Family and Education

m. bef. 1405, Margery.

Offices Held

Jurat, New Romney 25 Mar. 1419-21, 1422-33, 1437-8.4

Cinque Ports’ bailiff at Yarmouth Sept.-Nov. 1428, 1432.5

Biography

Smith and his wife held five acres of land at Ivychurch, near Romney, which they sold in 1405. He paid maltolts in Holyngbroke ward in the town itself from 1412 to 1433, having in the meantime acquired in 1423 certain properties there once belonging to John Lunceford*, and in 1425 a tenement in St. Laurence’s parish which William Warmyston† sold him.6 A draper by trade, Smith also owned a ship in which some men from Romney sailed to Dover in 1422-3. In 1425 he lent the local authorities 6s.8d. to pay to the Dover Member who had represented them for 18 days at the close of the Parliament held that year, and had most likely taken his own place in the Commons for some of the time, for he was absent for at least seven of the days Parliament was in session. Other business for Romney which occupied him included a trip to Smallhythe and Sandwich in 1430 to hire vessels for the Ports’ ship-service for Henry VI’s crossing to France; and when a royal esquire and the clerk of the King’s ships visited Romney about this matter, he supplied fodder for their horses to help gain their goodwill for the community. In 1432 he rode to Sandwich again, this time to procure an acquittance showing that Romney had provided its proper contingent for the King’s return voyage. Meanwhile, in 1430-1, he had taken up to London certain of the Cinque Ports’ charters (which were kept at Romney), to ensure that the Portsmen would be discharged from taxation according to their liberties.7

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: A. P.M. Wright

Notes

• 1. He and Thomas Rokeslee* apparently replaced those named on the return: Romney assmt. bk. 2, f. 92.
• 2. Attending for 36 days at wages of 2s.6d. per day: ibid. ff. 102, 103, 106.
• 3. Attending for 46 days: ibid. f. 115.
• 4. Ibid. ff. 92-125.
• 5. Ibid. ff. 106, 115.
• 6. Kent AO, NR/JBr/8, nos. 40, 47; CP25(1)112/264/263; assmt. bk. 2, ff. 74-114.
• 7. Assmt. bk. 2, ff. 98, 102, 103, 110, 111, 115.