STUBBERE, Simon

More may be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 520.

Together with Richard Hert* and Richard Beye*, Stubbere was accused in June 1420 of freighting cargoes of foodstuffs for shipment to Normandy without paying customs dues. It was alleged in the Exchequer that since the previous Michaelmas the three Portsmouth ‘shipmen’, aided by Henry Abraham*, had used a number of vessels, including Le Marie and Le George of Portsmouth to ship corn, oats and eggs across the Channel. They appeared before the barons on 8 July to make their case that they had been victualling the English garrisons in the duchy, and need not pay customs on the goods concerned. Stubbere himself had shipped 20 quarters of oats (worth 2s. 6d. a quarter) to victual the port of Honfleur, and together with Beye a similar quantity, but of higher value, destined for Rouen. Summoned to reappear at the Exchequer in successive law terms, they duly complied until the end of Henry V’s reign. Stubbere’s first Parliament (representing Portsmouth in company with Abraham) coincided with one such appearance, although all four failed to turn up in Michaelmas term 1422, at the beginning of Henry VI’s reign. Eventually, on 12 May 1425 the three principals asked for an inquiry to be made, and were charged 6s. 8d. each to pay its costs.3 E159/196, recorda Trin. rot. 13; 201, recorda Easter rot. 9d, fines rot. 5. The outcome is not known. Besides dealing in foodstuffs such as malt and salt, Stubbere also traded in canvas and kerseys, making shipments in his own vessel in the autumn of 1432 and on another boat in the following June.4 E122/141/21, ff. 27, 53v, 53A.