SERGEANT, John

Sergeant first occurs in the records in 1433 when he stood surety in the borough court for one of the lesser local gentry, John Melton of Normanton on the Wolds, a few miles to the south of Nottingham. The only indication of his trade appears in a lawsuit of 1438 when, sued by Sir Thomas Chaworth* for depasturing at Edwalton near Nottingham, he was described as a ‘pattenmaker’. He does not appear in the tax returns of 1435-6 or 1450-1, and his holdings in the town were insubstantial if one may judge from the fact that, in 1473, his son paid less than 4s. for a tenth part of the family freehold there.2 Nottingham Recs. ii. 136, 296; CP40/710, rot. 251d. His role in the town’s administration was correspondingly modest. Appointment as a bailiff was followed at a distance of more than ten years by election to Parliament in November 1459; and on only one occasion – in 1467 – is he recorded as attesting one of Nottingham’s parliamentary elections.3 C219/16/5; 17/1.

Such a summary may, however, underestimate Sergeant’s importance. He seems to have had lands outside the town: in 1473 his executors sold land at nearby Wilford to (Sir) Robert Clifton*, lord of the manor there, for 14 marks.4 Nottingham Univ. Lib. Clifton mss, Cl D 807. More directly indicative of resources greater than implied by the 1473 assessment are the contributions he made to the exactions the townsmen suffered during the civil conflicts of 1460-1. In 1460 he paid as much as 40s. towards the sum of £23 sent to aid the King at the battle of Northampton; and in March 1461 he contributed five marks to the ‘gift’ of £124 made by the town to Henry Beaufort, duke of Somerset, with a further 40s. towards the ‘reward’ of £16 paid to the duke’s servants. Later, in 1466, he contributed 20s. to forward the community’s dispute with Henry Pierrepont† over a mill on the river Leen.5 Trans. Thoroton Soc. xxvi. 19; Notts. Archs., Nottingham recs. CA7452.

Sergeant did not live long after making this last contribution, making his will at Nottingham on 8 July 1467. He wished to be buried in the parish church of St. Mary next to his late wife, and bequeathed 6s. 8d. each to the fabric of that church, the fraternity of the Holy Trinity established there, and the repair of the Hethbeth bridge. He left smaller sums to the fabric of the church of St. Peter, the Friars Minor and the Carmelites, a pattern of bequests typical of those made by burgesses of the period. The only other bequests concerned various gowns which were to go to his three sons, John, Robert and Richard, and to one Robert Parsons of Lenton. His executors were named as his eldest son, John, and two townsmen, John Clerk, barker, and Thomas Warner. They were to work under the supervision of William Babington*, one of the leading county gentry with property in Nottingham. Sergeant was still alive on the following 10 Oct., when he put his name to the appointment of collectors of alms for Hethbeth bridge, but he died soon afterwards. His son and heir’s career was short and as obscure as his own. In his will of October 1480, the younger John instructed his feoffees to make estate to his legitimate issue in fee on their coming of age, but if issue failed they were to sell the property for the health of his soul and those of his parents and to provide 40s. for each of his sisters. The namesake who served as sheriff in 1487-8 was presumably our MP’s grandson.6 Borthwick Inst., Univ. of York, York registry wills, prob. regs. 4, f. 231; 5, f. 104v; Nottingham Recs. iii. 429.