PAPEDY, Thomas

Papedy was the descendant of an ancient border family, once established at Dunglass in East Lothian, but by his time resident at Berwick-on-Tweed. In June 1392 Thomas Papedy and Agnes, his wife, were among the leading townspeople of Berwick who sued out a papal indulgence, and later in the same decade Thomas was listed among the creditors of the priory of Coldingham, a few miles north of the town. Our MP’s first appearance in the records may be in this latter context: in 1405-6 the list of the priory’s creditors included both Thomas Papedy senior and junior.2 Hist. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, viii. 480-90; CPL, iv. 325; Corresp. Priory of Coldingham (Surtees Soc. xii), app. pp. lxxix-xxxi. On chronological grounds, however, it is more likely that this younger Thomas was of the generation before our MP. He may have been the latter’s father, but another candidate for that role is a Papedy who had settled in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In May 1407 John Papedy of Newcastle was among a group of 13 merchants captured by pirates and taken to Harfleur.3 CPR, 1408-13, p. 92.

The first certain mention of the MP dates from 1429 when he emerged to a sudden prominence, elected to the Parliament summoned to meet on 22 Sept. as a representative for Newcastle.4 C219/14/5. Two years later he was one of four men, including John Wark, a merchant and former mayor of Berwick, who rendered account for 1,000 marks which Henry IV had granted the townsmen of Berwick to repair the damage inflicted by the rebellious earl of Northumberland in 1405. It is unclear when Papedy oversaw these repairs, although the account makes mention of a portion of this sum paid in 1414. Among the sums accounted for was £56 paid to ‘Thomas Papedy. senior’ for the repair of six tenements in Berwick, and these are likely to have been in our MP’s hands at the time of the account.5 E101/483/10; E364/66, rot. D. Little else is known of Papedy. At Michaelmas 1434 he was chosen as sheriff of Newcastle, and, in a different sort of expression of his local importance, in October 1436 he was among an influential group of feoffees, led by the earl of Northumberland and Bishop Alnwick of Lincoln, upon whom Robert Lambton* settled the nearby manor of Lambton.6 C219/14/5; DURH3/36, m. 12. He was dead by Easter term 1440 when his executors, namely his widow Joan and another Newcastle merchant, John Briggeham, were defendants in actions of debt totalling £50 sued by Merton College, Oxford. It may have been his son who was active as a merchant in Newcastle in the second half of the fifteenth century.7 CP40/717, rot. 199; Newcastle-upon-Tyne Customs Accts. 1454-1500 (Surtees Soc. ccii), 160-1.