SELOWE, William

A mercer, Selowe enjoyed a career in civic government spanning some 40 years from his election as cofferer of Canterbury at Michaelmas 1446. In the following year he began the first of his terms as a jurat, a position he held in July 1450 when he was among those citizens who received a pardon in the aftermath of Cade’s rebellion.2 CPR, 1446-1452, p. 362. In 1453 Selowe was elected to the Parliament of that year but it is not clear whether he actually took up his seat, since the accounts of the city’s chamberlains record the payment of wages to his fellow burgess, Thomas Walter*, but not to him.3 CCA-CC-F/A/2, f. 41. He certainly sat in the Parliament of 1459, however, receiving wages of 16d. per day for 37 days’ attendance, four fewer than his colleague Thomas Forster* but still six more than the single session of this brief assembly. The city also paid him 20s. for the ten days allowed to him for travelling to and from its venue of Coventry.4 Ibid. f. 64.

An alderman of Canterbury by Michaelmas 1463, Selowe was elected mayor of the city a year later. During this first term in the office he received Edward IV’s queen, Elizabeth Wydeville, then making a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket, and presented her with a silver cup, decorated with pearls and weighing 30oz., and 20 marks in gold.5 Ibid. f. 95v. Later that decade, he and Nicholas Faunte*, were elected to the Parliament summoned to meet at York in September 1469, an assembly called following the coup which had put the earl of Warwick in control of the government and person of the King. Given these circumstances and Faunte’s attachment to the earl, it is possible that Selowe was another of the earl’s Kentish followers. He and Faunte had already set off for the Parliament when it was aborted, although the city paid both of them 40s. for their troubles.6 Ibid. f. 130. Selowe was also associated with Faunte in the following year, when they and John Freningham* used bribes to prevent two bands of soldiers gaining access to the city,7 Ibid. f. 137. and again when they sat together in the Readeption Parliament of 1470, for which their respective wages were 53s. 4d. and 66s. 8d.8 Ibid. f. 145. If he did share Faunte’s political sympathies, Selowe was far more circumspect in displaying them than his fellow MP. In 1471 Faunte raised their city in support of Fauconberg’s rebellion but Selowe was among the citizens who rode to London to plead with Edward IV for the restoration of the city’s liberties following the defeat of this uprising, and he was with the King when Edward visited Canterbury to restore its privileges on 29 May.9 Ibid. ff. 145v, 151; Chron. John Stone ed. Searle (Cambridge Antiq. Soc. octavo ser. xxxiv), 116. On the following 3 Nov. he received a general pardon of all offences committed during the rebellion, and he subsequently appeared before the commissioners appointed to inquire into the Canterbury rebels.10 CPR, 1467-77, p. 301.

For some years after these turbulent events, Selowe’s official responsibilities were confined to his city’s financial affairs. In 1472-3 he was one of the five men appointed to audit the accounts of its chamberlains,11 CCA-CC-F/A/2, f. 157v. and he himself served as a chamberlain during the second half of the same decade. On 14 Sept. 1484, however, he was again elected s mayor of Canterbury. By then, no doubt, an old man, he served his second term as such at a potentially difficult time. In the previous year the city had sent soldiers to Lord Cobham to assist in the suppression of Buckingham’s rebellion, and during Selowe’s mayoralty it played host to Robert Brackenbury, the constable of the Tower of London, and to Richard III’s bastard son, John of Gloucester. Brackenbury stopped off at Canterbury in November 1484, while riding to Dover on an abortive mission to receive the rebel earl of Oxford into the King’s grace. In March 1485 he passed through the city again in the company of John, whom he was escorting to Calais to become its captain.12 Chamberlains’ accts. 1483-99, CCA-CC-F/A/7, ff. 10, 11v, 26. Selowe’s mayoralty also coincided with the accession of Henry VII, and in early September 1485 the city sent Thomas Atwode† and Roger Brent† to London, to petition Henry for a new charter of liberties.13 Ibid. f. 26v.

The evidence for Selowe’s private activities is far more limited but they were not restricted to Canterbury. In February 1449, for example, he assigned his goods and chattels in London to John Mulling*, Thomas Prowde and a draper from the City, John Harnell, by means of a deed describing him as ‘of Canterbury, mercer, alias haberdasher, alias husbandman’.14 CCR, 1447-54, p. 110. Of these trustees, it is likely that he enjoyed a particularly good relationship with Mulling, who would appoint him one of his executors in 1456.15 Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Canterbury consist. ct. wills, PRC 32/2, f. 109. Selowe made another gift of goods and chattels in June 1459, this time to Roger Brent, John Freningham and Nicholas Faunte, as well as to two London mercers and a couple of Chancery clerks. 16 CCR, 1454-61, p. 377. Such deeds of assignment suggest involvement in litigation, presumably lawsuits linked to his business interests. Selowe also acted as a feoffee for other citizens, among them John Sheldwich* and Thomas Petham, and in the spring of 1477 John Hunte demised property in Canterbury to him, John Fyneux†, the future chief justice of King’s bench, and others. Later, in February 1483, he, (Sir) Thomas Bourgchier†, Roger Brent and Nicholas Sheldwich† among others received a conveyance of lands in Thanet from John Halden.17 Canterbury city recs., Woodruff’s list, CCA-CC-WOODRUFF, bdle. 9, no. 3; burghmote reg. 1298-1503, CCA-CC-O/A/1, f. 54; CP25(1)/117/341/304, 310. There is however no evidence that Selowe married or had any children, not least for want of an extant will. The lack of a will means that the date of his death is also unknown, although he is not heard of after his second mayoralty.