of cloth: in the year from Michaelmas 1429 he shipped 136 short cloths to the continent through the port of London, while during a period of just seven months from January to July 1433 he exported no fewer than 480 cloths. In return, he imported goods such as alum and various types of linen cloth through both London and Southampton, sometimes in flagrant breach of trade regulations, as in May 1431 when he was fined by his Company for illegally importing packs of Holland linen.11 E122/76/11, 13; 161/11, mm. 1v, 7, 9v, 10v; 203/1, ff. 7v-8v, 17v-19, 22, 27, 33v, 34v, 35v-36; 203/4, ff. 8-9; 209/1; Med. Acct. Bks. of the Mercers, 430-1. It is likely that by this time Melreth had become a member of the society of Merchant Adventurers, a company, linked to the Mercers, which sought to strengthen the interests of English merchants abroad. By 1425 he was employing a factor, William Alleyn, to act on his behalf in Bruges.12 Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, p. 182

Melreth built up an impressive range of business contacts, including trading partners such as the prominent grocer Thomas Canynges*, and customers from various parts of the country. Gifts of goods and chattels, made as security for the repayment of debts for goods purchased on credit show that he had dealings with many fellow London mercers, including leading members of the trade like William Cantelowe*. Similarly, perhaps as a result of his links with Canynges, he became involved in business transactions with several individuals from Bristol as well as merchants from York. Thus in July 1430 he and John Denys of Bristol entered into mutual bonds in £200 for the settlement of a dispute between them by the arbitration of John Mitchell I* and Robert Russell I*.13 Ibid. 250; 1437-57, p. 164; CCR, 1429-36, pp. 66, 95; 1441-7, pp. 134, 203, 230; CPR, 1416-22, pp. 349-50; 1429-36, pp. 306, 311; 1441-6, p. 119.

Melreth’s commercial success put him, like many other London merchants, in a position to advance badly-needed cash to the Crown. In May 1436 he and Robert Large* lent sums of £40 and £66 6s. 8d. respectively, and in return, in September of that year, they – as joint owners of a ship called The Marie – were granted letters of marque for two months, which enabled them to man and arm their vessel and to take the chief share of any cargoes which they seized from enemy ships. Canynges was another of the owners of this vessel, and on 17 May the following year (two days after Melreth had provided a further advance of £60 to the Exchequer) he and Melreth were granted a similar royal licence, although on this occasion they were permitted to fit out another three ships, two balingers and a barge as part of a convoy which was to accompany The Marie to Arnemuiden in Zeeland, on this occasion for the purpose of legitimate trade.14 E401/747, mm. 6, 17; 752, m. 8; CPR, 1436-41, pp. 1, 64; CCR, 1435-41, pp. 122-23. In spite of this licence, not long afterwards Melreth, Canynges and a number of other London merchants fell victim to false charges of smuggling brought by business rivals, notably by Thomas Brown II*. In July 1437, it was claimed, Melreth, along with William Cottesbroke* and John Harowe*, had tried to export £3,000-worth of woollen cloth and other goods belonging to alien merchants from Queenborough harbour in Kent. According to the commissioners’ report, the vessel concerned, owned by Melreth’s associate, Walter Fryse, had been arrested by the marshal of the admiralty, John Bille, who had ordered Cottesbroke, Harowe and the others not to move the ship without permission, an order he repeated to Melreth after finding uncustomed and uncocketed goods belonging to him on board. Melreth, clearly identified by the commissioners as the ringleader, was accused of trying to bribe Bille with ten marks in silver coin, after which he convinced his fellow merchants and the mariners on board the ship to take it secretly out of the port to Middleburgh in Zeeland, and persuaded them that his written authority to do so outstripped even that of the admiral’s marshal. Another inquisition, also headed by Brown, found that Melreth had, on 24 July 1437, exported 300 uncustomed woollen cloths worth some 500 marks on another vessel belonging to Fryse, and that his servant had put on board 500 nobles in English gold, contrary to statute. In his defence Melreth claimed that he had merely exported merchandise that had been properly customed in the port of London on board The Marie, as permitted by his royal licence. Most of these charges were subsequently found to be unsubstantiated, but Melreth and his fellow merchants nevertheless felt it prudent to obtain royal pardons in the summer of 1439.15 CPR, 1436-41, pp. 305, 310-11, 339, 512; P. Nightingale, Med. Mercantile Community, 451-2.

Over the course of his career, Melreth acquired a substantial amount of property, and in 1436 his holdings in the capital and ‘elsewhere’ were said to be worth an impressive £80 p.a.16 E179/238/80; S.L. Thrupp, Merchant Class Med. London, 383. His London property included a messuage in the parish of St. Dunstan in the East said to be worth 33s. 4d. p.a. at the time of his widow’s death in 1448, while another tenement, Le Cok in St. Mildred Poultry, was valued at £4 6s. 8d. p.a. The bulk of his property, however, lay in the parishes of St. Lawrence Jewry and St. Mary Aldermanbury, while he also owned a shop in Westcheap near the entrance of Broad Seld, as well as another within the seld itself. The process by which he acquired these holdings is not well documented, principally because transactions concerning his property are difficult to disentangle from the many transactions in which he was involved as a trustee. Even so, it is likely that he initially resided in the parish of St. Mary Aldermanbury where, in 1425, he was named as one of the churchwardens. By this time he had probably acquired tenements in Milk Street and Lad Lane which had been granted to him in 1421, together with William Estfield* and Henry Frowyk I*. Outside London it is probable that he held land in Cambridgeshire, which he may have inherited.17 C139/133/14; Corp. London RO, hr 151/27; 174/8; CPR, 1422-9, p. 287.

There is little doubt that Melreth’s financial standing, although already the equal of most of his fellows, was significantly boosted through his marriage (probably his second) to Beatrice, the coheiress of a wealthy Sussex family, who had recently been widowed following the death of her first husband, Reynold Cockayne, a prominent landholder in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. The marriage may well have owed something to a connexion which Cockayne himself had established with Melreth’s craft: in 1414-15 he had been admitted to the freedom of the city by redemption through the Mercers’ Company, and it is probable that Melreth, who entered the livery of the craft about the same time, knew him personally and established a connexion with the family which paved the way for his later marriage to Cockayne’s widow.18 Med. Acct. Bks. of the Mercers, 274-5. This brought Melreth a substantial income from estates in several counties which Beatrice held for her lifetime, including the Bedfordshire manor of Bury Hatley together with tenements in Luton and Cadyngton in that county, as well as property at Stevenage and Wymondley in Hertfordshire. The Melreths also held the manor of Woodcroft in Bedfordshire, which had been settled on Beatrice and her first husband by her father in 1414.19 C139/62/11; 133/14. In July 1434 Cockayne’s eldest son and heir, Philip, challenged the legitimacy of his mother’s marriage to Melreth, on the grounds that as the widow of a tenant-in-chief she should not have been allowed to remarry without royal licence. Rather than entering into a lengthy battle, Melreth chose to pay a fine of £80 in return for a grant of immunity from any trespasses which he and Beatrice might have committed. Philip died some years afterwards, leaving his brother, John, as next heir to the Cockayne inheritance, and it is clear that the latter’s relations with his mother and stepfather were a good deal more cordial.20 CPR, 1429-36, p. 324; C67/38, m. 7; Cal. P. and M. London, 1437-57, p. 38.

A more serious dispute over the division of the Waleys estates pitted Beatrice and her sisters against Robert, Lord Poynings. The death of their brother John Waleys in about 1423 had left as his heir male his cousin William Waleys, a minor of unsound mind (known in the family pedigree as ‘the idiot’). Having purchased his wardship, Lord Poynings proceeded to occupy the principal Waleys manor of Glynde, but William’s title was challenged by the four Waleys sisters and their husbands. Eventually, the matter was subjected to the arbitration of William Chaunterell, serjeant-at-law, and the recorder of London, Alexander Anne*, who in their award made in November 1436 found against Poynings, who was ordered to surrender Glynde. On 12 Dec. William Waleys was formally disseised, and the coheirs then partitioned his Sussex estates between them, the Melreths taking as their share the manors of Hawkesden and Bainden.21 Glynde Place archs., GLY/8, 13A; Cat. Glynde Place Archs. pp. xiii-xvi, 11, 13, 14; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 749-50.

Melreth’s involvement in the property transactions of others is well documented. From 1420 onwards he frequently acted as a trustee with, and on behalf of, other prominent mercers, notably Estfield and Frowyk. In 1425, for instance, the three men were among those granted estates by the executors of Richard Whittington†, who were then in the process of assembling an endowment for the college for priests and the almshouse which were to be founded out of the late mayor’s estate. Some years later they acted as feoffees for property held by William Cantelowe. They were also closely connected with a Cambridgeshire merchant named John Pycot, and in 1420 all four men were granted property in Catte Street by William Oliver†. Ten years later they collectively brought a plaint of intrusion against Oliver in the mayor’s court. On another occasion both Estfield and Melreth had acted as sureties when Frowyk had been confirmed as the guardian of the son of a fellow mercer. Elsewhere, Melreth also acted as both a witness and as a feoffee for St. Bartholomew’s hospital in its acquisition of property in Hendon in Middlesex.22 London hr 149/9; 152/2-3; 153/63; 154/74; 155/25; 158/79; 162/14; 159/38; 160/23-24; 161/42; 164/44; 169/17; 169/28; 173/19, 25; 174/3; Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, p. 242; Cal. Letter Bk. London, I, 266; Cart. St. Bartholomew’s Hospital ed. Kerling, nos. 1157-9.

Melreth’s civic career began in orthodox fashion with his appointment in September 1420 as one of the city auditors, a position which frequently led to higher office within the city government. He held the post for just one year, although he was chosen to do so again in the autumn of 1424. While still in office, in the summer of 1425 he was named as a constable of the Westminster staple, an office which he would retain for eight years. Meanwhile, in the autumn of 1425, he relinquished the auditorship and was elected one of the sheriffs of London and Middlesex. This term of office saw some political controversy as the sheriffs were called upon to act against the tailor and radical leader Ralph Holand who had challenged the city ordinances governing the election of the mayor and sheriffs.23 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 55. In September 1427 Melreth was elected to Parliament for the first time, and along with Walter Gawtron* he was re-elected to the subsequent assembly summoned two years later. At least one bill on this Parliament’s agenda concerned him directly: one of his servants, William Larke, had been arrested not long before the Commons assembled by the officials of the abbot of Westminster’s court of piepowder at the suit of one Margery Janyns, who had brought further proceedings against him in the court of common pleas. Larke availed himself of his master’s status as an MP to secure his release from the Fleet by a writ of parliamentary privilege, and it seems that the Commons (not for the first time) sought to use his case as a pretext to claim wider ranging privileges than had previously been allowed. In the event, Larke was set free for the duration of Parliament, but the issue of the wider applicability of the privilege was kicked into the long grass.24 Ibid. 61, 100; jnl. 2, f. 99; PROME, x. 423-4; C49/19/22.

Although Melreth, unlike some of his peers, did not stand out for regular service on the many city committees appointed for a variety of purposes during the 1420s and 1430s, it is clear that his civic career progressed steadily. In the spring of 1430 he was chosen alderman of Broad Street Ward, and thus came to be a regular participant in meetings of the court of aldermen and in elections of the mayors and sheriffs of London.25 Jnl. 3, ff. 13, 90, 136v; Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 146, 147, 161, 167, 172, 182-4, 193, 218-20, 231, 234, 241, 250, 261-2, 270, 273, 275, 286, 288, 299, 300, 302, 310, 311. In March 1432 he was elected to a third and final Parliament, on this occasion for the first time taking one of the aldermanic seats.26 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 139. Apart from his attendance at the court of aldermen, his public career after 1433, when he relinquished the constableship of the Westminster staple remained limited to repeated terms as master of his Company and more informal activities, such as the attestation of parliamentary elections, the provision to the civic authorities in the autumn of 1439 of storage space for grain in the event that the city storehouses became full, and the supervision of the new granary at Leadenhall. In November 1440 he was among the men deputed to negotiate an end to a dispute between the merchants of York and the London skinners,27 Jnl. 3, ff. 24, 40, 67. and two years later, in the summer of 1442, he was charged by the Crown with hearing an appeal against a judgement of the court of admiralty. In April of that year, he was named one of the collectors of a sum of 2,000 marks which the city had agreed to lend to the Crown, and he himself contributed £20 to this total. In July he was also a collector of another levy which was to assist the city in its dispute with the city of Bayonne in Gascony.28 Ibid., ff. 116, 137, 143.

Inevitably, perhaps, Melreth also became involved in disputes of his own: in March 1442 a quarrel with Geoffrey Yernemouth was submitted to the arbitration of Geoffrey Feldyng* and others, and further quarrels marked the last few years of his life. During the course of these he came up against some of London’s most prominent citizens, including Thomas Burgoyne* and Geoffrey Boleyn*, to whom he was bound in £100 in October 1444 to abide by the award of arbiters.29 Ibid., ff. 112, 113, 115; jnl. 4, ff. 34v, 41v, 54, 92v.

On 18 Jan. 1446 the common clerk of the city noted the death of ‘W. Melreth alderman’ in his record of the proceedings of the court for that day.30 Jnl. 4, f. 112v. Five days earlier, Melreth had drawn up a testament in which he asked for burial in the choir of St. Lawrence Jewry, to which he bequeathed a chalice and a missal, and where he established a chantry for the lifetime of his widow, Beatrice. His goods and chattels were to be divided into two equal parts, of which Beatrice was to receive one, while the remainder was allocated for his other bequests. These included payments for torches for his funeral, four of which were subsequently to be sent to the church at Meldreth in Cambridgeshire. Bequests to members of his family included £100 to his daughter Emma and her husband Thomas Tykhill, while his other daughter, Margaret, and her husband Bartholomew Stratton (Melreth’s former apprentice) were to receive 300 marks. He left £100 for the marriages of poor girls and 100 marks for poor prisoners in the city, while allocating another £40 for the repair of the highway leading out of Cripplegate towards Halliwell. The Mercers’ Company was assigned a more modest ten marks, while a similar sum was allocated to paying his arrears of quarterage and other dues. On 14 Jan., Melreth made a will concerning some of his property in London. He specified that 11 marks of rent from his tenements in Lad Lane and Milk Street were, following Beatrice’s death, to be conveyed to St. Lawrence’s church for the support of his chantry there. The reversion of these holdings was bequeathed to Emma and her husband, with further reversion to Margaret and Bartholomew Stratton. The Strattons were also bequeathed in their own right all of Melreth’s lands and tenements in the parish of St. Mary Aldermanbury as well as the shops in Westcheap and in Broad Seld. This will was enrolled in the husting court in London on 7 Feb. Melreth’s executors were the mercers John Olney and William Pickering, the vicar of St. Lawrence’s, and Matthew Foucher, possibly the son of Melreth’s former master.31 PCC 32 Luffenham (PROB11/3, ff. 257-258v); London hr 174/8; Royal 17 B.XLVII. The missal given to St. Lawrence’s is now BL, Arundel 109; Med. Acct. Bks. of the Mercers, 722-3, 738-9, 846-7. His widow survived him for another two years. In her will she asked for burial next to her husband in St. Lawrence Jewry or, failing that, at Bury Hatley. All the property held by her at the time of her death, including the remainder of Melreth’s holdings in London, passed to John Cockayne who was granted full seisin of his mother’s lands in Bedfordshire in February 1449.32 C139/133/14; CFR, xvii. 109; CP40/750, rots. 118d, 590; 751, rot. 541; Lambeth Palace Lib., Reg. Stafford, f. 165v; London hr 177/5; 177/8.