WARNER, Edmund, of Norwich, Norf.

Warner, a native of Gimingham (between North Walsham and Cromer), entered the freedom of Norwich in 1383-4, and was elected to the first of his civic offices within two years. In 1390-1 he contributed 20s. towards the cost of having the wool staple at Norwich, it being clearly in his own interests as a merchant to do so. He is known to have traded in canvas, madder, wax and salt: commodities which were brought into Great Yarmouth in ships from France and the Low Countries; and to have made several shipments of cloth through the same port.Norf. RO, Norwich ‘Old Free bk.’, f. 37; Recs. Norwich ed. Hudson and Tingey, ii. 50; E122/149/22, 33, 34, 150/1.

Besides his tenure of office as bailiff (three times), sheriff and mayor, Warner was occasionally required to undertake other tasks on behalf of the community. Thus, early in 1399, when Richard II was expected to visit Norwich, he was named on the committee of citizens assigned to prepare the case to be put to the King in order to procure a new charter under which Norwich would become a shire-incorporate.F. Blomefield, Norf. iii. 114. Warner’s property holdings seem to have been comparatively small: in 1392 he received from Alice, widow of John Trows, a grant of tenure of a messuage in ‘Lysterrowe’ in St. Gregory’s parish, which she held as jointure, this being probably in anticipation of their marriage; and five years later he had possession of a moiety of a tenement in St. Swithin’s parish, for which he was paying the civic authorities an annual rent of 15d.Norwich enrolments, 15 m. 9, 16 m. 8d; Recs. Norwich, ii. 247. Warner occasionally acted as a trustee of property belonging to his fellow citizens, doing so, for instance, on behalf of Robert Dunston and Robert Brasier. In 1408, during his mayoralty, he was a feoffee of lands to the south of the city which Richard Purdance was then in the process of buying, and also of the manor of Markshall, which belonged to Henry Limner. He is last recorded in 1410 as patron of the living at Markshall.Norwich enrolments, 15 mm. 29d, 31; CP25(1)168/183/82; Blomefield, v. 47-48.