MANWOOD, Roger I (by 1475-1534), of Sandwich, Kent.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. by 1475, s. of Robert Manwood by Elizabeth, da. of John Archer of Sandwich and Alfriston, Suss. m. (1) Christian, 1s. 1da.; (2) Elizabeth, da. of John Nethersole of Nethersole, Kent.2

Offices Held

Constable of the 4th ward in 1496, common councilman (St. Mary’s parish) 1500-13, treasurer 1508-9, jurat 1514-d., mayor 1517-18, 1526-27, dep. mayor in 1522, 1524, auditor 1522, 1524, 1525, keeper of the common chest and of the orphans 1522-24, of the orphans in 1525; bailiff to Yarmouth 1519.3

Biography

Roger Manwood’s family is said to have come from Chichester in Sussex and his father was perhaps the first of the line to settle in Sandwich. Manwood was a draper living in the parish of St. Mary who combined business with a keen interest in town affairs. Between 1499 and his death he attended the brotherhood of the Cinque Ports 16 times and the Shepway once. In August 1522 he was one of the delegation which went to London to sue for the liberties of the ports, and a month later he was authorized to appear before the King’s commissioners at Fordwich to answer charges against Sandwich. His election to the Parliament of 1523 with John Somer was the climax of his municipal career: the town agreed to pay both men wages at the statutory rate of 2s. a day, and on the eve of their departure instructed them to refer the matter of Joan Youngs’s escape from custody to the royal bailiff for the town, Brian Tuke, an incident which led to Tuke’s replacement by Sir Edward Ryngeley. When not long after his appointment the new bailiff quarrelled with the town Manwood met him at Eastry to discuss the problem but failed to reach an agreement.4

As a leading figure in Sandwich, Manwood was chosen as one of its representatives to the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533 and helped to bear the Queen’s canopy. By a will made on 1 Oct. 1534 and proved two months later he asked to be buried near his first wife in St. Lawrence’s chapel in St. Mary’s church and to have a gravestone depicting himself, his two wives and six children. He provided for his second wife, his son Thomas (who inherited the woollen cloth shop), a daughter Joan married to Nicholas Peake, and grandchildren whom he did not mention by name. Three of his grandsons, John and Roger Manwood and Edward Peake, together with his great-grandson Peter Manwood, came to enjoy a near-monopoly of the Membership for Sandwich later in the century.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: R. J. Knecht

Notes

  • 1. Sandwich white bk. f. 315.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. lxxv), 135; Canterbury probate reg. A20, ff. 73-74.
  • 3. Sandwich white bk. passim; old red bk. passim.
  • 4. Sandiwch white bk. ff. 68v-383v passim; old red bk. ff. 5, 9-9v, 33, 45v, 56v; treasurers’ accts. Sa/Fac. 23, 24, 29; Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. (Kent Arch. Soc. recs. br. xix), 123-216 passim; D. Gardiner, Sandwich, 152-3.
  • 5. Sandwich old red bk. f. 45v; Canterbury probate reg. A20, ff. 73-74.