WARTER, Richard

Warter was one of a group of wool merchants who dominated the government and parliamentary representation of York in the first decades of the fifteenth century. Although his family came from nearby Bugthorpe, its members had long been associated with the city. An earlier Richard Warter belonged to the governing council of York in the last years of the fourteenth century, while Thomas de Warter, a mercer, was made free of the city in 1394-5.4 York Memoranda Bk. ii (Surtees Soc. cxxv), 97; Freemen of York (Surtees Soc. xcvi), 94. Richard purchased the freedom of the city in 1416 when he was described as a goldsmith. He was probably married soon afterwards to Alice Lokton, who after bearing him a daughter, Katherine, died in 1421, and was buried in the parish church of St. Michael le Belfry.5 Dean and Chapter wills, 1, f. 206. Within two years Warter had married another Alice, daughter of the recent mayor, John Morton. His second marriage brought him membership of the elite circle which governed York and in 1423-4 he joined the city’s prestigious guild of Corpus Christi.6 Alice was not admitted to the guild until 1429-30. A John Warter, rector (probably a kinsman), joined the guild in the same year as Richard: Reg. Guild Corpus Christi, York (Surtees Soc. lvii), 23, 29. Alice had almost certainly died before 1434 as she was not mentioned in her father’s will: York registry wills, prob. reg. 3, f. 400.

In February 1426 Warter was chosen as one of the chamberlains of York, beginning an involvement in the government of the city that would last over 30 years. It was in this capacity that, the day after his appointment, he witnessed his first parliamentary election.7 C219/13/5. Further responsibilities followed at Michaelmas 1429, when he became one of the sheriffs. He probably joined the council of 24 at the end of his shrieval year, although he was not among those councillors who attested the parliamentary election in January 1431, and by 6 Nov. 1433, when a petition from the spicers of York was read in the council chamber, he had joined the ranks of the city’s aldermen. On 12 Sept. 1435 Warter was elected to represent the city in the Parliament summoned to meet at Westminster on the following 10 Oct. His fellow Member on this occasion was the mercer, William Bedale*. Nothing is known of their activities at Parliament, but the assembly was called amidst reversals in English fortunes in France, the defection of Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and an increasing threat to Calais. It is possible that Warter had already joined the company of the Calais staple by this time and he may well have been charged with representing the interests of his fellow wool merchants at the Parliament.

Two months after his return from Parliament, Warter was elected mayor of York. His mayoralty was notable for the efforts made in the city to raise money for the defence of Calais, under threat from the Burgundians. On 14 Feb. and again ten days later Warter was named on commissions to raise loans of £200 and £145 from the citizens.8 CPR, 1429-36, pp. 530-1; E403/723, m. 2. Yet, his comparatively humble standing may have diminished his authority, and in September 1436 the city councillors heard accusations that one of the aldermen, Thomas Bracebrigg, had slandered the mayor. Bracebrigg was one of the longest serving aldermen, having been mayor himself in 1424-5, but he was dismissed from office for his offence. On 23 Sept., however, two days after his discharge, he confessed his guilt and submitted himself ‘meekely to the correcion of the said mair … which submission made, the maire goodly with warme wordes and tendre admitted the said submission, and touk hym to favour and grace and resitited and restored hym’.9 York Memoranda Bk. ii. 142-3; J. Kermode, ‘Merchants of York, Hull and Beverley’ (Sheffield Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1990), app. 4. Little evidence survives of Warter’s role in civic government during the remainder of the decade and in the 1440s, but he continued to serve as an alderman and to be named from time to time on local commissions. In 1437, 1442, 1447 and January 1449 he was present in the council chamber to attest the parliamentary elections. In February 1451 he was again chosen as mayor of York, one of only 15 men who served as mayor on more than a single occasion during the fifteenth century. His second mayoralty apparently passed without incident. In April and November he was appointed to commissions to deliver York’s gaol, a duty he repeated on 10 Feb. 1452, only days after the end of his term of office.

By contrast with his well-documented public career, little is known of Warter’s business dealings. In 1429-30, when his wife was admitted to the guild of Corpus Christi, he had still been described as a goldsmith and even by the time of his election to Parliament he did not apparently possess any great wealth: in the assessment made for the parliamentary subsidy in 1436 his property was said to be worth only £5 p.a., the lowest figure recorded among the aldermen.10 E179/217/42. By 1449-50, however, he was one of the leading wool merchants in York. This transition may have been made possible by the good offices of his father-in-law (who had been one of the most prominent staplers in York) and his kinsman, Christopher Warter, a London skinner and stapler. Richard and Christopher traded together and in the 1450s they were also associated in an action of debt against John Ince, a York mercer, in the local courts.11 York City Archs., Liber Misc. viii. E.39, p. 111. Richard’s property holdings in the city were still small and in the parliamentary subsidy of 1450, now described as a merchant, he was assessed at only £8 p.a.12 E179/217/56. Nevertheless, in the same year he contributed to a loan made by the staplers to the duke of Burgundy, for the renewal of the truce and to secure the release of English goods seized in the Low Countries. Warter contributed to this loan alongside other York staplers, including John Thirsk*, Richard Lematon*, William Stocton II* and Thomas Beverley*. They secured letters patent in June 1451 for the recovery of 3,000 marks by exporting wool free of customs from Kingston-upon-Hull. Some £211 of this sum was still outstanding in October 1454 and Warter was among those licenced to recover it by exporting wool from London. As well as lending money with his fellow York merchants, Warter also lent just over £104 with John Holme and John Lord of Hull. This sum was also outstanding in 1454 when fresh provision was made for its repayment.13 CPR, 1452-61, pp. 210-12; CCR, 1454-61, pp. 15, 19.

Little other evidence survives of Warter’s private affairs, although his connexion with John Thirsk appears to have been a particularly close one. In November 1458 the two of them were licensed, along with the mayor, William Holbeck*, Archbishop William Booth and George Neville, then bishop-elect of Exeter, to found a guild in the city, consisting of a master and six brethren, to pray for the royal family.14 CPR, 1452-61, p. 465. Warter and Thirsk also acted together as arbiters in local disputes and served alongside each other on royal commissions.15 Liber Misc. viii. E.39, p. 111. Other, possibly close associates included a fellow alderman, the draper William Girlington*, for whom he acted as an executor following his death in 1444.16 York registry wills, prob. reg. 2, f. 83; Test. Ebor. ii. 136. This proved a troublesome task which resulted in protracted litigation in the royal courts: one Robert Davyson claimed that, while mayor, Girlington had defrauded him of £100 due for the ransom of a Scottish prisoner, while in another case the executors complained against a false action of debt brought against them by Master John Marshall concerning an obligation that Girlington had entered into for his marriage to Janet Golding.17 C1/24/52, 193; 26/617.

Warter made his will, a long and detailed document, on 21 May 1458. He asked to be buried in his parish church of St. Saviour’s, next to his second wife. Bequests were made to and prayers requested in his birthplace of Bugthorpe, the Minster, the friaries within the city, and the priories of St. Andrew and Clementhorp, as well as several other religious houses in Yorkshire. Various hermits in and around the city, the inmates of the city’s hospitals, leper houses and prisons were also remembered. Warter ordered his executors to provide 100 gowns for poor men who were to attend his funeral (the format of which was specified precisely), and he also left five marks p.a. for a perpetual chantry to be established in his parish church. His memory was further to be perpetuated there by a red velvet altar cloth emblazoned with his arms. To ensure that this elaborate provision would not be in vain, he instructed his executors to prepare bills containing his name along with those of his two wives, his parents, brothers and sisters, so that each chaplain could refer to these when singing mass. In all, of the £755-worth of cash bequests made by Warter in his will, £469 was explicitly earmarked for easing his soul’s progress through purgatory. Even bequests to his children were hedged with provisos related to the afterlife. His daughter, Katherine, and her husband, Peter Ardern, were promised £100 provided they found a chaplain to sing in his newly-established chantry chapel in St. Saviour’s. His son, Robert, was to have £100 when he came of age (although if he died before then the money was to be left to the chantry), while £20 was left to the guild of St. Christopher for the building of a new guildhall, providing its members remembered his and his family’s souls in their prayers. Various small sums were given to named servants, while his brother-in-law, John Morton, was respited a debt of £3. The deeds and obligations relating to Warter’s business affairs were to be placed in a locked chest which was to be lodged in the vestry of the Minster and only opened in the presence of all his executors. Unusually, and probably to ensure that the specific instructions in his will were carried out without hindrance or delay, Warter named as his executors three clergymen, including the under-treasurer of the Minster and a parson there, alongside John Brereton (d.1474), a merchant. It is unclear from the local records when Warter died – he was still alive on 1 Sept. 1460 when he attested the city’s parliamentary election – and probate was not granted until March 1465.18 York registry wills, prob. reg. 4, ff. 114v-17v; Kermode, app. 4; C219/16/6. His executors set about the settlement of his affairs with diligence and on 4 May 1466 received a royal licence to establish the chantry in his name.19 CPR, 1461-7, p. 520.