| Sir John de Pulteney | |
|---|---|
| Died | 8 June 1349 |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret de Bereford |
| Issue William de Pulteney | |
| Father | Adam de Pulteney |
| Mother | Matilda |
Sir John de Pulteney or Sir John Poultney (died 8 June 1349) was a major English entrepreneur and property owner, who served four times as Mayor of London.
A biography of Sir John, written by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, that was published in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 47 contains much well-referenced information. [1] However, it is inaccurate in stating the Sir John's wife was a daughter of John de St John of Lageham, for reasons that are set out in detail in two articles by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr. [2]
His will identifies Sir John's parents as Adam and Matilda.
Sir John married Margaret, daughter of John de Bereford, citizen of London and his wife Roesia. [3] The marriage evidently took place by 13 December 1330, when they arranged for perpetual masses for themselves and “for the souls of John de Bureford late citizen of London and Roesia his wife” to take place at St Nicholas Shambles, London. [4] His association with the de Bereford family went back significantly before 1330, as in July 1318 he was recorded as executor of the will of Roesia de Bureford, late the executrix of John de Bureford, citizen of London. [5]
St Nicholas Shambles was a medieval church in the City of London, which stood on the corner of Butcher Hall Lane and Newgate Street. It took its name from the Shambles, the butchers area in the west of Newgate Street. The church is first mentioned as St. Nicholas de Westrnacekaria. In 1253 Walter de Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester granted indulgences to its parishioners.
The couple had one known child:
Shortly after Sir John's death, his widow married Sir Nicholas de Loveyne [8]
Sir Nicholas de Loveyne was a major English property owner and courtier, who held a number of senior positions in the service of King Edward III.
He was buried in Old St Paul's Cathedral, but the grave and monument were destroyed along with the cathedral in the Great Fire of London in 1666. A modern monument in the crypt lists his among the important graves lost.
Old St Paul's Cathedral was the medieval cathedral of the City of London that, until 1666, stood on the site of the present St Paul's Cathedral. Built from 1087 to 1314 and dedicated to Saint Paul, the cathedral was the fourth church on the site at Ludgate Hill.
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London from Sunday, 2 September to Thursday, 6 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall. It threatened but did not reach the aristocratic district of Westminster, Charles II's Palace of Whitehall, and most of the suburban slums. It consumed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St Paul's Cathedral, and most of the buildings of the City authorities. It is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the city's 80,000 inhabitants.
Sir John was a citizen of London and a member of the Drapers’ Company.
His business activities included the lending of money. For instance, in July 1325, Robert Burdet of Sheepy, Leicestershire acknowledged that he owed £100 to John de Pulteney. In the following month, the Prior of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in England acknowledged that he owed John the sum of £800. [9] John also lent money to the King, such as an unstated sum that in June 1329 was outstanding but secured on the customs revenue of Southampton. [10]
Sheepy is a civil parish in the Borough of Hinckley and Bosworth in Leicestershire, England. It contains the villages of Sheepy Magna, Sheepy Parva, Sibson, Wellsborough, Upton, Pinwall and Cross Hands—a total of 449 homes. At the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 1,192, including Orton on the Hill but falling slightly to 1,174 at the 2011 census.
Clerkenwell Priory was a priory of the Monastic Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, in Clerkenwell, London. Run according to the Augustinian rule, it was the residence of the Hospitallers' Grand Prior in England, and was thus their English headquarters. Its great landholding near London until Protestant monarch Edward VI of England was in the former north of Marylebone: St John's Wood which it had farmed out on agricultural tenancies as a source of produce and income.
He served as Mayor of London in 1331, 1332, 1334 and 1336 and also held the office of Escheator of the City of London. Other roles that he undertook included membership of commissions of oyer and terminer in a number of counties, guardian of the peace for Middlesex and roles in negotiations with Flanders. [11]
The Mayor of London is the executive of the Greater London Authority. The current Mayor is Sadiq Khan, who took up office on 9 May 2016. The position was held by Ken Livingstone from the creation of the role on 4 May 2000, until he was defeated in May 2008 by Boris Johnson, who served two terms before being succeeded by Khan.
Escheat is a common law doctrine that transfers the real property of a person who died without heirs to the Crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in "limbo" without recognized ownership. It originally applied to a number of situations where a legal interest in land was destroyed by operation of law, so that the ownership of the land reverted to the immediately superior feudal lord.
Sir John invested some of his considerable wealth in notable building projects, including those listed below. He appears to have been particularly active on these matters around 1341; on 6 October of that year, he was granted a licence to crenelate the dwelling places of his manors at Cheveley, Cambridgeshire and Penshurst Kent, as well as his dwelling place in London. [12]
Sir John died on 8 June 1349, a date that suggests he may have been a victim of the Black Death, although no documentary evidence appears to support that possibility.
At the end of his life, he owned or had interests in the following properties that were identified at the subsequent inquisitions post mortem: [18]
His will was made on 14 November 1348 and proved at the Court of Hustings, London.It contained bequests to support chantries in St Paul's Cathedral and prayers for his soul and for the souls of family members and others. These were to be funded from all his tenements and rents in the City and suburbs of London, apart from his principal house where he lived in the parish of St Laurence, Candlewick Street and his tenement called “le Coldherberuy” and his other tenements in the parish of All-Hallows-the-Great.
He left his principal mansion to his wife for life or (as actually transpired) until her remarriage, after which it would go to Sir William de Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon during the minority of Sir John's son, after which it would go to the son. The tenement called “le Coldherberuy” was to be sold. Ralph de Stratford, Bishop of London and Sir William de Clinton were named as supervisors of the will.
Examples of Sir John's affluence are found in specific bequests to the respective supervisors, which were his “finest ring with a great stone called rubie of great value and beauty” and “a beautiful ring with two great stones called diamauntes, two silver flagons enamelled, a cup, together with a certain spoon and salt-cellar to match”. [20]
Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere was an English soldier, diplomat, Member of Parliament, landowner and nobleman. He was the son and heir of Sir Gunselin de Badlesmere and Joan FitzBernard. He fought in the English army both in France and Scotland during the later years of the reign of Edward I of England and the earlier part of the reign of Edward II of England. He was executed after participating in an unsuccessful rebellion led by the Earl of Lancaster.
Penshurst Place is a historic building near Tonbridge, Kent, 32 miles (51 km) south east of London, England. It is the ancestral home of the Sidney family, and was the birthplace of the great Elizabethan poet, courtier and soldier, Sir Philip Sidney. The original medieval house is one of the most complete surviving examples of 14th-century domestic architecture in England. Part of the house and its gardens are open for public viewing. Many TV shows and movies have been filmed at Penshurst.
Nicholas de Crioll, of a family seated in Kent, was Constable of Dover Castle and Keeper of the Coast during the early 1260s. His kinsman Bertram de Criol had distinguished himself in these offices during the preceding 20 years and both were near predecessors of the eminent Warden of the Cinque Ports, Stephen de Pencester.
Ashley is a village and civil parish in the East Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Newmarket. The modern village consists of the two ancient parishes of Ashley and Silverley. Ashley covers 2,250 acres (910 ha) and in the 2011 census had a population of 749. Ashley is in the electoral area of Cheveley ward.
Giles de Badlesmere, 2nd Baron Badlesmere was an English nobleman.
Eastminster was a Cistercian abbey on Tower Hill in London, founded by Edward III in 1350 immediately outside the Roman London Wall and thus today in the E1 postcode district. Among its endowments was the reversion in 1350 given by King Edward which he owned of one of the four manors of Shere in the hamlet of Gomshall, Surrey which acquired the name Towerhill, due to its patronage of the abbey.
Lapley Priory was a priory in Staffordshire, England. Founded at the very end of the Anglo-Saxon period, it was an alien priory, a satellite house of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Remi or Saint-Rémy at Reims in Northern France. After great fluctuations in fortune, resulting from changing relations between the rulers of England and France, it was finally dissolved in 1415 and its assets transferred to the collegiate church at Tong, Shropshire.
Sir Nicholas Haute, of Wadden Hall (Wadenhall) in Petham and Waltham, with manors extending into Lower Hardres, Elmsted and Bishopsbourne, in the county of Kent, was an English knight, landowner and politician.
William Gage was a major landowner and the father of the Tudor courtier Sir John Gage KG.
Sir John Gage was a major landowner and grandfather of the Tudor courtier Sir John Gage KG.
Eleanor St Clere was the heiress of a substantial number of manors and grandmother of the Tudor courtier Sir John Gage KG.
Thomas St Clere was a son of Sir Philip St Clere of Penshurst Place. He was a major landowner whose estates included property in eight English counties.
Sir Philip St Clere was a son of Sir Philip St Clere and Joan de Audley. He served as High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex and was a major landowner whose estates included land in eight English counties.
Margaret de Loveyne was a daughter of Sir Nicholas Loveyne and his second wife Margaret de Vere. She inherited extensive property and her second husband was High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex.
Margaret de Vere was an English noblewoman, a daughter of John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford and his wife Maud de Badlesmere.
William Devereux of Frome was a member of a prominent Herefordshire family during the reign of Edward II and Edward III. He was an important retainer of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March and Queen Isabella, and a knight of the Bath.
A proof of age inquisition was required during the feudal era in England to enable a minor to exit wardship. For a male the age to be proved was 21, for a female 16. Witnesses were required to give evidence of the subject's date of birth, or christening. The findings of the inquisition were returned to the appropriate court, which then ordered the guardian to release the property to the ward, who obtained seizin. If the minor was a tenant-in-chief the inquisition reported to the appropriate Royal Court. The first stage of the process was the application by the ward for a writ for the inquisition to commence. This was effectively a written order by the king to the escheator in the county in which the ward's lands were situated, to empanel witnesses and begin the inquisition.
William la Zouche, 1st Baron Zouche (1276/86–1352) lord of the manor of Harringworth in Northamptonshire, was an English baron and soldier who fought in the Wars of Scottish Independence. He is referred to in history as "of Harringworth" to distinguish him from his first cousin Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche (1267–1314) of Ashby de la Zouche in Leicestershire.
Margaret de Bereford was a substantial English property owner whose husbands were notable as merchants, soldiers or courtiers in the service of King Edward III.