HOLME, Robert I

It was only after the end of his tenure as a customs official in Kingston-upon-Hull that Holme sought the freedom of the borough to which he was admitted by purchase in 1415.2 Ibid. bench bk. 2, BRE 1, p. 252.

The previous biography failed to notice a couple of Holme’s offices at Hull, that of an auditor of the chamberlains’ accounts and, more significantly, the important position of alderman.3 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 400-1. As one of the wealthiest and most powerful burgesses, he was well qualified to become an alderman, a position added to the administration of the borough after the Crown conferred county status upon it in May 1440. He was third on the list of 13 nominees to the office, behind the mayor, John Aldwick*, and John Bedford†. When the new aldermen were formally assigned their wards on 10 Dec. 1442, he and Aldwick were given that of St. Mary.4 Kingston-upon-Hull recs., bench bk. 3, BRE 2, ff. 12v, 24.

In 1433 the Crown rewarded Holme for seizing two vessels on the Humber, the crews of which had attempted to avoid paying customs for their cargoes of over 2,000 fells.5 E159/209, recorda Easter rot. 6; E403/712, m. 1. Some further evidence of his own commercial activities has emerged: first, he was a merchant of the Calais staple; secondly, he regularly traded in London, where in 1425 he registered a debt of £25 owed to him by a foreign merchant, Ubertinus de Bardes. His will provides further evidence, omitted in the previous biography, of a connexion with Calais, since it included a bequest of £3 for making a window in the church of the Blessed Virgin there.6 VCH Yorks. (E. Riding), i. 66; Borthwick Inst., Univ. of York, York registry wills, prob. reg. 2, ff. 211-12v; J. Kermode, ‘Merchants of York, Hull and Beverley’ (Sheffield Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1990), 205.

In 1437 Holme availed of the general pardon issued in the Parliament of that year; his letters were letters dated 21 June.7 C67/38, m. 18. An Act of the following Parliament requiring all alien merchants in England to lodge with a reputable burgess in the towns in which they were staying had an immediate impact on Hull and other ports with a sizeable foreign population. As one of those called upon to provide such accommodation, Holme may have resented the imposition although he was no position to refuse it and he acted as a host in 1440-1.8 H. Bradley, Views of Hosts of Alien Merchants, pp. xxxv, 150-1.

On 27 Apr. 1449, just days before Holme’s death, the other aldermen of Hull acknowledged his generosity in paying debts of £36 that their town had incurred in recent work on its harbour by ordering that he should receive immediate repayment of that sum.9 Kingston-upon-Hull bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, f. 9.