A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



wool received there for the king's use by Robert 

 de Stuffyn and Roger de Bothale. 21 



William Durant was associated with Robert 

 de Staynton (Stuffyn ?) in 1338 in the transport 

 of 50 sacks of wool from Boston to the staple 

 at Antwerp, the collectors in the former port 

 having orders to allow them^ioo in custom and 

 subsidy due thereon in part satisfaction of ^640 

 lent by them to the king in parts beyond the sea, 

 as they had besought the king to grant the 

 licence to take 100 sacks to the said staple, 50 

 from Boston, and 50 from Kingston, and the 

 king has granted their request. 22 John Keyser 

 was a Newark wool merchant with whom 

 Edward III had frequent financial relations. We 

 find him petitioning in 1331 for payment of 

 77 marks lent by him to the king in the ports 

 of Boston and Kingston on Hull, as appeared by 

 letters patent under the seal called ' coket ' ; or 

 in default of such payment, for an assignment to 

 be made to him on the first customs of wool, 

 hides, or wool-fels, sent out of the realm. It is 

 interesting to note, in passing, that Keyser seems 

 to have combined with his traffic in wool the 

 office of purveyor of wines to the royal house- 

 hold, for we find that he had presented a petition 

 a little earlier for payment of a claim of jiO, 

 the import of wines from Gascony being a 

 feature of the trade of his day. 23 



Newark wool merchants, in common with 

 those of the rest of the Midland counties, were 

 compelled to export their wool from Boston, 

 where the staple 24 had been fixed in 1369. 

 Prior to this date, the staple town for these 

 counties had been Lincoln. 26 The wool trade 

 of Newark was controlled by the mayor and 

 twenty-four aldermen, merchants of the fellow- 

 ship of the staple of Calais.' 6 A Newark man, 

 John Hesil or de Hesyll, was appointed controller 

 of the customs at Hull in 1380, on condition 

 that he exercised the office himself. De Hesyll 

 was Warden of the Trinity Gild of Newark 

 from 1381 to I4O3- 27 



11 Cal. Close, 1339-41, p. 147. See also p. 306. 



" Ibid. 1337-9, p. 579- 



23 Cal. Close, 1330-3, pp. 104, 242. 



" Staple a depot where goods were deposited so 

 that tolls might be collected thereon. Jus stapulae 

 the right of a town to have such goods exposed for sale 

 in its market ; Huvelin, Droit ties marches, 206. 



!i Cunningham, Engl, Industry and Commerce, 316. 

 A petition from the Midland counties in 1376 that 

 the staple might be restored to Lincoln was rejected, 

 it being directed that ' St. Botolph's ' should continue 

 a staple town during the king's pleasure ; Rot. Par/, ii, 

 322,4. 



2t By statute 14 Edw. IV, cap. 3, all wools, northern 

 or otherwise, were ordered to be sent to the staple at 

 Calais. The trade of Newark with this port was very 

 considerable, as we learn from a petition addressed by 

 the merchants to the king in 1455 ; Brown, Hist. 

 Newark, 186. 



" Ibid. 



If Flemish merchants were domiciled in Not- 

 tinghamshire at an early date we also find 

 Nottinghamshire merchants resident abroad, with 

 a view no doubt to be in closer touch with and 

 more effectually to control the conduct of the 

 wool traffic in the heart of the staple centres. 

 In 1332, for example, we find James Keyser 

 of Newark dwelling at Bruges, where in con- 

 junction with several other English merchants he 

 ' arrested and detained the wool of one Nicholas 

 de Pydeford, a merchant of Bridgnorth,' alleging, 

 it would appear, that they were well within their 

 rights in so doing, and taking their stand upon 

 the ' pretext of a staple newly-established by 

 them,' contrary to the statute. 28 For this offence, 

 the sheriff of Lincoln was ordered to arrest and 

 keep the wool belonging to James Keyser, 

 because he had not restored that belonging to the 

 said Nicholas. 29 



In 1336 a charge of extortion brought against 

 certain Newark wool merchants acquaints us 

 with the names of some of those engaged in the 

 early traffic of this commodity. The delinquents 

 were accused of buying wools by the stone of 

 13^ Ib. instead of that of 12^ Ib. to the hurt and 

 oppression of the people. On the sheriff com- 

 manding them to come and appear before him, 

 all but one obeyed the order, and were fined as 

 follows : John Kayser, 65. 8d. ; William 

 de Mounfort, 40^. ; Henry Mons, 131. \d. ; 

 Thomas de Kelham, 2CW. ; William and Richard 

 de Wanseye, 16*. 8^. ; John de Balderton, 401. ; 

 Richard de Burton, 405. ; Henry de Lincoln, 

 40*. ; William Fleshhewer, 6s. 8d. ; Robert 

 Stuffyn, 6;. 8</. 30 



An inquisition on John Ashton, vicar of 

 Colston Basset, in the reign of Henry IV, gives 

 the price of a stone of wool as 35. 6d., whilst the 

 price of a sheep is given in the next inquisition, 

 that on Nicholas Fuller, parson of Hockerton, 

 as 5^/. 31 



These Nottinghamshire wool merchants were 

 by no means above suspicion in the execution of 

 their office as collectors and receivers. Thus we 

 find William Durant and Richard de Leycestre 



K Cal. Close, i 330-3, p. 467. 



19 Ibid. pp. 498, 519. For this English colony at 

 Bruges Professor Cunningham claims that it was pro- 

 bably the predecessor of the Merchant Adventurers 

 (Engl. Industry and Commerce [ed. 4], 317). The 

 staple had been regularly established in Flanders in 

 1343 (ibid. 3 12), although the English colony does 

 not appear to have been regularly organized, or to 

 have had its mayor until 1359 (Rt- Stap. 2746 

 Edw. Ill, m. 11) ; Armstrong, in his ' Treatis con- 

 cerning the Staple ' (1519) (Pauli, Denkschr[fteti),Yin\.cs 

 of Bruges as ' the first mart in the Low Countries,' 

 fifteen foreign nations having their dep6ts or factories 

 at one time in this ' chief emporium of the towns of 

 the Hanseatic League.' See Weale, Bruges, 7 ; 

 Zimmern, The Hansa Towns, 165. 



50 Brown, Hist. Newark, i, 184. 



" Esch. Inq. 2-3 Hen. IV, no. 1410 (i). 





342 



