SMALE, Thomas (d.?1422), of Winchester, Hants.

In 1394 Smale and his first wife took possession of a tenement on the east side of Fleshmonger Street, Winchester, later paying 2d. a year to St. John’s hospital for the right to have a latrine in the garden. By 1417 he also held a tenement and stall in ‘Bridlynstrete’, and another building in Jewry Street.Stowe 846, ff. 102, 140v; HMC 6th Rep. 601; J.S. Furley, Town Life in 14th Cent. 65; Winchester City RO, D3. Smale was engaged in the local cloth finishing industry, and he also traded as a butcher. However, for someone of sufficient stature in the city to be chosen mayor, surprisingly little else is known about him. In February 1416 he was party to the ‘burghmote’ decision that La Starre inn should be renovated, and at the elections held in the same month he stood surety for the appearance in Parliament of the wealthy merchant, Mark le Faire. In the meantime, during his mayoralty, Smale had been appointed with William Wood II as alnager in Hampshire for ten years, but he probably died before the end of the term, for in December 1422 John Veel was named in his place.E101/344/12; D.J. Keene, Surv. Winchester (Winchester Studies 2), 1349; Black Bk. Winchester ed. Bird, 45; C219/11/8; CFR, xv. 16. The obit of Thomas Smale and Joan his wife was kept every year at St. Mary’s church, Southampton, on 9 Apr.Davies, 424.