Sir John Philipot[lower-alpha 1] (died 1384) was an English merchant and alderman of London. He was a member of the Grocers' Company,served as MP for London in 1371 and 1381,headed the opposition to John of Gaunt during the minority of Richard II,was appointed joint-treasurer for the war with France in 1377 at the request of the Commons,was Lord Mayor of London in 1378,and assisted Richard II during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Philpot Lane in London is named for him.
John Philipot was no doubt a native of Kent,but the statement of Heath[1] that he was born at Upton Court in the parish of Sibertswold or Shebbertswell,near Dover,cannot be correct,though the estate was held by his descendants.[2] He bore the same arms—sable,a bend ermine—as the Philipots of Philpotts,near Tunbridge.[3][4] His first wife brought him the manor of the Grench (Grange) at Gillingham,near Chatham.
Reign of Edward III
Philipot became a member of the Grocers' Company of London (founded in 1345 by the amalgamation of the pepperers and spicerers),one of whose earliest members was a Phelypot Farnham,and he soon accumulated considerable wealth.[5]Edward III gave him the wardship of the heir of Sir Robert de Ogle in 1362,appointed him in the following year a receiver of forfeitures on merchandise at Calais,and in 1364 licensed him to export thither wheat and other victuals.[6][7] Philipot lent the King money and acted as his paymaster.[8][9] He sat for London in the parliament of February 1371,in which the clerical ministers were removed,and in the great council summoned in June to remedy the miscalculations of their successors.[10] In the crisis after the Good Parliament,Philipot,with Nicholas Brembre,a fellow-grocer,and also connected with Kent,and William Walworth,headed the opposition of the ruling party in London to John of Gaunt,Duke of Lancaster,who found support among the lesser traders then engaged,under the leadership of John de Northampton,in attacking the monopoly of municipal power enjoyed by the great companies.
On the collapse of the Good Parliament the Duke of Lancaster proposed in the Bad Parliament which he packed in January 1377 to replace the mayor by a captain,and give the Marshal of England power of arrest within the city (19 February). Philipot is said to have risen and declared that the city would never submit to such an infraction of its liberties;but this must be a mistake,as he did not sit in this parliament.[11][12] The proposal,coupled with the insult inflicted on the Bishop of London (William Courtenay) by Lancaster and the Marshal (Henry Percy,1st Earl of Northumberland) at the trial of Wiclif a few hours later,provoked the riot of the following day,when Lancaster and Percy had to fly for their lives. Lancaster failed to prevent the deputation of the citizens,headed by Philipot,from obtaining an interview with the old King,who heard their explanations and gave them a gracious answer. But the Duke was implacable,and the city officers sought to appease him by a somewhat humiliating reparation. The citizens as a body,however,would have nothing to do with it,and though the King,at Lancaster's instigation,turned out the mayor (Staple),they at once (21 March) chose Brembre in his stead.[13][14][15]
Reign of Richard II
English ships of the 14th &15th centuries,1375,1425Plan of London about 1381
As soon as the King's death,on 21 June 1377,became known in the city,an influential deputation was sent to the young prince Richard II and his mother,and Philipot,acting as spokesman,assured him of the loyalty of the city,and begged him to reconcile them with the Duke of Lancaster.[16] The triumph of the principles of the Good Parliament in the first parliament of the new reign (October 1377) was marked by the appointment of Philipot and Walworth,at the request of the commons,to be treasurers of the moneys granted for the war with France.[17] They and other London merchants lent the king 10,000l. on the security of three crowns and other royal jewels.[18] The capture of the Isle of Wight and burning of Hastings by the French,and the seizure by a Scot,the son of one John Mercer,with a squadron of Scottish,French,and Spanish ships,of a number of English merchant vessels at Scarborough,meanwhile threw the country into a state of great alarm,which was aggravated by vehement suspicions of the loyalty of John of Gaunt to his young nephew. Philipot rapidly fitted out a small squadron and a thousand armed men,at his own expense,pursued Mercer,and wrested from him his prizes,and fifteen Spanish vessels as well.[19] His patriotism and success roused those who resented the national humiliation to great enthusiasm,and were boldly contrasted with the inactivity,if not treachery,of the Duke and the magnates. He thereby incurred the ill-will of the nobles,who sneered at Richard as 'king of London',and declared that Philipot had no right to act as he had done on his own responsibility. But he roundly told the Earl of Stafford,who complained to him of his action,that if the nobles had not left the country exposed to invasion he would never have interfered.[20] At the height of his popularity he was chosen mayor for 1378–9,and filled the office with his usual activity and generosity. He had the city ditch cleaned out,levying a rate of fivepence per household for the purpose,and enforced order and justice so admirably that his measures were taken as a precedent nearly forty years later.[21][22]Lord Beauchamp of Bletsho in December 1379 appointed Philipot one of his executors,bequeathing him 'my great cup gilt which the King of Navarre gave me'.[23] In the year after his mayoralty he earned the effusive gratitude of the city by defraying the cost of one of two stone towers,sixty feet high,built below London Bridge,between which a chain was suspended across the river to assure the safety of the city and shipping against possible French attacks.[24] He was a member of the commission appointed in March of that year,at the request of the Commons,to inquire how far the heavy taxation could be lightened by greater economy in administration.[25] He may have sat in this parliament,but the London writs are wanting. In the summer he provided ships for the Earl of Buckingham's expedition to Brittany;and when the delay in starting forced many to pledge their armour,Philipot,as the St. Albans chronicler heard from his own lips,redeemed no fewer than a thousand jacks.[26] It was to him that the intercepted correspondence of Sir Ralph Ferrers with the French was brought,and Ferrers being with John of Gaunt in the north,Philipot journeyed thither and saw him safely interned in Durham Castle.[27]
At the crisis of the Peasants' Revolt,in June 1381,Philipot came with Mayor Walworth to the young King Richard's assistance,and Walworth having slain Tyler in Smithfield,he and four other aldermen were knighted with Walworth on the spot.[28][29] He was granted an augmentation of his coat-armour;and it may have been now that Richard gave him an estate of 40l. a year.[30][31] In November he again represented London in parliament.[32] Filling the same position in the May parliament of the next year,Philipot was put on a committee of merchants to consider the proposed loan for the King's expedition to France,and was appointed a 'receiver and guardian' of the tonnage and poundage appropriated to the keeping of the sea.[33] But John of Northampton,who was now mayor and busy depressing the influence of the greater companies,had him deposed from his office of alderman.[34] In the spring and summer of 1383 Philipot carried out the transport arrangements for Bishop Spencer and his crusaders,and sat for London in the October parliament.[35][36][37]
Death and legacy
He died in the summer of 1384,'not leaving his like behind in zeal for the king and the realm',and was buried with (probably his second) wife before the entrance into the choir of the Greyfriars Church (now Christ Church),London.[38][39] He left his manor at Gillingham to his second son,whose son John exchanged it,in 1433,for Twyford,Middlesex,with Richard,son of Adam Bamme,mayor of London in 1391 and 1397.[39] A chapel which Philipot built there was used as a barn in Hasted's time,and is figured in the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica.[40] His house in London was in Langbourne Ward,on the site of the present Philpot Lane,which was named after him.[41] He bequeathed lands to the city of London for the relief of thirteen poor people for ever.[42]
Philipot was at least twice married—to Marjery Croydon,daughter of Richard Croydon,alderman of London,who brought him the manor at Gillingham;and to Jane Stamford.[43] His third wife was the widow Margaret Berlingham.[44] Hasted mentions two sons. A daughter,Margaret Philpot,married,first,T. Santlor,and,secondly,John Neyland,and dying after 1399,was buried in the church of the Greyfriars.[45][46] Descendants of his dwelt at Upton Court,Sibertswold,near Dover,until the reign of Henry VII.[47]
Coat of arms of Sir John Philipot
Notes
(1 &4) augmentation of honour granted by Richard II to Sir John Philipot;(2 &3) arms of Philipot
Escutcheon
Quarterly,(1 &4) gules,a cross between 4 swords erect argent hilted or;(2 &3) sable,a bend ermine
Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Edward III of England. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, succeeded to the throne instead. Edward nevertheless earned distinction as one of the most successful English commanders during the Hundred Years' War, being regarded by his English contemporaries as a model of chivalry and one of the greatest knights of his age.
Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy was an English archivist and antiquary, who served as Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office from 1861 to 1878.
Thomas Rymer was an English poet, literary critic, antiquary and historiographer.
Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford was an English knight and landowner, from 1400 to 1414 a Member of the House of Commons, of which he became Speaker, then was an Admiral and peer.
John of Eltham, 1st Earl of Cornwall was the second son of Edward II of England and Isabella of France. He was heir presumptive to the English throne until the birth of his nephew Edward, the Black Prince.
Sir Edmund Verney was an English politician, soldier and favourite of King Charles I. At the outbreak of the English Civil War he supported the Royalist cause and was killed at the Battle of Edgehill.
Sir William Walworth was an English nobleman and politician who was twice Lord Mayor of London. He is best known for killing Wat Tyler during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.
John Philipot was an officer of arms at the College of Arms in London and a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1628 to 1629. Though he successfully attained the position on Somerset Herald of Arms in Ordinary, he is best known for his production of a roll of arms of the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports.
Sir Nicholas Brembre was a wealthy magnate and a chief ally of King Richard II in 14th-century England. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1377, and again from 1384–5,6. Named a "worthie and puissant man of the city" by Richard Grafton, he became a citizen and grocer of London, and in 1372-3 purchased from the Malmains family the estates of Mereworth, Maplescomb, and West Peckham, in Kent. His ties to Richard ultimately resulted in his downfall, as the anti-Richard Lords Appellant effectively took control of the government and imprisoned, exiled, or executed most of Richard's court. Despite Richard's efforts, Brembre was executed in 1388 for treason at the behest of the Lords Appellant.
In July 1482 an English army invaded Scotland during the Anglo-Scottish Wars. The town of Berwick-upon-Tweed and its castle were captured and the English army briefly occupied Edinburgh. These events followed the signing of the Treaty of Fotheringhay, 11 June 1482, in which Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, the brother of James III of Scotland declared himself King of Scotland and swore loyalty to Edward IV of England. The follow-up invasion of Scotland under the command of Edward's brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester failed to install Albany on the throne, but Berwick has remained English ever since the castle surrendered on 24 August. The English army left Edinburgh with a promise for the repayment of the dowry paid for the marriage of Princess Cecily of England to the Scottish Prince.
Sir John Tregonwell was a Cornish jurist, a principal agent of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He served as Judge of the High Court of Admiralty from 1524 to 1536.
Sir William Herrick or Hericke was an English jeweller, courtier, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1601 and 1622.
The Treaty of York (1464) was made between England and Scotland on 1 June 1464 at York and was intended to establish 15 years of peace. Previously Scotland had supported the defeated House of Lancaster in the English civil War of the Roses.
John Sotherton the younger (1562–1631) was an English judge, member of a prominent parliamentary, judicial and mercantile family of London and East Anglia, who became Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer in 1610.
The Reims campaign took place during the Hundred Years' War. It occurred after the French de facto government rejected the terms of the Treaty of London and consequently Edward III of England organised and commanded an expeditionary army to gain by force what he had failed to win by diplomacy. On 28 October 1359 Edward landed at Calais, and advanced to Reims, where he hoped to be crowned king of France. The strenuous resistance of the citizens frustrated this scheme, and Edward marched into Burgundy, and then he made his way back towards Paris. Failing in an attack on the capital, he was glad to conclude, on 8 May 1360, preliminaries of peace at Brétigny, near Chartres. This treaty, less onerous to France than that of London, took its final form when Edward and John ratified the treaty in Calais on 9 October 1360. By it Edward renounced his claim to France in return for Aquitaine and other French territories in full sovereignty.
Sir Robert de Ogle was an English soldier and feudal landowner in Northumbria who fought in the border conflicts with Scotland. He captured five Scottish knights near Newcastle in 1341 and was licensed to crenellate Ogle House. He distinguished himself in resisting the foray into Cumberland of Sir William Douglas in 1345, fought at Neville's Cross in 1346 and took three nobles prisoner, and held Berwick Castle against the Scots in 1355.
Simon Binham or Bynham was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk of the priory of Binham, Norfolk. He assisted the prior of Binham in opposing the exactions of Hugh, abbot of St. Albans, and was imprisoned for some time with the other rebellious monks. He is said to have contributed to the continuation of the Chronicle of Rishanger, but his other writings are largely lost.
Thomas Philipot was an English poet and miscellaneous writer. The son of Somerset herald John Philipot, he proceeded M.A. at Clare Hall, Cambridge, regiis literis, in 1636, and was incorporated in that degree at Oxford in 1640. He published some poetical works and contributed to miscellanies.
Sir Henry Spigurnel was an English judge. He was summoned to parliaments of Edward I and Edward II, and was made a justice of oyer and terminer in 1300. He was sent on a mission to papal court in 1311 and interpreted the ordinances in 1312. He retired in 1327, and died the next year.
↑ Rawcliffe, Carole (1994). Barron, Caroline; Sutton, Anne (eds.). "Margaret Stodeye, Lady Philipot (d. 1431)". Medieval London Widows 1300–1500: 88–90.
Walsingham, Thomas (1864). Historia Anglicana. Vol. 2. Riley, Henry Thomas (ed.). London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green. p. 71.
Members of Parliament: Return to Two Orders of the Honorable the House of Commons, Dated 4 May 1876 and 9 March 1877. Part 1. London, 1878 [Krause Reprint, 1980]. pp. 185–186, 196, 208, 218.
Rotuli Parliamentorum, ut et Petitiones, et Placita in Parliamento Tempore Ricardi R. II. Vol. 3. [1771]. pp. 7, 34, 123–124, 373.
Hardy, Thomas Duffus (1869). Syllabus (in English) of the Documents Relating to … "Rymer's Fœdera". Vol. 1. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. pp. 426, 434.
Hardy, Thomas Duffus (1873). Syllabus (in English) of the Documents Relating to … "Rymer's Fœdera". Vol. 2. London: Longman & Co., and Trübner & Co. pp. 485, 486, 504.
Stow, John (1908). A Survey of London … Reprinted from the Text of 1603. Kingsford, Charles Lethbridge (ed.). Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 19, 107, 203, 211, 220, 320.
Stow, John (1908). A Survey of London … Reprinted from the Text of 1603. Kingsford, Charles Lethbridge (ed.). Vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 168.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
