MULLING, John

Mulling’s origins are obscure. His date of his admission to the freedom of Canterbury, an essential prerequisite to civic office, is not recorded, but it is likely that his family were already established in the city when he was chosen as cofferer at Michaelmas 1430. Mulling quickly became one of the city’s elite and in May 1434 was among those who took the oath against maintenance administered throughout the realm.2 CPR, 1429-36, p. 389. He was first elected as a jurat at Michaelmas 1434 and the following year he became one of the custodians of the keys to the common chest and supervisor of building works. Mulling appears to have been regularly employed about Canterbury’s legal business in Westminster and elsewhere. In 1437-8 he was in Westminster dealing with John Fortescue* and John Portington, two lawyers appointed to arbitrate in the citizens’ dispute with the abbot of St. Augustine’s, and four years later he assisted the city’s attorney, William Osbourne*, then engaged to defend William Benet* in the Exchequer. In 1448-9 he was paid £4 10s. 2d. for his expenses acting on Canterbury’s behalf before the justices of assize at Maidstone and Rochester. Mulling’s duties on behalf of the community were varied. In 1434-5 he was paid for six brace of pheasants he had delivered to Cardinal Beaufort, whose good lordship the citizens were then seeking in their dispute with St. Augustine’s abbey, and in 1436 he was paid 8d. to take care of a banner, decorated with the arms of the city, during the musters held for the relief of the siege of Calais.3 CCA-CC-F/A/1, ff. 230, 243v, 250, 285; CCA-CC-F/A/2, f. 26v.

In 1445 Mulling was chosen to be burgess for Canterbury in the Parliament summoned to Westminster. By ‘consideration of the 12 jurats’ he and his fellow MP William Osbourne were paid a daily wage of 1s. rather than the customary 2s., although as this long Parliament sat for 190 days they each received £9 10s. with an additional 10s. for the days spent travelling.4 CCA-CC-F/A/1, f. 306; CCA-CC-F/A/2, f. 7. Four years later he was again chosen as burgess for the Parliament of November 1449. On this occasion serving as MP proved a lengthier affair: he received wages of £12 4s., although the exact time he spent on parliamentary business was not recorded in the city’s accounts.5 CCA-CC-F/A/2, ff. 29v, 33v. Despite his presumed absence at Leicester for the third session of the Parliament when Cade’s rebellion began in Kent in the summer of 1450, Mulling still considered it prudent to be included in the general pardon issued on 8 July that year.6 CPR, 1446-52, p. 362. Soon afterwards he was elected to his third Parliament. Oddly, the city’s accounts do not record any payment of wages for the three sessions of 1450-1 and the length of Mulling’s stay and the nature of his duties at Westminster are not known, although the delivery of fees to the city’s new attorney, the King’s serjeant Walter Moyle*, may have been made while Mulling was attending Parliament.7 CCA-CC-F/A/2, f. 34. This was evidently a busy year for Mulling, for at Michaelmas 1450 he had been chosen as deputy mayor and bailiff to Gervase Clifton*, positions which required him to be present in Canterbury, although, clearly, he must have been away at Westminster quite often, perhaps for a week at a time. His duties included accompanying his fellow bailiff, John Winter*, to deliver the city’s fee farm directly to the King, perhaps on one or other of Henry VI’s visits to Canterbury in February and August 1451.8 Ibid. ff. 31v, 38v; B.P. Wolffe, Hen. VI, 368-9. At Michaelmas 1452 Mulling was chosen as mayor in his own right and was elected for a consecutive term the following year.9 CCA-CC-F/A/2, ff. 39, 42v. By that time he was also alderman of Burgate ward, although when he first assumed this position is not known.10 Canterbury city recs., burghmote reg. 1298-1503, CCA-CC-O/A/1, f. 60v.

Little evidence survives of Mulling’s private or business affairs and his occupation is uncertain. In May 1436, when he was among a group of Canterbury men indicted for invading the close of St. Augustine’s abbey while making their annual visit to St. Lawrence’s hospital to give alms, he was described as a haberdasher, as he was to be again in 1448,11 KB27/706, rex rot. 37; 748, rot. 29; 749, rex rot. 18d. yet in February 1449 when he was among those to whom William Selowe* made a gift of goods and chattels, he was styled ‘grocer’, and on another occasion ‘yeoman’.12 CCR, 1447-54, p. 110; CP40/753, rot. 321. In terms of wealth, he appears to have been one of the less affluent members of Canterbury’s civic elite, although in 1450 he was assessed for the subsidy at an annual income of £8.13 E 179/124/218, rot. 3d.

Mulling made his will on 30 Sept. 1456. He asked to be buried in the cemetery of St. Augustine’s abbey next to his mother, while leaving 3s. 4d. for his obit at his parish church, that of St. Elphege, where masses were to be sung for his soul and those of his parents and benefactors for two years after his death. He also left small sums to the religious houses in Canterbury and two local hospitals. A small amount of jewelry was bequeathed to Alice, his servant, and an annuity of 6s. 8d. to his apprentice, John Pegeon, until he had finished his term. Mulling instructed his feoffees, William Benet, William Selowe and Thomas Prowde, to deliver seisin of his messuage in Canterbury to his widow, Elizabeth, but to sell his lands in the parish of Preston by Faversham and divide the proceeds between her, the prior of Christ Church for works at the cathedral, and the city’s poor. Mulling named three prominent local men, Selowe, Prowde and John Chamberlain as his executors, leaving them 20s. each for their trouble.14 Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Canterbury consist. ct. wills, PRC 32/2, f. 109. The date of his death is not recorded, nor is the grant of probate, but it is assumed he died shortly after making his will.