MOYLE, William I

Like his namesake, the London lawyer who was returned for Lyme Regis in 1435, Moyle was probably related to the prominent lawyer and later judge, Walter Moyle*. In December 1442 he and William II* headed the witnesses to a quitclaim of lands in Clapham that Walter had purchased from one John Dawson.1 CCR, 1441-7, p. 120. William was established in Southwark by May 1420, where from that date he occasionally served on local juries, including in September 1423 that empanneled to take the inquisition post mortem of Elizabeth, the widow of John, Lord Clinton.2 C138/52/103; C139/12/36, m. 10. Before the end of Henry V’s reign he was acting as an executor of a Southwark neighbour, the dyer Thomas Derby, and was pursuing a number of the deceased man’s debtors in the law courts.3 CPR, 1422-9, p. 37; 1429-36, p. 22; CP40/651, rot. 478d. In subsequent years, he regularly witnessed his neighbours’ property deeds and other transactions, including in 1441 a gift of goods and chattels made to Walter Moyle, William Godyng* and others by Henry Purchase*.4 CCR, 1435-41, p. 467; 1441-7, p. 48; Corp. London RO, Misc. deeds 138.3-4 N.S.; Bridge House deeds, H.53.

By trade, Moyle was a tailor, although his contacts with the craft in London were rather more limited than those of his Southwark neighbour Peter Saverey*. There is no record of any apprentices enrolled by him, and he does not appear to have joined the London Tailors’ guild of St. John the Baptist. On the other hand some contact with the guild is indicated by the contributions he made to four levies raised by the master and wardens from the freemen of the craft: the first in 1425-6 to pay for the new kitchen at Tailors’ Hall, and the last in 1437-8 to provide gifts and celebrations for the election of a tailor, William Chapman, as one of the sheriffs of the City. The amounts he contributed on each occasion were close to the average.5 Guildhall Lib. London, Merchant Taylors’ Co. accts. 34048/1, ff. 162, 206, 281, 295. Little is known of Moyle after 1447, when he was among a number of prominent Southwark residents who witnessed a transaction concerning property in St. Olave’s parish, formerly belonging to Henry Yevele, the King’s architect.6 CCR, 1441-7, p. 481. In 1449 he was in dispute with yet another prominent neighbour, William Redstone*, in the court of Chancery.7 C253/30/185. He was dead by Easter 1458, when a bequest of 6s. 8d. was recorded in the churchwardens’ accounts of St. Margaret’s parish in Southwark, where he may have lived.8 London Metropolitan Archs., St. Margaret’s Southwark, churchwardens’ accts. P92/SAV/1 (printed in Brit. Mag. (1847), 495).