TAMWORTH, Henry II

Tamworth was almost certainly a member of the Sussex family of that name, and probably the younger brother of John, sometime mayor of Winchelsea and bailiff of Hastings. Like his putative brother, he claimed exemption – as a Portsman of Winchelsea – from parliamentary taxation in the hundreds of Gostrow, Guestling and Staple, Sussex, from 1409.2 E179/225/36, 38, 40, 41. Unlike John, however, he appears not to have participated in the government of the Sussex Cinque Ports.

Before the end of September 1426, Archbishop Chichele appointed his servant, Nicholas Brockhill*, bailiff of Hythe. Brockhill held the bailiff’s court in Hythe on the 30th of that month, where he was received by the Portsmen and swore to uphold their liberties, but by 5 Oct. he had appointed Tamworth as his deputy.3 Hythe ct. bk. H 1018, f. 57. The relationship between the two men is obscure, but it seems that Tamworth had previously resided in the Port. Thereafter, he held the majority of the bailiff’s courts, usually about a dozen a year, with Brockhill attending in person on only four occasions between September 1426 and March 1435. It was as deputy bailiff that Tamworth was elected to his only Parliament in April 1432, travelling to Westminster with John Leigh*. On 7 Dec. the following year, again deputizing for Brockhill, Tamworth attended his first of two meetings of the Brodhull as one of Hythe’s representatives.4 White and Black Bks. of Cinque Ports (Kent Rec. Ser. xix), 2, 4. He stood down as Brockhill’s deputy in 1435 but certainly remained in Hythe, appearing as a litigant in the court over which he had recently presided.5 Hythe ct. bk. H 1018, ff. 136-43. At some stage in the same decade, he was also involved in litigation in the Chancery as a feoffee of Thomas Dyne of Hythe, being accused of failing to deliver seisin of certain lands to Dyne’s daughter.6 C1/11/82.

Despite his duties in Hythe, Tamworth maintained his connexions with Sussex. In July 1432, described as ‘late of Winchelsea, merchant’, he was pardoned his outlawry in the county for not answering the parson of Guestling and another man for a debt of £2 13s. 4d.7 CPR, 1429-36, p. 168. He was dead by February 1437 when John atte Dawne* sued his widow for a debt outstanding from an account made the previous June.8 Hythe ct. bk. H 1018, f. 144.