SMITH, Richard II

Smith was a merchant, hailing from Kingswear near Dartmouth, to the south-east of Totnes. There was also a tailor of the same name resident at Paignton to the east of Totnes at the same period, and it cannot be discounted that he, rather than the merchant, was the Totnes Member: CP40/652, rot. 121d. Few details of his commercial activities are known, but he was joint owner of a ship called La Marie of Dartmouth, and probably traded across the Channel. CPR, 1405-8, p. 478. Apart from his own business, he also acted as a factor for others, including the influential Robert Cary* of Cockington, who in 1422 was pursuing him in the royal law courts for an account of his activities. CP40/647, rot. 170. In common with many of his peers, Smith combined licit trade with less salubrious acts of privateering. In 1403 he had been among a group of men from the vicinity of Dartmouth ordered to be brought before King and council on account of their capture of a Breton barge, the Seinte Anne, and five years later La Marie was one of a number of ships implicated in the taking of a Flemish vessel called La Marie Knyght and its cargo of wine and iron. CPR, 1401-5, pp. 276, 279; 1405-8, pp. 477-8; H.R. Watkin, Dartmouth, 376, 381-2.

Despite such lawless activities, Smith seems to have enjoyed some standing in the Dartmouth area. He was appointed to royal commissions to survey the fortifications of the port, and ordered to take forfeited goods into the King’s hands and appraise cargoes taken at sea, the latter a task for which he was arguably well qualified. Likewise, he commanded some respect among his neighbours and on occasion acted as a feoffee for them or attested their deeds. Watkin, Dartmouth, 89, 98, 107. It was in the course of such activities that he was challenged in the court of Chancery by one John Maundeville, who claimed that Smith, the last survivor of the feoffees of his deceased brother Robert Maundeville, a Dartmouth burgess, was unlawfully withholding the property that should have passed to him. C1/17/147.

In 1426 Smith secured election as reeve of Totnes, an office by this date much diminished in importance compared to the mayoralty. Nevertheless, it was during this term of office that he secured election to Parliament for the borough, even though it appears questionable whether he properly fulfilled the requirement of residence. By this time his reputation had extended beyond the bounds of Dartmouth and Kingswear, and in the early 1430s he can be found heading the list of witnesses to a grant of land in Kingswear to some local people by the prior of Totnes. Watkin, Totnes, i. 367.

Smith’s later years were once more marred by accusations of piracy. In 1428 orders for his arrest were issued once more, but nothing seems to have been done as a result and two years later new commissioners had to be appointed to attend to the task. CPR, 1422-9, p. 549; 1429-36, p. 73. By the mid 1440s Smith had joined forces with the notorious Robert Wenyngton*, and in November 1445 an investigation was ordered into their attack on a merchant vessel belonging to the queen of France. Ignoring the Frenchmen’s letters of safe conduct, they had beaten and wounded members of the crew, killing some, and then taken the ship to Fowey, where they had disposed of the cargo. CPR, 1441-6, pp. 420-1. It appears that Smith yet again evaded justice, and he may have been the man of this name who was still sought by the authorities in 1452. CPR, 1446-52, p. 541. Alternatively, this could have been Richard, son of John Smith, a merchant of Fowey who was pardoned in June that year: C67/40, m. 26.