SYSLYNGHAM, Richard

A merchant and ‘yeoman’,8 CPR, 1452-61, p. 373. Syslyngham was returned to his only Parliament early in his career as a freeman of Maldon, for he was not admitted to the franchise there until January 1443.9 Maldon ct. bk. D/B 3/1/1, f. 31. There is no definite evidence of his property interests in the town. While he was among those to whom the bailiffs of Maldon conveyed a tenement in the late 1450s, he was probably in this instance acting as a feoffee for Walter Writtle*10 Maldon ct. roll, 1428-30, D/B 3/11/17.

Immediately after gaining the freedom, for which he paid an entry fine of 20s., Syslyngham was embroiled in a lawsuit at Westminster. The plaintiff was a burgess of Colchester named John Blackhall. In pleadings of Hilary term 1443, he alleged that Syslyngham and Thomas Sent, another Colchester man, had taken £40 from his chest in that town just under a year earlier. In response, Syslyngham claimed that no more than £14 3s. 8d. had come into his hands and that Blackhall had freely given this sum to him. He added that he had received it on behalf of his co-defendant, in part payment of a debt that Blackhall owed Sent.11 KB27/727, rot. 45. Whatever the truth of the matter, this dispute is not the only evidence of dealings between the MP and Colchester, for Syslyngham sued an action of account in the borough court at Maldon against Roger London of Colchester in 1462.12 Maldon ct. roll, 1461-3, D/B 3/3/37, m. 3. In all likelihood, Syslyngham had commercial dealings with Ipswich as well. In 1450 Thomas Grene, a customs collector there, took action against him at Maldon over 4s. he was alleged to owe the Crown,13 Ibid. 1449-52, D/B 3/3/30, m. 2. and in the late 1450s the executors of John Deken* of Ipswich sued him at Westminster over a debt of 100s.14 CPR, 1452-61, p. 373.

Still active in the later 1470s, Syslyngham completed his last term as bailiff in January 1478, after which he disappears from view. A year earlier, his son-in-law, Ralph Sellis, had gained admission to the freedom of Maldon. Although an outsider to the town, Sellis was exempted by local custom from paying any entry fine by virtue of his marriage to a burgess’s daughter.15 Maldon ct. bk. D/B 3/1/2, f. 27v.