TINGLEDEN, John

The origins of the Tingledens have not been established beyond reasonable doubt, but it is probable that they hailed from Dorset and took their name from the hamlet of Tincleton to the east of Dorchester. By the reign of Richard II the family were of some prominence in Bridport,3 Dorset Hist. Centre, Bridport bor. recs., DC/BTB/S89, 140; C146/646. before another John Tingleden, presumably the later Reigate MP’s father, sought his fortune in the city of London, where he established himself in the grocers’ trade. Rising steadily through the ranks of the London Grocers’ Company, in 1403 he was chosen for the first time as one of the two ‘meistres de le Groceri’, but he nevertheless seems to have maintained close contacts with other first-generation Londoners from his native south-west, and it was alongside the Somerset-born John Deken† that in 1415 he held the company office for a second time.4 Ms. Archs. Grocers’ Co. ed. Kingdon, i. 76, 84, 89, 94, 103, 113, 128.

John the younger followed his father into the trade and in 1428 he was listed among the householders and bachelors of the craft who had not yet become liverymen. He was described as ‘with Dekyn’, suggesting that he was working for the latter as a free servant, while building up capital to open up his own business. He may indeed have taken over his master’s affairs when Deken died in late 1435 or early 1436, for it was about this time that he was admitted to the livery of his craft, paying an entry fine of 3s. 4d. Soon afterwards, in 1436-7, Tingleden presented three apprentices, and his commercial dealings (by now encompassing the spice trade with London’s Italian merchant community) were evidently successful, for in 1441-2 he was among the more substantial contributors to a levy raised by the Grocers’ wardens.5 Ibid. i. 125; ii. 177, 182, 195, 238, 240, 247.

Like Deken, Tingleden conducted his business from Southwark. He joined a well-established community of London grocers in the borough, who at that time included Henry Purchase*, Nicholas Preest* and John Rokesley*, and along with Rokesley he was appointed to a jury which in 1438 inquired into the adulteration of wax in London and the suburbs.6 Cal. P. and M. London, 1437-57, p. 21. Tingleden’s property centred on St. Olave’s parish where, in January of that same year he conveyed a tenement and 8s. of rent to Nicholas Wotton I* and several other grocers, including Purchase and Thomas Knolles.7 CCR, 1435-41, p. 261. He was clearly well regarded by his neighbours, who regularly called upon him to act as a feoffee, stand surety for them, or to witness their property transactions.8 Corp. London RO, Misc. deeds, 138.3 N.S., 138.4 N.S.; Bridge House deeds, H.78; hr 171/16; CCR, 1435-41, pp. 321, 467; 1441-7, p. 481. Thus, in December 1439 he found sureties for the appearance in Chancery of Hugh Ashbury*, William Redstone* and William Bridges II*;9 CCR, 1435-41, p. 351. in February 1442 he was named among the trustees of the moveable property of Isabel, the widow of William Horton†;10 CCR, 1441-7, p. 48. and in July 1449 he was one of a small group of local men (also including Redstone and Purchase) who witnessed Sir John Fastolf’s great enfeoffment of his estates.11 CCR, 1447-54, p. 229.

Particularly close were Tingleden’s links with William Redstone, a fellow parishioner of St. Olave’s. Their relationship probably dated from the earlier acquaintance of Redstone’s putative father and namesake with Tingleden’s former master, Deken, alongside whom he had sat in the Parliament of 1421 (May), and was cemented by the younger Redstone’s marriage to Tingleden’s daughter Agnes, albeit only after an initial squabble over the terms of the marriage contract had been settled.12 C1/9/62.

By contrast with his activity in Southwark, Tingleden played rather less of a part in the life of the city of London. He never held civic office, and his contacts were, by and large, restricted to the ranks of his Company, men such as Wotton, Thomas Knolles, Nicholas Wyfold and Richard Philip to whom, in April 1439, he made a gift of his goods and chattels in London and Southwark.13 CCR, 1435-41, p. 259; Corp. London RO, hr 171/16; CPR, 1436-41, p. 492. Similarly, in February 1444 he and others found sureties for the sum of £120, representing the money committed to Henry Purchase as the patrimony of the children of another grocer, while five years later, in November 1449, he entered into a similar bond for £20, the sum of money entrusted to John Rokesley, guardian of John, son of Alexander Anne*.14 Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 292, 331.

It is not clear whether by Tingleden’s day the family had already come into possession of the manor of Frenches in Reigate which they held by the early sixteenth century.15 The Commons 1509-58, iii. 468. Certainly, John, whose landholdings in Surrey were said in 1436 to be worth the substantial sum of £25 p.a.,16 Surr. Hist. Centre, Woking, Loseley mss, LM 1719. certainly possessed connexions in that borough by 1446, which seem to have sufficed to secure his return to Parliament three years later.17 CP40/740, rot. 96d. It may nevertheless be that Tingleden was by this time seeking to consolidate his property, with a particular focus on Southwark. At some stage he sold property in Lambeth to one John Bele,18 C146/929. while in late 1449 he hired a Croydon carpenter, Thomas Warham, to construct a three-storey house on a plot of land adjacent to his existing residence in St. Olave’s parish in Southwark. Tingleden did not live to see the project come to fruition, perhaps in part – as the carpenter later claimed – as a result of the grocer’s failure to prepare the ground and have the foundations laid. The date of his death is uncertain, but it probably occurred not long after March 1451 when he is last recorded as witness to a Southwark property transaction, and it was left to his son and heir, Richard, to pursue Warham for his failure to complete the new building.19 Procs. Chancery Eliz. ed. Caley and Baley, ii. pp. liv-lvi; CCR, 1447-54, p. 255.

Richard went on to represent Southwark in the Commons in 1467, and still resided in the borough at the time of his death in 1497.20 C241/261/13; CFR, xxii. 561. Richard’s son Henry, a Gray’s Inn lawyer, is not known to have gained election, but the family’s parliamentary traditions were revived in 1547 by Henry’s son, another John†, who represented Gatton in the first Parliament of Edward VI’s reign.21 The Commons 1509-58, iii. 468-9.