Family and Education

Offices Held

Common pleader of London by 10 Nov. 1393-aft. 17 Jan. 1394.1

Biography

Although the names of Peck’s parents are not recorded, we know that they spent their last years, at least, in Lincolnshire, his father being buried at the parish church of East Rasen and his mother at St. Mary’s Crakepole (in Lincoln itself). The evidence of his will suggests that he acquired his legal training at Gray’s Inn in London, with which he maintained close personal ties until his death. Despite the fact that he never held office in Lincoln, he was involved in the dispute between the lay community and the ecclesiastical authorities over the exercise of their respective jurisdictions; and in March 1390 he and other leading residents were bound over in several securities of 100 marks to keep the peace and stay away from the cathedral. Some three years later he appeared as a plaintiff at the Lincoln assizes, being charged (along with many others) of evicting the rightful owners of certain property in the city. By November 1393, however, he had moved to London where he acted as common pleader for a few months, if not longer. He seems on the whole to have divided his time fairly evenly between Lincolnshire and the capital, since on drawing up his will, in December 1394, he made provision for his burial in either place. He certainly kept on friendly terms with the Lincoln MP, William Blyton*, with whom he acted as a trustee in the spring of 1397; and it is interesting to note that his own brother, William, became bailiff there in the following year.2

Peck confirmed his will in March 1400, but no date of probate has survived. He left £5 for building works at St. Alban’s abbey and a similar sum to the poor of East Rasen (having given some thought to the possibility of being buried there, perhaps next to his father). He was the owner of a number of legal treatises, largely concerned with case law; and these he left, together with his robes, to friends in the profession.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

Variants: Peeke, Peke.

• 1. Cal. Letter Bk. London, H, 308, 412, 413, 418.
• 2. CP25(1)144/150/22; CCR, 1389-92, pp. 164-5; Lincs. AO, Reg. Beaufort XIII, f. 23v.
• 3. Lincs. AO, Reg. Beaufort XIII, f. 23v.