Family and Education

m. (1) by 1381, Alice, wid. of John Snell of Winchester;1 (2) by 1387, Margery,2 2da.

Offices Held

Constable of Winchester Mich. 138-7; commons’ bailiff 1388-9; bailiff of the 24, 1391-2; mayor 1401-2.3

Biography

Although principally a skinner by trade, Picard also sold cloth (in 1394-5 he was assessed for alnage on ten lengths), and he shared in the running of the fulling mill at Priors Barton.4 He perhaps initially acquired property in Winchester through his first marriage, which was to a widow. In 1381 the pair of them were involved in a dispute with a neighbour over maintenance of a gutter on their house in Gold Street. By 1386 Picard owned a garden in Calpe Street, and under his wife’s will he received a toft elsewhere, which he conveyed to Hugh Cran^†. In x389 he was associated with John Snell II*, probably his stepson, in standing bail for a Winchester man charged with debt by Sir Philip Popham^†.5 In the meantime he had remarried. With his second wife he came into possession of all the property in Winchester which had once belonged to John atte Yerd†, perhaps Margery’s former husband. The Picards later held buildings in Jewry Street and ‘Alwarstrete’, as well as a lease on a shop and a house built of stone on the coroner of Gold Street and the lane leading to Gar Street. These last, said in 1403 to be in a ruinous condition, were then re-let to the Picards by the cathedral priory of St. Swithin at a reduced rent.6

Picard climbed steadily in the civic administration. In 1391, when baliff of the 24, he notified the sheriff of Hampshire of the results of the local parliamentary elections; and in 1395 he stood surety for the attendance in the Commons of John Blake I. Having served as a ‘bagman’ in 1394-5 and 1397-8, he eventually rose to be mayor of Winchester. During his term he provided securities at the Exchequer for Robert Archer*, then re-appointed royal alnager in the area. Thereafter, he was often required to serve as a trustee of local property, for instance of La Starre Inn, which came into the corporation’s possession, and in 1405 he acted for William Oysell in the purchase of a moiety of the manor of Allington. In the year of his last return to Parliament he was among the notables of the city who formally viewed a house near ‘Kyngate’, and in April 1407 he participated in a civic reception laid on for the Hampshire bench. That year he spent 11 days in London on the city’s business, for which service he was paid at the daily rate of 2s., and he also rode to Andover with Gilbert Forster* for the same purpose.7

Picard is last heard of in May 1410. He probably died later that year, for he was not party to the conveyance of a building on the coroner of Wongar Street and Silver Hill, of which he had earlier been enfeoffed. By his will, enrolled in part in the city court on 15 Sept. 1412, he divided his property between his daughters, Alice, wife of Peter Banbury alias Neel of Oxfordshire, and Maud, but he still left his widow a third share of all his moveables together with their house on the east side of Gold Street not only for term of her life, as was customary, but also to her heirs in perpetuity. Picard provided that if his daughters died childless, or if Margery impeded the will, the property was to be sold and the proceeds spent on religious services for the souls of himself and his wives.8 By November 1414 his widow had married Thomas Cutler*.

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. Stowe 846, f. 94v.
• 2. Winchester RO, 34/BX/TC9, enrolments mm. 23d, 24.
• 3. Winchester RO, ct. roll 10 Ric. II m. 1; Stowe 846, ff. 88, 94, 107v, 108v; E364/26 m. D.
• 4. E101/344/10; Black Bk. Winchester ed. Bird, 10.
• 5. Winchester RO, ct. roll 4 Ric. II m. 3d; Chs. Selborne (Hants Rec. Soc. iv), 93; CCR, 1389-92, p. 68; Stowe 846, f. 94v.
• 6. Stowe 846, ff. 86, 90v, 104, 114; Winchester enrolments mm. 23d, 24, 33d, 38.
• 7. C219/9/8, 11; Winchester RO, chamberlains’ accts. 18-19, 21-22 Ric. II, 8-9 Hen. IV; CFR, xii. 140; Stowe 846, ff. 109, 113, 117; Winchester Coll. mun. 1519.
• 8. Stowe 846, ff. 126, 134; Winchester enrolments mm. 41, 46.