HEBBE, Geoffrey

More may be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 338-9.

Hebbe followed a family tradition of service at the staple court of Chichester, succeeding his grandfather and namesake Geoffrey (who was periodically constable of the staple in the years between 1365 and 1378),3 C241/152/48; 153/56; 157/150; 162/62, 87; 164/10, 62; 165/78. and his father John, the prominent merchant and mayor of the staple for some 25 years from 1382 until his death.4 C241/171/24, 92; 175/87; 176/53, 57, 60, 123; 181/103; 187/55; 188/34; 189/51; 190/66; 195/46, 78; 198/6, 20, 59. Although he served as both constable and mayor before his first election to Parliament, our MP’s achievements palled in comparison with his father’s.

More has been discovered about Hebbe’s mercantile dealings, which at the beginning of his career appear to have progressed satisfactorily, albeit not without encountering difficulty in gaining satisfaction from his debtors. In the late 1390s he was in partnership with William Overey* the Southampton merchant. In May 1398 in the staple court at Chichester (conducted by Hebbe’s father as mayor) they received from the Sussex esquire Robert Tauk† a bond in £9 12s. 4½d. Tauk failed to repay them before he died, and it was not until June 1410 that the two creditors were given temporary possession of his manor of Westhampnett and other holdings worth £7 p.a. as compensation. Similarly, in 1399 Hebbe and Overey had received a bond for £6 for merchandise sold at the staple to John Slyfhurst of Midhurst and John atte Mill, but in this case their debtors escaped justice for more than five years, and even then although Slyfhurst was imprisoned at Guildford his associate could not be found.5 C131/57/14; 218/20; 219/15, 27; 220/1; C241/193/98.

As noted in the earlier biography, Hebbe’s trading concerns started to run into serious trouble in 1418. Further details about his subsequent financial difficulties are revealed in the records of the court of common pleas. While his second Parliament was in progress, in the Michaelmas term of 1423, he was sued by creditors for relatively small sums of money, but following his service on the expedition sent to relieve Le Crotoy in the next year (on which he had embarked shortly after the dissolution), the suits brought against him were for much larger amounts. For instance, in Easter term 1425 the executors of Richard Salter, a former mayor of the staple of Chichester, brought a plea of debt against him for £33. Attempts to diversify his sources of income may be discerned in the various descriptions given to him on the plea rolls: ‘merchant’, ‘draper’, ‘husbandman’ and ‘soldier’.6 CP40/651, rot. 159d; 657, rot. 255; 667, rot. 433. Yet it may be that towards the end of his life Hebbe’s circumstances improved, for in the summer of 1432 he was deemed to be sufficiently sound to provide financial guarantees for the appearance in court of a defendant being sued by Henry Wyndover* of Chichester.7 CP40/686, rot. 305. He is not recorded thereafter.