MUNDY, John

The long-lived Mundy was admitted to the freedom of Wilton in April 1416, then being given formal letters authorizing his burghal privileges to be quit of tolls in other towns throughout the country,3 Wilton deeds G25/1/220. facilitating his trade as a chapman or mercer.4 He was styled ‘mercer’ in a pardon granted him in 1452, and ‘chapman’ in the following year: C241/235/2; C67/40, m. 30; CP40/768, rot. 270. He seems to have prospered in a modest way, thereby acquiring landed holdings in Wiltshire which provided an annual income of at least £3.5 E179/196/118. By the 1430s his property in Wilton included a tenement which was leased to him for life, and for over 23 years from 1437 he had in his possession the meadow of ‘Busmesford’ next to Fouleston bridge.6 SC6/1062/2; Wilton stewards’ accts. G25/1/88, 89. Mundy is not known to have occupied a borough office until 1430, when he became steward. During his term of office he stood surety at the Wiltshire elections to the Parliament of 1431, conducted in Wilton, for the attendance in the Commons of the landowner William Darell*, who was currently under treasurer of England, although he is not otherwise recorded in connexion with men of Darell’s standing.7 C219/14/2.

Mundy gained election for his home town to the Parliament which assembled on 21 Jan. 1437. Although he was not returned again, he appears to have impressed his fellow burgesses, who in the following autumn chose him as mayor for the first of at least three terms. Active in the administration of Wilton for several years, Mundy is recorded taking on other tasks for the local authorities besides his official duties. For instance, in 1439-40 he received 13s. 4d. for riding to see the borough’s lord, Cardinal Beaufort, on the business of the community, and three years later he paid another visit to the cardinal, then at Canford in Dorset. As the mayor’s deputy he took a prominent part in the council’s negotiations with the prior of Ivychurch, and as mayor himself in 1454-5 he led a delegation to Salisbury to deal with a dispute concerning the local hospital of St. Giles.8 Wilton stewards’ accts. G25/1/88, 89; gen. entry bk. G25/1/21, f. 1. On occasion he was called upon to provide mainprise for Wilton’s MPs, doing so for John atte Fenne* in 1442, George Howton* in 1447 and both Members, John Uffenham alias Laurence* and Robert atte Fenne* in 1450.9 C219/15/2, 4; 16/1. Naturally, he also witnessed their property transactions.10 CCR, 1447-54, p. 167.

When the escheator of Wiltshire conducted inquisitions post mortem at Wilton, Mundy was sometimes asked to serve on the jury, doing so following the deaths of John, earl of Arundel, in 1436, William Alexander* in 1448 and Richard Strickland* ten years later. It is less certain that he was the man who performed a like function in 1440 with regard to Isabel, countess of Warwick, for that jury met at Marlborough.11 C139/71/37; 96/3; 130/10; 169/35b; 176/27. Mundy died in 1468, when his name on the list of burgesses of Wilton was annotated ‘mort’.12 Wilton gen. entry bk. ff. 596, 598. His place in the administration of the borough was taken by a kinsman, Richard Mundy, who had been admitted as a burgess at Michaelmas 1460. Richard was elected King’s bailiff ten years later, officiated as the town clerk in 1482-3 and became steward the following year.13 Ibid. ff. 29, 42, 43, 46, 47, 581-9, 591-8, 601. Richard was a juror at inquisitions post mortem conducted in Wilton in 1460 on Humphrey, duke of Buckingham, 1471 on John, earl of Worcester, and 1483 on Richard Warre*: C139/180/59; C140/34/53; 84/37. Our MP’s relationship, if any, to the much more prominent Wiltshire lawyer who shared his name has not been ascertained.14 That John Mundy (d.1484), a ‘gentleman’ who lived in a ‘mansion’ at Stratford sub Castle, accumulated land in Old Sarum, Ugford (previously belonging to the Giles family), Winterbourne Stoke and Newton Tony, and the bp. of Salisbury granted him a ‘concession’ on ‘le Bisshoppesdown’: E42/180, 217; Wilton deeds, G25/1/209; Wilts. Hist. Centre, Misc. deeds, 492/51, 215-18. In 1452 he obtained a long Exchequer lease of property in Christchurch Twynham, Hants (and was to remember the priory there in his will): CFR, xviii. 268. An associate of the baronial family of Hungerford, he attested the Wilts. elections of 1459 when the heir to the barony, Thomas Hungerford* was elected, and he supported Margaret, Lady Hungerford and Botreaux, in her widowhood: Tropenell Cart. ed. Davis, i. 60-62, ii. 221-2, 257; Hungerford Cart. ii. (Wilts. Rec. Soc. lx), nos. 1444, 1427, 1452-5; CCR, 1468-76, no. 1078. This brought him into the sphere of the highly acquisitive lawyer Thomas Tropenell*, and as sub escheator of Wilts. in 1470 he connived with Tropenell to acquire the manor of Little Durnford, allegedly ‘labouring’ juries and using fraud, bribery, ‘dobilnesse, sotilte and new invencions’: Tropenell Cart. ii. 209-12, 289-94, 316-38, 343; C1/44/54-58; 49/5; 55/105-6. Mundy attested the Wilts. elections of 1478, and was a juror at the post mortem held at Salisbury on William Ludlow II* in 1479: C140/66/36. His will was dated 5 Mar. 1484 and after his death bef. 19 May that year he was buried in the nave of St. Edmund’s church, Salisbury: PCC 14 Logge (PROB11/7, f. 14). Mundy died a wealthy man, able to leave monetary bequests of at least £195 to his wife Joan, the wid. of William Ayssh, and his three sons and five daughters, and in addition he remitted debts of £66 13s. 4d. Some of this wealth came from the production of wool – his bequests included more than 1,000 sheep.