WINTER, John

A native of Canterbury, Winter was admitted to the freedom of the city by right of inheritance on 14 Oct. 1425.10 Ibid. f. 177v. His father was a leading member of the civic oligarchy, holding the offices of cofferer (in 1409-10) and keeper of the keys (1433-4) and serving 11 terms as jurat between 1422 and 1440.11 Ibid. ff. 88, 154v, 160, 170, 176, 186, 193v, 214, 219v, 220, 231v, 252, 261v. Winter’s induction into the civic elite came with his own appointment as cofferer at Michaelmas 1432. Upon his election as a jurat for the first time four years later, his career in local government followed a familiar path although, being a brewer,12 Canterbury city recs., burghmote ct. orders 1469-1608, CCA-CC-A/B/1, f. 11. he appears not to have been involved in the city’s business in London. In fact, the only known evidence of Winter’s employment in civic affairs outside Canterbury was his Membership of the Parliament of 1449-50, nonetheless a considerable commitment given its duration. He attended the sessions at both Westminster and Leicester and his wages as an MP amounted to £9 10s. 8d., but neither the exact length of his stay nor the daily wage he received was recorded in the account of the city’s cofferer.13 CCA-CC-F/A/2, ff. 29v, 33v.

The dissolution of the Parliament occurred just as Cade’s rebellion was beginning, and Winter was among those citizens who took the trouble to acquire a general pardon in its aftermath.14 CPR, 1446-52, p. 362. The pardon, dated 7 July 1450, was a precautionary measure that does not imply sympathy for the rebels’ cause: at the following Michaelmas he became one of the bailiffs of the new mayor, Gervase Clifton*, who had taken up arms against Cade’s followers. His duties as bailiff included joining his associate in the office, John Mulling*, in delivering the city’s fee farm directly to the King, perhaps on one or other of Henry VI’s visits to Canterbury in February and August 1451.15 CCA-CC-F/A/2, f. 38v; B.P. Wolffe, Hen. VI, 368-9. Upon his own first election to the mayoralty in 1454, Winter followed the precedent set by the city’s first mayor, John Lynde*, by abandoning the brewing trade. He sold his business to a local man, Richard Berot, and ‘aftir lyved as a gentilman’.16 CCA-CC-A/B/1, f. 11. During his second term as mayor in 1459-60, he was reimbursed for 100s. he had delivered to the duke of Somerset although it is unlikely that the delivery represented a commitment to the Lancastrian cause on his part.17 CCA-CC-F/A/2, f. 63v. This second mayoralty, which coincided with a period of deep political crisis at a national level, may have proved burdensome, for in 1462-3 the 12 jurats agreed to pay him £10 17s. 6d. for debts he had incurred during his year in office.18 Ibid. f. 81.

As a leading office-holder and citizen, Winter was occasionally asked to act as a feoffee, executor and witness to local deeds.19 CCR 1461-8, p. 229; Canterbury burghmote reg. 1298-1503, CCA-CC-O/A/1, ff. 48v, 54. Among those for whom he was a trustee was John Sheldwich*, and as such he delivered lands to the latter’s son, Nicholas Sheldwich†, in January 1464.20 Canterbury Cath. Archs., Woodruff’s list, CCA-CC-WOODRUFF, bdle. 9, no. 3. The advantageous marriages Winter made for his daughters are a further sign of his local standing. At some point before September 1454, Joan married Nicholas Baker, a wealthy Canterbury draper, while Alice had at least three husbands. The first was probably the son and heir of William Bonnington*;21 Canterbury consist. ct. wills, PRC32/2, ff. 137-9. the second, whom she married before July 1457, was Thomas Forster*;22 CCA-CC-F/A/2, ff. 46, loose folio. Forster named Winter as one of his executors in 1467: Canterbury archdeaconry ct. wills, PRC 17/1, f. 85. and the third John Rotherham†, who provided for her in his will of 1492 by assigning to her for life his manor at Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire, and various holdings in Kent and Canterbury previously belonging to her father and Forster.23 C1/53/164; PCC 20 Dogett . John Rotherham was the bro. of Thomas Rotherham, abp. of York. Yet, in spite of his status at Canterbury, the MP himself was only moderately wealthy: he was assessed at an annual income of £10 for the subsidy of 1450, placing him in the middle rank of the ruling elite of Canterbury.24 E179/124/218. While there is almost no direct evidence for his land dealings, his will provides some evidence of his holdings,25 PRC 17/1, ff. 332v-3. and in 1449 he claimed the tax exemption enjoyed by Portsmen of the Cinque Ports, indicating that he had acquired property in one of the Ports by that date.26 E179/124/140/5, m. 1d. It is possible that the Port in question was Hythe, where in July 1443 he demised to Simon Golde and Thomas Malter a messuage that he had received by a prior conveyance from a local draper and his wife, although his part in this transaction may simply have been that of a feoffee.27 E. Kent Archs., New Romney recs., deeds, NR/ZT 21.

Winter made his will on 10 April 1469.28 PRC 17/1, ff. 332v-3. He asked to be buried in the choir of St. Margaret’s, Canterbury, his home parish church, next to the tomb of his son-in-law, Thomas Forster. He left small sums to the choir, high altar and fabric of the church and £10 for the repair of its vestments. Winter also set aside 20 marks from the sale of his goods for distribution among the poor of the parish, and asked that a further £10 be spent for the welfare of his soul. He further directed that the rent of his two tenements in the parish was to be used partly to support a lamp burning before the high altar of St. Margaret’s and partly to bear an annual charge of 3s. that the church paid to the prior of Christ Church for its burial ground. As for the property in St. Margaret’s that had once belonged to his father, he assigned it to his wife.29 This may have been the messuage and two shops that Laurence Winter had bought from Stephen atte Halle in 1433: CP25(1)/115/307/341. Should she die without a male heir, his property in Canterbury and nearby Chilham was to revert to his daughter, Alice, and her then husband John Rotherham, provided that they paid £40 to her sister and the latter’s husband, Nicholas Baker. As for his properties in St. Paul’s parish at Canterbury, in Nackington and in the hundred of Whitstable, Winter left them to his son-in-law, Baker, and the latter’s daughter, another Alice. If she died without heirs, it was to revert to the testator’s grandson, John Forster. Winter died on 10 Nov. 1470 and was duly buried in St. Margaret’s church, where there was once a brass describing him as ‘late mayor of Canterbury’.30 W. Somner, Antiqs. Canterbury ed. Urry, 72.