MYLDEWE, Richard

Myldewe appeared by attorney in the court of common pleas in Michaelmas term 1439 to sue a skinner from Hayling, Hampshire, for a debt of £2, which had probably arisen from his trading concerns.4 CP40/715, rot. 440. His background remains obscure, but it is quite likely that he had already settled in Chichester, a few miles away, where his brother William had taken up residence. In 1444 Richard and his wife acquired a 30-year lease on a house in the East Street of the city, for which they agreed to pay an annual rent of 20s., and the two brothers were associated in November 1450 in the acquisition of an acre of land in ‘la Portfield’ and half an acre in the fields at Rumboldeswyke, just outside the city walls. These holdings stayed in Richard’s possession until his death.5 C139/91/18; Suss. Arch. Collns. lxxxix. 136, 138.

Little is recorded about Myldewe’s commercial activities, save for his occasional suits in the court of common pleas against other merchants from Sussex, who defaulted on payments of their debts, and his description as ‘merchant alias brewer’ in a royal pardon.6 e.g. CP40/780, rot. 279; C47/44, m. 6. Participation in the commercial activities of the citizens of Chichester led to his election as a constable of the local staple in 1452, and it was while holding this office that he was returned to his first Parliament in the following year. His brother, who attested the electoral indenture on 26 Feb., died not long afterwards, and in 1456 Richard witnessed a deed whereby William’s son and heir John settled on his widowed mother property abutting onto the east wall of the city.7 Suss. Arch. Collns. lxxxix. 140.

Myldewe served as mayor of the Chichester staple for more than two years in the late 1450s, and was elected to Parliament again very soon after the end of his term in October 1459. Clearly now numbered among the city’s elite, he was one of the 24 citizens who together with the mayor and bailiff attested the parliamentary indenture dated 22 Sept. 1460, and was himself chosen mayor at least twice in the following decade. During the Readeption of Henry VI he took out a pardon, describing himself as lately mayor of Chichester.8 C219/16/6; C67/44, m. 6. During his last recorded mayoral year, in July 1470 he was associated as a co-feoffee with the former shire knight Thomas Tauk* and with the lawyer John Stanney† in a conveyance to John Arundel, bishop of Chichester, and others of a tenement in West Street which they held by gift of Richard Barkshire. Mydewe once more attested Chichester’s electoral indenture for the Parliament of 1472, but although he occasionally acted as a witness to local deeds he is not known to have held any of the civic offices again before his death some 15 years later.9 Suss. Arch. Collns. lxxxix. 141; C219/17/2.

In his will, made on 3 Jan. 1484, Myldewe requested burial in the graveyard of the Franciscan friary in Chichester. As his wife was already dead and he had no surviving children, he disposed of his real estate to others. He bequeathed his house in the road known as Little London to a widow named Joan Asshle for her lifetime, stipulating that on her death it was to pass to Richard Dorkyng and his heirs, while on Myldewe’s death Dorkyng was to take immediate possession of all his other property in the city and suburbs, provided that he kept the testator’s obit for ten years at the cost of 10s. p.a. Part of this sum was to be given to the six priests officiating at the ceremony and the rest spent on food and drink for the refreshment of Myldewe’s executors, friends and poor neighbours. If the obit was not celebrated within a week of its due date the mayor and citizens were permitted to enter into any of Myldewe’s tenements in Little London, or into a barn nearby, and take the rents and profits for the repair of the city walls. Myldewe’s garden outside the east gate,which had once belonged to his late brother, was to be sold and the money used for prayers for the souls of William and his wife. Dorkyng and Joan Asshle were the residuary legatees and executors. The will was proved on 4 Sept. 1487. Making his own will five years later, in July 1492, Dorkyng passed on the late MP’s property to his own son, Richard, requiring him to fulfill the obligation to provide for the obits of the Myldewe brothers for the remaining five years of the term specified.10 Ibid. lxxxvii. 4-5, 9; lxxxix. 142.