| Constituency | Dates |
|---|---|
| Bishop's Lynn | 1419, 1442 |
Chamberlain, Bishop’s Lynn Mich. 1435–6; coroner 5 July 1441–?d.1 Norf. RO, King’s Lynn bor. recs., hall bk. 1431–50, KL/C 7/3, f. 141.
More can be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 720-1.
During the late 1430s and the first half of the 1440s, Curson was one of the burgesses who negotiated with the bishop of Norwich for the purchase of the bishop’s tollbooth at Lynn. To expedite the purchase, the borough authorized them to make gifts to members of the bishop’s council whenever they felt fit, and to offer one of the council, William Yelverton*, an annual retainer of 40s., if he would act for Lynn in this and other matters. Some of these negotiations took place at London, where Curson and Richard Frank* met the bishop in the spring of 1439. Their visit to London also had another purpose, for the borough entrusted them with £50 to deliver to Henry VI, who had requested a loan from Lynn at the beginning of the year. When making his request the King had asked for £100, but the borough was not willing to offer him more than half this amount. Elected a coroner of the borough in the early 1440s, Curson was still alive in the late summer of 1444, when he and other burgesses rode to Thornage to meet the bishop of Norwich. A few months earlier he had travelled to London, to petition the chancellor about various unspecified ‘matters’ connected with the borough.3 KL/C 7/3, ff. 88, 93v, 101v, 105, 105v, 157, 188, 191.