SOURCES AND PROBLEMS IN THE STUDY OF SOCIAL MOBILITY: CHESHIRE IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

'" Michael J. Bennett, B.A., Ph.D.

ARLY in the fifteenth century Sir Hugh Holes, a native of E Cheshire, purchased the manor of Oxhey, near Watford in Hertfordshire. As early as 1394 his legal work in his own region and elsewhere had brought him sufficient repute to secure his appointment to the king's bench, and his duties at Westminster had doubtless made imperative a seat closer to the capital. By the time of his death in 1416 his household had become established permanently at Oxhey, and his eldest son was joining the ranks of the Hertfordshire gentry. Meanwhile a second son, Andrew Holes, was pursuing a distinguished career at Oxford, which would eventually lead to advanced studies in Italy, and a reputa­ tion for humanist scholarship amongst popes and princes.1 At almost exactly the same time as Sir Hugh Holes was acquiring the manor of Oxhey, a compatriot of rather lesser means was marrying the heiress of a modest estate at Wheathamstead. Noth­ ing is known for certain about this Hugh Bostock, except for three qualities he shared with the redoubtable justice of the king's bench: he was a native of Cheshire; he settled in Hertfordshire; and he was the father of one of the foremost intellectuals of fifteenth-century England. John Bostock alias Wheathamstead was not only a monk of great suavity and learning, but also, as abbot of St Albans for two terms stretching from 1400 to 1420 and again from 1452 to 1465, one of the most influential men in the realm.2 The careers of Sir Hugh Holes, Hugh Bostock and their talented sons provide a salutary reminder that late medieval English society was neither so closed nor so static as is often imagined. Whether their experiences were at all common is a question which demands some answer, but which is all too often studiously ignored. Obviously the relative sparsity and intractability of the available data have been major deterrents, but the fundamental problem would seem to be methodological. For the most part - -. " ''" 59 6o Michael J. Bennett studies of medieval English society have tended to be structured around analyses of discrete bodies of source material, most typically the archives of the large ecclesiastical estates. Almost by definition their frame of reference has been manorial, and their focus has served to elucidate a number of the key variables in rural society, but such an approach cannot do justice to the complexities of social life. Needless to say, there have been numerous studies of institutions and social groupings which stand outside the manorial complex. As is shown in more detail later, the immense literature on such topics as towns and trade, the church and education, military activity, government and so on provides a great deal of valuable data for the study of social mobility. Unfortunately the perspective provided by such studies is always limited to a particular avenue of social advancement, and rarely is the latter treated in the context of its viability to particular sections of the population. What is needed is a series of regional studies in which the interaction between village and town, country and capital, county and court can be considered, and access to opportunities for social and economic differentiation properly evaluated. If this is too much a counsel of perfection, an attempt can at least be made to assemble evidence on the socially- mobile sections of the population to match the mushrooming growth of studies of manorial life. In the following sections it is intended to draw attention to the sources available for the study of social mobility in late medieval Cheshire, and to open up for discussion the methodological problems involved in this intract­ able, but potentially fertile field.

I Social mobility is the neglected dimension of regional history. Accordingly there is a great deal of information still to be obtained from secondary literature as well as primary sources, both pub­ lished and unpublished. Regional historians, of course, might be expected to have culled their own standard county histories, in the case of Cheshire the weighty volumes of Ormerod and Ear- waker, as well as other monographs and articles on local parishes, families and individuals.3 In the case of northwest England, for example, the work of J. C. Bridge on Sir Hugh Calveley and Sir Robert Knolles, R. W. Crooks on John Winwick, R. Cun- liffe Shaw on John Shaa of Dukinfield and E. Axon on the Booth family would appear seminal, whilst J. Hall's and more recently E. Carton's histories of Nantwich are full of relevant detail on local careerists.4 To follow the leads of Cheshire careerists whose memory was not kept alive in their native shire, it is equally Sources and Problems ''' 6l necessary to make use of the histories of other counties. In the Victoria County History of Hertfordshire, for example, can be traced not only the purchases of Sir Hugh Holes and the marriage of Hugh Bostock but also the more substantial acquisitions of two other contemporaries from Cheshire: Thomas Knolles, grocer and alderman of London and John Norbury, who had risen through the French wars to become treasurer of England under his comrade-in-arms, Henry IV.5 Indeed some years ago S. Thrupp outlined the career of Thomas Knolles in The Merchant Class of Medieval London whilst M. Barber published a study of Nor- bury's career in English Historical Review, both of which have passed unnoticed by Cheshire historians.6 Nor must it be assumed that such well-established sources of reference as the Dictionary of National Biography have been exhaustively quarried for Cheshire 'worthies'. 7 If there is still much work that can be done from the reference- shelves of libraries, it is not surprising that there is a vast amount of primary source material which has still to be combed through in the quest for Cheshire careerists. Since the palatinate of Chester had its own series of administrative and judicial records, it is possible to subject the county society to much closer scrutiny than is allowed by analogous classes of record in other parts of the kingdom. Similarly Cheshire has been favoured by the survival of a large number of rich muniment collections. The two cate­ gories of source material together make it possible to become surprisingly familiar with the Cheshire population, and to be assured of a reasonably solid foundation for the study of local careerists. The Chester recognizance rolls are a rich mine of information both on office-holders within the palatinate and on local men from all walks of life who sought their fortunes outside the shire.8 The names of the hundreds of Cheshire men-at-arms and archers enlisted in the royal bodyguard in the last years of Richard II's reign provide the data for the study of a spectacular episode in the history of local careerism, whilst details of judicial appointments and commissions offer early references to the activities of such successful Cheshire lawyers as Hugh Holes and John Needham.9 Local muniment collections similarly offer the student of social mobility an astonishingly varied range of docu­ mentation. The Cholmondeley Deeds include material relating to the property-acquisitions of John Macclesfield, Richard II's secretary and keeper of the wardrobe, and to the consolidation of the Savage family fortunes in the Macclesfield area.10 The Legh of Booths Charters provide notices of such lesser known Cheshire careerists as William Thelwall, a serjeant-at-arms at Westminster in the reign of Edward III, and the Hesketh brothers, apparently 62 Michael J. Bennett regional recruiting-officers for Lord Grey of Ruthin in his opera­ tions against the Welsh rebels later in the decade.11 The search for evidence of social mobility obviously must range as widely and freely as the activities of the Cheshire careerists themselves. The county boundaries were far from impermeable, and there was far more movement amongst all sections of the population than is commonly supposed. Miscellaneous references reveal a Congleton tradesman in employment at Nottingham being visited by two Knutsford merchants on their way back from Stourbridge fair; a group of Cheshire soldiers headed by Sir Hugh Browe witnessing the deed of a Halton man whilst waiting embarkation at Bristol; and a local bondman being chased in distant Oxfordshire.12 Manifestly in a consideration of all but the least ambitious careerists, the frame of reference will tend to be national. Amongst the records at Westminster, the chancery rolls are the most useful and accessible for this sort of investigation, and there are few notable Cheshire men who do not figure at some stage or other in the well-indexed calendars.13 Thus the progress of Thomas Thelwall from chancery clerk to chancellor of the county palatine of Lancaster in the reign of Edward III can only be chronicled through the records of his own department, whilst the career of his brother, John Thelwall, at the papal court has been evidenced so far only in this same valuable source.14 Research in the Vatican archives might well shed more light on the nature of his employment, as it does on the work of his com­ patriots, John Fitton and Andrew Holes, both chamberlains at the papal court in the early fifteenth century.15 Meanwhile the archives of the crown of Aragon and the city of Bordeaux have added important detail to the careers of the Cheshire knights, Sir Hugh Calveley and Sir Richard Cradock, and further work in other continental repositories cannot fail to continue to widen the historian's appreciation of Cheshire careerism.16 A fair number of local soldiers and churchmen have foreign graves, like Robert Arderne of Alvanley at Besancon and Robert Hallum of Warring- ton at Constance.17 Many more returned to die in their native country, though not necessarily their native shire. John Norbury and several other local careerists were buried at Greyfriars church, London, whilst Sir Thomas Carrington was laid to rest under a fine monument at Blackfriars.18 Testamentary evidence is enor­ mously valuable in the study of local careerists, and The Cheshire Sheaf by publishing some of the Canterbury wills has introduced historians to a whole series of local tradesmen and professionals who made their fortunes outside the shire. The will of George Farneley, for example, offers fascinating information on an enter­ prising pair of brothers from the parish of Weaverham, who by Sources and Problems 63 1500 were well-established as citizens and mercers of London. George Farneley himself had widespread trading connections through the Antwerp mart, and acknowledged a Flemish mistress and a bastard son living in his house in Bruges.19 Most of the categories of evidence so far considered relate equally well to all trades and professions through which Cheshire men sought advancement in the later middle ages. Unfortunately it is a problem with this sort of generalised evidence to be sure about the nature of the enterprise in which some of the Cheshire emigrants were engaged. Three examples, all of whom hailed from a few square miles of bleak upland in the Macclesfield Forest will suffice. Roger Jodrell of Whaley (d. 142 3) was the head of a substantial freeholding family, rapidly acquiring the trappings of gentility. Undoubtedly his extensive property- acquisitions were financed by his involvement in ventures of a miscellaneous kind. Like so many of his compatriots, he was a soldier of sorts, and in his will he left 'body armour' to his eldest son. Yet the diversity of his interests is evident from his marriage to the daughter of a York merchant, their membership of the Trinity Guild in Coventry, and his possession of a 'fishing boat in the land of Gower'.20 A close neighbour and contemporary whose career is difficult to categorise was John Shrigley. Another free­ holder in Macclesfield Forest, he sought fame and fortune in Ireland. The skills he had to trade upon were both clerical and military, and in 1389 he was granted property in consideration of his good service in various offices 'as well as in the wars'. At around the same time he occurs as a baron of the exchequer at Dublin, as the husband of the wealthy widow of Sir Simon Cusack, and as a knight in the retinue of his compatriot Sir John Stanley, lieutenant of Ireland.21 Two generations later, the hamlet of Shrigley produced another fascinating, if obscure careerist, Geoffrey Downes (d. 1494). In his will he and the Lady Ingoldes- thorp founded a chantry complete with a lending-library for their pious brotherhood in the remote fastnesses of Pott Shrigley. Un­ fortunately nothing is known of the particular calling of this devout layman beyond his styling himself a 'gentleman of London'.22 If the careers of such men as Jodrell, Shrigley and Downes contain many obscure elements, it must be admitted that more often the problem is exactly the reverse: the man's professional life is well-documented but his exact provenance wholly mysterious. In a great many cases the context of a refer­ ence usually makes evident, explicitly or implicitly, the nature of an individual's trade or profession. Accordingly it is appropriate in a guide to the sources for the study of social mobility that each field of endeavour should have its own separate treatment. In the 64 Michael J. Bennett remainder of this section the various avenues of advancement are discussed under four main headings: trade and industry; the church; military service; law and administration. At first sight it might be thought that manufacturing and commercial activity was unimportant as a field for social mobility in Cheshire in the later middle ages. In this period the shire was relatively sparsely populated, and economically undeveloped. The city of Chester was probably the only town with a popula­ tion of over a thousand, and in size and stature it dwarfed its rivals. A survey of some four hundred merchants and craftsmen named in the Cheshire county court rolls between 1415 and 1425 reveal that almost a half were citizens of Chester.23 In the search for commercial and industrial enterprise, therefore, the civic archives appear a natural starting-point. The published Chester Freeman Rolls and Chester Customs Accounts 1301 1566 provide data on the city's inhabitants, occupational structure and trading connections, and more work is required on the mayors' books, pentice and portmote rolls, and other uncalendared material.21 Yet initial impressions suggest that such an investigation might be disappointing from the point of view of local achievement. K. P. Wilson has noted that for most of the fifteenth century the profitable maritime and coastal trade was largely in the hands of foreigners, 25 and many of the prominent citizens hailed from the Welsh borderlands, Lancashire or further afield. Doubtless Cheshire families from the Dee and Gowy valleys and the Wirral peninsula were able to diversify their incomes through production for the market or having their sons apprenticed to crafts, but few fortunes were made. Curiously enough, the smaller towns of east Cheshire show more promise, although much of it remained un­ fulfilled in the later middle ages. From ancient times the salt- towns of Nantwich, Middlewich and Northwich had been nodal points in a network of communications which enmeshed the greater part of the midlands and the north.26 Their location in the midst of lush countryside ideally suited to cattle-raising, together with the availability of the basic preservative, made them natural centres for the processing of meat, cheese-making and leatherwork. Further east and north, around Congleton, Knutsford, Altrincham, Macclesfield and Stockport, there are also signs of increasing vigour, especially in textiles. Demonstrably more needs to be known about the economic development of east Cheshire prior to the sixteenth century, and a start could be made on the three best-documented boroughs: Macclesfield and Congle­ ton, with their series of court rolls and accounts, and Middlewich, with the tantalising Middlewich Chartulary." Yet much of this material does not bear directly on trade, manufacturing or even Sources and Problems 65 the mercantile community, and its utility might be limited. If economic development in late medieval Cheshire is to be sought in the towns, the three most likely centres are amongst the most poorly documented. At the beginning of the fifteenth century the towns of Nantwich, Knutsford and Stockport appear to have ranked after Chester in the size of their trading communities, and it can be no coincidence that it was their merchants who, above all others, established the closest connections with London in this period.28 On the other hand, it is also probable that the surest signs of economic progress will be found outside the chartered boroughs and in the countryside, where occasional flashes of light from charters and court rolls illumine here a group of cottage-based linen weavers and there a flourishing fulling- mill.29 In tracing the activities of Cheshire tradesmen outside the region, the tracks to follow are many and varied. It is most fruitful to start the search with local leads, and then to pursue them in more distant parts. The Chester customs accounts testify to exten­ sive trade with Coventry, and it is scarcely surprising to find domiciled there tradesmen of local origin. The Register of the Trinity Guild Coventry records the membership of merchants and gentlemen from all parts of Cheshire.30 Further south, testamen­ tary evidence reveals James Merbury, a local adventurer who had settled in Bristol, and Roger and Henry Kelsall, natives of Knuts­ ford, established as clothiers at Southampton and Reading.31 Meanwhile the Arley Charters and the Jodrell Charters hint at connections based upon textiles between the lesser gentry of east Cheshire and the towns of Beverley, Hull and York.32 It is even possible to trace syndicates of local merchants freighting ships for the export of cloth through the port of Hull. A leading figure in this business was John Shaa of Dukinfield near Stockport, a mercer whose trading operations extended along the Mersey valley and across the Pennines. His son, Edmund Shaa, lord mayor of London, long remembered the lonely packhorse road across Saddleworth moor.33 Amongst their afHnes and associates were another large trading family, the Lathoms. Thomas Lathom of Knutsford was a draper, and his kinsmen were established, doubtless in the same business, at Warrington, Congleton, Den­ bigh, Pontefract and London.34 Once esconced in the capital, both trading families were not averse to diversifying their interests, and John Shaa and Ralph Lathom followed their uncle, Sir Edmund Shaa, as wardens of the goldsmiths' company.3''5 Doubt­ less a systematic search of the archives at Guild Hall would bring forth more information on the Shaas and their associates. Fortu­ nately there is S. Thrupp's magisterial The Merchant Class of 66 Michael J. Bennett Medieval London to serve as a guide. The short biographies of London aldermen included as an appendix to her work contain a number of Cheshire men, though her exclusive sample represents only a fraction of the local tradesmen who can be evidenced from other sources. Thomas Knolles (d.i435) appears to have been the first Cheshire man to acquire aldermanic rank, but he was soon followed by three other aldermen who hailed from Nantwich and its environs: William Wettenhall, grocer (d.i45i); Philip Malpas, draper ^.1450); and Sir Hugh Wiche, mercer (d.i468). Later there was a marked shift northwards in terms of the Cheshire representation on the aldermanic council. In addition to Sir Edmund Shaa, Thomas Oulgreve, a skinner from Knutsford, and John Percival, a tailor from Macclesfield, were prominent aldermen in the late fifteenth century.30 The church is often regarded as the most important career open to all the talents in late medieval England. Since there is a complete series of ordinations and institutions to benefices extant in the Lichfield Diocesan Registry, and since a fair proportion of this material has been abstracted in one form or another, the importance of clerical careers in Cheshire ought to be more easily demonstrated.37 Again, impressions derived from studies of the local church and clergy give few grounds for optimism. An analysis of the clerical population of Cheshire from the poll-tax returns of 1379 reveals that most of the richer benefices in the region were the hereditary preserves of local gentry families or the sinecures of non-resident royal clerks. At the same time the unbeneficed clergy outnumbered the beneficed in the proportion of over three to one, and few of the former ever achieved their own rectory or vicarage.38 D. Jones' wider-ranging study of The Church of Chester 1300 1540 outlines the careers of many notable clerks who held prebends in the collegiate church of St John, Chester, but few were local men.39 Yet it would be wrong to assume that openings for Cheshire clerks were as meagre as the conservatism and relative poverty of the local establishment would seem to dictate. It is unjust to dismiss the large number of unbeneficed chaplains taxed in 1379 as an impoverished proletariat. Their assessment at two shillings a head indicates that they were in receipt of regular incomes, whether as curates, chantry-priests, domestic chaplains or mere clerks. The few without livings of this sort would have been assessed at fourpence, or omitted entirely. The will of John Toft, a chaplain in the household of the parson of Rostherne, itemising a furred cloak and gown, two beds, silverware and books, gives the lie to the impression that all the unbeneficed were unprivileged.40 Admittedly there is evidence that many chaplains, and the poorer parsons for that matter, Sources and Problems ,< ' ^ continued to hold tenements, own livestock and farm-implements, and perhaps even work the soil in person. Yet, in an estimate of the prizes available to the local clergy in Cheshire, their value must be seen in relative not absolute terms. After all only a small proportion of the local clergy appear to have belonged to gentry families. Meanwhile, in a shire where villeinage was uncommon, the entry of serfs into the church is not unknown. Richard Vernon, chaplain, continued to hold a villein tenement at Bromborough on the St Werburgh's estate, but it is inconceivable that his clerical status had not given him some sort of material advantage over his neighbours.41 Even if many chaplains shared the lot of their peasant kinsmen, the occasional singing of a mass constituted a more profitable and less onerous side-line than most rural crafts. For many others of humble origin, entry into orders involved a decisive break with their agricultural background. Judging from their surnames, quite a number of the monks and even several abbots of Chester had been recruited from its manors in Wirral and elsewhere.42 Fortunately the career of Richard Norman, a Wirral monk of obscure provenance, can be documented with interesting circumstantial evidence. According to his own account, he started life in the service of an Austin friar, whom he slew in a heated argument. After securing absolution through a pilgrimage to Rome, he entered monastic orders at Birkenhead and in the fullness of time was elected its prior.43 Despite the modest gains to be made through serving the church in Cheshire, the study of clerical careerism begins in earnest at the county boundaries. For ambitious local clerks, whether their calling was secular or regular, whether their talents were administrative, academic, pastoral or contemplative, the real opportunities for preferment lay outside the archdeaconry of Chester, and even outside the diocese of Lichfield. An important avenue of advancement was service in the households of the rich and powerful, and the close tenurial connections between the palatinates of Chester and Lancaster and members of the royal family made this path easier for men of the region. From early in Edward Ill's reign a group of clerks from a small area around Halton and Widnes can be traced establishing themselves in the royal administration. John Winwick from south Lancashire was the dominant figure, holding office as keeper of the privy seal and briefly in 1360 as chancellor of England, but Thomas Thelwall from north Cheshire also acquired prominence as a chancery clerk and chancellor of the county palatine of Lancaster.44 Many other local clerks can be traced in The Black Prince's Register and John of Gaunt's Register, whilst some have their careers con­ veniently epitomised in the weighty foot-notes of T. F. Tout's 68 Michael J. Bennett Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England or in R. Somerville's History of the Duchy of Lancaster. 115 John Macclesfield (01.1422) was an illustrious clerk, whose progress from the privy seal office to the keepership to the great wardrobe can be charted with precision, and whose enormous wealth is amply attested by the record of his extensive property acquisi­ tions.40 Two younger contemporaries from the archdeaconry of Chester, who followed similar careers in the royal service, were Thomas Langley, bishop of Durham ^.1437) and William Booth, archbishop of York (d.i46o).47 Both men were natives of south Lancashire, but their Cheshire connections make their tenure of high office of great relevance to this enquiry. Whilst the rewards to be won by such secular-minded clerks were indeed handsome, there were local churchmen with ambitions of a less spiritually compromising nature. Two young men from Nantwich acquired eminence as mendicants in the fourteenth century: Roger Cradock as bishop of Llandaff and John Wiche as an Oxford theologian.48 A. B. Emden's register of Oxford graduates is invaluable as a prosopographical survey of most, though by no means all, local alumni. In 1388 John Fitton, an aspiring theologian, was admitted to New College, setting a pattern for several other Cheshire clerks Nicholas Wildboar from Eardswick, Henry Fitton from Styal and Andrew Holes from Brimstage who progressed through the portals of Winchester and New Colleges around i4oo.49 His close friend and long-time associate was the illustrious scholar and churchman, Robert Hallum (d. 1417). A native of Warrington but a scion of an old Cheshire family, the latter served as chancel­ lor of the university of Oxford before his promotion to the see of Salisbury.50 In contrast with his work on Oxford, Emden's A Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to 1500 is less fruitful from the Cheshire point of view.51 Adam Mottram of Mottram St Andrew, who acquired a degree in canon law at Cambridge in the late fourteenth century, is the earliest identifi­ able Cheshire graduate.52 He was followed later in the next century by the various members of the Booth family who studied civil law at Cambridge. Most notable was Lawrence Booth who in his time was master of Pembroke and chancellor of the univer­ sity as well as bishop of Durham and archbishop of York (d. 1480). John Booth, later bishop of Exeter (d.i478), also served as chan­ cellor at Cambridge.53 Despite the growing importance of degrees in civil law as stepping-stones in secular employment, much still depended on royal favour. Thomas Savage had been trained in civil law at Padua, but he owed more to his early espousal of the Tudor cause. After the accession of Henry VII he acquired great prominence at the royal court, and held in rapid succession the - '.- . Sources and Problems §9 sees of Rochester, London and York.54 Needless to say, no study of the church as an avenue of social advancement would be com­ plete without sifting through the registers of Savage and other local prelates for references to Cheshire clerks benefiting from their patronage in distant shires. It is traditionally assumed that the palatinate of Chester owed its existence, and the local population their privileges to the exigencies of border-defence, and it must accordingly occasion little surprise that military activity was the most cherished avenue of social advancement for Cheshire men. J. E. Morris in his The Welsh Wars of Edward I long ago demonstrated how active Cheshire soldiers were in the subjugation of Wales in the late thirteenth century; and H. J. Hewitt has since shown that the palatinate's contribution to the war-effort in other theatres was as immense.53 The enormous reliance placed upon the martial aptitudes of the men of Cheshire is well-attested in The Black Prince's Register, with its detailed documentation of preparations for overseas expeditions and its fascinating record of the patronage subsequently dispensed to local veterans. N. H. Nicolas' The Scrape and Grosvenor Controversy provides transcripts of scores of Cheshire depositions, which are rich in allusion to campaigns in Gascony and elsewhere.56 By this stage the reputation of the local soldiery was well-established, and in the late fourteenth century there were few nobles who did not have Cheshire squires on their pay-rolls.57 John of Gaunt, with his estates at Halton and elsewhere in Cheshire, was well-placed to recruit retainers on both sides of the Mersey, but none was so active in the enlistment of Cheshire knights and archers as Richard II himself. His recruit­ ment of some seventy-odd local gentlemen and almost seven hundred archers has already been noted. The personnel and activities of this notorious bodyguard can be documented from the Chester recognizance rolls, the exchequer accounts at West­ minster, local muniment collections and contemporary chronicles. T. F. Tout first recognised the importance of Sir John Stanley in the organisation of this retinue, whilst M. V. Clarke first identified the seven Cheshire 'masters of the watch'.58 More recently R. R. Davies and J. L. Gillespie have published fuller appraisals of Richard IPs Cheshire guardsmen, though more research could still be done from the local angle.59 As a result of the work of P. McNiven, the involvement of the old king's retainers in the risings of 1400 and 1403 is now more fully understood,60 but the military support given by other men to the new Lancastrian dynasty is also worthy of systematic study. In the reign of Henry V the Cheshire contribution to the expeditions to France was again out of all proportion to the county's size. With a contingent of six jo Michael J. Bennett hundred and fifty archers under the command of the chamberlain of Chester, along with as many local soldiers again in the retinues of the king and other commanders, it is likely that one out of six men at the battle of Agincourt were natives of Cheshire.01 The Norman and French rolls testify to the continued importance of local soldiers in France, whether on campaign, in garrisons or as settlers.62 Meanwhile Cheshire knights like Sir John Bromley and Sir John Handforth were winning the accolades of their con­ temporaries through signal acts of valour.03 Quite a few local soldiers continued to serve overseas until the ignominious reverses of the 14303 and 14403, but by this stage many had again found places in the royal household or in the service of other prominent magnates. With Sir Thomas Stanley as the controller of Henry VI's household, and other local men in prominence, Cheshire again played the role and attained the notoriety it had developed in the last years of Richard II's reign.04 With the larger part of the Cheshire gentry fee'd men of Henry VI and Queen Margaret, but with a sizeable number as retainers of the duke of York, the stage was set for the shire to be rent asunder with internecine strife.65 The battle of Blore Heath in 1459 saw tremendous casualties amongst Cheshire men on both sides, but increasingly under the adroit leadership of the Stanleys the county was able to turn its military reputation to good political advantage. With the region solidly behind them, Lord Stanley and his brother were able to make or break the fortunes of kings, often as at the battle of Bosworth without having to see local blood spilt. The accession of the Tudors brought new opportunities for Cheshire men to gain glory at the expense of foreign hosts, and the exploits of local soldiers at Flodden and Tournai in 1513 were celebrated in a series of poems and ballads composed in the early sixteenth century and published in Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript. No more graphic illustration of the importance of military service to Cheshire men can be found than the warrior ethos and the regional jingoism of these works. In many respects Cheshire in the middle ages was a society organised for war, and some of the enterprises mentioned must have occasioned the mobilisation of a sizeable proportion of the population. It is probable that at some stage or other in their lives most local gentlemen were able to supplement their income with retaining-fees and other profits of war, whilst a good propor­ tion of the yeomanry were able to benefit from time to time from the wages of sixpence a day paid to archers. Not surprisingly, in addition to the rank-and-file for whom military service was an interlude in a more settled regime, there were also Cheshire men for whom soldiering was a full-time profession. J. C. Bridge long Sources and Problems "' '.' 7* ago brought together most of the available information on the earliest and most famous Cheshire condottieri, Sir Hugh Calveley and Sir Robert Knolles, but there is always the chance that new material will come to light. Through his researches in the Aragonese archives, for example, E. Perroy was able to sub­ stantiate the old tradition that Calveley married a Spanish princess.07 Nor must it be thought that even the chronicles of Jean Froissart have been fully exploited by local historians. Whilst the French writer's ear for Cheshire names was far from sound, it is possible to discover references to Hugh Browe, John Cresswell, David Hulgreve, John Norbury and Richard Cradock.08 Mean­ while the names of the followers of some Cheshire commanders can be discovered from retinue-rolls extant at the Public Record Office. Predictably local soldiers tended to recruit their companies from amongst their compatriots, as can be seen from the Cheshire names in the retinue-rolls of Sir Hugh Calveley and David Hulgreve for the earl of Buckingham's expedition of I38o.69 References to these expeditions can also be found amongst the papers of local gentry families. The Leicester-Warren Manuscripts include a receipt by Sir Thomas Danyers, Sir John Mascy and Sir Thomas Carrington, all veterans of the earl of Buckingham's expedition, for an advance made by Calveley on their wages for the bishop of Norwich's crusade of 1383. There is also the record of a sub-contract between Danyers and Thomas Beeston, later a 'master of the watch' in Richard II's bodyguard, for the same campaign.70 The military adventures of Carrington's son are documented in fascinating detail in a curious fifteenth-century narrative. Brought up in the household of Sir John Neville in Gascony, John Carrington returned to England in the 13903 to enter the service of Richard II. After the usurpation of Henry IV, he and another Cheshire squire, Robert Arderne of Alvanley, joined the Hollands in the conspiracy of 1400. Escaping to the continent, the pair made their way to Milan, where it was rumoured English mercenaries were in great demand. Fighting under Gian Galeazzo Visconti at the battle of Como and else­ where, they found much profit; but after the duke of Milan's death, they headed back north. Arderne fell from his horse whilst crossing the Alps, and died at Besancon; but Carrington eventu­ ally took a ship for England and settled in Essex under an assumed name.71 Nor were adventures of this sort confined to members of knightly families. The brief biographical notes com­ piled on Thomas Maisterson of Nantwich, recording a career of service in France, Spain and elsewhere, are redolent of high drama. 72 John Norbury's martial activities spanned the entire continent, from Portugal to Prussia.73 Obviously following up the 72 Michael J. Bennett careers of Cheshire condottieri could involve years of research in libraries and archives across much of Europe. The sources available for the study of social advancement through law and administration are more accessible, though no less copious. Within Cheshire itself it is possible to itemise literally hundreds of minor offices in vills, manors, parishes and boroughs as well as at the level of the hundred, honour, deanery or shire. Each of these positions, from constable of the vill to sheriff of the county, might provide the ambitious individual with the chance to advance himself at the expense of his neighbour. The Black Prince's Register, court rolls and accounts provide a great deal of information from which the dubious dealings of some of the office­ holders on the royal manors, like the elder Adam Mottram at Macclesfield and Henry Torfoot at Frodsham, can be recon­ structed.74 Quite a number of those positions were more or less hereditary, but families doubtless varied in the ruthlessness with which they capitalised on their official powers and perquisites. P. H. W. Booth has shown how William Stanley of Storeton used the forestership of Wirral to advance his interests in the fourteenth century, 75 and a similar study could be made of the skilful exercise of power by his descendants the Stanleys of Lathom in their capacity as stewards of Macclesfield. More interesting from the present point of view are the Cheshire men who made law and administration more of a full-time occupation. From the recog­ nizance rolls and other palatinate records the activities of men who might be loosely termed professionals can be discerned. On the judicial commissions there can be traced local men whose regular appointment, coupled with their relatively humble origins, suggest legal training. The qualifications of some commissioners, like John Pigot, Henry Birtles and William Chauntrell, are put beyond doubt through their subsequent appointment as serjeants- at-law at the county court.76 At the same time the palatinate administration needed its quota of men with notarial and account­ ing skills. Traditionally such men were clerks, but increasingly important in the fourteenth century were careerists of more dubious status like John Scolehall and Adam Kingsley.77 Doubt­ less effective government relied heavily on the experience and skills of such men, and many attained local eminence. G. Ormerod's lists of office-holders are still useful in this regard, and M. Sharp's unpublished thesis is a valuable guide to the workings of the palatinate administration.78 Whilst more work needs to be done on the personnel of government, it would appear that ambitious local lawyers could secure appointment as royal attornies, serjeants-at-law and justices hac vice at Chester, whilst aspiring careerists with administrative flair could work their way Sources and Problems 73 through a number of minor positions to the escheatorship. For the most part the shrievalty was the exclusive preserve of local knights and squires of some standing, but its importance in a study of careerism must not be overlooked on that account. Most Cheshire sheriffs were notable soldiers, and often annuitants of the earl of Chester or his justiciar. Not surprisingly their appointment and replacement reflected wider political changes. Even more sensitive to the climate of opinion at Westminster were the offices of chamberlain and justiciar of Chester. Predictably, these two positions were traditionally reserved for outsiders, prominent royal clerks and trusted household-knights, if not prelates and peers of the realm. During the reign of Henry VI a significant change to the pattern can be observed. First of all, the Troutbecks, a Westmorland family rapidly putting down roots in the shire, acquired a firm hold on the chamberlainship, which lasted from 1412 to 1460. Meanwhile in the 14405 the Stanleys of Lathom were securing an even tighter grip on the justiciarship. Indeed from the accession of Edward IV until 1495, the second Lord Stanley held the justiciarship whilst Sir William Stanley held the chamberlainship, and the two brothers more or less ruled north­ west England as a semi-independent principality.79 For the vast majority of Cheshire men the local opportunities for advancement through law and administration were decidedly limited. To gain even the modest pickings available in the region, it was becoming necessary for the careerist to seek an education, experience, and connections in other parts of the realm. This is most evident with regard to the legal profession, and from the late fourteenth century aspiring young lawyers left the shire to seek training at Westminster. Sir Hugh Holes certainly had some standing in the capital to be appointed serjeant-at-law in Chester and to be recalled from the provinces to serve on king's bench in I 394-8° Doubtless the records of the inns of court will provide more information on the early careers of local lawyers. In the fifteenth century William Chauntrell or a kinsman was admitted to Middle Temple, whilst in a later generation Sir Richard Sutton was associated with Clement's Inn.81 The later activities of the successful lawyers can be more profusely documented. The palatinate records and private muniments reveal that many young lawyers like Holes, Chauntrell and Sutton themselves returned to their native shire to gain experience.82 Perhaps the county court at Chester, in some respects a miniature Westminster, constituted a better training-ground than any other provincial centre. Certainly its complement of three serjeants-at-law appears generous, and possibly made it easier for local men of modest origins like Henry Birtles, John Pigot, William Chauntrell, Thomas Goodfellow and 74 Michael J. Bennett Thomas Wickstead to attain the dignity of the coif.83 Other aspir­ ing barristers found practise in the city of London more reward­ ing. Sir John Needham (d.c. 1479) and Sir Humphrey Starkey (d.i486) can be first traced as respectively common serjeant of London in 1449 and recorder of London in 1471. Since both men were later appointed to the bench, their careers along with Sir Hugh Holes and other local judges are usefully summarised in E. Foss, Biographica Juridical* Alongside the embryonic legal profession, royal clerks had a similar, though far less systematised career-structure.85 The progress of Cheshire clerks like Thomas Thelwall and John Macclesfield through the ranks of the chancery and privy seal offices in the fourteenth century has been noted. Yet in the later period the clerical establishments at Westminster conspicuously failed to monopolise access to high office in the various departments. Personal connection always remained vital in matters of promotion, and Thomas Langley attained the chancellorship largely through his close relationship with Henry IV.8G Similarly the Booths placed great store on the cultivation of the curialists under Henry VI and the Yorkists. Increasingly the universities assumed importance to clerks seeking employment by the crown, and a training in civil law was particularly highly prized. Three civil lawyers from the region attained eminence in government circles in the second half of the fifteenth century: Lawrence Booth, keeper of the privy seal and chancellor of England; John Booth, secretary of Edward IV; and Thomas Savage, president of the royal council under Henry VII.87 Finally, in addition to the inns of court, the chancery and the universities, the battle-field was the other great training-ground for positions of leadership in government. In an epoch when many offices had military responsibilities, nothing could be more apt than the appointment of soldiers to positions of authority in the further-flung Plantagenet dominions. David Cradock and William Frodsham were two Cheshire soldiers to hold office as chamber­ lain of North Wales in the late fourteenth century, whilst many others served as sheriffs of Welsh counties.88 Sir John Stanley and Sir Thomas Stanley both served terms as lieutenant of Ireland, whilst Sir John Shrigley and Sir Lawrence Merbury also held office in Dublin in the early fifteenth century.89 On the continent the opportunities for a few generations at least were even grander. Richard Roter was constable of Bordeaux, Sir Hugh Calveley was governor of Calais, Sir David Cradock was mayor of Bordeaux, Sir Peter Legh was lieutenant at Arques, and so on.90 Since the English aristocracy was almost by definition a military class, princes and nobles naturally preferred to associate with them in the exercise of their power men who spoke their Sources and Problems 75 language and shared their values; men who had demonstrated their loyalty and mettle in combat. John Norbury traded on his prowess in arms to establish himself in the service of the earl of Derby, the future Henry IV, whilst another squire from southeast Cheshire, Thomas Crewe, rose to become steward of the house­ hold of the earl of Warwick.91 The royal court, like the large aristocratic households, must be regarded as a quasi-military institution. It was as soldiers that Sir John Stanley and Sir Richard Cradock had established themselves at the court of Richard II, and later generations of Cheshire gallants were prominent courtiers until at least the time of Henry VIII.92 In times of political instability the royal household tended to place great reliance on the military resources of the palatinates of Chester and Lancaster. Accordingly there was logic to the appointment of local soldiers to high office at court. Sir John Stanley was controller of the wardrobe during Richard II's experimentation with military rule, whilst significantly his grandson and great- grandson held either the controller-ship or the stewardship, with only brief interruptions, from the late 14305 until the early six­ teenth century. The debt owed by Henry VII to the Cheshire and Lancashire soldiery must have been all too evident to con­ temporaries. By the end of the fifteenth century local men had acquired an invidious prominence in all fields of endeavour. Thomas Stanley, earl of Derby, was constable of the realm; Sir William Stanley was chamberlain of the royal household; and Sir George Stanley was privy councillor.93 Sir John Savage (d.i492) was a special favourite of the king, whilst Thomas Savage, archbishop of York (d.i5O7), was pre-eminent on the royal council.94 Other clerical proteges of the Stanleys, who attained bishoprics at this time were William Smith from Prescot, James Stanley from Lathom, and Hugh Oldham from Man­ chester.95 Meanwhile at Westminster and in the city of London there were Cheshire men whose careers had successfully spanned the years of dynastic upheaval: Sir Humphrey Starkey, a royal justice until his death in 1486; Sir Richard Sutton, who served as privy councillor; Sir Edmund Shaa and Sir John Shaa, aldermen of London and engravers at the royal mint; and Sir John Percival, alderman and tailor of London.90 If the halycon days for military careerism were coming to an end, returning only briefly with the youthful excesses of Henry VIII, the men of Cheshire were not laggards in establishing traditions of advance­ ment more appropriate to the expanding economy and more settled polity of Tudor England. o ."- 76 Michael J. Bennett

II The range of sources available for the study of social mobility in late medieval England is immense, and the preceding section has provided only the most cursory survey of the fields in which further exploration promises to be most rewarding. It is hoped at least that some impression has been conveyed of the richness of the hitherto largely unworked ground lying between the well- tilled fields of national and local history. Naturally, numerous forays have been made into this bush-land, to chase up the careers of local 'worthies' like Sir Hugh Calveley or to search out the roots of national figures like John Norbury, but such enterprises have never been more than marginally concerned with the prob­ lem of social mobility. In this latter regard S. Thrupp's brilliant work on the merchant class of medieval London was truly pioneer­ ing, and similar studies of other elite-groups are urgently required. Yet the perspective offered by this sort of work has limitations which must be recognised. The study of a trade, profession or other elite-group tends to be the study of a closed system, and there are problems vital to the understanding of social mobility on which such work throws little or no light. Indeed it has been an implicit argument of this paper that social mobility can be adequately treated only in the context of a study of a more or less 'total' society. In this respect the region rather than the trade or profession, or for that matter the city or estate, appears the natural unit in the division of labour. Obviously there are many difficulties inherent in the regional or localised approach, and the discussion so far has bristled with methodological problems. Nevertheless it is felt that the regional perspective alone provides both a useful framework for discussion and a solid foundation upon which to formulate testable hypotheses regarding social mobility. In the following section it is intended to bring Cheshire evidence to bear on some of the more pressing problems, both of method and substance. Even if few conclusions can be presented at this stage, it is worth attempting to clarify the more important questions. The most basic problem facing the historian of social mobility is the proper identification of the tradesmen, clerks, lawyers and soldiers under investigation. Since the lives of careerists are best documented after their having attained notability, evidence regarding their associations can be misleading if used as testimony to their geographical origins. Courtiers like Sir Richard Cradock and Matthew Swettenham spent much of their time at the king's side; soldiers like Richard Roter and Nicholas Colfox doubtless Sources and Problems ' f 7 felt most at home in Bordeaux or Calais; churchmen like Adam Mottram and John Fitton developed new loyalties to their bishop and chapter; merchants like Philip Malpas and Hugh Wiche established strong links with the guildsmen of their adopted towns. Logically the most reliable procedure would be to seek out the earliest reference to the individual under consideration. In this regard the Calendars of Close Rolls, which often associate persons with their counties, offer great promise. Unfortunately, since the ascriptions were made from the point of view of where a person had distrainable property, such references attest advance­ ment as often as provenance. Thus Sir Hugh Browe, Matthew Swettenham, Thomas Crewe and John Merbury appear as men of Rutlandshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Hereford­ shire, and can even be traced serving as members of parliament and sheriffs of their respective counties.97 Yet it can be established from other sources that they were newcomers to their alleged homelands. Ironically a more reliable source is often the last reference to the careerist, either his own will or some notice of local kinsmen featuring as his heirs or executors. For the truly illustrious 'worthies' who founded chantries and schools in their native parishes there is little problem, but many other careerists make mention in their wills of the parishes of their birth. Hugh Wiche, Thomas Oulgreve, George Farneley and Edmund Shaa are all London merchants who name Cheshire parishes as their original homes, whilst others make conspicuous gifts to local kins­ men and friends.08 Obviously this sort of information is not always available, and indirect evidence must be used to establish proven­ ance beyond reasonable doubt. The testimony of surnames is eloquent to the historian steeped in local genealogy. Many Cheshire careerists have long had their place of honour in family histories, and modern scholars can usually check ascriptions, and even add new ones, by seeking out charters and other evidence which reveal their kinship with the main line. Yet there are many families which need to be more thoroughly researched. Con­ temporary references and a persistent tradition make Sir Robert Knolles a Cheshire man. His association with Sir Hugh Calveley and his alleged kinship with Sir Hugh Browe, together with a flicker of interest in the Cheshire parish of Malpas in his will, are the only hard facts available to the historian." The presence of a Knolles family in the village of Tushingham, the ancestral home of the Browes in Malpas parish, suggests that a more precise ascription is not out of the question.100 This case assumes even greater interest on account of the knight's association with Thomas Knolles, alderman of London. J. C. Bridge thought they were merely neighbours in London, whilst S. Thrupp wisely reserved 78 Michael J. Bennett her judgement.101 On this question the heraldic evidence is illu­ minating. Sir Robert Knolles, Thomas Knolles and Sir Hugh Browe all shared the same coat-of-arms: 'gules a chevron argent with three roses gules thereon'.102 Fortunately not all Cheshire careerists cut their ties with their homes as resolutely as did the Knolleses. Both Adam Mottram, precentor of Salisbury cathedral, and Philip Malpas, draper of London, might have been suspected of being local men from their surnames, so it is gratifying to find confirmation in chance references in which the churchman writes a letter to a kinsman in Mottram St Andrew, and the draper acts in concert with members of the Malpas family of south Cheshire.103 Even more difficult than the ascription of a known careerist to a particular locality is the elucidation of his social background. Obviously in a study of social mobility this is the vital question, and just as clearly even the most tentative answer requires a detailed knowledge of the community into which he was born. At the highest levels of county society, it is possible to be most pre­ cise. Some careerists were the heads, or more commonly the younger sons, of well-documented knightly and gentry families. Given the prolificness of some of these lineages, however, it is difficult to classify such younger sons of younger sons as John Norbury, a scion of the Bulkeleys of Norbury.104 Lower down the social scale information is even harder to obtain, and even more intractable. Given a close familiarity with the Cheshire county community, it ought to be possible at least to categorise careerists according to whether or not their fathers were lords of manors. Thus it is reasonable to suppose that the lords of Marbury had issue not only Sir Lawrence Merbury, for a time sheriff of Cheshire and treasurer in Ireland, but also his contemporaries John Merbury, justiciar of South Wales, Nicholas Merbury, master of the ordnance under Henry V, Richard Merbury, another veteran of Agincourt and bailli of Gisors, and James Merbury, who settled in Bristol.105 Conversely the surnames of some careerists positively preclude the possibility of gentry pro­ venance. The origins of such men as the Cradocks, the Colfoxes, the Wiches, the Oulgreves, the Percivals and so on must be sought amongst the families of yeomen or burgesses rather than amongst the landed gentry. Furthermore, it must be inferred that the large number of tradesmen, clerks and soldiers with names of affiliation, occupation or description had backgrounds of an even lowlier nature. Such chaplains as John Madock and John Walker, both from Stockport, were demonstrably of humble origins.106 Yet in the ascription of Cheshire careerists to their social backgrounds, there is still a wide belt of mist-covered fenland across which the local historian might stalk with care but in which the stranger is Sources and Problems 79 guaranteed to flounder. Most problematic is the assumption that all men sharing the surname of a prominent lineage were scions of it, even in the recent past. A glance at the names of the customary tenants in a Cheshire rental would reveal how common some of the famous county names were amongst the lower orders. Then there is the problem of families of indeterminate status, especially the enormous number of Cheshire families on the margins of gentility. Freeholding families in the Macclesfield region, like the Jodrells, the Mottrams, the Shrigleys, and the Suttons, had their timber-framed houses and coats-of-arms, and called their principal farms manors, but their socio-economic status was of an entirely different order to that of such major lineages as the Leghs of Adlington and the Fittons of Gawsworth. With such reserva­ tions in mind, the importance of the leading dynasties in provid­ ing the manpower for local careerism must be doubted. When J. L. Gillespie defended the Cheshire guardsmen of Richard II against the snobbish strictures of their contemporaries, he argued that at least half were yeomen or gentry.107 He might equally have maintained that, with a few possible exceptions, all were the sons of yeomen, tradesmen and husbandmen. Similar observa­ tions can be made regarding the Cheshire clergy of 1379, of whom only about fifteen per cent of the beneficed and five per cent of the unbeneficed bear the names of gentry families.108 It would appear that most sections of the Cheshire community were able, in some degree or other, to diversify their fortunes through involvement in a trade or profession. By the late four­ teenth century only a small fraction of the population languished under the legal disabilities of serfdom, and even the few surviving bondmen can be found paying the fines necessary to enable their sons to take holy orders.109 Other smallholders had access to an even wider range of opportunities for economic differentiation. The significance of the textile industry in the peasant economy has still to be fully documented, but the importance of part-time soldiering is suggested by the frequency with which longbows and other weapons turn up as heriots.110 The presence of large num­ bers of Welsh labourers in Cheshire supports the contention that most local men had other options available to them.111 Yet it would be naive to suggest that opportunities for careerism were not structured in a whole host of ways. The path to high prefer­ ment was beset with obstacles, and it was a great advantage to join it some distance along the road. Demonstrably there was a world of difference between working a loom and freighting a ship, or between wielding a longbow and mounting an expedition, and few careerists can have lasted the whole distance. Whilst members of the lower orders had to work their way laboriously So Michael J. Bennett through the ranks, scions of gentry families were given a few rungs' start. Young gentlemen might be provided with an educa­ tion, a benefice, a training in arms, or whatever. Yet it is impor­ tant to enquire whether or not the disadvantages experienced by men of humbler origins had less to do with their social than with their economic status. Numerous trades and professions had regu­ lations restricting entry on grounds of class, but their effects were minimal in comparison with the barriers imposed by wealth. Progress in all careers required continuous material support. Money had to be found to provide an education; to secure an apprenticeship; to make an offering on admission to a monastery; to purchase stock, tools or military equipment; to take a lease on a shop, an advowson or an office; and to obtain political con­ nections. The all-pervading importance of capital in trades and professions doubtless led ambitious families to view careerism as an investment, and not surprisingly the sections of the population taking most advantage of the opportunities were the townspeople and the more business-minded gentry and yeomanry. Significantly, Cheshire families active in one trade can usually be traced involved in another, suggesting the continual reinvestment of profits from generation to generation. The histories of four trading families from Nantwich are interesting in this regard. The Colfoxes and the Maistersons both produced notable soldiers in the late four­ teenth century. The Wiches spawned at least three brothers who were merchants of London: Thomas Wiche and William Wiche, both fishmongers, and Sir Hugh Wiche, a mercer and alder­ man.112 The Cradocks showed a keener sense of hierarchy of callings: the earlier generations accumulated wealth in trade; then Roger Cradock was given the chance to pursue a successful career in the church; finally Sir David Cradock and Sir Richard Cradock sought their fortunes as soldiers, administrators and courtiers. It is reasonable to suppose that families were most important in advancing the capital necessary for the furtherance of a young man's career. Doubtless there were many households which regarded the education and placement of kinsmen as investments worthy of great material sacrifice. Perhaps the testators who left sums of money to maintain relatives at school or in crafts had this attitude. It is fitting that Thomas Booth of Barton, the progenitor of the most illustrious clerical lineage of the epoch, is the earliest known local squire to have bequeathed money for educational purposes.113 His descendants in their turn provided younger kins­ men with the benefits of a university education, and the Booths became perceptibly better-qualified, if no more successful, over the generations. Yet it would be a mistake to regard the lineage as Sources and Problems -' 84 an undying corporation to whose fortunes members contributed according to their means. The existence of careerists like Sir Robert Knolles and John Norbury, who completely severed their ties with kinsmen, argues against this sort of assumption. In all probability individual worth counted for a great deal more in late medieval English society than is commonly thought. A high premium was placed on aptitude and industriousness, and neither power-brokers nor place-seekers always allowed personal con­ siderations to stand in the way of their capitalising on them. This is not to deny the importance of 'connection' in structuring access to opportunities. In an age largely devoid of formal systems of qualification and accreditation personal relationships were vital to all enterprises, and all things being equal the claims of kinship could be given precedence. What needs to be stressed is more the remarkable variety, open-endedness and tenuousness of the con­ nections which could bring together rich patrons and promising proteges. Wills provide valuable evidence on the range of relation­ ships which might be of relevance to the careerist. Cheshire testa­ tors do not all express gratitude for the assistance of their kinsmen, or indiscriminately patronise their younger relatives. The impres­ sion conveyed is that men sought out from both their kinsmen and a wider circle of acquaintances young men whose particular aptitudes and talents were congenial to them. Thus Lord Grey of Ruthin took into his household Thomas Tilston, a native of his Cheshire manor of Eaton by Tarporley, and this retainer in his turn left money for his son to be sent to school.114 Indeed tenurial connections appear to have been of great importance in bringing men of humble origins to prominence. The tendency of St Werburgh's Abbey to recruit monks from its own estates has been noted, and on one occasion at least the abbot and convent paid for a local youth to be apprenticed in London.115 Nor can it be a coincidence that William Appleton, a Franciscan friar who served as confessor and physician to John of Gaunt, was a native of one of his manors on the Halton estate, or that John Macclesfield, Richard IPs keeper of the great wardrobe, was the son of John Alcock, the Black Prince's stock-keeper at Macclesfield.116 Other geographical associations were important in providing connections for careerists. Local clerks almost certainly took advantage of the scholarships at Oxford endowed by John Winwick (d.i36o).117 Later generations of young men in east Cheshire benefited from the grammar schools founded by Sir Edmund Shaa and Sir John Percival in their home-towns of Stockport and Macclesfield, and from the preferential treatment accorded to scholars from the area in Sir Richard Sutton's new foundation, Brasenose College.118 Unfortunately this sort of local favouritism can usually only be 82 Michael J. Bennett inferred from indirect evidence, but in the geography of Cheshire careerism there are significant clusterings which certainly seem to attest its significance. The large group of notable soldiers-of- fortune emanating from villages lying between Malpas and Nant- wich in the late fourteenth century might have been observed.119 Significantly the earliest Cheshire merchants established in London hailed from exactly the same neighbourhood, and it is tempting to speculate that the mercantile fortunes of men like Thomas Knolles, Thomas Wiche and Philip Malpas were built upon lucrative contracts provided by Sir Robert Knolles and other local commanders.120 Towards the end of the fifteenth century a similar network of east Cheshire careerists is in evidence. S. Thrupp found it surprising that John Percival, alderman and tailor of London, was an associate of the archbishop of York. When it is remembered that the merchant was a native of Macclesfield and the churchman quite literally left his heart in the town, the nature of the connection is all too evident.121 Given that opportunities in most trades and professions were more dependent on wealth than rank, and that individual aptitude and industry were highly valued, it is pertinent to enquire how much the ambitious man might achieve in terms of material aggrandisement. Without wishing to make claims for the majority, it is apparent that for the successful careerists the profits could be immense. The experiences of Cheshire soldiers are most interesting in this regard. Obviously there are many spectacular careers on which it would be possible to discourse at length. Sir Robert Knolles rose from being a humble archer, to leading his own company of condottieri, to commanding a royal expedition. His wealth was legendary: on one occasion he made a gift of 10,000 marks to Edward III and according to a contemporary chronicler his building-projects were on a scale to exhaust the treasuries of kings.122 Other Cheshire soldiers like Hugh Calveley, John Cresswell, David Hulgreve, Hugh Browe and John Norbury built up considerable fortunes in a similar fashion. A dispute between two Cheshire yeomen over the ransom of a French prisoner captured at Poitiers reveals the opportunities for profit available even to humble soldiers enlisting for a single campaign. On another part of the battlefield a group of local archers picked up a silver ship belonging to the king of France, which earned them a reward of £8 iss. 6d.123 Whilst windfalls of this nature could not be relied upon, the wages paid to soldiers were reasonable and did not always fall in arrears. In 1370 Sir Robert Knolles was engaged at the princely sum of eight shillings a day, whilst his squires were paid three shillings a day.124 Even archers were able to demand sixpence a day, a not inconsiderable sum for men of Sources and Problems 83 their station, and many young men must have returned from the wars with substantial savings. Demonstrably involvement in military enterprises was a gamble, and not all Cheshire men sold their blood particularly dearly. Three generations of the Aston family served overseas, but the lineage derived little profit from their adventures: Robert Aston was killed in Spain in the 13605; Sir Richard Aston had to be ransomed from the Welsh rebels under Glyndwr; and Sir Robert Aston was slain in Normandy in the reign of Henry V.125 The Black Prince's Register contains numerous references to crippled veterans and destitute widows appealing for succour. The petition of Alice widow of John Tailor of Wheatcroft is instructive regarding the varied fortunes of two brothers at Poitiers: the one, mortally wounded, entrusted his savings to the other, who had since failed to surrender it to his sister-in-law.126 Obviously, it would be impossible to draw up a profit-and-loss account of Cheshire involvement in the French wars, nor in a study of social mobility is it strictly necessary. Nevertheless, in view of the recent debate on the economic effects of the Hundred Years War,127 it is worth registering a few impres­ sions. Given the large numbers of Cheshire men serving as soldiers, the sums of money flowing into the region for wages alone must have been considerable. In 1375 John Leicester accounted for 400 marks spent on wages for himself, three men-at-arms and eight archers for just six months' service, and these twelve soldiers from the vicinity of Tabley represented only a minute proportion of the total number of Cheshire men in arms.128 In the years of major expeditions well over a thousand local men-at-arms and archers were in receipt of wages, and in the last years of Richard II's reign the Cheshire guardsmen were earning over £5,000 a year.129 At the same time local men benefited from annuities, and all the other forms of patronage accruing to the successful soldier. Sir John Bromley and Sir John Handford won annuities of £40 and £100 for acts of valour in northern France.130 Many of their comrades acquired estates in the Lancastrian settlement of Nor­ mandy. Richard Merbury purchased a well-appointed house in Vernon, the very town in which his ancestors had lived in the eleventh century.131 Whatever is concluded regarding the impact of war in other, more heavily-taxed parts of the realm, there can be little doubt of the attractions for the men of Cheshire. In 1393 there was a rising in the shire against the peace policies of the government, and no region was more avid for the renewal of war under Henry V.132 In late medieval England material aggrandisement was one matter, social advancement quite another. Whilst men of low birth could on occasion amass vast riches, it is a moot point how 84 Michael J. Bennett readily wealth could be converted into enhanced social status. At the heart of this problem there is the demonstrably marginal status of most tradesmen and professionals. To a large extent the value- system of medieval English society was linked to the tenure of land, and in that respect careerists were displaced individuals. This is not to deny that the trades and professions did not have their own corporate identities, and that the more respectable callings were not growing in self-assurance and public esteem. Yet many Cheshire careerists continued to have anxieties about their status. Despite his fame as a soldier, Sir Robert Knolles was never admitted to the Order of the Garter, and there was restive- ness amongst the nobility who served in his expedition of I37O.133 E. W. Ives suggested that serjeants-at-law lost financially by accepting appointment as a justice of the realm,134 and doubtless lawyers like Holes and Needham accepted their positions on the bench for the sake of social rather than economic advancement. Even more assuredly London merchants would have made more profit attending to their own businesses than through public ser­ vices, but Sir Hugh Wiche, Sir Edmund Shaa and Sir John Percival valued their knighthoods more highly than material wealth. Indeed, in a very real sense the only way of registering social advancement in the medieval England was through the acquisition of landed estate, and by attempting to rejoin the tenurial hierarchy at a more exalted level. Theoretically it ought to be possible to observe Cheshire careerists returning to their native shire to establish new landed dynasties. What is striking is how infrequently this pattern can be observed. A major factor was the failure of many careerists to leave direct heirs. Probably the average tradesman or soldier married later in life than his country cousin, and then too often to a wealthy widow rather than a young woman. In this respect Thomas Knolles, grocer of London, with his nineteen children, was wholly exceptional. More typical were three later princes of commerce: Hugh Wiche, who married three times but was childless, and Edmund Shaa and John Percival, who were both succeeded by nephews.135 Amongst the soldiers, Hugh Calveley, Robert Knolles, Richard Cradock and John Merbury are four examples of reasonably long-livers who failed to leave legitimate male heirs. This demographic tendency makes it possible to equate tradesmen, soldiers and other members of pro­ fessions more convincingly with the clergy as quasi-celibate groups marginal to landed society. Yet the analogy must not be pressed too far. Cheshire landed society was not wholly devoid of families whose fortunes had been built upon careerism. The most success­ ful were soldiers, lawyers and courtiers, who were themselves of gentle origins. Sir John Stanley ^.1414), a younger son of the Sources and Problems "§§' Stanleys of Storeton, set a spectacular record of achievement.136 His contemporary, Sir Hugh Holes, also built up extensive hold­ ings in the region.137 Even Sir Hugh Browe, a man of more humble provenance, was active in the local land market, whilst John Macclesfield had some success in establishing his illegitimate brood as respectable county families.138 Interestingly enough, the best examples of dynastic advancement in Cheshire can be found amongst comparative newcomers to the county: the Savages, Troutbecks and Booths. Doubtless careerists preferred to establish themselves in shires where their activities were less subj'ect to the constraints of kinship and neighbourliness, and their new status less open to challenge. Indeed, if Cheshire careerists are to be seen transforming themselves into landed grandees, it is necessary to search in other parts of the kingdom. Robert Knolles, John Norbury and John Merbury, between them, held scores of manors in a dozen different counties, but held no land at all in their native shire.139 Thomas Knolles and William Wettenhall, merchants of London, adopted a commercial ruthlessness in their property- dealings which would have been totally unacceptable in their home parishes: the one promptly raised the rents upon his acquisi­ tion of the manor of North Mimms in Hertfordshire, whilst the other used underhand methods to obtain the manor of Clapham in Surrey at well below its real value.140 The success of Cheshire men in acquiring land, making marriage-alliances, holding office and putting down roots in distant counties became almost pro­ verbial. In Tudor and Stuart times many notable families traced their lines back to this remarkable 'seed-plot of gentility'.141 At this stage a fundamental problem in the study of careerism in late medieval England must be considered. Even in well- documented communities quantifiable data on social mobility is notoriously difficult to obtain, and in a discussion of this kind obviously great reliance is placed on individual case-studies. For a number of reasons it is felt that this approach is not only justifiable in the circumstances, but also has greater validity than is com­ monly acknowledged. Most obviously, the individual biography demonstrates what was possible in medieval English society. Given the generally pessimistic views regarding opportunities for advancement, it is valuable to chronicle the rise of men like William Appleton or Edmund Shaa: the one from humble status on a Cheshire manor to the position of eminence grise to John of Gaunt and victim of the rebels' fury in 1381, the other from his lonely journeys with pack-horses across Saddleworth moor to his dizzy status as lord mayor of London and partisan of Richard III in the dangerous year of I483-142 When a local careerist has left his own record of his adventures, like John Carrington, it opens 86 Michael J. Bennett up a vista of experiences and connections scarcely conceivable for a backwoods Cheshire squire. Moreover, the individual case-study, through its graphic portrayal of the distinguished careerist, pro­ vides a window on the world of the more modest achiever. The very existence of a single successful merchant, churchman, lawyer or soldier pre-supposes a whole host of lesser local men who either eased his path or followed in the wake of his achievement. Prominent Cheshire commanders engaged in their retinues hundreds of local soldiers of whom the only record is the occasional surviving retinue-roll. Similarly there can be little doubt that other local careerists and tradesmen found employment for large numbers of their compatriots. Unfortunately no accounts have survived of their households, but wills often give some impression of their size. In 1389 a rector of Bunbury named as his legatees his chamberlain, his cook, his chaplain, his vicar, two servants and two pages.143 The familia of Robert Hallum, bishop of Salisbury, can be reconstructed in part from his will and surviving inventory. Although a native of Warrington, his cousins still resided at Hallum in Newton by Daresbury, and his local provenance can be discerned in the names of his friends and servants. Bequests were made to members of the Fitton, Button, Warburton, Grims- ditch, Merbury and Mascy families, whilst amongst the famuli were two Hallums, an Appleton, a Boydell and a Sankey.144 Obviously in the enumeration of Cheshire careerists some sort of multiplier must be devised to account for the hundreds of men working in the shadows of their more illustrious compatriots. This is not intended as an argument against quantification. It merely suggests that for most purposes the data are not yet avail­ able. The priority must be to continue to compile individual case- studies which in time will provide a more satisfactory basis for statistical analysis. Whilst estimates can be made of the social backgrounds of the Cheshire clergy or Richard IFs archers, a precise statement must await a detailed study of hundreds of biographies. Yet there are some problems to which the quantitative approach lends itself more readily. Thus it ought to be possible to establish with greater exactitude the chronology of Cheshire careerism. From a calculation of the amounts expended by the crown in annuities to Cheshire men, peaks of expenditure might be detected in the 13905, the 14405 and the 14905. More generally, the declining importance of freelance soldiering and the growing significance of trade and industry might be charted. At the same time a distribution-map of the provenance of local careerists would prove illuminating. It would show clusterings of soldiers in southeast Cheshire in the late fourteenth century, and of London merchants in the same region in the following generation. Later in ., '- Sources and Problems 8f the fifteenth century the centre of gravity would be seen to have moved northward to the hundred of Macclesfield. It was with this neighbourhood that the newly powerful lineages of Stanley, Savage and Booth had the closest connections, and from which so many prominent tradesmen and members of professions hailed. Even more interesting, quantification might reveal significant differences between the achievements of different counties and different regions. An immediate contrast would be afforded be­ tween Cheshire and Lancashire: the military record is far more impressive in the southern county, whilst north of the Mersey clerical careerism was more important. Taking Cheshire and Lancashire together, and accepting J. C. Russell's estimate that their joint population would have been less than three per cent of England as a whole,145 it is possible to measure their contribution to careerism at a national level. The size of both the official Cheshire and Lancashire contingents to the expedition of 1415, and the presence of hundreds of local soldiers in private retinues, suggests that the region provided between a fifth and a quarter of the kingdom's fighting-force at Agincourt.146 The region's contri­ bution to the church was also out of all proportion to its relative size. Of the 118 bishops elected to English sees between 1399 and 1529 over nine per cent were Cheshire and Lancashire men.147 In view of the alleged backwardness of the regional economy, what is even more remarkable is the success of local men in London. Over nine per cent of the new apprentices admitted to the skinners' and the tailors' companies in the fifteenth century were natives of the region, whilst, even more spectacularly, six per cent of the 101 aldermen whose place of origin Thrupp has established in this period had their homes in east Cheshire alone.148 Given these sorts of figures, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that career­ ism was more than usually significant in the region. At some stage Cheshire's reputation as a 'seed-plot of mobility' might be attested statistically through an analysis of the provenance of armigerous families of other counties, as recorded in the heralds' visitations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Finally, if it is to be claimed that Cheshire gave birth to such a distinguished company of careerists in this period, the problem arises of estimating the impact of careerism on local life. Most basically, the demographic effects must have been considerable. Following hard on the catastrophic population losses of the late fourteenth century, the emigration of large numbers of soldiers, clerks and tradesmen, as well as their servants, must have placed severe strains on local manpower resources. Landlords often experienced difficulties filling tenancies, and significantly Welsh and Irish labourers begin to figure prominently in the work-force 88 Michael J. Bennett in the late medieval period. Yet evidence of land going out of cultivation and of shortage of labour need not necessarily imply demographic decline and economic depression. It is conceivable that Cheshire replacement-rates were higher than other counties', and that in consequence many local men were tempted to take advantage of career opportunities elsewhere. At the same time the rural economy, released from the pressures which had pre­ viously driven it towards intensive arable cultivation, could re­ establish itself on the sounder foundation of mixed farming, dairying and sheep-raising. The role of capital amassed through careerism in the economic development of east Cheshire from the fifteenth century onwards would be a fascinating subject for further investigation. Doubtless more often the fortunes accu­ mulated by Cheshire careerists were put into the purchase of property in other counties, or fragmented amongst hordes of dependants. This tendency certainly can be observed with regard to the cultural impact of Cheshire careerism: there are many more monumental brasses to local men in other parts of the realm than in their native shire. Yet there are some significant signs of cultural vigour in Cheshire, especially in the decades around 1400. Imports of wine into the port of Chester reached a peak; the cycle of Chester plays was instituted; and many local churches were beautified with fine wood-carvings.149 Even more notable, local traditions of alliterative poetry reached their consummate expression in such works as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl. The courtly sophistication of these poems strongly suggest a close connection between this brief literary renaissance and Richard IPs generous patronage of Cheshire men in the I39OS.150 Possible patrons of local artists and poets are John Macclesfield, who entertained the king at the new mansion he had built from the profits of office in his home town, and Sir John Stanley, who can be increasingly seen acting as a broker between court and country. Undoubtedly the growing importance of careerism to the Cheshire population was a major factor assisting the rise of the Stanleys in the fifteenth century. Their influence at court and their brokerage of government patronage made their 'good lordship' ever more indispensable to local place-seekers. Conversely, their growing hegemony in the region made their co-operation vital to successive governments in the period.151 Nothing could be more appropriate than that the last alliterative poem written in Cheshire should be not only a celebration of the region's success in battle and at court, but also a glorification of the leadership provided by the house of Stanley.152 Sources and Problems 89 ' "..; - ' NOTES . - (;: : ; " '

1 W. Page, ed., Victoria County History of Hertfordshire, 5 vols., London (1902-23) 2, p. 456; G. O. Sayles, ed., Select Cases in the Court of King's Bench, vol. 8, Selden Society (1971), p. Ixii; J. W. Bennett, 'Andrew Holes: a neglected harbinger of the English Renais­ sance', .Speculum, 19 (1944). 2 VCH Herts. 2, p. 300; C. E. Hodge, 'The Abbey of St Albans under John of Wheathamstede', University of Manchester Ph.D. thesis, 1933. 3 G. Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, 3 vols., ed. T. Helsby, 2nd ed. (1882); J. P. Earwaker, East Cheshire, 2 vols. (1877, l88o). 4 J. C. Bridge, 'Two Cheshire soldiers of fortune: Sir Hugh Calveley and Sir Robert Knolles', J.C.N.W.A.S. 14 (1907); R. W. Crooks, 'John de Winwick and his chantry in Huyton church', T.H.S.L.C. 77 (1925); R. Cunliffe Shaw, 'Two fifteenth-century kinsmen: John Shaw of Dukinfield, mercer and William Shaw of Heath Charnock, surgeon', T.HS.L.C. 110 (1958); E. Axon, 'The family of Bothe (Booth) and the church in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries', Trans. Lanes. Ches. Antiq. Soc. 53 (1938); J. Hall, A History of the Town and Parish of Nantwich (1883); E. Carton, Nantwich. Saxon to Puritan (1972). 5 VCH Herts. 2, p. 253; 3, pp. 446, 460. 6 S. L. Thrupp, The Merchant Class of Medieval London (1948), pp. 351-2; M. Barber, 'John Norbury (£.1350-1414): an esquire of Henry IV, E.H.R.68 (1953), pp. 66-76. 7 The fullest account of the Stanleys is still to be found in the Dictionary of National Biography, 18, pp. 963-5. 8 'Calendar of Recognizance Rolls of the Palatinate of Chester', Part I as an appendix to The Thirty-Sixth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1875), and Part II as an appendix to The Thirty- Seventh Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1876). 9 DKR 36, passim; Ibid., p. 96; DKR 37, p. 558. 10 Cheshire Record Office, Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley Deeds, DCH/R/4 (Unclassified). 11 Keele University Library, Legh of Booths Charters, nos. 17 and 329. In 1400 the Hesketh brothers had served as local agents of the Hollands: P. McNiven, "The Cheshire rising of 1400', Bull. John Rylands Libr. 52 (1970), p. 386. 12 Historical Manuscripts Commission. Various Collections II (1903), pp. 18-19; British Library, Additional Charters, no. 51113; John Rylands University Library, Rylands Charters, R72g27/i72i. 13 Calendars of Patent Rolls, Edward III to Henry VI, 34 vols. (1891- 1910); Calendars of Close Rolls, Edward III to Henry VI, 33 vols. (1896-1947). 14 CCR, 1354-60, p. 636; CPR, i358~61 , P- 281; CPR, 1374-7?, P- 455! CPR, 1377-8', P- 374- 15 A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 vols. (1957-5) 2, pp. 737^8 and 949-50. 16 P. E. Russell, The English Intervention in Spain and Portugal in the time of Edward III and Richard II, p. 50; Garton, Nantwich, p. 21. 17 W. A. Copinger, History and Records of the Smith-Carrmgton Family (1907), p. 75; Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxford, II, p. 855. go Michael J. Bennett 18 C. L. Kingsford, The Grey Friars of London, British Society of Franciscan Studies VI (1915), p. 107, also pp. 82, 129-30; Copinger, Smith-Carrington Family, p-52. 19 Cheshire Sheaf, 3rd ser., hereafter, Sheaf (3), Item 4340. 20 JRUL, Jodrell Charters, nos. 35, 13, 18; M. D. Harris, ed., The Register of the Trinity Guild Coventry, Dugdale Society, 13 (1953). 21 P.R.O. SC 2/255/10; CPR, 7588-95, p .102; Rotulorum Patentium et Clausorum Cancellariae Hiberniae Calendarium, Vol. I, Part I (1828), pp. I22b, 1243; P.R.O., E 101/247/1 and 101/41/18. 22 Earwaker, East Cheshire, 2, pp. 325-7; J. McN. Dodgson, 'A library at Pott Chapel (Pott Shrigley, Cheshire), £.1493', The Library, 5th ser. 15 (1960), pp. 47-53; CRO, Downes MSS, DDS/2/6. 23 M. J. Bennett, 'Late medieval society in north-west England. Cheshire and Lancashire, 1375-1425', University of Lancaster Ph.D. thesis, 1976, p. 238. 24 J. H. E. Bennett, ed., Chester Freeman Rolls, Part I, Lanes. Ches. Rec. Soc. 51 (1906); K. P. Wilson, ed., Chester Customs Accounts 1301- 1566, ibid. HI (1969). The mayors' books, pentice rolls and portmote rolls are preserved at the City Record Office, Chester. R. H. Morris, Chester in the Plantagenet and Tudor Reigns includes many useful extracts from the city records. 25 K. P. Wilson, 'The port of Chester in the fifteenth century', T.H.S.L.C. 117 (1965), pp. 1-15. 26 W. B. Crump, 'Saltways from the Cheshire wiches', Trans. Lanes. Ches. Antiq. Soc. 54 (1940), pp. 84-142. 27 The Macclesfield court rolls and accounts are to be found in the P.R.O., SC 2 and SC 6 series; the Congleton material in DL 30 and DL 29; J. Varley, ed., A Middlewich Chartulary, 2 vols., Chetham Society, N.S. 105, 108 (1941, 1944). 28 Bennett, Thesis, p. 238, and below. 29 P.R.O., CHES 19/2 mm. 44~45d; SC 2/254/14 and SC 2/255/1. 30 Reg. Trinity Guild, under names. 31 Sheaf (3), Items 4557 and 4215. 32 JRUL, Arley Charters, 24/21, 24/25 and 24/34; Jodrell Charters, nos. 13 and 18. 33 Shaw,'Two fifteenth-century kinsmen', pp. i6ff. 34 G. Ormerod, 'On the Stanley Legend and the Houses of Boteler, Fitz- Ailward, Lathom, and Stanley etc.', Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica VII (1841), p. 20; BL, Add. Ch. nos. 37234-5; Hist. MSS. Comm. Var. Colls. II, pp. 18-19; J. Raine, ed., Testamenta Ebora- censia, 3, Surtees Society, 45 (1865), pp. 173-8. 35 Shaw, 'Two fifteenth-century kinsmen', pp. 19-22. 36 Thrupp, Merchant Class, Appendix A. 37 See R. A. Wilson, ed., 'The register of Robert Stretton, bishop of Lichfield', Part I in Collections for a History of Staffordshire, New Series VIII, and Part II in Collections for a History of Staffordshire, New Series X, William Salt Archaeological Society (1905, 1907). Note also that Cheshire is one of the very few counties for which full records of institutions to benefices have been published: Ormerod, Hist. Cheshire, passim. 38 M. J. Bennett, "The Lancashire and Cheshire clergy, 1379', T.H.S.LC. 124 (1973), pp. 1-30. 39 D. Jones, The Church in Chester 1300-1540, Chetham Society, 3rd ser. 7 (1957). 40 Sheaf (3), Item 4469. Sources and Problems 91 41 BL, Additional MSS, no. 36764. 42 E.g. William Bebington, Henry Sutton and John Saughall, abbots of St Werburgh's in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: R. V. H. Burne, The Monks of Chester (1962), passim. 43 R. Stewart-Brown, Birkenhead Priory and the Mersey Ferry (1925), pp. 83-4. 44 Crooks, 'John de Winwick'; CPR, 1358-61, p. 281; CPR, 1367-70, p. 224; CPR, 1374-77, P- 455- 45 Register of Edward the Black Prince, 4 vols. (1930-3); S. Armitage- Smith, ed., fohn of Count's Register, 1371-1375, 2 vols., Camden Society, 3rd ser. 20 & 21 (1911); E. C. Lodge and R. Somerville, eds., John of Count's Register, 1379-1383, 2 vols., ibid. 56 & 57 (1937); T. F. Tout, Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England, 6 vols. (1923-35); R. Somerville, History of the Duchy of Lancaster, Part I (1953). 46 J. L. C. Bruell, 'An edition of the cartulary of John de Macclesfield', University of London M.A. thesis, 1969. 47 R. L. Storey, Thomas Langley and the Bishopric of Durham (1961); Axon, 'The family of Bothe', pp. 37-47. 48 BPR III, pp. 58, 63, 69, 71; Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxford, III, p. 2099. 49 Ibid. II, pp. 737-8; III, p. 2115; II, pp. 737, 949-50; T. F. Kirby, Winchester Scholars (1888), passim. 50 Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxford, II, pp. 854-5. 51 A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to 1500 (1963). 52 Ibid. p. 415. ''. .-.'- .: ': .'. ;... : : 53 Axon, 'The Family of Bothe', pp. 48-67. 54 Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxford, III, pp. 1646-7. 55 J. E. Morris, The Welsh Wars of Edward I (1901); H. J. Hewitt, Medieval Cheshire. An Economic and Social History, Chetham Society, N.S. 88 (1929); H. J. Hewitt, The Black Prince's Expedition of 1355-57 (1958). 56 N. H. Nicolas, The Scrape and Grosvenor Controversy, 2 vols. (1832); R. Stewart-Brown, 'The Scrope and Grosvenor controversy, 1385-91', T.H.S.L.C. 89 (1937). 57 Bennett, Thesis, p. 367. 58 Tout, Chapters, 4, p. 199; M. V. Clarke and V. H. Galbraith, 'The deposition of Richard II', Bull, fohn Rylands Libr. 14 (1930). 59 R. R. Davies, 'Richard II and the principality of Chester 1397-9' m F. R. H. Du Boulay and C. M. Barren, eds., The Reign of Richard II. Essays in Honour of May McKisack (1971); J. L. Gillespie, 'Richard IPs Cheshire archers', T.H.S.L.C. 125 (1975). 60 McNiven, 'Cheshire Rising of 1400'; P. McNiven, 'Rebellion and disaffection in the north of England, 1403-1408'. University of Manchester M.A. thesis, 1967. 61 N. H. Nicolas, History of the Battle of Agincourt and the Expedition of Henry the Fifth into France (1832), pp. 385, 358; J. H. Wylie, The Reign of Henry V, 2 (1919), p. 354n. 62 'Calendar of Norman Rolls', Part I as an appendix to The Forty-First Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1880), and Part II as an appendix to The Forty-Second Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1881); 'Calendar of French Rolls', Part I as an appendix to The Forty-Fourth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1883), and Part II as an appendix to 92 Michael J. Bennett The Forty-Eighth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1887). 63 R. Holinshed, Chronicles, ed. H. Ellis (1807-8), III, pp. 75-6; Ear- waker, East Cheshire, I, pp. 240-2. 64 For a fuller discussion of this development see M. J. Bennett, 'Power, patronage and politics in late medieval England: the rise of the Stanleys in the northwest' in R. M. Fisher, The Anatomy of English Society: Collected Studies, 1400-1850, forthcoming. 65 Rot. Part. V (1832), pp. 369-70, 527, 531. In general see J. T. Driver, Cheshire in the Later Middle Ages (1971), p. I7ff. 66 J. W. Hales and F. J. Fumivall, eds., Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript. Ballads and Romances, 3 vols. (1868) I, pp. 313-40; III, pp. 205-14, 67 E. Perroy, ed., The Diplomatic Correspondence of Richard II, Camden Society, 3rd ser. 48 (1933), pp. 233-4. 68 J. Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain etc., ed. T. Johnes, 2 vols. (1842) I, pp. 498-9, 486-8; II, p. 577; Barber, 'John Norbury', p. 66. 69 P.R.O..E 101/39/9. ' .' -.. 70 CRO, Leicester-Warren MSS, Liber C, f. 244. , 71 Copinger, Smith-Carrington Family, pp. 73-7. 72 BL, Harleian MSS, no. 2119, f. 43. . . . 73 Barber, 'John Norbury', pp. 66-7. 74 BPR III, passim. See P. H. W. Booth, 'Farming for profit in the fourteenth century: the Cheshire estates in the earldom of Chester', Unpublished paper. 75 P. H. W. Booth, 'Taxation and public order: Cheshire in 1353', Northern History, 12 (1976), pp. 26ff. 76 DKR 36, p. 100; DKR 37, pp. 128-9. 77 BPR III, p. 485; DKR 36, p. 272. 78 Ormerod, Hist. Cheshire, i, pp. 59-78; M. Sharp, 'Contributions to the history of the earldom and county of Chester, 1237-1399'. Univer­ sity of Manchester Ph.D. thesis, 1925. 79 J. Brownbill, 'The Troutbeck family', J.C.N.W.A.S. 28 (1929), pp. 147-79; Bennett, 'Power, patronage and polities'. 80 Sayles, Select Cases in King's Bench, 8, p. Ixii. 8 1 H. A. C. Sturgess, ed., Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple (1949) I, p. i; W. Fergusson Irvine, ed., Cheshire and Lancashire Wills, Lanes. Ches. Rec. Soc. 30 (1896), pp. 41-6. 82 DKR 36, p. 238; DKR 37, pp. 128-9, 698. 83 DKR 36, p. 100; DKR 37, pp. 128-9, 136, 142. 84 E. Foss, Biographia Juridica. A Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England from the Conquest to the Present Time (1870), pp. 474, 629-30, 358. 85 See T. F. Tout, 'The English civil service in the fourteenth century', Bull. John Rylands Libr. 3 (1916). 86 Storey, Thomas Langley, pp. 2-51. 87 Axon, 'The family of Bothe', pp. 48-65; Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxford, III, pp. 1646-7. 88 CPR, is??-8', PP- 57, 378> 457; CPR, 1396-9, P- 324: E- Breese, ed., Kalendars of Gwynedd (1873), pp. 34-5, 49, 69. 89 CPR, 1388-92, p. 91; CPR, 1429-36, p. 105; CPR, 1405-8, p. 203. 90 E. C. Lodge, "The constables of Bordeaux in the reign of Edward III', E.H.R. 50 (1935), PP- 236, 241; Bridge, 'Two Cheshire soldiers of Sources and Problems 93 fortune'; Y. Renouard, Bordeaux sous les Rois d'Angleterre (Bordeaux, '965), P- 569; 'Calendar of Norman Rolls', II, p. 428. 91 Barber, 'John Norbury', pp. 66-7; Sheaf (3), Item 1920. 92 See E. W. Ives, 'Patronage at the court of Henry VIII: the case of Sir Ralph Egerton of Ridley', Bull. John Rylands Libr. 52 (1970). 93 DNB XVIII, pp. 963-5. 94 S. B. Chrimes, Henry VII (1972), p. 336; Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxford, III, pp. 1646-7. 95 Ibid. pp. 1721-2, 1761, 1396-7. 96 Foss, Biographic. furidica, pp. 629-30; Earwaker, East Cheshire, 2, p. 445; Thrupp, Merchant Class, pp. 360, 366. 97 VCH Rutland, 2, p. 153; CCR, 1409-13, p. 375; VCH Warwick, 3, p. 190; R. A. Griffiths, The Principality of Wales in the Later Middle Ages. The Structure and Personnel of Government, Part I. South Wales, 1277-1536 (1972), pp. 132-4. 98 Thrupp, Merchant Class, pp. 375-6; Sheaf (3), Items 4250, 4340; Thrupp, Merchant Class, p. 366. 99 Bridge, 'Two Cheshire soldiers of fortune', p. 113. TOO CRO, Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley Deeds, DCH/C863, C867- 101 Bridge, 'Two Cheshire soldiers of fortune', p. 113; Thrupp, Merchant Class, pp. 351-2. 102 CRO, DDX/364. 103 DKR 37, p. 574; Bodleian Library, MS. Lat. Misc. c.66, f.igd. 104 Ormerod, Hist. Cheshire, 3, p. 464. 105 CRO, Leicester-Warren MSS, Liber C, ff.aBg, 293; Nicolas, Battle of Agincourt, pp. 6, 382; Ormerod, Hist. Cheshire, i, p. 636; C. T. Allmand, 'The Lancastrian settlement in Normandy, 1417-50', Ec.H.R. 2nd ser. 21 (1968), p. 467; Sheaf (3), Item 4557. Note also Roger Merbury, Calveley's lieutenant in the Channel Islands. CPR, I39I-6, PP. 38-9- ...... 106 Bennett, Thesis, p. 296. ' ' .;""": 107 Gillespie, 'Richard IPs Cheshire archers', pp. 23-31. 108 Bennett, 'Lancashire and Cheshire clergy', pp. 22-30. These con­ clusions match Dobson's findings regarding the social provenance of Durham monks. R. B. Dobson, Durham Priory 1400-1450 (1973), P-58. 109 W. Beamont, An Account of the Rolls of the Honour of Halton (Warrington, 1879), p. 14. 110 Ibid. pp. 22-3. in E.g. P.R.O., CHES 19/5 m 5. On this occasion a band of Welsh labourers in Nantwich were conspiring to demand higher wages. 112 Thrupp, Merchant Class, pp. 375-6. 113 Axon,'The family of Bothe', pp. 33ff. -. 114 Sheaf (3), Item 4058. 115 Thrupp, Merchant Class, p. 214. Judging from the number of Weavcrham men established in London, it is possible that Vale Royal Abbey also assisted in the placing of local youths. See the wills of Lawrence Weaverham (d.1488) and George Farneley ^.1505): Sheaf (3), Items 4290, 4340. 116 Beamont, Honour of Halton, p. 16; CRO, Cholmondeley of Chol­ mondeley Deeds, DCH/R/4 (Unclassified); R. Stewart-Brown, ed., Cheshire Chamberlains'' Accounts 1301-60. Lanes. Ches. Rec. Soc. 59 (1910), pp. 242, 246, 260. 117 Crooks,'John de Winwick'. 118 Irvine, Cheshire and Lancashire Wills, pp. 41-6. 94 Michael J. Bennett iig E.g. members of the Calveley, Knolles, Browe, Norbury, Cradock, Maisterson and Colfox families. See also Bennett, Thesis, p. 388. 120 This sort of connection has been documented in the Cotswalds: E. M. Cams-Wilson, 'Evidence of industrial growth on some fifteenth- century manors' in E. M. Carus-Wilson, ed., Essays in Economic History, 2 (1962), pp. 160-1. 121 Thrupp, Merchant Class, p. 278; Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxford, III, pp. 1646-7. 122 Knolles, 'Two Cheshire soldiers of fortune', pp. 79-83; V. H. Gal- braith, ed., The St Albans Chronicle, 1406-1420 (1937), p. 22. 123 BPR III, pp. 258-9; IV, p. 254. 124 A. E. Prince, 'The indenture system under Edward III' in J. G. Edwards, V. H. Galbraith and E. F. Jacob, eds., Historical Essays in Honour of fames Tail (1933), p- 292. 125 BL, Add. Ch. nos. 51146, 51148; F. Devon, ed., Issues of the Exchequer, Henry III to Henry VI (1837), p. 299. 126 BPR III, pp. 265-6. -- 127 E.g. see M. M. Postan, 'The social consequences of the Hundred Years' War', Ec.H.R. 21 (1942), pp. 1-12; K. B. McFarlane, 'England and the Hundred Years' War', Past and Present 22 (1962), pp. 3-13; M. M. Postan, 'The costs of the Hundred Years' War', Past and Present 27 (1964), pp. 34-53; Allmand, 'Lancastrian Land Settle­ ment in Normandy, 1417-50', Ec.H.R. 2nd ser. xxi (1968), pp. 461-69. 128 CRO, Leicester-Warren MSS, 1/85. 129 P.R.O., E 101/42/10. 130 See note 63. 131 Allmand, 'Lancastrian Land Setlement', p. 467. The Merburies were a branch of the Vernon family: Ormerod, Hist. Cheshire, I, p. 634. 132 J. G. Bellamy, 'The northern rebellions in the later years of Richard II', Bull. John Rylands Libr. 47 (1965), pp. 254-74. 133 Bridge, 'Two Cheshire soldiers of fortune", p. 80. 134 E. W. Ives, 'Promotion in the legal profession of Yorkist and early Tudor England', Law Quarterly Review, 75 (1959), pp. 348-63. 135 Thrupp, Merchant Class, pp. 351-2, 360, 366, 375-6. 136 Bennett, 'Power, patronage and polities'. 137 CRO, Leicester-Warren MSS, Liber B, ff. 52, 54; E. Barker, ed., Talbot Deeds, 1200-1682, Lanes. Ches. Rec. Soc. 103 (1953), nos. 88, 92, loo-i, 103, 120, 122, 129; DKR 36, p. 238; CRO, Barnston of Churton Deeds, DB A/62/E 12-17. 138 CRO, Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley Deeds, DCH/C868, 0877; Bruell, Thesis, pp. 17-35. 139 At his death John Merbury held jointly with his wife manors in Nottinghamshire and six other counties: CRO, Leicester-Warren MSS, Liber C, f. 289. 140 Thrupp, Merchant Class, pp. 129-30. 141 E.g. the families of Hatton and Holies. E. St John Brooks, Sir Christopher Hatton. Queen Elizabeth's Favourite (1946), pp. 22-3; G. Holies, Memorials of the Holies Family, 1493-1656, ed. A. C. Wood. Camden Society, 3rd ser. 55 (1937), p. n. 142 Beamont, Honour of Halton, p. 16; Shaw, 'Two fifteenth-century kinsmen', pp. 17-21. 143 Sheaf (3), Item 4469. 144 E. F. Jacob, ed., The Register of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury 1414-43, II, Canterbury and York Society, 42 (i937)> pp. 126-30; P.R.O., E 154/1/32. Sources and Problems §5 145 J. C. Russell, British Medieval Population (1948), pp. 144-6. Russell's figures imply a total population for Cheshire and Lancashire of about 60,000 in a national total of two and a quarter millions in 1377. 146 Bennett, Thesis, p. 374. 147 There were at least eleven bishops from the region (Thomas Langley, Robert Hallum, William Booth, Lawrence Booth, John Booth, William Smith, Thomas Savage, Hugh Oldham, James Stanley, Charles Booth and Cuthbert Tunstall) in this period: W. Stubbs, Sacrum Anglicanum, 2nd ed. (1897), passim; Storey, Thomas Langley; Axon, 'The family of Bothe'; Emden, Biog. Reg. Oxford, under names. 148 Thrupp, Merchant Class, Appendix C. The six aldermen from east Cheshire were: William Wettenhall, Hugh Wiche, Thomas Oulgreve, Edmund Shaa, John Percival and John Shaa: ibid., Appendix A. 149 K. P. Wilson, 'The port of Chester in the later middle ages', Univer­ sity of Liverpool Ph.D. thesis, 1965, pp. 114-16; Driver, Cheshire in Later Middle Ages, p. 61. 150 See the arguments in M. J. Bennett, 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the literary achievement of the north-west midlands: the historical background', Jnl.Med.Hist. 5 (1979). 151 Bennett, 'Power, patronage and polities'. 152 Hales and Furnivall, Bishop Percy's Folio MS, I, pp. 3133. .- '*-