NOTTINGHAM, William (d.1432/3), of Colchester, Essex.

Nottingham, who came from Gestingthorpe, had business in the borough court of Colchester in 1395 and was made a freeman in the following year. His dealings in the cloth trade caused him to be assessed for alnage on large quantities of fabric sold in Colchester between 1398 and 1403, and in 1406 he was fined for washing wool in the market-place at Stanewell. Nottingham’s other appearances in the local court were in connexion with suits for debt or fines for petty offences, and on one occasion he brought a charge for breach of covenant against a woman who had promised to act ‘as servant to him in the trade exercised by Joan his wife’ (presumably weaving).Colchester Oath Bk. ed. Benham, 84; E101/342/13, 14, 16; ct. rolls 29 m. 5, 30 mm. IV, 22v, 32 m. 5v, 36 m. 6v, 40, 50.

In the subsidy return of 1412 Nottingham was recorded as holding property in Colchester worth £20 a year. In 1420 he obtained a papal indult enabling him to have a portable altar,CPL, vii. 337; Feudal Aids, vi. 445; Oath Bk. 100, 207, 213. and his will, dated 22 Oct. 1432 and registered in the borough court on 16 Feb. following, further suggests he was a man of some substance. He left his house in St. Runwald’s parish with the tavern, shops, rents and gardens belonging thereto, 35 acres of arable land, another house and two acres of meadow to his wife to hold for one year, after which they were to go to his son, William, who was also to receive a tenement opposite Holy Trinity church, but not until after the death of his mother. Nottingham left his wife two other tenements, a field and eight acres of land for life, with remainder to their daughter, Joan, who also inherited a house in Holy Trinity parish. The son was bequeathed the premises which Nottingham himself had been left by the will of Thomas Francis. The executors were to sell five other buildings, using the profits to provide 40 marks for the widow, 20 marks for young William and ten for Joan, the rest being assigned to pay the testator’s outstanding debts.

William junior became a cordwainer, and his sister married a year or so later a London skinner named John Denishanger.Ct. rolls 52 m. 14, 53 mm. 3-4.