Family and Education

m. Margaret (d.c.1395), 1da.

Offices Held

Biography

In 1381, under the terms of the will of John Tyece, Mendham and his heirs were released from further payment of an annual rent of 10s. proffered to the testator hitherto for a messuage at Burgate, Canterbury. He is not mentioned as ever participating in the administration of the city, nor is anything known about his business interests, even though they apparently extended overseas. He acted as a surety in Chancery for one Nicholas Woodward of Packington, Warwickshire, in March 1383, and for Sir Richard Hoo in May 1393, being on each occasion described as ‘of Kent’.1

In testamentary arrangements enrolled in the burghmote court of Canterbury in January 1395, Mendham’s widow demised to John Denne all her property in the town and marches of Calais; and Mendham’s daughter Margery, wife of Nicholas Waterschepe, also retained holdings across the Channel, for in her will of 20 Nov. 1396 she made an enfeoffment of property in Calais in trust for her husband for his lifetime. Margery’s holdings in Canterbury were to be sold to pay her parents’ debts.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. Canterbury Cathedral, City and Diocesan RO, burghmote reg. O/A1, f. 3; CCR, 1381-5, p. 252; 1392-6, p. 148.
• 2. O/A1, ff. 16-17; Canterbury consist. ct. Reg. G, f. 269.