USFLETE, Nicholas

Usflete’s parentage is obscure, but it is probable that he was related to the knightly family of Usflete of Ousefleet, some 30 miles south of York.4 HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 652. In 1412, described as a mercer, he purchased the freedom of York, but no evidence survives of his early years in the city.5 Freemen of York (Surtees Soc. xcvi), 115. He nevertheless seems to have made a name for himself, for in February 1427 he was chosen one of the city’s chamberlains, and it was in this capacity that on 15 Sept. that year he witnessed the parliamentary election.6 C219/13/5. It was not until Michaelmas 1433 that election to the shrievalty followed, by which time he was also serving as one of the constables of the Mercers’ Company of York. Despite his evident standing among his fellow mercers, no evidence of his involvement in overseas trade has come to light.

Membership of the council of 24 probably followed immediately on the conclusion of his shrieval year, but it seems he was soon promoted to the ranks of the aldermen. He was still a member of the council of 24 in September 1435, when he witnessed a parliamentary election for a second time, but he had joined the aldermen by September the following year when he attended the council meeting that discussed the dismissal of one of the aldermen for disobedience towards the mayor, Richard Warter*. Usflete himself was elected to the mayoralty in February 1438. The circumstances of his election must have been extraordinary, for just days earlier, on 25 Jan., he had sued out royal letters patent exempting him from any royal office or appointment, including that of mayor.7 CPR, 1436-41, p. 126. The following year saw his election, alongside Nicholas Wispington* (with whom he had previously served as sheriff), to the Parliament summoned to meet at Westminster on 12 Nov. No return is extant from the York sheriffs for this Parliament, nor do the city’s chamberlains’ accounts survive to illustrate the MPs’ activities in the Commons, although both men were subsequently named alongside the collectors to distribute the customary reductions from the parliamentary subsidy.8 CFR, xvii. 141, 150. Little is known of the remainder of Usflete’s career. In January 1442 he again witnessed the parliamentary election in York, and later in the year he was present at a council meeting when it was decided to ride the city’s boundaries.9 York Memoranda Bk. iii (Surtees Soc. clxxxvi), 131; C219/15/2.

Usflete’s private affairs remain obscure, but he is known to have made a good marriage to Matilda, daughter of the former mayor, John Northby. The marriage may have been short-lived, however: Matilda was dead by the time Usflete came to make his will and no children were mentioned in the document. He had remained closely connected to his father-in-law, and when Northby died in 1432 he appointed Usflete as one of his executors. According to a later petition presented in Chancery by one of Northby’s disgruntled servants, John Cardole, the executors took possession of goods worth some 3,000 marks, but still refused to pay Cardole a promised bequest of 100 marks.10 C1/68/187. Besides mercery, Usflete apparently traded in spices, and in 1432 he was accordingly styled a spicer when he was admitted to the city’s prestigious guild of Corpus Christi (probably on the death of his father-in-law). Rather less surprisingly, he was similarly described in 1440 at the culmination of a suit for debt against a spicer from Lancashire.11 CPR, 1436-41, p. 458; Reg. Guild Corpus Christi, York (Surtees Soc. lvii), 32; CP40/705, rot. 150.

In his will, made on 2 May 1443, Usflete asked to be buried beside Matilda in his parish church of All Saints, Pavement. He made provision for his soul there and also made bequests to the Minster, the mendicant orders in the city, the lepers’ hospital, the hospital of Holy Trinity, Fossgate, the Maisondieu, Knaresborough priory, and the fraternity of the Virgin in St. Mary’s abbey, York. He provided for a chaplain to sing for two years for his soul and for that of his wife, as well as for her parents. In the absence of any surviving children, Usflete made gifts of cash and clothing to his brothers, Robert and William, and to William’s son, Thomas. He also made cash bequests to the local merchant, John Middleton, his wife and son, as well as to several named servants. Two of his godsons, Nicholas Wispington junior and Nicholas Fauconer, were left 3s. 4d. each, while a third, Nicholas Fredlington, was given 20s. for his education, with provision that the money was to be kept by his executors if Nicholas did not attend school. Further sums of 20s. each were left to the abbot of Rievaulx and to the house itself in the hope that the monks would settle their debts with him. It seems likely that Usflete’s property in the city had been settled in anticipation of his will, and his executors were merely instructed to sell his property in Dringhouses to provide for his soul. Usflete named his brother, Robert, and fellow mercer, Henry Market, as his executors. Probate was granted on the following 28 May.12 York registry wills, prob. reg. 2, ff. 58v-59. In the event, Market died within weeks of Usflete, and the execution of the mercer’s will thus fell entirely to his brother, who before long was engaged in litigation in the royal courts over his dead MP’s affairs.13 CP40/736, rot. 19; 741, rot. 323; C1/13/81-83.