ROKESLEY, John

Rokesley was one of several London grocers who represented Southwark in Parliament in this period. He was well established in the Grocers’ Company of the city by 1436, when he presented an apprentice, and over the next 20 years he regularly contributed to the periodic levies raised by the Company’s wardens. He was associated with other grocers who lived in Southwark, and his name often appears in the records of the Company alongside that of John Tingleden*. Though not particularly prominent within the craft he was of sufficient standing by November 1438 to serve on a jury, with Tingleden and other grocers, which inquired into the adulteration of wax in London. Cal. P. and M. London, 1437-57, p. 21. In November 1449 he was appointed the guardian of one of his apprentices, John, son of Alexander Anne* (Tingleden and Nicholas Preest* standing surety for him), Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 331. and for a number of years after 1456 he was engaged in the execution of the will of another wealthy grocer, like him a former MP for Southwark, Henry Purchase*. CP40/814, rots. 281d, 385d.

Rokesley’s involvement in Southwark affairs was relatively limited: although he witnessed several property conveyances in the borough, including a grant made by John Carpenter, bishop of Worcester, in March 1451, he only occasionally acted as a feoffee for local transactions, normally those concerning established associates like Tingleden or William Redstone*. CCR, 1447-54, p. 255; Corp. London RO, Misc. deeds, 138.3 N.S.; C1/26/4-6; CCR, 1461-8, p. 377. Likewise, there is little information about any property he may have owned in the borough. That he did own some is suggested by the frequency with which Southwark was given as his place of residence. CPR, 1446-52, p. 143. Yet Rokesley’s main property interests appear to have been in London, where in March 1438 he and a fellow grocer, John Kypping, leased a mansion in the parish of St. Margaret Fish Street Hill from Canterbury Cathedral Priory. Canterbury Cath. Archs., Dean and Chapter mss, CCA-DCc-ChAnt/L/29. Some years later, in July 1452, he was one of those who was granted by the Crown the farm of seven tenements and four gardens in the parish of St. Stephen’s Coleman Street, for 20 years at an annual rent of £7 11s. 8d. The same day, described as a yeoman of Southwark, he stood surety for John Bale in a transaction involving other properties in the same parish. B.P. Wolffe, R. Demesne in Eng. Hist. 268; CFR, xviii. 263. Rokesley’s commercial activities are less easy to trace, but in the early 1440s he can be shown to have traded in commodities like cloth and pepper with Venetian merchants. E101/128/31, m. 52; H. Bradley, Views of Hosts of Alien Merchants, 44.

Rokesley was still engaged in litigation over the debts owing to and from the estate of Henry Purchase in the early months of 1465, but is not heard of thereafter. CP40/814, rots. 281d, 385d.