Family and Education

Offices Held

Commr. to assess taxes, Southwark Dec. 1380.

Biography

Spalding was probably a kinsman, perhaps even the brother, of the Ralph Spalding who sat for Southwark in the Parliament of 1399. Save for his appointment as a royal commissioner to assess the local lay subsidy in 1380, nothing is known of him until February 1383, when he stood surety for Richard Tonge of Faversham, Kent, a defendant in a suit for trespass. He was again named as a mainpernor in November 1387, this time by the prior of Southwark, whose dispute with John Mucking* had then reached the court of Chancery: together with four other local men, Spalding offered sureties of £100 on the prior’s behalf. He seems to have made a number of enemies, and twice, in January 1388 and May 1393, he was taken to law for averring threats. On the first occasion William Porter I* acted as one of his mainpernors, and on the second he suffered a brief period of imprisonment, but was soon released on bail. He witnessed a deed in Southwark in October 1400, and may well have died shortly afterwards.1

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

He is not to be confused with the William Spalding, tailor and citizen of London, who served as a common councilor for Candlewick Street Ward from 1384 to 1386 (Cal. P. and M. London, 1381-1412, pp. 91, 123), or the William Spalding of Kent who farmed the King’s manor of Eltham between 1372 and 1395 (CFR, viii. 170; xi, 158).

• 1. CFR, ix. 231; CCR, 1381-5, p. 251; 1385-9, pp. 455, 460; 1392-6, p. 142; 1399-1402, p. 274.