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II. The Mayors of the Staples

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2011

E. E. Rich
E. E. Rich
Affiliation:
Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
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Extract

The ordinance 1353, later confirmed in Parliament, introduced an entirely new conception of the office of the Mayor of the Staple. The compulsory marts in which the chief export wares had to be sold were then fixed in English ports, at each of which a Mayor of the Staple was appointed. Until then the Staples had only been fixed in English ports for two very brief periods, from the Kenilworth Ordinance of May 1326 to August 1328, and from September 1332 to February 1334, subject to interruptions owing to the needs of Royal finance: otherwise, from 1313 to 1326 and from 1340 to 1353, the Staple had been fixed in a Netherlands town.

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Articles
Information
Cambridge Historical Journal , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , 1933 , pp. 120 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1933

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References

1 C[alendar of] C[lose] R[olls] 1323–27, p. 564.

2 C.C.R. 1327–30, p. 134.

3 C.C.R. 1323–27, p. 585.

4 Ibid. p. 593 and C.C.R. 1327–30, p. 54.

5 Royal Charters of Lincoln, ed. Birch, p. 34.

6 There were, of course, numerous small men who engaged in the export trade (for example, over two hundred merchants were engaged for sums of less than three hundred pounds in the Dordrecht venture of 1338), but none the less the placing of the Staple in a continental port did give an advantage to the more wealthy merchants over the less wealthy.

7 C.C.R. 1318–23, p.186; and C.C.R. 1330–33, p.467.

8 C.C.R. 1318–23, p.110.

9 Rymer (Foedera, 1816 ed.) 11, ii, 1172.

10 C.C.R. 1323–27, P. 378.

11 Rymer, 11, ii, 1210.

12 C.C.R. 1341–43. p. 296; C.P.R. 1340–3, p. 271.

13 C.C.R. 1341–43. p. 281.

14 C.C.R. 1343–46, p. 70.

15 Ibid. pp. 266, 601, 649, etc.

16 C.C.R. 1346–9, p. 119.

17 C.P.R. 1350–54. pp. 2, 495.

18 C.C.R. 1349–54. pp. 64–5.

19 E.g. Ochenkowski, Englands Wirtschaftliche Entwickelung, p. 195.

20 Unwin, Finance and trade under Edward III, p. 230 et seq.

21 Rot[uli] Parl[iamenti], 11, p. 253, No. 42. Report on the Dignity of a Peer, i, pp. 323 and 324.

22 Rot[uli] Stap[ulae] (Patent Rolls Supplementary, c. 67, 22) m. 22d.

23 Rot. Parl. iv, p. 328, No. 11.

24 Rot. Parl. ii, p. 250, No. 24.

25 Rot. Stap. m. 25.

26 Ch[ancery] Misc[ellanea], 33/8/17.

27 Rot. Stap. m. 19, m. 17, m. 15.

28 C.P.R. 1354–58, p. 225.

29 Rot. Stap. m. 17d.

30 Rot. Stap. m. 21.

31 Rot. Parl. 11, pp. 261–2, No. 49, Statute 28, Ed. in, c. 15.

32 C.P.R. 1358–61, p. 76. The commission was vacated.

33 Baldwin, Select Cases before King's Council, pp. 39–40.

34 C.P.R. 1354–8, p. 553.

35 E.g. Ashley, Introduction to English Economic History and Theory, Part II, p. 22. Tout, Chapters in English Administrative History, III, p. 186, gives another version.

36 Camden Society, 1872, vol. xxxv, p. 74 and 76.

37 Calendar of Pleas and Memoranda Rolls of the City of London, 1364–81. Ed. Thomas, p. 248 and note, pp. 283 and 277. Ibid. 1381–1412, pp. xvi-xvii.

38 Vide, Gros. The Gild Merchant, vol. I, pp. 145, 146 and notes.

39 See Notes and Communications I. Southampton also may have been an exception to this rule, but, if it is, it is not an important one. Speed, writing about 1770,says “There is no mention of a Staple in this town before the Charter of 23 Henry VI.” This is not entirely true, for there are a few cases recorded in Chancery files from the Staple Court of Southampton, so that it is clear that a Staple Court did exist there in 1374, 1376, 1396 and 1398. From so few names nothing can be deduced, save that the Staple at Southampton was not of any great importance: later, after 1480, the Mayor of the town is certainly the Mayor of the Staple also.

40 See p. 141.

41 E.g. Bristol “Staple Action Book, 1610,” fol. 48d and 49: case of Walter Phelpes. “Staple Action Book, 1620,” fol. 9d: case of Thomas Williams.

42 C.P.R. 1385–9, p. 260; 1388–92, pp. 62, 351.

43 Selden Society Publications, vol. XII, Select Cases in the Court of Requests, pp. lxxv and 3–7.

44 C[hancery] F[iles], G. 169.

45 Rymer, II, i, 635; C.P.R. 1324–7, pp. 99, 100.

46 C.P.R. 1330–4, p. 270.

47 Rot. Parl. II, p. 262, No. 52.

48 Cal[endar of] Charter Rolls, 1341–1417, p. 183, 184, 186.

49 Ch. Misc. 33. 8. 83; Rot. Stap. m. 18.

50 Ch. Misc. 33. 7. 32.

51 Ibid. 33. 5. 1.

52 Cal. Charter Rolls, 1341–1417, p. 183, 184.

53 Bristol, “Staple Action Book beginning Michaelmas 1640,” fol. 284. “Staple Action Book, 1620–1640,” fol. 115. On 25 September, 1624, William Pitt admitted to the freedom of the Staple of Bristol, among others, his five sons, of whom three were under age and unable to take the oath, his servant, Andrew Justice, two other minors, and Gilbert Hooke, sugar-maker of London. On 28 September he admitted William Webb, a Somerset clothier, the two sons of Oliver Snell, Sheriff of Bristol, both minors, and one other minor. None of these save William Webb paid an admission fee, but when Robert Rogers, Mayor, admitted his son, Sir Richard Rogers, on 28 September 1622, he paid his fee (fol. 117).

54 Hist. MSS. Comm. 1885, App. 5, p. 306.

55 C.P.R. 1370–4, p. 405.

56 C.P.R. 1385–9. p. 342.

57 See Notes and Communications.

58 C.P.R. 1350–4, pp. 142–3–4–5.

59 C.P.R. 1358–61, p. 260.

60 Rot. Parl., II, p. 456, No. 125.

61 “Little Red Book of Bristol,” ed. Bickley, 1, 20, 21, 25.

62 Ch. Misc. 33, File 5.

63 Ibid. 33, File 7.

64 C.P.R. 1354–8;, p 8; 1358–61, p. 165; 1361–4, p. 160.

65 C.P.R. 1350–4, p. 537.

66 Statutes (at Large 1769 edition), 1, 283.

67 Cal. Charter Rolls, 1341–1417, pp. 151, 185.

68 C.P.R. 1350–4. p. 416.

69 C.P.R. 1358–61, p. 583.

70 C.P.R. 1361–4, p. 286.

71 Rot. Stap. m. 8.

72 Rot. Parl. II, pp. 270–1, No. xiv.

73 Statutes, i, 309, 36 Ed. III, c. vii.

74 Little Red Book, I, 103.

75 Ibid. fol. 49, 49d.

76 C.P.R. 1370–4, p. 320.

77 C.C.R. 1354–60, p. 192.

78 Statutes, i, p. 292, 31 Ed. III. c. viii and ix. Rot. Stap. m. 15, m. 13, etc.

79 Varenbergh, Histoire des relations diplomatiques, p. 447.

80 Rot. Stap. m. 11.

81 Rot. Stap. m. 12.

82 C.P.R. 1358–61, p. 564.

83 Rot. Parl. II, p. 269, No. 7.

84 Rymer, III, ii, 617.

85 Rot. Stap. m. 8, m. 7.

86 Von Ockenkowski, p. 189; Rymer, III, ii, 688.

87 Rot. Parl. II, p. 276, No. 11.

88 C.C.R. 1364–8, p. 37.

89 See Miss Greave's on “Calais under Edward III” in Unwin, pp. 313–50.

90 Rymer, III, ii, 690–1.

91 Ibid. p. 722.

92 Statutes, i, 318–19, 1–38 Ed. III, c. ii, vi, vii. Forfeiture of life and limb was abolished.

93 Rot. Parl. 11, 287, No. xvii.

94 Rymer, III, ii, 768–9.

95 Ibid. p. 795.

96 Ibid. p. 768.

97 Ibid. p. 691.

98 E.g. of the twenty-four Aldermen of 1363 ten either had been or later became Mayors of English Staples.

99 Rymer, III, ii, 745–6.

100 Letters Close of 8 January, 13 Ric. II.

101 Rot. Parl. II, 301, 24; Statutes i, 327, 43 Ed. III, c. 1.

102 Statutes i, 397, 14 Ric. II, c. 1.

103 Rot. Parl. II, 315, 49; III, 250, No. 41.

104 Rot. Parl. III, 136, 22; 111, 204, 12.

105 Letters Patent of 17 December, 13 Ric. II.

106 Letters Close of 8 January, 13 Ric. II.

107 Rot. Parl. III, 429, 87. Letters Patent of 16 December, 1 Henry IV.

108 Rot. Parl. III, 529, 36.

109 Verachter, Inventaire des anciens chartres, p. 137. Letters Patent of 19 March, 36 Henry VI.

110 Rot. Parl. III, 203, 4.

111 Statute i, 397, 14 Ric. II, c. i and iii.

112 Surtees Society Publications, 1894, Introduction, pp. xxxiii and xxxv.

113 E.g. when, in 1444 Southampton was confirmed as a staple for ever, its first privilege was that of taking recognisances of debts according to the Statute Staple: other things followed, a Mayor and two Constables were to be elected annually, with power to govern the brokers, porters, packers and carriers of all merchandise. Records Commission, XI, App. 3, p. 45.

114 Rot. Parl., IV, 328, No. 11.