SWAYN, Thomas

Swayn, a weaver, first appears in the records as chamberlain of Reading and witness to the parliamentary electoral indenture of 3 Nov. 1417. Thereafter, he attested seven more elections in the town, an indication of his place among its elite. C219/12/2, 3, 5; 13/5; 14/3-5; 15/2. In October 1419 he received a bond in £20 from Stephen Bekke of Reading, as a guarantee that Bekke’s wife would appear before the justices to acknowledge Swayn’s title to two buildings in New Street he was in the process of conveying to him. Swayn did not hold the property for long, for in 1421 he transferred possession to Richard and Amice Clerk of Ashampstead and their son Thomas Clerk II* of all his lands and tenements in Reading, reserving to himself a messuage in ‘Gutternelane’, which he also held by Bekke’s gift. CAD, iv. A9428; WARD2/60/238/1, 3, 8.

Two years after he represented the borough in the Parliament summoned to Leicester in 1426, Swayn was appointed to collect in his home county the special subsidy on parishes and knights’ fees granted in the succeeding Parliament. Accordingly, he conducted inquiries at Reading and Wallingford (on the same day, 4 May 1428) to discover those liable to be taxed. Feudal Aids, i. 71-72. He later served as a collector of fifteenths and tenths in the county. In April 1432 Swayn was named among the 24 burgesses of Reading chosen by their guild merchant to negotiate with the borough’s lord the abbot of Reading with regard to their liberties, but the specific points of difference between the parties are not recorded. He was elected mayor for a term in 1434, and stood surety for the admission of three new members of the guild in 1436 and 1441. Finally, in the latter year, on 22 Sept., he took responsibility for collecting the parliamentary subsidies in New Street. Reading Recs. i. 1, 6, 12, 13.

Swayn is last recorded attesting the parliamentary election indenture of 13 Jan. 1442, C219/15/2. and died later that year. Shortly before his death he contributed 2s. for works on the parish church of St. Laurence, and in his will (which has not survived) he left a bequest of 6s. 8d. for the same purpose. C. Kerry, Hist. St. Laurence, 12, 185.