HAMME, John

Considerably more may be added to the earlier biography.1 He was given as ‘unidentified’ in The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 277, where his Parls. of 1427 and 1433 are not mentioned.

It is likely that this MP was a relation of Gilbert Hamme of Withyham in north-east Sussex, a lawyer who regularly appeared as a mainpernor in the Exchequer for members of the local gentry in the early fifteenth century. If so, he is to be identified with the John Hamme who himself held land at Withyham subsequently.2 CFR, xi. 147, 177; xii. 245; xiv. 58, 83; Suss. Arch. Collns. xvii. 249; C1/9/351. Although sometimes difficult to distinguish from namesakes,3 For instance, the John Hamme ‘of Sandhurst’ who with his wife Alice conveyed a rent of £2 from property in east Suss. at Iden and Playden to William Mot in 1399, and in 1401 dealt with some land at Peasmarsh: CP25(1)/240/80/23, 34. there is no doubt that the MP received some training in the law. He has been first traced in the records in 1412, acting as surety for a defendant in a suit for trespass allegedly committed in Kent, and he became active as an attorney in the court of common pleas on behalf of litigants from Sussex within the next four years. On 10 May 1418 William Pynde, a glasier from Surrey, was arrested and led to the bar for security of the peace to Hamme and required to be before Chief Justice Norton ‘hac instanti die post nonam’ on pain of £40, which implies that Pynde had threatened Hamme in court that same morning.4 CCR, 1409-13, p. 321; CP40/623, att. rot. 2; 629, rot. 10d. During the Michaelmas term of 1419, when Hamme was at Westminster to sit in Parliament, he not only appeared as an attorney but on his own account he sued a yeoman from East Grinstead, the borough he was representing, for a debt of £2.5 CP40/635, rots. 169d, 329d, 444, 584.

The fact that Hamme was later returned for the Surrey borough of Bletchingley may suggest that he forged some kind of association with the earl of Stafford, lord of the borough. Although no details of such a connexion are recorded, it is possible that one arose out of legal work undertaken by him in the central courts for the earl or his local officials. Hamme continued to be active in the central courts in the 1430s, accepting briefs from such clients as the abbot of Bayham. Indeed, he appeared for the abbot on a number of occasions, most notably during the Michaelmas term of 1433, while he was once more attending Parliament, this time as a representative for New Shoreham.6 CP40/680, rots. 157d, 233d; 686, rot. 76; 687, rot. 538d; 691, rot.543; 699, rots. 48d, 187, 335d, 651. In 1437 Hamme appeared in person to sue John Sefoull for breaking his close at Croydon, cutting down trees and underwood to the value of £10. He was still active as an attorney at Hilary 1438. Little else is recorded of him, although if he was indeed the man of this name who lived at Withyham he died before 1439. In February that year John Hamme of Withyam’s widow Joan, by then married to Robert Torkesey, petitioned the chancellor for redress against her late husband’s feoffees, who had refused to release a messuage and 200 acres of land which Hamme had settled on her for life.7 CP40/705, rot. 364d; C1/9/351.