SHERIFF, John

There is no reason to doubt that John was the son of Robert Sheriff, the mayor of Grimsby in 1441-2.4 HMC 14th Rep. VIII, 289. He may have had an er. bro. named Thomas, who, in July 1454, sold him all his lands in Grimsby for 22 marks: Grimsby ct. rolls 1/101, 32 Hen. VI. He first appears in the borough records soon after Robert’s mayoralty, and he quickly won a place in the borough’s affairs. On 23 Nov. 1445 he sat on a jury for the election of an auditor; and two weeks later he was one of the burgesses present in the common hall for the election of the mayoral council of John Dene*.5 Grimsby ct. rolls 1/101, 24 Hen. VI. He himself was chosen as chamberlain in the following October, and this marked the beginning of a remarkable career in borough office-holding that was to extend until the mid 1470s. Between this first appointment and the conclusion of his last appearance on the mayor’s council in 1475, he served twice as mayor, sat on the mayoral council on at least five occasions and held every lesser office. In other circumstances he would have held the mayoralty more often. In September 1458 he was defeated in the mayoral election by Richard Asseby by 21 votes to 15 (he voted for his opponent).6 Ibid. 1/101, 33 Hen. VI; roll of election of mayor and bailiffs, 1/310/1; Bull. IHR, xlii. 217. Later he was prevented from taking the office after he had been elected in the mid 1460s.

This mayoral election, which is probably to be dated to October 1465, was the most controversial episode of Sheriff’s documented career. According to a Chancery petition presented by the coroners, Hugh Edon* and John Cokke, he was prevented from taking office by the opposition of John Newport II*, who falsely claimed that it was he whom the burgesses had chosen. The coroners claimed that when they called Sheriff to take his oath of office he refused, partly because he was reluctant to undertake the responsibility but principally because he feared Newport. They concluded their petition by asking not only that Sheriff be ordered to appear before them to take his oath but that Newport and eight other burgesses, who had supported Newport, be summoned to appear in Chancery.7 C1/31/339. Clearly a disputed election had produced a serious division between the burgesses, but it occasioned no more than a temporary hiatus in Sheriff’s administrative career. Although Newport held the office for an extended term, at the end of that term in October 1468 our MP was elected both to the mayor’s council, under Thomas Broughton†, and as one of the coroners.8 Grimsby ct. rolls 1/101, 8-9 Edw. IV. Much earlier, in Oct. 1452, he had stood pledge on Broughton’s admission to the ranks of the burgesses: ct. bk. 1/102/1, f. 3. It was also at this time that he showed his commitment to the town’s welfare: on the following 28 Nov. he pardoned the commonalty the sum of £21 owed to him in return for a modest 20d. p.a. for 20 years.9 Grimsby ct. bk. 1/102/1, f. 39v; S.H. Rigby, ‘Boston and Grimsby in the Middle Ages’ (London Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1982), 324. After a second term as mayor, in 1470-1, the pace of his administrative activity slackened, although he was again appointed to the mayor’s council in December 1475.10 Grimsby ct. bk. 1/102/1, f. 140.

This long record of administrative involvement leaves no doubt that Sheriff was one of the principal Grimsby men of his day. Although little evidence survives of his commercial interests, these must have been substantial for, at least in the latter part of his career, he numbered among the merchants of the Calais staple. The Kingston-upon-Hull customs accounts of the late 1460s and early 1470s give some idea of the scale of his activities. For example, in 1466-7 he imported small quantities of wine, bitumen, iron, linen cloth, wainscots and pitch, and on 1 Sept. 1473 he exported from Hull 37½ sacks of wool and 2,463 woolfells.11 Customs Accts. Hull, 1453-90 (Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. cxliv), 98, 105, 181-4. Less happily, in January 1459 the chamberlains of his home time had indicted him for secretly purchasing herring from a ship from Calais in contravention of the common ordinance of 1258, whereby purchases were to be made openly;12 Grimsby ct. rolls 1/101, 37 Hen. VI; E. Gillett, Grimsby, 26. and in February 1475 he concluded a dispute with William Glasyner† about a ship, presumably in their joint ownership, which had sailed north and been captured.13 Grimsby ct. rolls 1/101, 37 Hen. VI; ct. bk. 1/102/1, f. 13d; E. Gillett, Grimsby, 26, 45.

Such trading activities were not, however, sufficient to make Sheriff a wealthy man other than in the context of the impoverished town of Grimsby. The modest bequests in his will, drawn up on 17 Aug. 1477, suggest that his resources were far from extensive. He left 6s. 8d. to the cathedral church of Lincoln, five marks to the church of St. James at Grimsby, 20s. to the chapel of the staple at Calais, and the same sum to the abbey of Humberstone which lay a few miles to the south of his native town. His wife was to have his principal house in Grimsby for her life with remainder to his eldest son, Robert. Although the latter was left the bulk of his lands, some small landed provision was also made for his other two sons and two daughters. This division of the inheritance may explain why his eldest son played a much less prominent part in borough politics than he had done. Our MP’s membership of the staple is reflected in his direction that he be buried in the church of St. Mary at Calais.14 Grimsby ct. bk. 1/102/1, f. 353.