NOBLE, John, of Salisbury, Wilts.

The first mention of this MP occurs in March 1400 when he stood surety for the appearance before the King’s Council of Richard Noble and his son William (presumably his relations) who had been indicted of trespasses and contempts. Two years later, in October 1402, he was acting as executor for his late wife Lucy, who had left him their house in Castle Street, Salisbury, and all her moveable possessions. In 1407 he stood surety for the attendance in Parliament of John Becket, for whom he was to do the same in April 1414.CCR, 1399-1402, p. 132; ‘Domesday bk.’ 2, f. 41; C219/10/4, 11/3. By October 1416, when he was again present at the Salisbury elections, he was a member of the convocation of the city, meetings of which he continued to attend regularly until at least 1432. At one such assembly, in March 1418, Noble (then acting as deputy in Salisbury of John Harleston, alnager in Wiltshire) announced his discovery of a fraud perpetrated on the collectors of the subsidy. He reported finding 21 woollen cloths, each sealed with a counterfeit seal to avoid payment, in the house of John Corscombe, himself a former alnager in the locality. Consequently, he was ordered by the mayor to conduct a house-to-house search in the city for other illegally sealed cloths.Ledger bk. A, ff. 56, 62, 68, 83-84, 91-92, 94, 96, 97; E101/345/5 m. 4. In 1419 and 1420 he contributed 6s.8d. and £1 respectively to successive city tallages. For a year from All Saints’ Day 1421 he held office concurrently as one of the chamberlains, whose duties were to supervise the community’s finances, and as a constable. During his term, in September 1422, he was made an executor by a fellow citizen, Thomas Boner. A few weeks afterwards he formally guaranteed the attendance in Parliament of John Fruysthorp, returned for Old Sarum; and in 1425 he performed the like service both for William Alexander, on his election for Salisbury, and for John Whithorne,* who was returned for Wilton. His career culminated in 1426 with his appointment as mayor of Salisbury.Ledger bk. A, ff. 68, 77; ‘Domesday bk.’ 3, f. 74; C219/13/1, 3.

Noble’s private occupation is not recorded, but he may well have been engaged in the production of wool, for the land at Upavon and Russall which he acquired in 1427 provided pasture for 200 sheep. His business contacts appear to have been widespread. Thus, in 1429 the vicar of Triplowe, Cambridgeshire, was pardoned his outlawry for non-appearance in the law courts to answer his plea for the repayment of a debt of £2; and in 1432 he sued a man from Petersfield, Hampshire, who owed him £12. Noble’s attorney during the latter case was John Giles, his former companion in the House of Commons. He is last mentioned in 1434, and probably died shortly afterwards.CPR, 1429-36, pp. 12, 312; Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), 417; C88/115/38; ‘Domesday bk.’ 3, ff. 123, 126.