NELSON, Thomas

Nelson’s parentage and his place of birth are unknown, but his long involvement in the affairs of York began when he purchased the freedom of the city in 1433.5 Freemen of York (Surtees Soc. xcvi), 147. Styled a merchant, it seems likely that he was already well established in trade by this time: four years later he and his wife were admitted to the York Mercers’ Company. Like most of his fellow mercers, he appears to have traded principally with the Hanseatic towns and in 1440 he claimed damages of £20 for goods wrongfully detained by the authorities in Danzig.6 Hanserecesse 1256-1430, ed. Koppman, ii. 542.

In February 1442 Nelson was elected one of the chamberlains of York, thereby embarking on a career in civic government that would span five decades. More than four years elapsed before, in September 1447, he took on his next position of responsibility as one of the city’s sheriffs. The relatively long interval between these offices may have owed something to the demands of Nelson’s continued involvement in overseas trade, although gaps in the customs records make this difficult to reconstruct in detail. Membership of the council of 24 almost certainly followed at the end of his shrieval year, and it was in this capacity that, in January 1449, he witnessed his first parliamentary election. Nelson’s membership of the junior council was not long-lived and he was soon elevated to the aldermanic bench. The precise date is unclear, but he had achieved the distinction by October 1450 when he was among the aldermen who were present in the council chamber to witness the parliamentary election of that year.7 C219/15/6; 16/1.

On 26 Feb. 1453 Nelson was himself elected to attend the Parliament summoned to meet at Reading on the following 6 Mar. Along with his fellow Member and alderman, Thomas Danby*, he left York within days. They returned after the end of the session, and set out once more in early April for the Parliament’s second session, this time at Westminster. Nelson may not have remained there for the entire session, for he received wages for 63 days between April and July, 12 days less than his fellow MP. On 12 Nov. Parliament was again summoned to meet at Reading, but immediately prorogued because of the King’s illness. Both men made the long journey from York for the meeting and Nelson received wages for seven days’ service (a day less than his colleague). In total he received £15 of the £20 due to him for parliamentary wages in the fiscal year 1453-4. On 11 Feb. 1454 Parliament reconvened at Reading, but after only three days in session it was moved to Westminster. According to the city chamberlains’ accounts for 1454-5 Nelson was paid £6 4s. for the arrears of his wages for the previous year, but nothing for his attendance at the Parliament during 1454. While Danby was paid for a further 70 days’ service between 8 Feb. and 28 Apr. 1454, it seems that Nelson, who had been elected as mayor on 3 Feb. that year, remained in York and failed to attend the Commons.8 C219/16/2; York City Chamberlains’ Acct. Rolls, 84, 96.

Nelson’s mayoral year proved to be an eventful one. On 14 May 1454 Henry Holand, duke of Exeter, and Thomas Percy, Lord Egremont, fomenting rebellion in the north, organised illicit meetings of the citizens and urged them to join their host. Nelson, as mayor, and the recorder, Guy Roucliffe, resisted the rebel lords’ demands and were assaulted by their followers. Having been imprisoned for two hours in the Minster, they finally submitted to the rebels and handed over the keys to the city, but they were again attacked by an angry mob as they were led to Bootham Bar. Alarmed by the news of events in York, the duke of York, then Protector, himself rode north, arriving in the city on 19 May. Exeter and Egremont fled to raise rebellion in the wider county. Duke Richard remained at York until 20 June, by which time Nelson and the aldermen were once again in control of the city. Heightened tensions remained, however, and on 24 Sept. Nelson was appointed, ex officio, to an ad hoc commission to arrest those making unlawful congregations.9 R.A. Griffiths, King and Country, 334-52; R.L. Storey, End of House of Lancaster, 131-2; KB9/148/1/15.

It is difficult to ascertain whether Nelson found himself the victim of the insurgents’ attacks by virtue of his office, or because he was personally identified with the Nevilles and the duke of York’s regime in Westminster. The latter seems improbable, as there is no evidence of his affiliation with the Nevilles or any of their servants, nor was he present in the Commons when York was appointed Protector in March 1454. It may be, however, that some of the hostility directed towards him was of a personal nature. When indictments were heard in York in June 1454 it was alleged that on 11 Nov. 1453 Nelson had been assaulted at Tadcaster (perhaps on his way south to Parliament) by William Barton, a follower of the Percys and the duke of Exeter.10 KB9/148/1/6; Griffiths, 343. Equally, commercial rivalries within the city might have contributed to the tensions. Barton himself was associated with York merchants and had previously been in dispute with William Aberforth, a mercer and member of the council of 24. Another member of one of York’s leading mercantile families among those indicted for supporting Egremont’s attack on the Neville wedding party in 1453 was Nicholas Blackburn (nephew of his namesake, the MP).11 C1/9/236; CPR, 1446-52, p. 492; KB9/148/1/16.

Nelson himself continued to be active in trade throughout this period. In 1452-3 he imported various commodities valued at £66 10s. through Kingston-upon-Hull, and seven years later he exported 15 unfinished cloths through the same port. During the early 1460s his imports through Hull included lead, wine and leather.12 Customs Accts. Hull, 1453-90 (Yorks. Arch. Rec. Ser. cxliv), 12-13, 25, 27-28, 30, 34, 43-44, 46-47, 62. He continued as well to export goods, mainly cloth, and in 1468 he had a share in £5,000-worth of goods in a Hull ship, the Valentine, lost when the English attacked Hanseatic shipping.13 Hansisches Urkundenbuch, ix. 369. Throughout the 1450s and 60s he also continued to bring litigation against a host of debtors, mainly local traders in the local and national courts, testimony to his involvement in domestic trade.14 CPR, 1446-52, p. 198; 1452-61, pp. 384, 456; 1467-77, pp. 9, 431.

The traumas of his first mayoral year were not sufficient to dissuade Nelson from playing a prominent role in the government of York until his death. At the end of his term of office he returned to the ranks of the aldermen, and it was in this capacity that he witnessed the election to the Yorkist Parliament of October 1460. Interestingly, he had been conspicuous by his absence from the council chamber in November 1459 when the electors assembled to return Members to the ‘Parliament of Devils’ at Coventry.15 C219/16/5, 6. In January 1459 he had purchased a royal pardon as ‘Thomas Nelson of York, merchant, alias late mayor and alderman’,16 C67/42, m. 12. but this precaution almost certainly related to possible litigation arising out of his year in office, rather than any political motivation. In May 1461 he was named, alongside the mayor, William Stocton II*, and another alderman, John Thirsk*, to a commission of oyer and terminer to hear allegations of treason made against John Morton, clerk. In February 1465 Nelson was elected mayor for a second time. By virtue of his office he was appointed in the following month, alongside John Neville, earl of Northumberland, as a commissioner to arrest John Denton, former prior of Holy Trinity, York, and to deliver him to the King to answer charges relating to his alleged riotous behaviour. At the end of his second mayoral year his extraordinary duties declined in number, although he remained one of the most senior aldermen and was occasionally appointed to ad hoc commissions. His duties as an alderman remain for the most part obscure until the regular series of House Books begin in March 1476. A curious entry in the chamberlains’ accounts for 1475-6 records a payment of 40s. to another alderman, William Holbeck*, in recompense for money paid by him to Nelson ‘for the matter touching Thomas Bampton, late of York, the King’s felon’, but no details of the ‘matter’ are known.17 York City Chamberlains’ Acct. Rolls, 157.

More evidence survives of Nelson’s private affairs during the later 1460s and 1470s. He continued to be active in the overseas trade, exporting cloth and importing wine and other merchandise through Kingston-upon-Hull.18 Customs Accts. Hull, 75, 78, 98, 102, 106, 116-17, 123-4, 128, 130-1, 139, 168. Remaining a member of the York Mercers’ Company to the end of his life, by 1462 he had also joined the fellowship of the Calais staple. It was as such that on 15 Oct. that year (along with his fellow alderman and stapler, William Stocton) he purchased a general pardon.19 C67/45, m. 29. No evidence survives of Nelson’s export of raw wool to Calais, but he was certainly involved in the affairs of the Staple Company. In the 1470s two merchants along with one Thomas Dayvell, Nelson’s servant, brought a petition in Chancery against the mayor and constables of the staple. They alleged that Thomas Benet, another stapler, had wrongfully sued an action against them before the mayor relating to an obligation concerning Nelson’s observance of an award made by the court.20 C1/64/343. Nelson’s other business dealings also frequently resulted in litigation. The surviving York sheriffs’ court book of 1471-8, as well as the records of the court of common pleas, show him to have been a frequent plaintiff in actions of debt against a variety of local tradesmen, as well as trading contacts further afield.21 York City Archs., sheriffs’ ct. bk. 1471-8, E25; CP40/758, rot. 151d; 796, rot. 200d; 814, rot. 20d; 883, rots. 1, 86, 87d, 377, 380d, 384d. Allegations made against him in Chancery also suggest that he had a ruthless streak to his character, not adverse to using litigation to bring pressure on debtors and other business associates. Probably in the late 1460s William Newby complained to the chancellor that Nelson had taken advantage of his ‘grete neyde’ and lent him £14 to purchase certain merchandise from him. He had bound Newby in an obligation for 40 marks to repay the money and when he had defaulted he brought an action at common law at Westminster resulting in Newby’s outlawry. He had then informed Newby of the Westminster court’s decision, demanded wheat and oats to the value of ten marks as well as an annual rent from his properties in York worth 26s. 8d. in satisfaction of the original debt, and threatened to have him put in prison unless he entered into a new obligation to pay Nelson 25 marks. Newby claimed to have paid Nelson a total of £21 16s. 8d. in satisfaction of the original debt of £14.22 C1/37/33.

Nelson appears to have been equally shrewd in the accumulation of property in and around York. The rate at which he purchased or otherwise acquired property is impossible to reconstruct (he does not appear in either the 1435 or 1450 subsidy assessments for the city), but anecdotal evidence suggests he was keen to expand his holdings. From the 1450s he rented a number of properties in the city, including his capital messuage next to the Cranegarth, from the wardens of Ouse Bridge, and from the late 1460s he also rented a tenement from the wardens of Foss Bridge.23 York Bridgemasters’ Accts. ed. Stell (York Arch. Trust, 2003), 102, 107, 273, 282, 307, 413, 422, 435, 449. In August 1463 the feoffees of his old friend, William Stocton, granted him all the lands in their keeping.24 York Memoranda Bk. ii (Surtees Soc. cxxv), 202. In April 1474 Margaret Leigh, daughter and heir of Thomas Duffeld (a member of a York merchant family whose wealth and purchase of land had allowed them to rise to gentle status), settled her property in the city and in Skelton, Yorkshire, on Nelson, and later that year the widow of Margaret’s kinsman, John, quitclaimed her interest in the property to him.25 Ibid. iii (Surtees Soc. clxxxvi), 174-5. Some of his property dealings also appear to have ended in dispute. In May 1475 he complained to the mayor that Thomas Wady had unlawfully disseised him of eight messuages in the city. The jury found in Nelson’s favour and awarded damages and costs totalling £4 13s. 4d. Two years later, acting with his son, William, Nelson acquired some long-disputed property in the Thursdaymarket from the heirs of the mercer, Thomas Scauceby†, following an arbitration arranged by the mayor.26 Ibid. ii. 270-1; iii. 171; York House Bks. i. 133.

Nelson made his will on 4 Nov. 1478. He asked to be buried in Holy Trinity priory, York, beside his recently-deceased wife, Katherine. In 1474 the couple had founded a perpetual chantry there, endowing it with an annual rent of 33s. 4d. from a tenement in the city. He made further provision for his soul in the priory, as well as with the city’s mendicant friars and at St. Mary, Castlegate. Concern for his soul’s welfare was also evident in the bequests of £20 for the marriage of ‘poor virgins’ and £10 for the repair of local bridges and roads. Thomas Dayvell, his apprentice who had earlier fallen foul of the Calais staplers on his master’s behalf, was rewarded with a bequest of £20, and was admitted to the freedom of York within weeks of Nelson’s death. Other named servants received small gifts, while each of his numerous grandchildren received ten marks (except for George Wasteners, his daughter Agnes’s son, who already had a large inheritance of land). Nelson provided for his heir, his elder son Thomas, by settling upon him his property in York, Kingston-upon-Hull, Cottingham, Brantingham, Skelton, Doncaster, Bolton-on-Dene, Halifax, Fenton and East and West Lutton. Remainder of these properties was made to his second son, William, who also received property in York, as well as in Ricall, Poppleton and Shirburn. All this was on condition that Nelson’s debts, not exceeding 100 marks, were settled from the revenues of these properties. In default of heirs from both his sons, his executors were instructed to sell Nelson’s property for the benefit of his soul.27 York registry wills, prob. reg. 5, ff. 211v-12v; Yorks. Chantry Survey (Surtees Soc. xci), 83; Freemen of York, 207.

In the event, Neleson did not die for several more years. The frequency of his attendance at council meetings declined from the late 1470s and in April 1480 he was said to have been too ill to attend one such assembly. His subsequent attendance was intermittent, but in May 1482 he agreed to find two men for the city’s military contingent being assembled for Richard, duke of Gloucester’s Scottish campaign. In August 1483 he was present at York for the visit of the duke, now Richard III, with his queen, towards the costs of which he contributed £20. He was dead by 22 Mar. the following year, when probate of his will was granted.28 York House Bks. i. 214, 256, 291, 316; York registry wills, prob. reg. 5, f. 212v.

Nelson’s sons maintained their father’s interests, both in trade and in the affairs of the city. The elder, Thomas, served as one of the marshals of York from 1484, and with his wife, Joan, was admitted to the guild of Corpus Christi four years later. His career, however, was cut short: he made his will on 14 Aug. 1488 and probate was granted on 16 Sept. the following year.29 York House Bks. i. 316-17; Reg. Guild Corpus Christi, York (Surtees Soc. lvii), 123. The younger, William, was chosen as an alderman in 1499 (the same year as he served as master of the York Mercers’ Company), represented the city four times in the Parliaments of Henry VII and Henry VIII, and in 1517 was elected mayor while imprisoned in the Fleet following a disputed aldermanic election. The King set the mayoral election aside and named John Doghton instead. Being unable to go against the King’s wishes, Nelson subsequently resigned as an alderman. He died in 1525.30 The Commons 1509-58, iii. 3-4.