NORMAN, John

The MP, a London draper, is to be distinguished from the numerous other men of this name who were active in and around the capital in the first half of the fifteenth century, including a brewer, a goldsmith and a Household official who served as keeper of the petty wardrobe in the Tower.6 CCR, 1441-7, pp. 124, 128, 130; 1447-54, p. 36; CPR, 1446-52, p. 522; Cal. Letter Bk. London, I, 88, 103, 233; E403/683, m. 1; 715, m. 9. He apparently originated from Banbury in Oxfordshire, and, like many other members of London’s merchant elite, arrived in the city intending to pursue a career within one of its misteries or trades. Indeed, several other members of his family seem to have accompanied him there, including a brother, Richard (also a draper), and another relative, Joan, who became a nun. The date of his admission to the freedom is not recorded, although it is almost certain that he had issued from his apprenticeship, or else paid a fine for admission by redemption, by the mid 1420s, for in May 1426 he was one of a large group of drapers who were enfeoffed of the property in St. Swithin’s Lane which was to become Drapers’ Hall.7 Drapers’ Hall, London, deeds, A VIII. Few other details of his early career as a draper have come to light, but it is conceivable that his master had been William Botreaux I*, whom he served as an executor alongside Everard Flete* and John Trenewith.8 CPR, 1436-41, pp. 10, 321, 333; E13/140, rot. 26d. Norman’s later career within the Drapers’ Company is similarly poorly documented: apart from indications that he employed several apprentices, for whom he failed to pay enrolment fees, there is little to show his progression through the ranks of the freemen to the livery. Nevertheless, a rapid rise can at least be inferred from his growing prominence in the city at large and the wealth he accrued from his business dealings, although it was not until 1462 that he was elected as master of his company, by which time he was a distinguished former mayor and elder statesman of his craft. In the meantime, however, he continued to act as a feoffee for the Company’s holdings collectively known as ‘Drapers’ rent’ in St. Swithin’s parish.9 Johnson, i. 131-2, 340; Drapers’ Hall, deeds, A VI, 357.

Norman’s trading activities were typical of those of many members of his craft. He was involved in the buying and selling of cloth in London, entering into partnerships with other drapers such as Thomas Bachelor and John Porter, both of whom pledged their goods and chattels as security for the repayment of debts owed to him. He also seems to have supplied goods to members of other crafts, including tailors, fishmongers and vintners. Less is known of his links with suppliers and customers outside the city, although a debt of £20 owed by a Norfolk esquire to Norman and a London haberdasher suggests that the two men may have supplied goods to that part of the country.10 Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, p. 290; 1437-57, pp. 166, 169, 172, 178; CCR, 1454-61, p. 360; CPR, 1441-6, p. 18. Unlike fellow drapers such as Thomas Cook II* and Philip Malpas*, Norman did not supply cloth to the royal household in this period, but it is clear that he was keen to become involved in its export to the continent. In the year from Michaelmas 1429 he shipped no fewer than 220 short cloths, an amount which compares well with the quantities dispatched by Cook and Malpas that same year. Subsequently, however, Norman’s name does not appear among the lists of denizen merchants exporting goods to the continent, suggesting that he was concentrating more on the domestic markets.11 E122/161/11, mm. 1d, 7, 8d, 10-11. Nevertheless, his experience as a trader through the port of London appears to have led directly to his appointment as a collector of customs there in August 1433. He remained in office until the spring of 1440, and, despite the government’s increasingly precarious financial position, both he and his fellow collector, Thomas Chynnore, benefited from annual letters authorizing payment of their rewards. Similarly, his prominence as a merchant, as well as his successful civic career, were clearly responsible for his appointment on two occasions to hear appeals brought by men who had been convicted in the court of the admiralty, and in September 1460 to hear an appeal from the court of Calais.12 E403/721, m. 1; 723, m. 7; 725, m. 9; 731, m. 12; 733, m. 9; 736, m. 7; E122/73/10. His successful trading also put him in a good position to be able to lend money to the Crown, although unlike many of the staple merchants of London he was by no means a significant creditor of the King. In June 1442 he contributed £20 to a levy raised by London’s governors, while in September 1449, shortly after serving as one of the city’s MPs, he advanced a similar sum directly to the Exchequer. Norman also acted on behalf of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, in his financial dealings with the Crown: in 1433, and on three subsequent occasions, he received reassignments of payments to the earl after the original tallies were declared bad.13 Corp. London RO, jnl. 3, f. 137; E403/717, m. 10; 731, m. 10; 741, m. 9; 747, m. 7; 775, m. 13; CPR, 1461-7, p. 324.

The success of Norman’s business ventures can also be glimpsed in his property holdings in London which, in 1436, were said to be worth £18 p.a.14 E179/238/90; S.L. Thrupp, Merchant Class Med. London, 383. He had probably acquired most of them in the early 1430s, perhaps enabling him to move out of a tavern and adjoining buildings in Milk Street known as the Horn on the Hoop which he had previously leased from Simon Sely.15 Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, pp. 251-2. The most important of his new acquisitions was Le Gote on the Hoop in Westcheap in the parish of All Hallows Honey Lane, which he acquired in the summer of 1434 from the vintner Nicholas Bolthorp, and where he was to reside for the majority of his life. As well as the Gote, Norman also acquired other properties in the same parish, all of which he settled in 1456 on a group of feoffees which included his brother Richard, two aldermen and three prominent lawyers, Thomas Billing*, Thomas Urswyk II* and John Needham*. Probably about the same time, he bought a tenement known as ‘Le Leden Porche’ in the parish of All Hallows London Wall,16 Corp. London RO, hr 162/74, 166/6, 185/1. and in subsequent years augmented his holdings with further property in the same parish, that of St. Michael Queenhithe, and outside the city walls, in White Cross Street in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate.17 Ibid. 175/36, 184/18.

Like many of his fellow aldermen Norman also sought to purchase property in the surrounding countryside. The full extent and location of these holdings is not recorded, but they included the manor of Marches near Finchley, which came to him together with a house and other premises in Finchley and Hendon in 1439, and were to remain in his possession until 1453. Norman’s will also shows that he held property at Fulham and Hammersmith, which may have served as a country retreat during his latter years, to judge from a substantial bequest he made to Fulham parish church.18 London and Mdx. Feet of Fines, ii. 191; VCH Mdx. vi. 67; SC2/188/70, m. 3. What is less clear, is which, if any, of his holdings in London and Middlesex came to him through marriage, principally because the name of his first wife is not recorded. His second marriage took place late in his career when, a few years after the death of the London ironmonger, William Paxman, Norman married his widow, Agnes. Under the terms of Paxman’s will, proved in August 1457, Agnes was left two-thirds of his goods and chattels as well as a life interest in various unspecified properties in London, Bromley in Kent, Kingston in Surrey and at Windsor and Reading in Berkshire. After her death these were to revert to Paxman’s two sons, one of whom, John, came before the mayor in February 1466 to acknowledge a quitclaim to Norman and Agnes in respect of actions and demands relating to his late father’s goods.19 PCC 9 Stokton; Cal. P. and M. London, 1458-82, p. 31; CPR, 1461-7, p. 510.

Norman is first found active in civic affairs in December 1430 when he attested the election of London’s MPs for the first time. More than seven years elapsed before he came to hold office himself, although when he did so he became a key figure within the city’s administration. From March 1438 onwards he was regularly appointed to committees formed to deal with particular issues affecting the city: these ranged from the frequently summoned ones concerning tithes, to the more urgent meetings which considered matters to do with the Italian community and the increasingly strained relations with the college of St. Martin le Grand.20 London jnls. 3, ff. 11, 36; 4, ff. 41, 55, 127, 130v, 217, 228; 5, ff. 15v, 17, 49, 60v, 66, 70, 97, 196. His abilities as an administrator were evidently recognized in the highest circles of the city’s government, and undoubtedly contributed to his election in September 1438 as one of the London’s four auditors, a post which traditionally formed the first stage in the civic cursus honorum. Unusually, however, Norman held this post for no less than five consecutive years, whereas it was normal for citizens to relinquish it after just two, suggesting that his abilities stood out among his peers. Norman himself harboured rather greater ambitions, and in late August 1438 had put himself forward as a candidate for the aldermanry of the ward of Farringdon Without. Although he received five of the votes of those entitled to select the new alderman, he was unsuccessful on this occasion.21 Ibid. 3, f. 166. Three years later, however, with more experience of civic government he was nominated along with Stephen Forster* and the grocer Nicholas Wyfold for Castle Baynard Ward, and prevailed. His election took place on 11 Oct. and he was duly sworn in the following day. In the meantime he had been re-elected as an auditor and was to be elected once again in September 1442.22 Ibid. f. 97; Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 262.

Further responsibilities came Norman’s way in the spring of 1442 with his appointment as a royal tax collector in the city. Shortly afterwards, on 9 Apr., he was chosen by the court of aldermen to collect the sum of 2,000 marks which was to be raised for a loan to the Crown. It was soon after this that Norman saw an opportunity to move his aldermanry to the now vacant ward of Cheap, which included his own parish of All Hallows Honey Lane. His election was confirmed on 6 July.23 Jnl. 3, ff. 116, 140-140v. Thus far his service as an auditor had precluded him from election to the shrievalty, but after he finally relinquished the former office in the autumn of 1443 his fellow aldermen wasted no time in choosing him as one of the two sheriffs. Inevitably there were occasions during his term of office when his actions were resented by those he dealt with. In December 1446 a Southwark merchant named John Kent entered into a bond in the sum of £120 with the chamberlain so that his grievances against the former sheriff and his officers, which had been placed before the barons of the Exchequer, could be heard by arbiters in the city.24 Cal. P. and M. London, 1437-57, p. 103. By contrast, there is every indication that Norman’s service was highly valued by his fellow citizens: in November 1445 he was granted a special licence by the mayor and aldermen to have and enclose a plot of the common soil of the city near a tavern called the White Bull in Smithfield, which he was to have on a 60-year lease at the nominal rent of a red rose.25 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 310; jnl. 4, f. 105v. Further testimony to his standing came in the form of his election to Parliament in January 1449, a few months after he had been persuaded to serve a renewed term as one of the city auditors. On 12 Aug., a few weeks after the dissolution, the court of aldermen authorized the payment of the substantial sum of £10 10s. for his expenses as an MP during the final session, at Winchester. In the event, a second Parliament was summoned that same year to meet on 6 Nov. at Westminster. Norman was re-elected, the only one of the city’s four MPs chosen in January who was returned again in September, perhaps in order to bolster the efforts being made by the Commons to secure a renewal of a ban on the importation of merchandise from the duchy of Burgundy.26 Jnl. 5, ff. 4, 13v, 16v. It is unclear what part Norman played in the proceedings of this turbulent assembly, which was hurriedly disbanded in the first week of June 1450, as news of Jack Cade’s uprising in the south-east reached Leicester, where the Lords and Commons were then sitting. It is nevertheless possible that it was his service in two successive Parliaments that led to his inclusion with other prominent Londoners in a royal commission, headed by the dukes of Exeter and Buckingham, appointed in the spring of 1451 to hear charges against the courtier John Trevelyan, popularly reviled as one of the associates of the duke of Suffolk and denounced by both Cade’s rebels and by the Parliament of 1450-1.

In October 1453, after 12 years as an alderman, Norman was finally elected mayor of London. As was usual, the elections of the mayor and sheriffs were followed by a procession to Westminster for the formal presentation of the new officials to the King. According to a near contemporary source, Norman’s mayoralty heralded the introduction of a new practice when, following his election, he

was rowed by water to Westmynster wt the Aldermen; and alle the chief of the Comoners of the cite went also thedir by barges; which of tymes owte of mynd was used before season by the Mairs to ride allwey by land to take their charge. Wherfore the watermen of Themmys made of song of this John Norman wherof the begynnyng was ‘Rowe thy bote Norman’ which newe custume was welle allowed.27 Chrons. London ed. Kingsford, 164; Gt. Chron. London ed. Thomas and Thornley, 186-7.

The literal truth of the chronicler’s claim can certainly be questioned, judging from references in earlier sources to waterborne processions after mayoral elections, such as the election of William Walderne† in 1422. Nevertheless, the fact that Norman was seen to be the originator of such processions on the Thames does suggest that it was only from this time onwards that the processions were always held on the river, or perhaps that the celebrations which followed his election were particularly lavish. Certainly, he was not received by the King who had lapsed in a catatonic state and remained secluded at Windsor.28 R. Withington, English Pageantry, ii. 4-6; Archs. Grocers’ Co. ed. Kingdon, i. 149.

Following the end of his term of office Norman maintained a high profile in London’s government throughout the 1450s. In December 1454 he acted as a deputy for his successor, Stephen Forster, and for the rest of his life his experience was regularly drawn upon by the city’s various ad hoc committees. He continued to attend meetings of the court of aldermen, and by the 1460s he was the most senior member of the bench, his name normally being listed immediately after those of the mayor and recorder.29 London jnls. 5, ff. 212-13, 253, 256; 6, ff. 28, 68, 91-92, 114, 118, 132, 164, 182, 184, 201, 226, 270; Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 273, 275, 288, 299, 300, 302, 309, 311, 313, 315, 321-4, 327-9, 331, 333, 337, 340-1, 345, 348-9, 353-4, 361, 366, 370, 372, 380-1, 383, 392, 395, 399, 401; L, 8-9, 12-14, 16, 20-21, 24, 29, 34, 37-38, 40, 45, 55-56, 60, 61, 66, 68, 72, 73. His status and the experience he possessed were greatly valued by his fellow Londoners, no more so than during the political crisis which resulted in the deposition of Henry VI. Unlike the London staplers, Norman had not previously been associated with the growing opposition to Henry and his government, and thus it was significant that in July 1460 he was among those members of the court of aldermen who were charged with arranging a loan to the earl of Salisbury, whose forces had recently entered the gates. The decision not to allow Queen Margaret’s army into London the following year was another indication of the ‘conversion’ of men such as Norman, and thus the City as a whole, to the cause of the Yorkists. The first Parliament of Edward IV’s reign was clearly an important occasion for the City which had recently pledged its support for the new King, and it was no doubt this which prompted the aldermen to choose Norman once again to represent them.30 Jnl. 6 , ff. 51, 254. It is probable that his relations with the new rulers were cordial, and in July 1463 he, along with William Marowe* and Hugh Wyche*, provided loans of £115 3s. 3d. to Edward IV.31 E401/810, m. 23.

The remaining years of Norman’s life saw him gradually become less active in the affairs of the city. His abilities and experience were still valued: in May 1462 he was among those selected by the mayor and aldermen to hear an action brought by a chapman from Buckinghamshire against a London mercer, while in February 1467 he was chosen by the Crown to deliver Newgate gaol of two Londoners.32 Cal. P. and M. London, 1458-82, p. 29. He made his final appearance at the court of aldermen in the autumn of the same year, by which time he had already begun to draw up a series of testamentary documents. In the first of these, dated 10 Sept. 1467 and enrolled in the court of husting in London, he bequeathed a quitrent from his property in the waterfront parish of St. Michael Queenhithe to the abbey of St. Mary Graces. Just over a month later he drew up a will concerning the bulk of his property in London and Middlesex. His tenements in All Hallows Honey Lane were to be sold by his executors, his brother Richard, Thomas Rigby, gentleman, and John Barston, a priest, with some of the proceeds used to fund exhibitions at the university of Oxford and to pay the expenses of his kinsman William Broun who was studying there. In the absence of any children who might inherit his estates Norman made provision for other relatives, notably his brother who received some of his holdings in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate. He asked his executors to sell other tenements in the parish and directed that the proceeds be used to pay an annual stipend of 20s. to his sister Joan, a nun of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate. Turning to his property in All Hallows London Wall, principally Le Leden Porche, Norman decreed that this was also to be sold in order to provide the sum of £5 for repairs to St. Helen’s priory and to the priory church of Chesthunt in Hertfordshire, and another stipend of 20s., this time for Margaret Norman of Banbury. Finally, he asked his executors to sell his property in Fulham and Hammersmith with the proceeds to be used for repairs to the churches of All Hallows Honey Lane and in Fulham. The following March Norman drew up a third will in which he established a chantry in the church of St. Mary le Bow using a quitrent issuing from tenements close to the church. Thus far he had not felt it necessary to make any arrangements concerning his goods and chattels, but on 13 May 1468 he drew up a testament in which he asked for burial in a chapel in All Hallows Honey Lane where he was accustomed to sit during Mass. He made arrangements for 1,000 masses to be sung for his soul, and left the sum of 100 marks for a priest to pray for him, his parents, his wives and his friends for a period of ten years. He further stipulated that Barston, one of his executors, was to be the first chantry priest. Other bequests included the sum of 6s. 8d. to each of the inmates of the Drapers’ almshouse, and a number of gifts of silver plate and other household goods, the principal beneficiaries of which were his brother and another draper, Richard Saunder, whose wife was to receive bedding and linen to the value of ten marks. Norman also made generous provision for his household servants who were to have food, drink, clothing and wages ‘accordyng to ther degrees’ for a year after his death, while he left additional bequests to his cook and other named members of his establishment. The residue of his estate was to be disposed of by his executors for pious works. The testament was proved on 5 Oct. the same year.33 Cal. Letter Bk. London, L, 73; Cal. Wills ct. Husting, London ed. Sharpe, ii. 564, 578; PCC 25 Godyn.