POWER, Walter

A native of Bristol, Power was the son and namesake of a baker from the town.3 Power is to be distinguished from a fellow burgess and namesake, but it is not known whether the two men were related. An ironmonger by trade, this other Walter Power, who is known to have outlived the MP, resided in a tenement situated on the back of the Avon: Bristol RO, St. Leonard’s Vestry recs., 40365/D/2/25, 29; Overseas Trade (Bristol Rec. Soc. vii), 63; C241/228/37; Som. Feet of Fines (Som. Rec. Soc. xxii), 96-97. The elder Walter Power resided in ‘Knyfsmythstrete’ but his son probably lived in St. Nicholas Street.4 Gt. Red Bk. of Bristol, i (Bristol Rec. Soc. iv), 203-5; Bristol Wills (Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. 1886), 69. The will of Edmund Bierden of Bristol, dated Aug. 1435, refers to a tenement of his in that street which was situated next to the dwelling house of Walter Power, but it is not certain whether the Walter in question was the MP or his namesake the ironmonger: Bristol Wills, 125. It is not clear exactly when the elder Walter died: his wife, Alice, was certainly a widow when she and their son pursued a suit in the Chancery but it is impossible precisely to date their bill, from either the reign of Henry IV or that of Henry V. The bill reveals that the Powers possessed interests at Wells in Somerset as well as in Bristol, for it concerned a messuage and land in the cathedral city which she and the younger Walter had leased to the defendants, John Rowe, his wife and son, in the ‘tenth year of the present reign’ (that is, either 1406 or 1419). The parties had fallen into dispute over the terms of the lease, and the Rowes brought their own Chancery suit against the Powers for attempting to reoccupy the property.5 C1/5/123-4. The Rowes were not the Powers’ only lessees at Wells, for Alice and her son granted a 60-year lease of a newly constructed building there known as ‘Popscorner’, along with three shops and two acres of arable land, to Thomas Fylknappe, a local burgess and carpenter, in the spring of 1418. In the event, it proved a very short-lived arrangement, since Fylknappe died just over a year later and his executors surrendered the lease back to the Powers.6 CCR, 1419-22, p. 127. Later, Walter would sue a taverner from Wells over an alleged debt,7 CPR, 1429-36, p. 309. so it is likely that he retained interests in the city for the rest of his life.

In commercial terms, Power achieved far greater prominence than his father, for he became a merchant of considerable significance, dealing primarily in cloth and trading with Ireland, Gascony and Spain.8 E159/214, recogniciones Mich.; E159/201, recorda Mich. rots. 9, 23d; E122/18/25; DKR, xlviii. 299; Overseas Trade, 63. During the autumn of 1424, the Crown began proceedings against him in the Exchequer for allegedly trying to ship cloth to Waterford late in the previous year without paying customs. Power denied the charge; a subsequent examination of the customs accounts for Bristol showed that he had indeed paid the appropriate dues for his cargo; and in due course a jury at Bristol found in his favour.9 E159/201, recorda Mich. rots. 9, 23d. In the autumn of 1430, Power shipped consignments of cloth to Bordeaux,10 E122/18/25. and he himself visited that port in the following year. In December 1431, while in Bordeaux, he took a bond, bearing a penalty of £17 13s. 4d., from another Bristol merchant, John Talbot, apparently to ensure that an English merchantman, the Gabryell of Dartmouth, would follow a certain itinerary between Ireland and England. As a further security, Philip Russell and John Olyver entered a second bond on Talbot’s behalf, to guarantee that he would forfeit that penalty should he fail to perform the conditions of the first. Talbot died soon afterwards, and Power fell into dispute with his widow and executrix, Ellen, as well as with Russell and Olyver. Ellen sued him in the Chancery and the dispute was referred to arbitration at Michaelmas 1432, although with what result is not known.11 C1/11/38; CPR, 1429-35, p. 222. Three years later, Power was employed as an auditor for the purpose of resolving another quarrel at Bristol, between a fellow merchant, John Palmer, and the executors of John Fisher.12 CCR, 1435-41, pp. 30, 50.

As a leading merchant, Palmer was well qualified to join the common council at Bristol, of which he was a member by the late 1420s, to hold the positions of bailiff and sheriff and to represent the town in three Parliaments. He became bailiff within three months of his first Parliament, and in 1430, 1431, 1432 and 1433 he was nominated for the position of sheriff, an office to which he was finally appointed in September 1436. No doubt he would have become mayor in due course, had he not died just a few weeks before completing his term in the shrievalty. He was dead by 25 Aug. 1437, when the Crown appointed John Papenham to serve out the remainder of that term.13 Little Red Bk. Bristol, ii. 148; CFR, xvi. 8, 61, 113, 173, 301, 348.

If Power made a will, it has not survived, but he is known to have left money to the common coffer at Bristol. In December 1449 the common council decided that £20 of this gift should be put towards the repair of the town’s walls and other fortifications. The application of the gift for such purposes was also one of the matters dealt with at another meeting of the council in the following summer. Assuming Power married, it is possible that the John Power who received commissions to prepare ships at Bristol for Edward IV’s fleet in September 1461 was his son.14 Gt. Red Bk. i. 129-30; CPR, 1461-7, pp. 99, 100.