Family and Education

Offices Held

Bailiff, Cambridge Sept. 1405-6, 1409-11; mayor 1423-6.1

J.p. Cambridge 8 Nov. 1423-7.

Biography

Described in contemporary records as a skinner, Warwick was active in local government, holding both major offices—that of bailiff for three years in all and that of mayor for three years consecutively. It was as bailiff that in 1411 he became involved on behalf of the borough in a dispute over its rights of stallage at Sturbridge fair, these being opposed by the warden of a chapel there, but judgement was given in the Exchequer against him and the other bailiffs, who were required to pay damages in five marks and £10 costs. Another dispute involved the same or a different chapel at Sturbridge. Some time between 1405 and 1424 Warwick and two other burgesses of Cambridge were defendants in a suit brought in Chancery by Henry Berry, a local goldsmith, who held this chapel of them at farm. Berry claimed that he had been ruined by Warwick and the others through a bond he had given them as surety for payment of the rent.2

Although returned only once to the House of Commons, Warwick was named on the indentures recording the borough elections to no fewer than six Parliaments (those of 1415, 1417, 1419, December 1421, 1422 and 1429); and he may also have attended the elections of 1432, 1433, 1437 and 1442, although it seems likely that there was another John Warwick then living in the town—he who served as bailiff in 1439-40.

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: E.M. Wade

Notes

• 1. Add. 5833, ff. 134-5; CPR, 1422-9, p. 266. His re-election to the office of mayor in April 1426 took place when the common council of 24 was reconstituted in mid-term after a disputed election: C.H. Cooper, Annals, i. 175.
• 2. Cooper, i. 153; C1/5/143.