SEWALL, John

The earlier biography failed to identify this MP. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 341.

There is a possibility, however, that he was the John Sewall who had been appointed in July 1410 as one of four messengers of the Exchequer, with a daily wage of 4½d. for life. Confirmed in office at the beginning of the reigns of Henry V and Henry VI, he was assigned livery at the great wardrobe to wear at the latter’s coronation in 1429. CPR, 1408-13, p. 213; 1413-16, p. 70; 1422-9, p. 95; E361/6, rots. 18d, 20. The messenger’s duties took him on many journeys through England and Wales on the business of the Council and following the dictates of the treasurer. E403/660-751, passim. If he was the man returned to the Parliaments of 1425 and 1426 he would have been absent from the Commons in June 1425 carrying letters to the executors of Bishop Wakering of Norwich and in May 1426 delivering summonses to attend a great council. E403/671, m. 8; 675, m. 3. In the summer of 1431 the messenger crossed to Normandy with letters from the Council to Henry VI, returning with secret missives from the young monarch to the treasurer. Later that year Sewall was a go-between for the chancellor in England and the duke of Bedford in France. E403/698, mm. 9, 10, 12; 700, mm. 3, 10. Subsequently, he sailed to Calais bearing messages for the duke of Gloucester, and in 1440 with important documents for the ambassadors engaged in negotiations for peace. E403/709, m. 2; 739, m. 9.

Sewall the messenger was engaged in the business of Parliaments to the extent that he delivered summonses to the Lords and writs to the sheriffs for those of 1423, 1433 and 1437, and he was sent to attend on the treasurer while Parliament was at Reading in January 1440. E403/663, m. 4; 709, m. 6; 725, m. 6; 736, m. 13. Sewall was last active as a messenger in October 1443, when sent to Wales. E403/751, m. 1. He received a fresh grant of the office for life in February 1444, albeit now having to share it with John Gregory, and this halving of his salary may mark his retirement after more than 30 years’ service. He is not recorded thereafter. CPR, 1441-6, p. 250.

There is, however, nothing in all this activity to connect Sewall the messenger with west Sussex and the borough of Midhurst.