Family and Education

Offices Held

Bailiff, Kingston-upon-Hull Mich. 1393-4.1

Biography

Snainton was probably the son or nephew of the William Snainton who served as a royal tax collector in Hull in 1360, and later held office there as mayor.2 He himself first comes to notice in September 1393 when he was made bailiff of the town. So far as we know, he sat only once in Parliament, in 1395, having perhaps already by then acquired a half-share in a vessel called Le Petre of Hull. In October 1397 the master and crew captured a Flemish ship carrying goods belonging to a group of Scottish merchants, brought it back to port, and delivered it into the hands of Snainton and his partner, John Tutbury. The Scots lost no time in petitioning the King’s Council for redress against such a flagrant act of piracy, and on Dec. the mayor of Hull was ordered to restore the ship and its cargo to the rightful owners. Snainton and Tutbury were meanwhile bound over in quite heavy securities to appear before a royal commission for the settlement of breaches of the truce between England and Scotland. No more is heard of the MP after this date, although the John Snainton of Hull, who died in 1434, and the latter’s younger brothers, John and Robert (a Dominican friar dwelling in York), may possibly have been his sons.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

• 1. C219/9/10.
• 2. CPR, 1358-61, pp. 331, 348; Cal. Hull Deeds ed. Stanewell, D122-4.
• 3. SC8/218/10867; CPR, 1396-9, p. 165; Borthwick Inst. York, York registry wills iii, ff. 378v-9.